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23:1 | Balaam said, "Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me." |
23:2 | Balak did as Balaam said, and the two of them offered a bull and a ram on each altar. |
23:3 | Then Balaam said to Balak, "Stay here beside your offering while I go aside. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet with me. Whatever he reveals to me I will tell you." Then he went off to a barren height. |
23:4 | God met with him, and Balaam said, "I have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram." |
23:5 | The Lord put a message in Balaam's mouth and said, "Go back to Balak and give him this message." |
23:6 | So he went back to him and found him standing beside his offering, with all the princes of Moab. |
23:7 | Then Balaam uttered his oracle: "Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains. 'Come,' he said, 'curse Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel.' |
23:8 | How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the Lord has not denounced? |
23:9 | From the rocky peaks I see them, from the heights I view them. I see a people who live apart and do not consider themselves one of the nations. |
23:10 | Who can count the dust of Jacob or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and may my end be like theirs!" |
23:11 | Balak said to Balaam, "What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but you have done nothing but bless them!" |
23:12 | He answered, "Must I not speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?" |
23:13 | Then Balak said to him, "Come with me to another place where you can see them; you will see only a part but not all of them. And from there, curse them for me." |
23:14 | So he took him to the field of Zophim on the top of Pisgah, and there he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. |
23:15 | Balaam said to Balak, "Stay here beside your offering while I meet with him over there." |
23:16 | The Lord met with Balaam and put a message in his mouth and said, "Go back to Balak and give him this message." |
23:17 | So he went to him and found him standing beside his offering, with the princes of Moab. Balak asked him, "What did the Lord say?" |
23:18 | Then he uttered his oracle: "Arise, Balak, and listen; hear me, son of Zippor. |
23:19 | God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? |
23:20 | I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot change it. |
23:21 | No misfortune is seen in Jacob, no misery observed in Israel. The Lord their God is with them; the shout of the King is among them. |
23:22 | God brought them out of Egypt; they have the strength of a wild ox. |
23:23 | There is no sorcery against Jacob, no divination against Israel. It will now be said of Jacob and of Israel, 'See what God has done!' |
23:24 | The people rise like a lioness; they rouse themselves like a lion that does not rest till he devours his prey and drinks the blood of his victims." |
23:25 | Then Balak said to Balaam, "Neither curse them at all nor bless them at all!" |
23:26 | Balaam answered, "Did I not tell you I must do whatever the Lord says?" |
23:27 | Then Balak said to Balaam, "Come, let me take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God to let you curse them for me from there." |
23:28 | And Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, overlooking the wasteland. |
23:29 | Balaam said, "Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me." |
23:30 | Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. |
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