^4 (A)because they did not meet you with bread and water on the road when you came out of Egypt, and ^(B)because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of ^[a]Mesopotamia, to curse you.

² because they had not met the children of Israel with bread and water, but ^(A)hired Balaam against them to curse them. ^(B)However, our God turned the curse into a blessing.

¹⁵ They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of ^(A)Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;

²⁸ You shall sell me food for money, that I may eat, and give me water for money, that I may drink; ^(A)only let me pass through on foot, ^29 (B)just as the descendants of Esau who dwell in Seir and the Moabites who dwell in Ar did for me, until I cross the Jordan to the land which the Lord our God is giving us.’

⁴⁰ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, ^(A)inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’

⁸ For thus says the Lord of hosts: “He sent Me after glory, to the nations which plunder you; for he who ^(A)touches you touches the ^[a]apple of His eye.

⁴ For so it was, while Jezebel ^[a]massacred the prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah had taken one hundred prophets and hidden them, fifty to a cave, and had fed them with bread and water.)

^11 (A)Shall I then take my bread and my water and my ^[a]meat that I have killed for my shearers, and give it to men when I do not know where they are from?”

⁷ And he ^(A)took up his ^[a]oracle and said:

¹⁷ for I will certainly ^(A)honor you greatly, and I will do whatever you say to me. ^(B)Therefore please come, curse this people for me.’ ”