Balaam’s First Oracle

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

2 So Balak did as Balaam had instructed, and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

3 “Stay here by your burnt offering while I am gone,” Balaam said to Balak. “Perhaps the LORD will meet with me. And whatever He reveals to me, I will tell you.” So [Balaam] went off to a barren height, 4 and God met with him. “I have set up seven altars,” Balaam said “and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram.”

5 Then the LORD put a message in Balaam’s mouth, saying, “Return to Balak and give him this message.”

6 So he returned to Balak, who was standing there beside his burnt offering, with all the princes of Moab.

7 And Balaam lifted up an oracle, saying: “Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the mountains of the east. ‘Come,’ he said, ‘put a curse on Jacob for me; come [and] denounce Israel!’

8 How can I curse [those whom] God has not cursed? How can I denounce [those whom] the LORD has not denounced?

9 For I see them from atop the rocky cliffs, and I watch them from the hills. Behold, a people dwelling apart, not reckoning themselves among the nations.

10 Who can count the dust of Jacob or number [even] a fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous; let my end be like theirs!”

11 Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you [here] to curse my enemies, and behold, you have only blessed them

12 But [Balaam] replied, “Should I not speak exactly what the LORD puts in my mouth