Numbers 23

¹Balaam said to Balak, “Build here seven altars for me, and prepare here seven bulls and seven rams for me.”

²Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bull and a ram.

³Balaam said to Balak, “Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps the LORD will come to meet me. Whatever he shows me I will tell you.” He went to a bare height.

⁴God 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.”

⁵The LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.”

⁶He returned to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, he, and all the princes of Moab.

⁷He took up his parable, and said, “From Aram has Balak brought me, the king of Moab from the mountains of the East. Come, curse Jacob for me. Come, defy Israel.

⁸How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? How shall I defy whom the LORD has not defied?

⁹For 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 listed among the nations.

¹⁰Who can count the dust of Jacob, or count the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous! Let my last end be like his!”

¹¹Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them altogether.”

¹²He answered and said, “Must I not take heed to speak that which the LORD puts in my mouth?”