Numbers 23 :: Christian Standard Bible (CSB)

So Balak did as Balaam directed, and they offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here by your burnt offering while I am gone. Maybe the LORD will meet with me. I will tell you whatever he reveals to me.” So he went to a barren hill.

God met with him and Balaam said to him, “I have arranged seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.”

Then the LORD put a message in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak and say what I tell you.”

So he returned to Balak, who was standing there by his burnt offering with all the officials of Moab.

Balaam proclaimed his poem:

Balak brought me from Aram;

the king of Moab, from the eastern mountains:

“Come, put a curse on Jacob for me;

come, denounce Israel! ”

How can I curse someone God has not cursed?

How can I denounce someone the LORD has not denounced?

I see them from the top of rocky cliffs,

and I watch them from the hills.

There is a people living alone;

it does not consider itself among the nations.

Who has counted the dust of Jacob

or numbered even one-fourth of Israel?

Let me die the death of the upright;

let the end of my life be like theirs.

“What have you done to me? ” Balak asked Balaam. “I brought you to curse my enemies, but look, you have only blessed them! ”

He answered, “Shouldn’t I say exactly what the LORD puts in my mouth? ”

Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place where you can see them. You will only see the outskirts of their camp; you won’t see all of them. From there, put a curse on them for me.”

So Balak took him to Lookout Field[fn] on top of Pisgah, built seven altars, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here by your burnt offering while I seek the LORD over there.”

The LORD met with Balaam and put a message in his mouth. Then he said, “Return to Balak and say what I tell you.”

So he returned to Balak, who was standing there by his burnt offering with the officials of Moab. Balak asked him, “What did the LORD say? ”

Balaam proclaimed his poem:

Balak, get up and listen;

son of Zippor, pay attention to what I say!

God is not a man, that he might lie,

or a son of man, that he might change his mind.

Does he speak and not act,

or promise and not fulfill?

I have indeed received a command to bless;

since he has blessed,[fn] I cannot change it.

He considers no disaster for Jacob;

he sees no trouble for Israel.[fn]

The LORD their God is with them,

and there is rejoicing over the King among them.

God brought them out of Egypt;

he is like the horns of a wild ox for them.[fn]

There is no magic curse against Jacob

and no divination against Israel.

It will now be said about Jacob and Israel,

“What great things God has done! ”

A people rise up like a lioness;

they rouse themselves like a lion.

They will not lie down until they devour the prey

and drink the blood of the slain.

Then Balak told Balaam, “Don’t curse them and don’t bless them! ”

But Balaam answered him, “Didn’t I tell you: Whatever the LORD says, I must do? ”

Again Balak said to Balaam, “Please come. I will take you to another place. Maybe it will be agreeable to God that you can put a curse on them for me there.”

So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the wasteland.[fn]

Balaam told Balak, “Build me seven altars here and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.”

So Balak did as Balaam said and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.