Numbers 23:11-26

English Standard Version

¹¹ And Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? ^(A)I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have done nothing but bless them.” ¹² And he answered and said, ^(B)“Must I not take care to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?”

Balaam's Second Oracle

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

²⁵ And Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all, and do not bless them at all.” ²⁶ But Balaam answered Balak, “Did I not tell you, ^(P)‘All that the Lord says, that I must do’?”