Numbers 23:1–10

Yahweh Speaks Through Balaam

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

²So Balak did just as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.

³Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps Yahweh will come to meet me, and whatever He shows me I will tell you.” So he went to a bare hill.

⁴Now God met Balaam, and he said to Him, “I have set up the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.”

⁵Then Yahweh ^aput a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and you shall speak thus.”

⁶So he returned to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, he and all the leaders of Moab.

⁷Then he took up his ¹discourse and said,

“From ^aAram Balak has brought me,

Moab’s king from the mountains of the East,

‘^bCome curse Jacob for me,

And come, denounce Israel!’

⁸“^aHow shall I curse whom God has not cursed?

And how can I denounce whom Yahweh has not denounced?

⁹“For I see him from the top of the rocks,

And I look at him from the hills;

^aBehold, a people who dwells alone,

And will not be reckoned among the nations.

¹⁰“^aWho can number the dust of Jacob,

Or count the fourth part of Israel?

^bLet ¹me die the death of the upright,

^cAnd let my end be like his!”