23 Then Bileam said to King Balak, “Get them to build seven altars for me here, and prepare me seven bulls and seven rams.”

2 So Balak did what Bileam had instructed, then the two of them offered up a bull and a ram on each altar. 3 Then Bileam told Balak, “You stand here beside your burnt offering, and I’ll move away. Perhaps Yahweh will want to meet me, and then I’ll tell you whatever he shows me.” Then he went to a bare hilltop 4 where God met him, and Bileam told him, “I organised seven altars and offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.”

5 Then Yahweh gave Bileam a message and told him, “Go back to Balak and tell him that.” 6 So he went back to Balak who was still standing by his burnt offering along with all of Moav’s officials.

7 So Bileam gave his pronouncement,

“It’s Balak has brought me here from Aram.

≈ Moav’s king summoned me from the eastern mountains.

‘Go curse Yakov (Jacob) for me,

≈ and go denounce Yisrael.’

8 How can I curse those who God hasn’t cursed?

≈ How can I denounce those who Yahweh hasn’t denounced?

9 Yes, I can see them from the top of those rocks.

≈ I look at them from the hills.

Look, a population that lives by itself.

≈ It doesn’t count itself among the other nations.

10 Who can count the dust that Yakov leaves behind?

≈ Who can even count a quarter of the Israelis?

Let me die like those honourable people,

≈ and let my end be like theirs.”

11 But Balak demanded from Bileam, “What have you done to me? I brought you here to curse my enemies, and blast it all—you’ve actually blessed them!”

12 “Shouldn’t I be careful to only say what Yahweh tells me?” Bileam answered back.