Numbers 23

CLV^{(i) 1} Balaam said to Balak:Build for me in this place seven altars and prepare for me in this place seven young bulls and seven rams. ² Balak did just as Balaam had spoken. Balak and Balaam offered up a young bull and a ram on each altar. ³ Then Balaam said to Balak:Station yourself at your ascent offering and let me go. Perhaps Yahweh shall happen to meet me; then whatever word He shall show me I will tell you. So he went off to the ridge. ⁴ Elohim met Balaam, and he said to Him:The seven altars have I arranged, and I offered up a young bull and a ram on each altar. ⁵ Yahweh placed a word in the mouth of Balaam and said:Return to Balak and thus shall you speak. ⁶ So he returned to him and behold, he and all the chiefs of Moab were stationed at his ascent offering. ⁷ He took up his discourse and said:From Syria Balak gave me guidance, the king of Moab from the mountains of the east:Come now and curse Jacob for me! And come now and menace Israel. ⁸ How should I revile when El has not reviled him? How should I menace when Yahweh has not menaced? ⁹ For from the summit of the rocks I am seeing him, and from the hills I am regarding him. Behold, the people is tabernacling by itself alone, and among the nations it is not reckoning itself. ¹⁰ Who counts the soil-drift of Jacob? And who numbers the dust cloud of Israel? May my soul die the death of the upright, and may my hereafter be just as his!" ¹¹ Then Balak said to Balaam:What have you done to me? To revile my enemies I took you, yet behold, you bless, yea bless them!" ¹² Yet he answered and said:What Yahweh places in my mouth, is it not it that I should observe to speak? ¹³ Balak said to him:Go, I pray, with me to another place from where you may see it. Only its outmost part shall you see; all of it you shall not see. Revile it for me from there. ¹⁴ So he took him to the field of the Watchmen, to the summit of the Pisgah ridge. He built seven altars and offered up a young bull and a ram on each altar. ¹⁵ Then he said to Balak:Station yourself thus at your ascent offering while I meet Him thus. ¹⁶ Yahweh met with Balaam and placed the word in his mouth and said:Return to Balak and thus shall you speak. ¹⁷ So he came to him, and behold, he was stationed at his ascent offering, and the chiefs of Moab with him. Balak said to him:What has Yahweh spoken? ¹⁸ He took up his discourse and said:Arise, Balak, and hear! Give ear unto me, son of Zippor!" ¹⁹ El is not a man that He should lie. Nor a son of humanity that He should feel regret. Does He say it and then not do it? Or speak and then not carry it out? ²⁰ Behold, I undertake to bless; He blesses and I shall not reverse it. ²¹ He does not look for sorrow in Jacob, nor does He see toil in Israel. Yahweh their Elohim is with him, and the shout of their king is with him. ²² El, Who brought them forth from Egypt, was to him like a wild bull's cornuted strength. ²³ For there is no augury against Jacob nor divination against Israel; at the right time it is spoken to Jacob and to Israel:What has El contrived! ²⁴ Behold, the people arise like a parent lion, and like a lion lifts himself. He shall not lie down until he devours the prey and drinks the blood of those wounded to death. ²⁵ Balak said to Balaam:If you shall not revile, yea revile him at all, you should also not bless, yea bless him at all!" ²⁶ Balaam responded and said to Balak:Did not I speak to you, saying:All that Yahweh shall speak, it I shall do? ²⁷ Balak said to Balaam:Come now, I pray. I shall take you to another place; perhaps it may be upright in the eyes of the One, Elohim, that you revile him for me from there. ²⁸ So Balak took Balaam to the summit of Peor, the one gazing over the surface of the desolation. ²⁹ Then Balaam said to Balak:Build for me in this place seven altars, and prepare for me in this place seven young bulls and seven rams. ³⁰ Balak did just as Balaam had said and offered up a young bull and a ram on each altar.