15 Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offering while I meet with him over there.”

16 The Lord met with Balaam and put a word in his mouth(A) and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this word.”

17 So he went to him and found him standing beside his offering, with the Moabite officials.(B) Balak asked him, “What did the Lord say?”

18 Then he spoke his message:(C)

“Arise, Balak, and listen;
    hear me, son of Zippor.(D)
19 God is not human,(E) that he should lie,(F)
    not a human being, that he should change his mind.(G)
Does he speak and then not act?
    Does he promise(H) and not fulfill?
20 I have received a command to bless;(I)
    he has blessed,(J) and I cannot change it.(K)

21 “No misfortune is seen in Jacob,(L)
    no misery observed[a] in Israel.(M)
The Lord their God is with them;(N)
    the shout of the King(O) is among them.
22 God brought them out of Egypt;(P)
    they have the strength of a wild ox.(Q)
23 There is no divination against[b] Jacob,
    no evil omens(R) against[c] Israel.
It will now be said of Jacob
    and of Israel, ‘See what God has done!’
24 The people rise like a lioness;(S)
    they rouse themselves like a lion(T)
that does not rest till it devours its prey
    and drinks the blood(U) of its victims.”

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Footnotes

  1. Numbers 23:21 Or He has not looked on Jacob’s offenses / or on the wrongs found
  2. Numbers 23:23 Or in
  3. Numbers 23:23 Or in

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