Numbers Chapter 23 1 Balaam said to Balak, Build seven altars here for me and prepare seven oxen and seven rams for me.2 Balak did as Balaam had spoken. Then Balak and Balaam offered on the altar a bull and a ram.3 Balaam said to Balak, Stand by your burnt offering and I will go. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet me. Whatever He reveals to me I will tell you. So he went to a high place.4 God met Balaam and he said to Him, I have prepared seven altars and I have offered upon the altar a bull and a ram.5 The Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth and said, Return to Balak and so you shall speak.6 Then he returned to him and stood by his burnt sacrifice, he and all the leaders of Moab.7 He took up his parable and said, King Balak of Moab has brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east saying, Come. Curse Jacob for me and come defy Israel.8 How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? Or how shall I defy whom the Lord has not defied?9 For from the top of the rocks I see him and from the hills I behold him. The people live alone and are not be counted among the nations.10 Who can count the dust of Jacob and the number of the fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous and 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 you have kept on blessing them.12 He said, Must I not be careful to speak what the Lord has put in my mouth?13 Balak said to him, Please come with me to another place from where you may see them. You shall see only their edge, and shall not see them all. And curse them from there for me.14 He brought him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on every altar.15 He said to Balak, Stand here by your burnt offering while I meet Him yonder.16 The Lord met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, Go again to Balak and say this.17 When he came to him, behold, he stood by his burnt offering, and the leaders of Moab were with him. And 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, son of Zippor.19 God is not a man so that He should lie, nor the son of man so that He should repent. Has He said and shall He not do it? Or has He spoken, and shall He not make it good?20 Behold, I have received word to bless. And He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.21 He has not seen iniquity in Jacob, neither has He seen perverseness in Israel. The Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king among them.22 God brought them out of Egypt. He has, as it were, the strength of an ox.23 Surely, there is no spell against Jacob nor any fortune+ telling against Israel. According to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What God has worked.24 Behold, the people shall rise up like a great lion, and lift up himself like a young lion. He shall not lie down until he eats 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 said to Balak, Did I not tell you saying, All that the Lord speaks, that I must do?27 Balak said to Balaam, Please, come. I will bring you into another place. Perhaps it will please God that you will curse them for me from there.28 Balak brought Balaam to the top of Peor that looks toward Jeshimon.29 Balaam said to Balak, Build seven altars here for me, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams here for me.30 Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on the altar.
|
|