Balaam Blesses Israel

23:1 1 Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.” 23:2 So Balak did just as Balaam had said. Balak and Balaam then offered on each2 altar a bull and a ram. 23:3 Balaam said to Balak, “Station yourself3 by your burnt offering, and I will go off; perhaps the Lord will come to meet me, and whatever he reveals to me4 I will tell you.”5 Then he went to a deserted height.6

23:4 Then God met Balaam, who7 said to him, “I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.” 23:5 Then the Lord put a message8 in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and speak what I tell you.”9

23:6 So he returned to him, and he was still10 standing by his burnt offering, he and all the princes of Moab. 23:7 Then Balaam11 uttered12 his oracle, saying,

“Balak, the king of Moab, brought me13 from Aram,

out of the mountains of the east, saying,

‘Come, pronounce a curse on Jacob for me;

come, denounce Israel.’14

23:8 How15 can I curse16 one whom God has not cursed,

or how can I denounce one whom the Lord has not denounced?

23:9 For from the top of the rocks I see them;17

from the hills I watch them.18

Indeed, a nation that lives alone,

and it will not be reckoned19 among the nations.

23:10 Who20 can count21 the dust22 of Jacob,

Or number23 the fourth part of Israel?

Let me24 die the death of the upright,25

and let the end of my life26 be like theirs.”27