Numbers 23:1–10

And Balaam said to Balac: Build me here seven altars, and prepare as many calves, and the same number of rams.

²And when he had done according to the word of Balaam, they laid together a calf and a ram upon every altar.

³And Balaam said to Balac: Stand a while by thy burnt offering, until I go, to see if perhaps the Lord will meet me, and whatsoever he shall command, I will speak to thee.

⁴And when he was gone with speed, God met him. And Balaam speaking to him, said: I have erected seven altars, and have laid on everyone a calf and a ram.

⁵And the Lord put the word in his mouth, and said: Return to Balac, and thus shalt thou speak.

⁶Returning he found Balac standing by his burnt offering, with all the princes of the Moabites:

⁷And taking up his parable, he said: Balac king of the Moabites hath brought me from Aram, from the mountains of the east: Come, said he, and curse Jacob: make haste and detest Israel.

⁸How shall I curse him, whom God hath not cursed? By what means should I detest him, whom the Lord detesteth not?

⁹I shall see him from the tops of the rocks, and shall consider him from the hills. This people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.

¹⁰Who can count the dust of Jacob, and know the number of the stock of Israel? Let my soul die the death of the just, and my last end be like to them.