Nombres 23

1 Alors Balaam dit à Balak: "Dresse-moi ici sept autels, et prépare-moi ici sept taureaux et sept béliers."

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

2 Balak fit ce qu’avait dit Balaam; puis Balak et Balaam offrirent un taureau et un bélier sur chaque autel.

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

3 Balaam dit à Balak: "Demeure près de ton holocauste; moi je m’en irai: peut-être l’Éternel s’offrira-t-il à ma rencontre, et, quoi qu’il me révèle, je t’en ferai part." Et il s’en alla dans la solitude.

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 Dieu se présenta à Balaam, qui lui dit: "J’Ai dressé les sept autels, et j’ai offert un taureau et un bélier sur chaque autel."

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 L’Éternel mit sa parole dans la bouche de Balaam, et lui dit: "Retourne vers Balak, et tu parleras de la sorte…"

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

6 II retourna vers lui et le trouva debout près de son holocauste, lui et tous les princes de Moab.

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

7 Et il proféra son oracle en disant: "II me fait venir d’Aram, Balak roi de Moab; il m’appelle des monts de l’orient: "Viens maudire pour moi Jacob! Oui, viens menacer Israël!"

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 Comment maudirais-je celui que Dieu n’a point maudit? Comment menacerai-je, quand l’Éternel est sans colère?

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

9 Oui, je le vois de la cime des rochers, et du haut des collines, je le découvre: ce peuple, il vit solitaire, iI ne se confondra point avec les nations.

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 Qui peut compter la poussière de Jacob, nombrer la multitude d’Israël? Puissé-je mourir comme meurent ces justes, et puisse ma fin ressembler à la leur!".

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 dit à Balaam: "Que m’as-tu fait! J’Ai eu recours à toi pour maudire mes ennemis, et voilà que tu les bénis, au contraire!"

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 Mais il répondit: "Certes, ce que l’Éternel met dans ma bouche, ne dois-je pas fidèlement le redire?"

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

13 Balak lui dit: "Viens, je te prie, avec moi dans un autre lieu, d’où tu pourras voir ce peuple: tu n’en verras que les derniers rangs, tu ne le verras pas tout entier. Et maudis-le moi de là."

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 Il le conduisit au plateau de Çofîm, sur la crête du Pisga; il y dressa sept autels, et offrit sur chaque autel un taureau et un bélier.

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 Balaam dit à Balak: "Tiens-toi ici, près de ton holocauste, et moi, j’attendrai là-bas la rencontre."

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

16 L’Éternel se présenta à Balaam, inspira un discours à ses lèvres, lui disant: "Va rejoindre Balak, et tu parleras ainsi…"

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

17 Il revint près de lui, et le trouva debout près de son holocauste, les princes de Moab à ses côtés. Et Balak lui demanda: "Qu’a dit l’Éternel?"

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 YHWH spoken?"

18 Il proféra son oracle en ces termes: "Prépare-toi, Balak, à m’entendre; prête-moi l’oreille, fils de Cippor!

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

19 Dieu n’est pas un mortel, pour mentir, ni un fils d’Adam, pour qu’il se ravise; est-ce lui qui parle et ne tient point parole? Qui affirme et n’exécute point?

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 Oui, j’ai reçu mission de bénir; il a béni, je ne puis le dédire.

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

21 Il n’aperçoit point d’iniquité en Jacob, il ne voit point de mal en Israël: l’Éternel, son Dieu, est avec lui, et l’amitié d’un roi le protège.

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

22 Délivré, par ce Dieu, de l’Egypte, il a le vigoureux élan du réêm.

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

23 Il ne faut point de magie à Jacob, point de sortilège à Israël: ils apprennent à point nommé, Jacob et Israël, ce que Dieu a résolu.

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 Voyez! Ce peuple se lève comme un léopard, il se dresse comme un lion; il ne se reposera qu’assouvi de carnage, qu’enivré du sang de ses victimes!"

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 dit à Balaam: "Ne le maudis point, soit, mais ne le bénis point non plus."

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

26 Balaam répondit à Balak: "Ne t’avais-je pas fait cette déclaration: tout ce que dira l’Éternel, je dois le faire?"

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

27 Et Balak dit à Balaam: "Viens donc, que je te conduise à une autre place; peut-être ce Dieu trouvera-t-il bon que, de là, tu me les maudisses."

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 Et Balak emmena Balaam sur la cime du Peor, qui domine la surface du désert.

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

29 Balaam dit à Balak: "Construis-moi ici sept autels, et prépare-moi ici sept taureaux et sept béliers."

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

30 Balak fit ce qu’avait dit Balaam, et il offrit un taureau et un bélier sur chaque autel.

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