Beginning

23 And Balaam said to 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 each altar a bull and a ram.

³ And Balaam said to Balak, Stand by your burnt offering and I will go. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet me; and whatever He shows me I will tell you. And he went to a bare height.

⁴ God met Balaam, who said to Him, I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.

⁵ And the Lord put a speech in Balaam’s mouth, and said, Return to Balak and thus shall you speak.

⁶ Balaam returned to Balak, who was standing by his burnt sacrifice, he and all the princes of Moab.

⁷ Balaam took up his [figurative] speech and said: Balak, the king of Moab, has brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse Jacob for me; and come, violently denounce Israel.

⁸ How can I curse those God has not cursed? Or how can I [violently] denounce those the Lord has not denounced?

⁹ For from the top of the rocks I see Israel, and from the hills I behold him. Behold, the people [of Israel] shall ^[a]dwell alone and shall not be reckoned and esteemed among the nations.

¹⁰ Who can count the dust (the descendants) of Jacob and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous [those who are upright and in right standing with God], and let my last end be like theirs!^(A)

¹¹ And Balak said to Balaam, What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, and here you have [thoroughly] blessed them instead!

¹² And Balaam answered, Must I not be obedient and speak what the Lord has put in my mouth?

¹³ Balak said to him, Come with me, I implore you, to another place from which you can see them, though you will see only the nearest and not all of them; and curse them for me from there.

¹⁴ So he took Balaam into the field of Zophim to the top of [Mount] Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

¹⁵ Balaam said to Balak, Stand here by your burnt offering while I go to meet the Lord yonder.

¹⁶ And the Lord met Balaam and put a speech in his mouth, and said, Go again to Balak and speak thus.

¹⁷ And when he returned to Balak, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, What has the Lord said?

¹⁸ Balaam took up his [figurative] discourse and said: Rise up, Balak, and hear; listen [closely] to me, son of Zippor.

¹⁹ God is not a man, that He should tell or act a lie, neither the son of man, that He should feel repentance or compunction [for what He has promised]. Has He said and shall He not do it? Or has He spoken and shall He not make it good?

²⁰ You see, I have received His command to bless Israel. He has blessed, and I cannot reverse or qualify it.

²¹ [God] has not beheld iniquity in Jacob [for he is forgiven], neither has He seen mischief or perverseness in Israel [for the same reason]. The Lord their God is with Israel, and the shout of praise to their King is among the people.^(B)

²² God brought them forth out of Egypt; they have as it were the strength of a wild ox.

²³ Surely there is no enchantment with or against Jacob, neither is there any divination with or against Israel. [In due season and even] now it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What has God wrought!

²⁴ Behold, a people! They rise up as a lioness and lift themselves up as a lion; he shall not lie down until he devours the prey and drinks the blood of the slain.

²⁵ And Balak said to Balaam, Neither curse them at all nor bless them at all.

²⁶ But Balaam answered Balak, Did I not say to you, All the Lord speaks, that I must do?

²⁷ And Balak said to Balaam, Come, I implore you; I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God to let you curse them for me from there.

²⁸ So Balak brought Balaam to the top of [Mount] Peor, that overlooks [the wilderness or desert] Jeshimon.

²⁹ And Balaam said to Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams.

³⁰ And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

24 When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he did not go as he had done each time before [superstitiously] to meet with omens and signs in the natural world, but he set his face toward the wilderness or desert.

² And Balaam lifted up his eyes and he saw Israel abiding in their tents according to their tribes. And the Spirit of God came upon him

³ And he took up his [figurative] discourse and said: Balaam son of Beor, the man whose eye is opened [at last, to see clearly the purposes and will of God],

⁴ He [Balaam] who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty, falling down, but having his eyes open and uncovered, he says:

⁵ How attractive and considerable are your tents, O Jacob, and your tabernacles, O Israel!

⁶ As valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the riverside, as [rare spice] of lignaloes which the Lord has planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters.^(C)

⁷ [Israel] shall pour water out of his own buckets [have his own sources of rich blessing and plenty], and his offspring shall dwell by many waters, and his king shall be higher than ^[b]Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted.

⁸ God brought [Israel] forth out of Egypt; [Israel] has strength like the wild ox; he shall eat up the nations, his enemies, crushing their bones and piercing them through with his arrows.

