Chapter 23

  Balaam said to Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams.  

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  Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bull and a ram.  

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  Balaam said to Balak, Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go: peradventure Yahweh will come to meet me; and whatever he shows me I will tell you. He went to a bare height.  

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  God met Balaam: and he said to him, I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.  

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  Yahweh put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.  

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  He returned to him, and, behold, he was standing by his burnt- offering, he, and all the princes of Moab.  

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  He took up his parable, and said, From Aram has Balak brought me, The king of Moab from the mountains of the East: Come, curse me Jacob, Come, defy Israel.  

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  How shall I curse, whom God has not cursed? How shall I defy, whom Yahweh has not defied?  

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  For from the top of the rocks I see him, From the hills I see him: behold, it is a people that dwells alone, And shall not be reckoned among the nations.  

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  Who can count the dust of Jacob, Or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, Let my last end be like his!  

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  Balak said to Balaam, What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and, behold, you have blessed them altogether.  

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  He answered and said, Must I not take heed to speak that which Yahweh puts in my mouth?  

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  Balak said to him, Please come with me to another place, from whence you may see them; you shall see but the utmost part of them, and shall not see them all: and curse me them from there.  

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  He took him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.  

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  He said to Balak, Stand here by your burnt offering, while I meet [Yahweh] yonder.  

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  Yahweh met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, Return to Balak, and thus shall you speak.  

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  He came to him, and, behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. Balak said to him, What has Yahweh spoken?  

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  He took up his parable, and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear; Listen to me, you son of Zippor:  

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  God is not a man, that he should lie, Neither the son of man, that he should repent: Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?  

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  Behold, I have received [commandment] to bless: He has blessed, and I can't reverse it.  

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  He has not saw iniquity in Jacob; Neither has he seen perverseness in Israel: Yahweh his God is with him, The shout of a king is among them.  

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  God brings them forth out of Egypt; He has as it were the strength of the wild-ox.  

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  Surely there is no enchantment with Jacob; Neither is there any divination with Israel: Now shall it be said of Jacob and of Israel, What has God done!  

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  Behold, the people rises up as a lioness, As a lion does he lift himself up: He shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, Drink the blood of the slain.  

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  Balak said to Balaam, Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.  

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  But Balaam answered Balak, Didn't I tell you, saying, All that Yahweh speaks, that I must do?  

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  Balak said to Balaam, Come now, I will take you to another place; peradventure it will please God that you may curse me them from there.  

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  Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that looks down on the desert.  

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  Balaam said to Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams.  

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  Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.  

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