Numbers 23

Balaam Blesses Israel

1Then Balaam said to King Balak, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven young bulls and seven rams for me to sacrifice.” 2Balak followed his instructions, and the two of them sacrificed a young bull and a ram on each altar.

3Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand here by your burnt offerings, and I will go to see if the Lord will respond to me. Then I will tell you whatever he reveals to me.” So Balaam went alone to the top of a bare hill, 4and God met him there. Balaam said to him, “I have prepared seven altars and have sacrificed a young bull and a ram on each altar.”

5The Lord gave Balaam a message for King Balak. Then he said, “Go back to Balak and give him my message.”

6So Balaam returned and found the king standing beside his burnt offerings with all the officials of Moab. 7This was the message Balaam delivered:

“Balak summoned me to come from Aram;

the king of Moab brought me from the eastern hills.

‘Come,’ he said, ‘curse Jacob for me!

Come and announce Israel’s doom.’

8But how can I curse those

whom God has not cursed?

How can I condemn those

whom the Lord has not condemned?

9I see them from the cliff tops;

I watch them from the hills.

I see a people who live by themselves,

set apart from other nations.

10Who can count Jacob’s descendants, as numerous as dust?

Who can count even a fourth of Israel’s people?

Let me die like the righteous;

let my life end like theirs.”

11Then King Balak demanded of Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies. Instead, you have blessed them!”

12But Balaam replied, “I will speak only the message that the Lord puts in my mouth.”