Numbers 23:1-10
Evangelical Heritage Version
Balaam’s First Message
23 Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.”
2 Balak did just as Balaam had said. Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 3 Balaam said to Balak, “Stand here by your burnt offering, while I go off by myself. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet me. Whatever he shows me I will tell you.” ⎣So Balak went and stood by his burnt offering, and Balaam called to God⎦[a] and then he went off to a barren hill.
4 God met Balaam, and Balaam said to him, “I have set up seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.”
5 The Lord put a message into Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and you are to deliver this message.”
6 Balaam returned to Balak and found him standing by his burnt offering, along with all the officials of Moab. 7 Balaam took up his oracle. He said:
From Aram, Balak has brought me.
Balak, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains, said,
“Come, curse Jacob for me.
Come, denounce Israel.”
8 How can I curse someone God has not cursed?
How can I denounce someone the Lord has not denounced?
9 Yes, from the rocky peaks I see him.
From the hills I look at him.
Look! A people that dwells apart,
that does not consider itself to be one of the nations.
10 Who can count the dust of Jacob,
or number even a fourth of Israel?
May I die the death of the righteous!
May my final end be like his!
Footnotes
- Numbers 23:3 The words in half-brackets are not in the Hebrew text but are present in the Greek Old Testament. An accidental omission from the Hebrew text may have occurred as the scribe’s eye jumped from one occurrence of he went to another.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.