Numbers 23:11-17

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹¹ Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but now you have done nothing but bless them.”^{(A) 12} He answered, “Must I not take care to say what the Lord puts into my mouth?”^(B)

Balaam’s Second Oracle

¹³ So Balak said to him, “Come with me to another place from which you may see them; you shall see only part of them and shall not see them all; then curse them for me from there.” ¹⁴ So he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah. He built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.^{(C) 15} Balaam^[a] said to Balak, “Stand here beside your burnt offerings, while I meet the Lord over there.” ¹⁶ The Lord met Balaam, put a word into his mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and this is what you shall say.”^{(D) 17} When he came to him, he was standing beside his burnt offerings with the officials of Moab. Balak said to him, “What has the Lord said?”