1 Balaam said to Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me
here seven bulls and seven rams. 2 Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and
Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bull and a ram. 3 Balaam said to
Balak, Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go: perhaps Yahweh will come
to meet me; and whatever he shows me I will tell you. He went to a bare
height. 4 God met Balaam: and he said to him, I have prepared the seven
altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on every altar. 5 Yahweh
put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, Return to Balak, and thus you shall
speak. 6 He returned to him, and, behold, he was standing by his burnt-
offering, he, and all the princes of Moab. 7 He took up his parable, and
said, From Aram has Balak brought me, The king of Moab from the mountains of
the East: Come, curse me Jacob, Come, defy Israel. 8 How shall I curse,
whom God has not cursed? How shall I defy, whom Yahweh has not defied?
9 For from the top of the rocks I see him, From the hills I see him:
behold, it is a people that dwells alone, And shall not be reckoned among the
nations. 10 Who can count the dust of Jacob, Or number the fourth part of
Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, Let my last end be like his!
11 Balak said to Balaam, What have you done to me? I took you to curse my
enemies, and, behold, you have blessed them altogether. 12 He answered and
said, Must I not take heed to speak that which Yahweh puts in my mouth?
13 Balak said to him, Please come with me to another place, from whence
you may see them; you shall see but the utmost part of them, and shall not
see them all: and curse me them from there. 14 He took him into the field
of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered up a
bull and a ram on every altar. 15 He said to Balak, Stand here by your
burnt offering, while I meet Yahweh yonder. 16 Yahweh met Balaam,
and put a word in his mouth, and said, Return to Balak, and thus shall you
speak. 17 He came to him, and, behold, he was standing by his burnt
offering, and the princes of Moab with him. Balak said to him, What has
Yahweh spoken? 18 He took up his parable, and said,
Rise up, Balak, and hear;
Listen to me, you son of Zippor:
19 God is not a man, that he should lie,
Neither the son of man, that he should repent:
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?
20 Behold, I have received commandment to bless:
He has blessed, and I can’t reverse it.
21 He has not saw iniquity in Jacob;
Neither has he seen perverseness in Israel:
Yahweh his God is with him,
The shout of a king is among them.
22 God brings them forth out of Egypt;
He has as it were the strength of the wild-ox.
23 Surely there is no enchantment with Jacob;
Neither is there any divination with Israel:
Now shall it be said of Jacob and of Israel,
What has God done!
24 Behold, the people rises up as a lioness,
As a lion does he lift himself up:
He shall not lie down until he eat of the prey,
Drink the blood of the slain.
25 Balak said to Balaam, Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.
26 But Balaam answered Balak, Didn’t I tell you, saying, All that Yahweh
speaks, that I must do? 27 Balak said to Balaam, Come now, I will take you
to another place; peradventure it will please God that you may curse me them
from there. 28 Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that looks down on
the desert. 29 Balaam said to Balak, Build me here seven altars, and
prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams. 30 Balak did as Balaam had
said, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.
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