⁹ He couched, he lay down as a lion; and as a lioness, who shall rouse him? Blessed [of God] is he who blesses you [who prays for and contributes to your welfare] and cursed [of God] is he who curses you [who in word, thought, or deed would bring harm upon you].^(D)

¹⁰ Then Balak’s anger was kindled against Balaam, and he smote his hands together; and Balak said to Balaam, I called you to curse my enemies, and, behold, you have done nothing but bless them these three times.

¹¹ Therefore now go back where you belong and do it in a hurry! I had intended to promote you to great honor, but behold, the Lord has held you back from honor.

¹² Balaam said to Balak, Did I not say to your messengers whom you sent to me,

¹³ If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the command of the Lord, to do either good or bad of my own will, but what the Lord says, that will I speak?

¹⁴ And now, behold, I am going to my people; come, I will tell you what this people [Israel] will do to your people [Moab] in the latter days.

¹⁵ And he took up his [figurative] discourse, and said: Balaam son of Beor speaks, the man whose eye is opened speaks,

¹⁶ He speaks, who heard the words of God and knew the knowledge of the Most High, who saw the vision of the Almighty, falling down, but having his eyes open and uncovered:

¹⁷ I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but He is not near. A ^[c]star (Star) shall come forth out of Jacob, and a scepter (Scepter) shall rise out of Israel and shall crush all the corners of Moab and break down all the sons of Sheth [Moab’s sons of tumult].^(E)

¹⁸ And Edom shall be [taken as] a possession, [Mount] Seir also shall be dispossessed, who were Israel’s enemies, while Israel does valiantly.

¹⁹ Out of Jacob shall one (One) come having dominion and shall destroy the remnant from the city.

²⁰ [Balaam] looked at Amalek and took up his [prophetic] utterance, and said: Amalek is the foremost of the [neighboring] nations, but in his latter end he shall ^[d]come to destruction.

²¹ And he looked at the Kenites and took up his [prophetic] utterance, and said: Strong is your dwelling place, and you set your nest in the rock.

²² Nevertheless the Kenites shall be wasted. How long shall Asshur (Assyria) take you away captive?

²³ And he took up his [prophetic] speech, and said: Alas, who shall live when God does this and establishes [Assyria]?

²⁴ But ships shall come from Kittim [Cyprus and the greater part of the Mediterranean’s east coast] and shall afflict Assyria and Eber [the Hebrews, certain Arabs, and descendants of Nahor], and he [the victor] also shall come to destruction.

²⁵ And Balaam rose up, returned to his place, and Balak also went his way.

25 Israel settled down and remained in Shittim, and the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab,

² Who invited the [Israelites] to the sacrifices of their gods, and [they] ate and bowed down to Moab’s gods.

³ So Israel joined himself to [the god] Baal of Peor. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel.

⁴ And the Lord said to Moses, Take all the leaders or chiefs of the people, and hang them before the Lord in the sun [after killing them], that the fierce anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.

⁵ And Moses said to the judges of Israel, Each one of you slay his men who joined themselves to Baal of Peor.

⁶ And behold, one of the Israelites came and brought to his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and of all the congregation of Israel while they were weeping at the door of the Tent of Meeting [over the divine judgment and the punishment].

⁷ And when Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from the midst of the congregation and took a spear in his hand

⁸ And went after the man of Israel into the inner room and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel and the woman through her body. Then the [smiting] plague was stayed from the Israelites.

⁹ Nevertheless those who died in the [smiting] plague were 24,000.

¹⁰ And the Lord said to Moses,

¹¹ Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my wrath away from the Israelites, in that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in My jealousy.

¹² Therefore say, Behold, I give to Phinehas the priest My covenant of peace.

¹³ And he shall have it, and his descendants after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites.^(F)

¹⁴ Now the man of Israel who was slain with the Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, a head of a father’s house among the Simeonites.

¹⁵ And the Midianite woman who was slain was Cozbi daughter of Zur; he was head of a father’s house in Midian.

¹⁶ And the Lord said to Moses,

¹⁷ Provoke hostilities with the Midianites and attack them,

¹⁸ For they harass you with their wiles with which they have beguiled you in the matter of Peor, and of Cozbi, the daughter of the prince of Midian, their sister, who was slain on the day of the plague in the matter of Peor.