1Balaam said to Balak, "Build me seven altars here, and prepare for me here seven oxen and seven rams."
2Balak did as Balaam had said. Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
3Balaam said to Balak, "Stand here beside your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps the LORD will come to meet me. Whatever he shows me, I will tell you." And he went to a high place.
4God met Balaam. Balaam said to him, "I have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram."
5The LORD put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, "Go back to Balak, and this is what you shall say."
6So he went back to him, and there he was, standing beside his burnt sacrifice, he and all the leaders of Moab.
7Then Balaam began his message and said, "Balak the king of Moab has brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east. He said, 'Come, curse Jacob for me; come, defy Israel.'"
8How shall I curse the one God has not cursed? How shall I defy the one the LORD has not defied?
9From the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I look at him. Look, the people will live alone, and will not be counted among the nations.
10Who can count the dust of Jacob, or number even a fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my end be like his.
11Balak said to Balaam, "What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, and look, you have blessed them completely."
12He answered, "Must I not be careful to speak what the LORD has put in my mouth?"
13Balak said to him, "Come with me, please, to another place, where you can see them. You will see only the edge of them, and will not see them all. Curse them for me from there."
14So he brought him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah. There he built seven altars, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
15Balaam said to Balak, "Stand here beside your burnt offering, while I meet the LORD over there."
16The LORD met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, "Go back to Balak, and say this."
17When he came to him, there he was, standing beside his burnt offering, with the leaders of Moab. Balak said to him, "What has the LORD spoken?"
18Then Balaam began his message and said, "Rise up, Balak, and hear; listen to me, son of Zippor."
19God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said it, and will he not do it? Has he spoken, and will he not make it happen?
20Look, I have been commanded to bless. He has blessed, and I cannot turn it back.
21He has not seen sin in Jacob, nor has he looked on wrongdoing in Israel. The LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them.
22God brought them out of Egypt. He has strength like the strength of a wild ox.
23Surely there is no magic spell against Jacob, and no divination against Israel. At the right time it will be said of Jacob and of Israel, 'See what God has done.'
24"Look, the people will rise up like a great lion, and lift himself up like a young lion. He will not lie down until he eats the prey and drinks the blood of the slain."
25Balak said to Balaam, "Do not curse them at all, and do not bless them at all."
26But Balaam answered Balak, "Did I not tell you, 'All that the LORD speaks, that I must do'?"
27Balak said to Balaam, "Come, please, I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God to let you curse them for me from there."
28So Balak brought Balaam to the top of Peor, which looks out toward Jeshimon.
29Balaam said to Balak, "Build me seven altars here, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams."
30Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.