¹Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build me here seven altars, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.” ²And Balak did what Balaam said, and Balak and Balaam offered up a bull and a ram on each altar. ³Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand at your burnt offering, and I will go. It may happen that the Lord will meet up with me, and I will tell you whatever he shows me.” And he went to a high place. ⁴And God came across to Balaam, and Balaam said to him, “I arranged seven altars, and I have made a burnt offering of a bull and a ram on each altar.” ⁵Then the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and you will speak accordingly.” ⁶So he returned to him, and what he saw was that he was standing at his burnt offering – he and all the dignitaries of Moab. ⁷And he delivered his discourse and said,

“Balak king of Moab

Led me from Aramaea,

From the mountains of the east,

Saying, ‘Come, please, and curse Jacob’,

And, ‘Come and be insolent to Israel.’

⁸How can I curse him

Whom God has not cursed?

And how can I be insolent

To him to whom the Lord

Has not been insolent?

⁹For from the summit of the rocks I saw him,

And from the hills I beheld him.

Behold, a people will dwell on its own,

And it will not be reckoned among the nations.

¹⁰Who has counted the dust of Jacob,

Or the number of a quarter of Israel?

May my soul die the death of the upright,

And may my end be like him.”

¹¹Then Balak said to Balaam, “What are you doing to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and what you have done is you have thoroughly blessed them.” ¹²Then he answered and said, “Am I not constrained to say what the Lord puts in my mouth?” ¹³Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from where you will see them. You will see the extreme end of them, but you will not see all of them, and curse them for me from there.” ¹⁴And he took him to the area of the look-out men, at the summit of Pisgah, and he built seven altars, and he offered a bull and a ram on each altar. ¹⁵Then he said to Balak, “Stand here at your burnt offering while I will be met with over there.” ¹⁶And the Lord met with Balaam, and he put a word in his mouth, and he said, “Go back to Balak, and you will speak accordingly.” ¹⁷So he went back to him, and there he was, standing at his burnt offering, and the dignitaries of Moab were with him. And Balak said to him, “What did the Lord say?” ¹⁸And he delivered his discourse and said,

“Arise, Balak, and listen;

Give ear to me, O son of Zippor.

¹⁹God is not a man who might lie,

Nor a son of Adam who might change his mind.

Does he speak and then not do it?

Or does he declare something

And not fulfil it?

²⁰Behold, I have received

A constraint to bless.

And he has blessed,

And I cannot reverse it.

²¹He does not observe wickedness in Jacob,

And he does not see injustice in Israel.

The Lord his God is with him,

And the shout of the king is among them.

²²The God who brought them out of Egypt

Has strength like that of a buffalo.

²³For there is no enchantment against Jacob,

And no divination against Israel.

Now it will be told to Jacob,

And to Israel, what God has done.

²⁴Behold, a people like a great lion is arising,

And like a young lion it is lifting itself up.

It does not lie down until it has eaten prey

And has drunk the blood of the slain.”

²⁵Then Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse them at all nor bless them at all.” ²⁶Then Balaam answered and said to Balak, “Did I not tell you and say, ‘Everything that the Lord says to me, that I will do?’ ” ²⁷Then Balak said to Balaam, “Come, please, and let me take you to another place. Maybe it will be right in God's eyes for you to curse them for me from there.” ²⁸So Balak took Balaam to the summit of Peor, which overlooks the landscape of Jeshimon. ²⁹And Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare for me seven bulls and seven rams here.” ³⁰And Balak did as Balaam had said, and he offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.