³Balaam instructed Balak: “Stand watch here beside your Whole-Burnt-Offering while I go off by myself. Maybe God will come and meet with me. Whatever he shows or tells me, I’ll report to you.” Then he went off by himself.

⁴God did meet with Balaam. Balaam said, “I’ve set up seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.”

⁵Then God gave Balaam a message: “Return to Balak and give him this message.”

^6–10He went back and found him stationed beside his Whole-Burnt-Offering and with him all the nobles of Moab. Then Balaam spoke his message-oracle:

Balak led me here from Aram,

the king of Moab all the way from the eastern mountains.

“Go, curse Jacob for me;

go, damn Israel.”

How can I curse whom God has not cursed?

How can I damn whom God has not damned?

From rock pinnacles I see them,

from hilltops I survey them:

Look! a people camping off by themselves,

thinking themselves outsiders among nations.

But who could ever count the dust of Jacob

or take a census of cloud-of-dust Israel?

I want to die like these right-living people!

I want an end just like theirs!

¹¹Balak said to Balaam, “What’s this? I brought you here to curse my enemies, and all you’ve done is bless them.”

¹²Balaam answered, “Don’t I have to be careful to say what God gives me to say?”

¹³Balak said to him, “Go with me to another place from which you can only see the outskirts of their camp—you won’t be able to see the whole camp. From there, curse them for my sake.”

¹⁴So he took him to Watchmen’s Meadow at the top of Pisgah. He built seven altars there and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

¹⁵Balaam said to Balak, “Take up your station here beside your Whole-Burnt-Offering while I meet with him over there.”

¹⁶God met with Balaam and gave him a message. He said, “Return to Balak and give him the message.”

^17–24Balaam returned and found him stationed beside his Whole-Burnt-Offering and the nobles of Moab with him. Balak said to him, “What did God say?” Then Balaam spoke his message-oracle:

On your feet, Balak. Listen,

listen carefully son of Zippor:

God is not man, one given to lies,

and not a son of man changing his mind.

Does he speak and not do what he says?

Does he promise and not come through?

I was brought here to bless;

and now he’s blessed—how can I change that?

He has no bone to pick with Jacob,

he sees nothing wrong with Israel.

God is with them,

and they’re with him, shouting praises to their King.

God brought them out of Egypt,

rampaging like a wild ox.

No magic spells can bind Jacob,

no incantations can hold back Israel.

People will look at Jacob and Israel and say,

“What a great thing has God done!”

Look, a people rising to its feet, stretching like a lion,

a king-of-the-beasts, aroused,

Unsleeping, unresting until its hunt is over

and it’s eaten and drunk its fill.

²⁵Balak said to Balaam, “Well, if you can’t curse them, at least don’t bless them.”

²⁶Balaam replied to Balak, “Didn’t I tell you earlier: ‘All God speaks, and only what he speaks, I speak’?”

^27–28Balak said to Balaam, “Please, let me take you to another place; maybe we can find the right place in God’s eyes where you’ll be able to curse them for me.” So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, with a vista over the Jeshimon (Wasteland).

²⁹Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for sacrifice.”

³⁰Balak did it and presented an offering of a bull and a ram on each of the altars.

^1–324By now Balaam realized that God wanted to bless Israel. So he didn’t work in any sorcery as he had done earlier. He turned and looked out over the wilderness. As Balaam looked, he saw Israel camped tribe by tribe. The Spirit of God came on him, and he spoke his oracle-message:

^3–9Decree of Balaam son of Beor,

yes, decree of a man with 20/20 vision;

Decree of a man who hears God speak,

who sees what The Strong God shows him,

Who falls on his face in worship,

who sees what’s really going on.

What beautiful tents, Jacob,

oh, your homes, Israel!

Like valleys stretching out in the distance,

like gardens planted by rivers,

Like sweet herbs planted by the gardener God,

like red cedars by pools and springs,

Their buckets will brim with water,

their seed will spread life everywhere.

