Numbers 23:1-12

New International Version

Balaam’s First Message

23 Balaam said, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams^(A) for me.” ²Balak did as Balaam said, and the two of them offered a bull and a ram on each altar.^(B)

³Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offering while I go aside. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet with me.^(C) Whatever he reveals to me I will tell you.” Then he went off to a barren height.

⁴God met with him,^(D) and Balaam said, “I have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram.”

⁵The Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth^(E) and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this word.”^(F)

⁶So he went back to him and found him standing beside his offering, with all the Moabite officials.^(G) ⁷Then Balaam^(H) spoke his message:^(I)

“Balak brought me from Aram,^(J)
    the king of Moab from the eastern mountains.^(K)
‘Come,’ he said, ‘curse Jacob for me;
    come, denounce Israel.’^(L)
⁸How can I curse
    those whom God has not cursed?^(M)
How can I denounce
    those whom the Lord has not denounced?^(N)
⁹From the rocky peaks I see them,
    from the heights I view them.^(O)
I see a people who live apart
    and do not consider themselves one of the nations.^(P)
¹⁰Who can count the dust of Jacob^(Q)
    or number even a fourth of Israel?
Let me die the death of the righteous,^(R)
    and may my final end be like theirs!^(S)”