The Bible

Numbers Chapter 23

¹Balaam said to Balak, "Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams." ²Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bull and a ram.

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

⁴God 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." ⁵ForeverOne put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, "Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak." ⁶He returned to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, he, and all the princes of Moab.

⁷He 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.

⁸How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? How shall I defy whom ForeverOne has not defied?

⁹For 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.

¹⁰Who 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!" ¹¹Balak said to Balaam, "What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them altogether." ¹²He answered and said, "Must I not take heed to speak what ForeverOne puts in my mouth?" ¹³Balak 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 me them from there." ¹⁴He 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.

¹⁵He said to Balak, "Stand here by your burnt offering, while I meet [ForeverOne] over there." ¹⁶ForeverOne met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, "Return to Balak, and say this." ¹⁷He 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 ForeverOne spoken?" ¹⁸He took up his parable, and said, "Rise up, Balak, and hear! Listen to me, you son of Zippor.

¹⁹God 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?

²⁰Behold, I have received a command to bless. He has blessed, and I can't reverse it.

²¹He has not seen iniquity in Jacob. Neither has he seen perverseness in Israel. ForeverOne his God is with him. The shout of a king is among them.

²²God brings them out of Egypt. He has as it were the strength of the wild ox.

²³Surely 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!

²⁴Behold, 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." ²⁵Balak said to Balaam, "Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all." ²⁶But Balaam answered Balak, "Didn't I tell you, saying, 'All that ForeverOne speaks, that I must do?'" ²⁷Balak said to Balaam, "Come now, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will please God that you may curse me them from there." ²⁸Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that looks down on the desert.

²⁹Balaam said to Balak, "Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams." ³⁰Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.