23Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven male sheep for me.” ²Balak did what Balaam asked, and they offered a bull and a male sheep on each of the altars.

³Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your burnt offering and I will go. If the Lord comes to me, I will tell you whatever he shows me.” Then Balaam went to a higher place.

⁴God came to Balaam there, and Balaam said to him, “I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered a bull and a male sheep on each altar.”

⁵The Lord told Balaam what he should say. Then the Lord said, “Go back to Balak and give him this message.”

⁶So Balaam went back to Balak. Balak and all the leaders of Moab were still standing beside his burnt offering ⁷when Balaam gave them this message:

“Balak brought me here from Aram;

the king of Moab brought me from the eastern mountains.

Balak said, ‘Come, put a curse on the people of Jacob for me.

Come, call down evil on the people of Israel.’

⁸But God has not cursed them,

so I cannot curse them.

The Lord has not called down evil on them,

so I cannot call down evil on them.

⁹I see them from the top of the mountains;

I see them from the hills.

I see a people who live alone,

who think they are different from other nations.

¹⁰No one can number the many people of Jacob,

and no one can count a fourth of Israel.

Let me die like good men,

and let me end up like them!”

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