Numbers 23:1–10

23Then Balaam said to Balak, ^a“Build seven altars for me here, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.”

²And Balak did just as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam ^boffered a bull and a ram on each altar. ³Then Balaam said to Balak, ^c“Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps the Lord will come ^dto meet me, and whatever He shows me I will tell you.” So he went to a desolate height. ^4eAnd God met Balaam, and he said to Him, “I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.”

⁵Then the Lord ^fput a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” ⁶So he returned to him, and there he was, standing by his burnt offering, he and all the princes of Moab.

⁷And he ^gtook up his ¹oracle and said:

“Balak the king of Moab has brought me from Aram,

From the mountains of the east.

^h‘Come, curse Jacob for me,

And come, ⁱdenounce Israel!’

⁸“How ^jshall I curse whom God has not cursed?

And how shall I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced?

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

And from the hills I behold him;

There! ^kA people dwelling alone,

^lNot reckoning itself among the nations.

¹⁰“Who ^mcan count the ²dust of Jacob,

Or number one-fourth of Israel?

Let me die ⁿthe death of the righteous,

And let my end be like his!”