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

2 And Balak did just as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam boffered a bull and a ram on each altar. 3 Then 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. 4 eAnd 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.”

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

7 And 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?

9 For 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!”

11 Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? oI took you to curse my enemies, and look, you have blessed them bountifully!”

12 So he answered and said, p“Must I not take heed to speak what the Lord has put in my mouth?”