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Numbers 23:1-10
The Voice
Numbers 23:1-10
The Voice
23 Balaam (to Balak): This is what I need from you. Build seven altars here, and then get seven bulls and seven rams ready to sacrifice.
2 Balak did just as Balaam had asked him to do. Then together they offered a bull and a ram on each of the seven altars.
Balaam (to Balak): 3 You stay here, close to these burnt offerings. I’m going to go a little ways away, in case the Eternal wants to meet just with me. Whatever He lets me know, I’ll be sure to pass on to you.
So Balaam went over to an exposed area on the heights, 4 and God met Balaam there.
Balaam (to the Lord): I made seven altars and set an offering of a bull and a ram on each one.
Eternal One (giving Balaam the right words to say): 5 Go back to Balak and recite what I’ve told you.
6 So Balaam walked back down and over to where Balak stood waiting next to the burnt offerings, along with the officials of Moab. 7 Balaam recited His words.
Balaam: The king of Moab got me to come here, all the way from my home in Aram.
Balak summoned me from the eastern mountains.
“Come, curse Jacob for me!”
“Come, denounce Israel!”
8 But I ask you, how can I curse any whom God has not cursed
or denounce whomever the Eternal has not denounced?
9 Here on the heights, from the rocky places where I stand,
I can see them; from these hills I observe them below.
And what do I see but a unique and solitary people
who do not have a place among the nations.
10 Who can count the dust of Jacob
or even a fourth of their number?
It’s impossible to count even one quarter of Israel.
Let me die as one who has done what is right.
Let my end be like his!
Numbers 23:1-10
New International Version
Numbers 23:1-10
New International Version
Balaam’s First Message
23 Balaam said, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams(A) for me.” 2 Balak did as Balaam said, and the two of them offered a bull and a ram on each altar.(B)
3 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offering while I go aside. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet with me.(C) Whatever he reveals to me I will tell you.” Then he went off to a barren height.
4 God met with him,(D) 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(E) and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this word.”(F)
6 So he went back to him and found him standing beside his offering, with all the Moabite officials.(G) 7 Then Balaam(H) spoke his message:(I)
“Balak brought me from Aram,(J)
the king of Moab from the eastern mountains.(K)
‘Come,’ he said, ‘curse Jacob for me;
come, denounce Israel.’(L)
8 How can I curse
those whom God has not cursed?(M)
How can I denounce
those whom the Lord has not denounced?(N)
9 From the rocky peaks I see them,
from the heights I view them.(O)
I see a people who live apart
and do not consider themselves one of the nations.(P)
10 Who can count the dust of Jacob(Q)
or number even a fourth of Israel?
Let me die the death of the righteous,(R)
and may my final end be like theirs!(S)”
The Voice (VOICE)
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New International Version (NIV) 
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