Numbers 23:1-12
New International Version - UK
Balaam’s first message
23 Balaam said, ‘Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.’ 2 Balak did as Balaam said, and the two of them offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
3 Then Balaam said to Balak, ‘Stay here beside your offering while I go aside. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet with me. Whatever he reveals to me I will tell you.’ Then he went off to a barren height.
4 God met with him, and Balaam said, ‘I have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram.’
5 The Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, ‘Go back to Balak and give him this word.’
6 So he went back to him and found him standing beside his offering, with all the Moabite officials. 7 Then Balaam spoke his message:
‘Balak brought me from Aram,
the king of Moab from the eastern mountains.
“Come,” he said, “curse Jacob for me;
come, 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 From the rocky peaks I see them,
from the heights I view them.
I see people who live apart
and do not consider themselves one of 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,
and may my final end be like theirs!’
11 Balak said to Balaam, ‘What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but you have done nothing but bless them!’
12 He answered, ‘Must I not speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?’
Read full chapterHoly Bible, New International Version® Anglicized, NIV® Copyright © 1979, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.