Numbers 23 :: New International Version (NIV)

Balaam’s First Message

Num 23:1Balaam said, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.”

Num 23:2Balak did as Balaam said, and the two of them offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

Num 23:3Then 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.

Num 23:4

Num 23:4God met with him, and Balaam said, “I have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram.”

Num 23:5

Num 23:5The LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this word.”

Num 23:6

Num 23:6So he went back to him and found him standing beside his offering, with all the Moabite officials.

Num 23:7

Num 23:7Then Balaam spoke his message: “Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains. ‘Come,’ he said, ‘curse Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel.’

Num 23:8

Num 23:8How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the LORD has not denounced?

Num 23:9

Num 23:9From 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.

Num 23:10

Num 23:10Who can count the dust of Jacob or number even a fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and may my final end be like theirs!”

Num 23:11

Num 23:11Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but you have done nothing but bless them!”

Num 23:12

Num 23:12He answered, “Must I not speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?”

Balaam’s Second Message

Num 23:13

Num 23:13Then Balak said to him, “Come with me to another place where you can see them; you will not see them all but only the outskirts of their camp. And from there, curse them for me.”

Num 23:14

Num 23:14So 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.

Num 23:15

Num 23:15Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offering while I meet with him over there.”

Num 23:16

Num 23:16The LORD met with Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this word.”

Num 23:17

Num 23:17So he went to him and found him standing beside his offering, with the Moabite officials. Balak asked him, “What did the LORD say?”

Num 23:18

Num 23:18Then he spoke his message: “Arise, Balak, and listen; hear me, son of Zippor.

Num 23:19

Num 23:19God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?

Num 23:20

Num 23:20I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot change it.

Num 23:21

Num 23:21“No misfortune is seen in Jacob, no misery observed[fn] in Israel. The LORD their God is with them; the shout of the King is among them.

Num 23:22

Num 23:22God brought them out of Egypt; they have the strength of a wild ox.

Num 23:23

Num 23:23There is no divination against[fn] Jacob, no evil omens against[fn] Israel. It will now be said of Jacob and of Israel, ‘See what God has done!’

Num 23:24

Num 23:24The people rise like a lioness; they rouse themselves like a lion that does not rest till it devours its prey and drinks the blood of its victims.”

Num 23:25

Num 23:25Then Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse them at all nor bless them at all!”

Num 23:26

Num 23:26Balaam answered, “Did I not tell you I must do whatever the LORD says?”

Balaam’s Third Message

Num 23:27

Num 23:27Then 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.”

Num 23:28

Num 23:28And Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, overlooking the wasteland.

Num 23:29

Num 23:29Balaam said, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.”

Num 23:30

Num 23:30Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

See the NIV Preface (Especially for Parenthesis, Brackets, & Asterisks).

NIV Footnotes

(23:21)

Or He has not looked on Jacob’s offenses / or on the wrongs found

(23:23)

Or in

(23:23)

Or in

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®
Used by Permission of Biblica, Inc.® All rights reserved worldwide.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the NIV Preface.