Balaam’s Second Prophecy

13 Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from which you may see them; you shall see only the outer part of them, and shall not see them all; curse them for me from there.” 14 So he brought him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, qand built seven altars, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

15 And he said to Balak, “Stand here by your burnt offering while I 3meet the Lord over there.”

16 Then the Lord met Balaam, and rput a word in his mouth, and said, “Go back to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” 17 So he came to him, and there he was, standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab were with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the Lord spoken?”

18 Then he took up his oracle and said:

s“Rise up, Balak, and hear!

Listen to me, son of Zippor!

19 “God tis not a man, that He should lie,

Nor a son of man, that He should repent.

Has He usaid, and will He not do?

Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

20 Behold, I have received a command to bless;

vHe has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.

21 “He whas not observed iniquity in Jacob,

Nor has He seen 4wickedness in Israel.

The Lord his God is with him,

xAnd the shout of a King is among them.

22 yGod brings them out of Egypt;

He has zstrength like a wild ox.

23 “For there is no 5sorcery against Jacob,

Nor any 6divination against Israel.

It now must be said of Jacob

And of Israel, ‘Oh, awhat God has done!’

24 Look, a people rises blike a lioness,

And lifts itself up like a lion;

cIt shall not lie down until it devours the prey,

And drinks the blood of the slain.”

25 Then Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all!”

26 So Balaam answered and said to Balak, “Did I not tell you, saying, d‘All that the Lord speaks, that I must do’?”