Numbers 23 :: New King James Version (NKJV)

The Prophecies of Balaam

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

Num 23:2

Num 23:2And Balak did just as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

Num 23:3

Num 23:3Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps the LORD will come to meet me, and whatever He shows me I will tell you.” So he went to a desolate height.

Num 23:4

Num 23:4And God met Balaam, and he said to Him, “I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.”

Num 23:5

Num 23:5Then the LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.”

Num 23:6

Num 23:6So he returned to him, and there he was, standing by his burnt offering, he and all the princes of Moab.

Num 23:7

Num 23:7And he took up his oracle and said:

“Balak the king of Moab has brought me from Aram,
From the mountains of the east.
‘Come, curse Jacob for me,
And come, denounce Israel!’

Num 23:8

Num 23:8“How shall I curse whom God has not cursed?
And how shall I denounce whom the LORD has not denounced?

Num 23:9

Num 23:9For from the top of the rocks I see him,
And from the hills I behold him;
There! A people dwelling alone,
Not reckoning itself among the nations.

Num 23:10

Num 23:10“Who can count the dust[fn] of Jacob,
Or number one-fourth of Israel?
Let me die the death of the righteous,
And let my end be like his!”

Num 23:11

Num 23:11Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and look, you have blessed them bountifully!”

Num 23:12

Num 23:12So he answered and said, “Must I not take heed to speak what the LORD has put in my mouth?”

Balaam’s Second Prophecy

Num 23:13

Num 23:13Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from which you may see them; you shall see only the outer part of them, and shall not see them all; curse them for me from there.”

Num 23:14

Num 23:14So he brought him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

Num 23:15

Num 23:15And he said to Balak, “Stand here by your burnt offering while I meet[fn] the LORD over there.”

Num 23:16

Num 23:16Then the LORD met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, “Go back to Balak, and thus you shall speak.”

Num 23:17

Num 23:17So he came to him, and there he was, standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab were with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the LORD spoken?”

Num 23:18

Num 23:18Then he took up his oracle and said:

“Rise up, Balak, and hear!
Listen to me, son of Zippor!

Num 23:19

Num 23:19“God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent.
Has He said, and will He not do?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

Num 23:20

Num 23:20Behold, I have received a command to bless;
He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.

Num 23:21

Num 23:21“He has not observed iniquity in Jacob,
Nor has He seen wickedness in Israel.
The LORD his God is with him,
And the shout of a King is among them.

Num 23:22

Num 23:22God brings them out of Egypt;
He has strength like a wild ox.

Num 23:23

Num 23:23“For there is no sorcery against Jacob,
Nor any divination against Israel.
It now must be said of Jacob
And of Israel, ‘Oh, what God has done!’

Num 23:24

Num 23:24Look, a people rises like a lioness,
And lifts itself up like a lion;
It shall not lie down until it devours the prey,
And drinks the blood of the slain.”

Num 23:25

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

Num 23:26

Num 23:26So Balaam answered and said to Balak, “Did I not tell you, saying, ‘All that the LORD speaks, that I must do’?”

Balaam’s Third Prophecy

Num 23:27

Num 23:27Then Balak said to Balaam, “Please come, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.”

Num 23:28

Num 23:28So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that overlooks the wasteland.[fn]

Num 23:29

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

Num 23:30

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

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

NKJV Footnotes

(23:10)

Or dust cloud

(23:15)

Following Masoretic Text, Targum, and Vulgate; Syriac reads call; Septuagint reads go and ask God.

(23:28)

Hebrew Jeshimon

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