23 And Balaam said unto Balak, “Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven oxen and seven rams.”

² And Balak did as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bullock and a ram.

³ And Balaam said unto Balak, “Stand by thy burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet me, and whatsoever He showeth me I will tell thee.” And he went to a high place.

⁴ And God met Balaam; and he said unto Him, “I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered upon every altar a bullock and a ram.”

⁵ And the Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return unto Balak, and thus thou shalt speak.”

⁶ And he returned unto him, and lo, he stood by his burnt sacrifice, he and all the princes of Moab.

⁷ And he took up his parable and said: “Balak the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, ‘Come, curse for me Jacob, and come, defy Israel.’

⁸ How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? Or how shall I defy whom the Lord hath not defied?

⁹ For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him; lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.

¹⁰ Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!”