Numbers 23:13-26

New American Standard Bible

¹³Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from where you may see them, although you will only see the extreme end of them and will not see all of them; and put a curse on them for me from there.” ¹⁴So he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. ¹⁵Then he said to Balak, “Stand here beside your burnt offering while I myself meet the Lord over there.” ¹⁶Then the Lord met Balaam and ^(A)put a word in his mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and this is what you shall speak.” ¹⁷So he came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the leaders of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the Lord spoken?” ¹⁸Then he took up his discourse and said,

“Arise, Balak, and hear;
Listen to me, son of Zippor!
¹⁹^(B)God is not a man, that He would lie,
Nor a son of man, that He would change His mind;
^(C)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;
^(D)When He has blessed, ^(E)I cannot revoke it.
²¹^(F)He has not looked at misfortune in Jacob;
^(G)Nor has He seen trouble in Israel;
^(H)The Lord his God is with him,
^(I)And the joyful shout of a king is among them.
²²^(J)God brings them out of Egypt,
He is for them like the ^(K)horns of the wild ox.
²³^(L)For there is no magic curse against Jacob,
Nor is there any divination against Israel;
At the proper time it shall be said to Jacob
And to Israel, what God has done!
²⁴^(M)Behold, a people rises like a lioness,
And like a lion it raises itself;
It will not lie down until it devours the prey,
And drinks the blood of those slain.”

²⁵Then Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all nor bless them at all!” ²⁶But Balaam replied to Balak, “Did I not tell you, ‘^[a]^(N)Whatever the Lord speaks, I must do’?”

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