Numbers 23:1-10

The Prophecies of Balaam

¹Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.” ²Balak did just as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam offered up a bull and a ram on each altar. ³Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand beside 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 bare hill.

⁴Now God met with Balaam, and he said to Him, “I have set up the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.” ⁵Then the Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and this is what you shall speak.” ⁶So he returned to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, he and all the leaders of Moab. ⁷And he took up his discourse and said,

“From Aram Balak has brought me,

Moab’s king from the mountains of the East, saying,

‘Come, declare Jacob cursed for me,

And come, curse Israel!’

8“How am I to put a curse on him upon whom God has not put a curse?

And how am I to curse him whom the Lord has not cursed?

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

And I look at him from the hills;

Behold, a people that lives in isolation,

And does not consider itself to be among the nations.

10“Who has counted the dust of Jacob,

Or the number of the fourth part of Israel?

May I die the death of the upright,

And may my end be like his!”