23Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me this: seven altars. And prepare for me this: seven bulls and seven rams.” ²And Balak did just as Balaam spoke, and Balak offered Balaam a bull and a ram on the altar. ³And Balaam said to Balak, “Station yourself at your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps Yahweh will come to meet me, and whatever he shows me I will tell to you.” So he went to a barren height.

⁴And God met with Balaam, and he said to him, “I have arranged seven altars, and I have offered a bull and a ram on the altar.” ⁵Yahweh put a word in the mouth of Balaam and said, “Return to Balak, and you must speak thus.” ⁶So he returned to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, he and all the leaders of Moab. ⁷And he lifted up his oracle and said,

“From Aram Balak lead me,

from the mountains of the east the king of Moab,

‘Go for me, curse Jacob,

and go, denounce Israel.’

⁸How can I curse whom God has not cursed,

and how can I denounce whom Yahweh has not denounced?

⁹Because from the top of the rocks I see him,

from hilltops I watch him.

Behold, a people who dwell alone,

they do not consider themselves among the nations.

¹⁰Who can count the dust of Jacob,

or as a number the fourth part of Israel?

Let my life die the death of an upright person,

and let my end be like his!”

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