Their king will tower over Agag and his ilk,

their kingdom surpassingly majestic.

God brought them out of Egypt,

rampaging like a wild ox,

Gulping enemies like morsels of meat,

crushing their bones, snapping their arrows.

Israel crouches like a lion and naps,

king-of-the-beasts—who dares disturb him?

Whoever blesses you is blessed,

whoever curses you is cursed.

^10–11Balak lost his temper with Balaam. He shook his fist. He said to Balaam: “I got you in here to curse my enemies and what have you done? Blessed them! Blessed them three times! Get out of here! Go home! I told you I would pay you well, but you’re getting nothing. You can blame God.”

^12–15Balaam said to Balak, “Didn’t I tell you up front when you sent your emissaries, ‘Even if Balak gave me his palace stuffed with silver and gold, I couldn’t do anything on my own, whether good or bad, that went against God’s command’? I’m leaving for home and my people, but I warn you of what this people will do to your people in the days to come.” Then he spoke his oracle-message:

^15–19Decree of Balaam son of Beor,

decree of the man with 20/20 vision,

Decree of the man who hears godly speech,

who knows what’s going on with the High God,

Who sees what The Strong God reveals,

who bows in worship and sees what’s real.

I see him, but not right now,

I perceive him, but not right here;

A star rises from Jacob

a scepter from Israel,

Crushing the heads of Moab,

the skulls of all the noisy windbags;

I see Edom sold off at auction,

enemy Seir marked down at the flea market,

while Israel walks off with the trophies.

A ruler is coming from Jacob

who’ll destroy what’s left in the city.

²⁰Then Balaam spotted Amalek and delivered an oracle-message. He said,

Amalek, you’re in first place among nations right now,

but you’re going to come in last, ruined.

^21–22He saw the Kenites and delivered his oracle-message to them:

Your home is in a nice secure place,

like a nest high on the face of a cliff.

Still, you Kenites will look stupid

when Asshur takes you prisoner.

^23–24Balaam spoke his final oracle-message:

Doom! Who stands a chance

when God starts in?

Sea-Peoples, raiders from across the sea,

will harass Asshur and Eber,

But they’ll also come to nothing,

just like all the rest.

²⁵Balaam got up and went home. Balak also went on his way.

The Orgy at Shittim

^1–325While Israel was camped at Shittim (Acacia Grove), the men began to have sex with the Moabite women. It started when the women invited the men to their sex-and-religion worship. They ate together and then worshiped their gods. Israel ended up joining in the worship of the Baal of Peor. God was furious, his anger blazing out against Israel.

⁴God said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of Israel and kill them by hanging, leaving them publicly exposed in order to turn God’s anger away from Israel.”

⁵Moses issued orders to the judges of Israel: “Each of you must execute the men under your jurisdiction who joined in the worship of Baal Peor.”

^6–9Just then, while everyone was weeping in penitence at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting, an Israelite man, flaunting his behavior in front of Moses and the whole assembly, paraded a Midianite woman into his family tent. Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw what he was doing, grabbed his spear, and followed them into the tent. With one thrust he drove the spear through the two of them, the man of Israel and the woman, right through their private parts. That stopped the plague from continuing among the People of Israel. But 24,000 had already died.

^10–13God spoke to Moses: “Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has stopped my anger against the People of Israel. Because he was as zealous for my honor as I myself am, I didn’t kill all the People of Israel in my zeal. So tell him that I am making a Covenant-of-Peace with him. He and his descendants are joined in a covenant of eternal priesthood, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the People of Israel.”

^14–15The name of the man of Israel who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, the head of the Simeonite family. And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi daughter of Zur, a tribal chief of a Midianite family.

^16–18God spoke to Moses: “From here on make the Midianites your enemies. Fight them tooth and nail. They turned out to be your enemies when they seduced you in the business of Peor and that woman Cozbi, daughter of a Midianite leader, the woman who was killed at the time of the plague in the matter of Peor.”

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