Numbers 23

1 And Balaam said to Balac: Build me here seven altars, and prepare as many calves, and the same number of rams.

Balaam said to Balak, “Build here seven altars for me, and prepare here seven bulls and seven rams for me.”

2 And when he had done according to the word of Balaam, they laid together a calf and a ram upon every altar.

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

3 And Balaam said to Balac: Stand a while by thy burnt offering, until I go, to see if perhaps the Lord will meet me, and whatsoever he shall command, I will speak to thee.

Balaam said to Balak, “Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps Yahweh will come to meet me. Whatever he shows me I will tell you.” He went to a bare height.

4 And when he was gone with speed, God met him. And Balaam speaking to him, said: I have erected seven altars, and have laid on everyone a calf and a ram.

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 the Lord put the word in his mouth, and said: Return to Balac, and thus shalt thou speak.

Yahweh put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.”

6 Returning he found Balac standing by his burnt offering, with all the princes of the Moabites:

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

7 And taking up his parable, he said: Balac king of the Moabites hath brought me from Aram, from the mountains of the east: Come, said he, and curse Jacob: make haste and detest Israel.

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 him, whom God hath not cursed? By what means should I detest him, whom the Lord detesteth not?

How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? How shall I defy whom Yahweh has not defied?

9 I shall see him from the tops of the rocks, and shall consider him from the hills. This people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.

For from the top of the rocks I see him. From the hills I see him. Behold, it is a people that dwells alone, and shall not be listed among the nations.

10 Who can count the dust of Jacob, and know the number of the stock of Israel? Let my soul die the death of the just, and my last end be like to them.

Who can count the dust of Jacob, or count the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous! Let my last end be like his!”

11 And Balac said to Balaam: What is this that thou dost? I sent for thee to curse my enemies: and thou contrariwise blessest them.

Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them altogether.”

12 He answered him: Call I speak any thing else but what the Lord commandeth?

He answered and said, “Must I not take heed to speak that which Yahweh puts in my mouth?”

13 Balac therefore said: Come with me to another place from whence thou mayest see part of Israel, and canst not see them all: curse them from thence.

Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place, where you may see them. You shall see just part of them, and shall not see them all. Curse them from there for me.”

14 And when he had brought him to a high place, upon the top of mount Phasga, Balaam built seven altars, and laying on every one a calf and a ram,

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 Balac: Stand here by thy burnt offering while I go to meet him.

He said to Balak, “Stand here by your burnt offering, while I meet God over there.”

16 And when the Lord had met him, and had put the word in his mouth, he said: Return to Balac, and thus shalt thou say to him.

Yahweh met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and say this.”

17 Returning he found him standing by his burnt sacrifice, and the princes of the Moabites with him. And Balac said to him: What hath the Lord spoken?

He came to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. Balak said to him, “What has Yahweh spoken?”

18 But he taking up his parable, said: Stand, O Balac, and give ear: hear, thou son of Sephor:

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 as the son of man, that he should be changed. Hath he said then, and will he not do? hath he spoken, and will he not fulfill?

God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and he won’t do it? Or has he spoken, and he won’t make it good?

20 I was brought to bless, the blessing I am not able to hinder.

Behold, I have received a command to bless. He has blessed, and I can’t reverse it.

21 There is no idol in Jacob, neither is there an image god to be seen in Israel. The Lord his God is with him, and the sound of the victory of the king in him.

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

22 God hath brought him out of Egypt, whose strength is like to the rhinoceros.

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

23 There is no soothsaying in Jacob, nor divination in Israel. In their times it shall be told to Jacob and to Israel what God hath wrought.

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 Behold the people shall rise up as a lioness, and shall lift itself up as a lion: it shall not lie down till it devour the prey, and drink the blood of the slain.

Behold, a people rises up as a lioness. As a lion he lifts himself up. He shall not lie down until he eats of the prey, and drinks the blood of the slain.”

25 And Balac said to Balaam: Neither curse, nor bless him.

Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.”

26 And he said: Did I not tell thee, that whatsoever God should command me, that I would do?

But Balaam answered Balak, “Didn’t I tell you, saying, ‘All that Yahweh speaks, that I must do’?”

27 And Balac said to him: Come and I will bring thee to another place; if peradventure it please God that thou mayest curse them from thence.

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 And when he had brought him upon the top of mount Phogor, which looketh towards the wilderness,

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

29 Balaam said to him: Build me here seven altars, and prepare as many calves, and the same number of rams.

Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.”

30 Balac did as Balaam had said: and he laid on every altar, a calf and a ram.

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