The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Numbers 23
1 Balaam said to Balak, “Build here seven
altars for me, and prepare here seven bulls
and seven rams for me.”
2 Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and
Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a
bull and a ram.
3 Balaam said to Balak, “Stand by your
burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps
Yahweh will come to meet me. Whatever
he shows me I will tell you.”
He went to a bare height.
4 God met Balaam, and he said to him, “I
have prepared the seven altars, and I have
offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.”
5 Yahweh put a word in Balaam’s mouth,
and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you
shall speak.”
6 He returned to him, and behold, he was
standing by his burnt offering, he, and all
the princes of Moab.
7 He took up his parable, and said,
“From Aram has Balak brought me,
the king of Moab from the mountains
of the East. Come, curse Jacob for me.
Come, defy Israel.
8 How shall I curse whom God has not
cursed?
How shall I defy whom Yahweh has
not defied?
9 For from the top of the rocks I see him.
From the hills I see him.
Behold, it is a people that dwells alone,
and shall not be listed among the nations.
10 Who can count the dust of Jacob,
or count the fourth part of Israel?
Let me die the death of the righteous!
Let my last end be like his!”
11 Balak said to Balaam, “What have you
done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them
altogether.”
12 He answered and said, “MustInottake
heed to speak that which Yahweh puts in
my mouth?”
13 Balak said to him, “Please come with
me to another place, where you may see
them. You shall see just part of them, and
shall not see them all. Curse them from
there for me.”
14 He took him into the field of Zophim,
to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars,
and offered up a bull and a ram on every
altar.
15 He said to Balak, “Stand here by your
burnt offering, while I meet God over
there.”
16 Yahweh met Balaam, and put a word
in his mouth, and said, “Return to Balak,
and say this.”
17 He came to him, and behold, he was
standing by his burnt offering, and the
princes of Moab with him. Balak said to
him, “What has Yahweh spoken?”
18 He took up his parable, and said,
“Rise up, Balak, and hear!
Listen to me, you son of Zippor.
19 God is not a man, that he should lie,
nor a son of man, that he should repent.
Has he said, and he won’t do it?
Or has he spoken, and he won’t make
it good?
20 Behold, I have received a command to
bless.
He has blessed, and I can’t reverse it.
21 He has not seen iniquity in Jacob.
Neither has he seen perverseness in
Israel.
Yahweh his God is with him.
The shout of a king is among them.
22 God brings them out of Egypt.
He has as it were the strength of the
wild ox.
23 Surely there is no enchantment with
Jacob;
neither is there any divination with
Israel.
Now it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel,
‘What has God done!’
24 Behold, a people rises up as a lioness.
As a lion he lifts himself up.
He shall not lie down until he eats of the
prey,
and drinks the blood of the slain.”
25 Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse
them at all, nor bless them at all.”
26 But Balaam answered Balak, “Didn’t I
tell you, saying, ‘All that Yahweh speaks,
that I must do’?”
27 Balak said to Balaam, “Come now, I
will take you to another place; perhaps it
will please God that you may curse them
for me from there.”
28 Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor,
that looks down on the desert.
29 Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven
altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls
and seven rams for me here.”
30 Balak did as Balaam had said, and
offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.