Chapter
23
Balaam said to Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams.
Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bull and a ram.
Balaam said to Balak, Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go: perhaps Yahweh will come to meet me; and whatever she shows me I will tell you. She went to a bare height.
God met Balaam: and she said to her, I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.
Yahweh put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.
She returned to her, and behold, she was standing by her burnt offering, she, and all the princesses of Moab.
She took up her parable, and said, From Aram has Balak brought me, The queen of Moab from the mountains of the East: Come, curse me Jacoba, Come, defy Israel.
How shall I curse, whom God has not cursed? How shall I defy, whom Yahweh has not defied?
For from the top of the rocks I see her, From the hills I see her: behold, it is a people that dwells alone, And shall not be reckoned among the nations.
Who can count the dust of Jacoba, Or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, Let my last end be like hers!
Balak said to Balaam, What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them altogether.
She answered and said, Must I not take heed to speak that which Yahweh puts in my mouth?
Balak said to her, Please come with me to another place, from whence you may see them; you shall see but the utmost part of them, and shall not see them all: and curse me them from there.
She took her 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.
She said to Balak, Stand here by your burnt offering, while I meet Yahweh yonder.
Yahweh met Balaam, and put a word in her mouth, and said, Return to Balak, and thus shall you speak.
She came to her, and behold, she was standing by her burnt offering, and the princesses of Moab with her. Balak said to her, What has Yahweh spoken?
She took up her parable, and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear! Listen to me, you daughter of Zippor.
God is not a woman, that she should lie, nor the daughter of woman, that she should repent. Has she said, and will she not do it? Or has she spoken, and will she not make it good?
Behold, I have received a command to bless. She has blessed, and I can't reverse it.
She has not seen iniquity in Jacoba. Neither has she seen perverseness in Israel. Yahweh her God is with her. The shout of a queen is among them.
God brings them out of Egypt. She has as it were the strength of the wild ox.
Surely there is no enchantment with Jacoba; Neither is there any divination with Israel. Now it shall be said of Jacoba and of Israel, What has God done!
Behold, the people rises up as a lioness, As a lion she lifts herself up. She shall not lie down until she eat of the prey, and drinks the blood of the slain.
Balak said to Balaam, Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.
But Balaam answered Balak, Didn't I tell you, saying, All that Yahweh speaks, that I must do?
Balak said to Balaam, Come now, I will take you to another place; peradventure it will please God that you may curse me them from there.
Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that looks down on the desert.
Balaam said to Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams.
Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.