23:1  Balaam said to Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams.

23:2  Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bull and a ram.

23:3  Balaam said to Balak, Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go: perhaps Yahweh will come to meet me; and whatever he shows me I will tell you. He went to a bare height.

23:4  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.

23:5  Yahweh put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.

23:6  He returned to him, and, behold, he was standing by his burnt- offering, he, and all the princes of Moab.

23:7  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 me Jacob, Come, defy Israel.

23:8  How shall I curse, whom God has not cursed? How shall I defy, whom Yahweh has not defied?

23:9  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 reckoned among the nations.

23:10  Who can count the dust of Jacob, Or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, Let my last end be like his!

23:11  Balak said to Balaam, What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and, behold, you have blessed them altogether.

23:12  He answered and said, Must I not take heed to speak that which Yahweh puts in my mouth?

23:13  Balak said to him, 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.

23:14  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.

23:15  He said to Balak, Stand here by your burnt offering, while I meet Yahweh yonder.

23:16  Yahweh met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, Return to Balak, and thus shall you speak.

23:17  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?

23:18  He took up his parable, and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear; Listen to me, you son of Zippor:

23:19  God is not a man, that he should lie, Neither 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?

23:20  Behold, I have received commandment to bless: He has blessed, and I can't reverse it.

23:21  He has not saw iniquity in Jacob; Neither has he seen perverseness in Israel: Yahweh his God is with him, The shout of a king is among them.

23:22  God brings them forth out of Egypt; He has as it were the strength of the wild-ox.

23:23  Surely there is no enchantment with Jacob; Neither is there any divination with Israel: Now shall it be said of Jacob and of Israel, What has God done!

23:24  Behold, the people rises up as a lioness, As a lion does he lift himself up: He shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, Drink the blood of the slain.

23:25  Balak said to Balaam, Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.

23:26  But Balaam answered Balak, Didn't I tell you, saying, All that Yahweh speaks, that I must do?

23:27  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.

23:28  Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that looks down on the desert.

23:29  Balaam said to Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams.

23:30  Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.