Balaam’s First Oracle

1And Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me in this place seven altars, and prepare for me in this place seven bulls and seven rams.”

2And Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

3And Balaam said to Balak, “Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps YHWH will come to meet me, and the word of what he shows me I will tell to you.”

And he went to a barren height. 4And God met with Balaam, and he said to Him, “Seven altars I have prepared, and I have offered a bull and a ram on each altar.”

5And YHWH put a word in the mouth of Balaam and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.”

6And he returned to him, and behold, he is standing by his burnt offering, he and all the princes of Moab.

7And he lifted up his oracle and said,

“Balak has brought me from Aram,

the king of Moab, from the mountains of the east:

‘Come, curse Jacob for me,

and come, denounce Israel.’

8How shall I curse those whom God has not cursed,

and how shall I denounce those whom YHWH has not denounced?

9For from the top of the rocks I see him,

and from the hills I behold him.

Behold, a people dwelling apart,

and among the nations not reckoning itself.

10Who can count the dust of Jacob,

and number a fourth of Israel?

Let me die the death of the righteous,

and let my end be like his!”

11And Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? To curse my enemies I took you, and behold, you have surely blessed them.”

12And he answered and said, “What YHWH has put in my mouth, is it not that I must guard myself to speak?”

Balaam’s Second Oracle

13And Balak said to him, “Come, please, with me, to another place from that you may see them. Only the outer part of them you shall see, and you shall not see them all. And curse them for me from there.”

14And 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.

15And he said to Balak, “Stand here by your burnt offering, and I meet Him over there.”

16And YHWH met with Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, “Go back to Balak, and thus you shall speak.”

17And he came to him, and behold, he is standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab were with him.

And Balak said to him, “What has YHWH spoken?”

18And he lifted up his oracle and said,

“Rise up, O Balak, and hear;

give ear to me, O son of Zippor!

19God is not a man, that He should lie,

nor a son of man, that He should repent.

Has He said, and He will not do?

Or has He spoken, and He will not fulfill?

20Behold, to bless I have received;

and He has blessed, and I can reverse it not.

21He has observed no iniquity in Jacob,

nor has He seen wickedness in Israel.

YHWH his God is with him,

and the shout of a King is among them.

22God brings them out of Egypt;

strength like a wild ox He has.

23For there is no sorcery against Jacob,

nor any divination against Israel.

Now it must be said of Jacob and of Israel,

‘What God has done!’

24Look, a people like a lioness rises,

and like a lion lifts itself up.

it shall not lie down until it devours the prey

and drinks the blood of the slain.”

25And Balak said to Balaam, “Indeed neither curse them at all, nor indeed bless them at all.”

26And Balaam answered and said to Balak, “Did not I speak to you, saying, all that YHWH speaks, that is what I must do?”

27And Balak said to Balaam, “Come, please, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will please the eye of God that you may curse them for me from there.”

28And Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that overlooks toward the face of Jeshimon.†

29And Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me in this place seven altars, and prepare for me in this place seven bulls and seven rams.”

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