New Heart English Bible

Numbers 23

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

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

3 Balaam said to Balak, "Station yourself by your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps God will come to meet me, and whatever he shows me I will tell you." And Balak went off and stationed himself by his offering, and Balaam called to God and went off to a barren height.

4 And 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."

5 And God put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, "Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak."

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

7 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 Jacob for me. Come, defy Israel.'

8 How shall I curse whom the LORD has not cursed? How shall I defy whom God has not defied?

9 For from the top of the rocks I see him. From the hills I see him. Look, it is a people that dwells alone, and not counting itself among the nations.

10 Who can count the dust of Jacob, and who has numbered the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous. Let my last end be like his."

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

12 He answered and said, "Must I not be careful to speak that which God puts in my mouth?"

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

14 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.

15 He said to Balak, "Station yourself here by your burnt offering, while I meet over there."

16 And God met Balaam and put a word in his mouth, and said, "Return to Balak, and say this."

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

18 He took up his parable, and said, "Rise up, Balak, and hear. Listen to me, you son of Zippor.

19 God is not a man, that he should lie, nor 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?

20 Look, I have received a command to bless. He has blessed, and I can't reverse it.

21 He has not seen iniquity in Jacob. Neither has he seen perverseness in Israel. The LORD his God is with him. The shout of a king is among them.

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

23 Surely there is no enchantment with Jacob; neither is there any divination with Israel. Now it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, what has God done.

24 Look, the people rises up as a lioness, as a lion he lifts himself up. He shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drinks the blood of the slain."

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

26 But Balaam answered Balak, "Did I not tell you, saying, 'All that God speaks, that I must do?'"

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

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

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

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