Numbers 23:1 - 23:10

Yahweh Speaks Through Balaam

Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.” 2 So Balak did just as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam offered up a bull and a ram on each altar. 3 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps Yahweh will come to meet me, and whatever He shows me I will tell you.” So he went to a bare hill. 4 Now God met Balaam, and he said to Him, “I have set up the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.” 5 Then Yahweh put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and you shall speak thus.” 6 So he returned to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, he and all the leaders of Moab. 7 Then he took up his discourse and said,

“From Aram Balak has brought me,

Moab’s king from the mountains of the East,

‘Come curse Jacob for me,

And come, denounce Israel!’

How shall I curse whom God has not cursed?

And how can I denounce whom Yahweh has not denounced?

For I see him from the top of the rocks,

And I look at him from the hills;

Behold, a people who dwells alone,

And will not be reckoned among the nations.

Who can number the dust of Jacob,

Or count the fourth part of Israel?

Let me die the death of the upright,

And let my end be like his!”

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