¹⁵ They have left the straight road and have gone astray, following the road of Balaam son of Bosor,^[a] who loved the wages of doing wrong^(A)

¹⁴ But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the people of Israel, so that they would eat food sacrificed to idols and engage in sexual immorality.^[a](A)

¹¹ Woe to them! For they go the way of Cain and abandon themselves to Balaam’s error for the sake of gain and perish in Korah’s rebellion.^(A)

⁴ because they did not meet you with food and water on your journey out of Egypt and because they hired against you Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. ⁵ (Yet the Lord your God refused to heed Balaam; the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loved you.)

¹⁶ These women here, on Balaam’s advice, made the Israelites act treacherously against the Lord in the affair of Peor, so that the plague came among the congregation of the Lord.^(A)

⁵ He sent messengers to Balaam son of Beor at Pethor, which is on the Euphrates,^[a] in the land of Amaw,^[b] to summon him, saying, “A people has come out of Egypt; they have spread over the face of the earth, and they have settled next to me.^{(A) 6} Come now, curse this people for me, since they are stronger than I; perhaps I shall be able to defeat them and drive them from the land, for I know that whomever you bless is blessed, and whomever you curse is cursed.”^(B)

⁷ So the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the fees for divination in their hand, and they came to Balaam and gave him Balak’s message.^(C)

² because they did not meet the Israelites with bread and water but hired Balaam against them to curse them—yet our God turned the curse into a blessing.^(A)

¹³ suffering^[a] the wages of doing wrong. They count it a pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures^[b] while they feast with you.^(A)

¹⁰ and said, “You son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, full of all deceit and villainy, will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord?^(A)