Numbers 23
New International Version - Numbers 23 << | >> 123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536 23:1 Balaam said, 'Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.' 23:2 Balak did as Balaam said, and the two of them offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 23:3 Then Balaam said to Balak, 'Stay here beside your offering while I go aside. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet with me. Whatever he reveals to me I will tell you.' Then he went off to a barren height. 23:4 God met with him, and Balaam said, 'I have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram.' 23:5 The Lord put a message in Balaam's mouth and said, 'Go back to Balak and give him this message.' 23:6 So he went back to him and found him standing beside his offering, with all the princes of Moab. 23:7 Then Balaam uttered his oracle: 'Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains. 'Come,' he said, 'curse Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel.' 23:8 How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the Lord has not denounced? 23:9 From the rocky peaks I see them, from the heights I view them. I see a people who live apart and do not consider themselves one of the nations. 23:10 Who can count the dust of Jacob or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and may my end be like theirs!' 23:11 Balak said to Balaam, 'What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but you have done nothing but bless them!' 23:12 He answered, 'Must I not speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?' 23:13 Then Balak said to him, 'Come with me to another place where you can see them; you will see only a part but not all of them. And from there, curse them for me.' 23:14 So he took him to the field of Zophim on the top of Pisgah, and there he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 23:15 Balaam said to Balak, 'Stay here beside your offering while I meet with him over there.' 23:16 The Lord met with Balaam and put a message in his mouth and said, 'Go back to Balak and give him this message.' 23:17 So he went to him and found him standing beside his offering, with the princes of Moab. Balak asked him, 'What did the Lord say?' 23:18 Then he uttered his oracle: 'Arise, Balak, and listen; hear me, son of Zippor. 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? 23:20 I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot change it. 23:21 'No misfortune is seen in Jacob, no misery observed in Israel. The Lord their God is with them; the shout of the King is among them. 23:22 God brought them out of Egypt; they have the strength of a wild ox. 23:23 There is no sorcery against Jacob, no divination against Israel. It will now be said of Jacob and of Israel, 'See what God has done!' 23:24 The people rise like a lioness; they rouse themselves like a lion that does not rest till he devours his prey and drinks the blood of his victims.' 23:25 Then Balak said to Balaam, 'Neither curse them at all nor bless them at all!' 23:26 Balaam answered, 'Did I not tell you I must do whatever the Lord says?' 23:27 Then Balak said to Balaam, 'Come, let me take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God to let you curse them for me from there.' 23:28 And Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, overlooking the wasteland. 23:29 Balaam said, 'Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.' 23:30 Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.