Beginning

Balaam Tells What Will Happen the First Time

23 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars here for me. And make ready seven bulls and seven rams for me here.” ² Balak did as Balaam had said. Balak and Balaam gave a bull and a ram on each altar in worship. ³ Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand beside your burnt gift, and I will go. It might be that the Lord will come to me. And whatever He shows me I will tell you.” So he went up to a hill without trees. ⁴ God met Balaam. Balaam said to Him, “I have made seven altars. And I have given a bull and a ram on each altar in worship.” ⁵ Then the Lord put words in Balaam’s mouth, and said, “Return to Balak. This is what you should say.” ⁶ So Balaam returned to Balak, and saw him and all the leaders of Moab standing beside his burnt gift. ⁷ Balaam began speaking and said, “Balak the king of Moab has brought me from Aram, from the mountains of the east. ‘Come, curse Jacob for me,’ he said. ‘Come, say that Israel should be punished!’ ⁸ How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I say that those should be punished whom God has not said should be punished? ⁹ I see Israel from the top of the rocks. I look at them from the hills. See, the people live apart. They will not be thought of as one of the nations. ¹⁰ Who can number the dust of Jacob, or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of those who are right and good. Let my end be like theirs!”

¹¹ Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse those who hate me. But see, you have asked that good would come to them!” ¹² Balaam answered, “Must I not be careful to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?”

Balaam Tells What Will Happen the Second Time

¹³ Balak said to him, “I beg you, come with me to another place from where you will see them. But you will only see a part of them and not all of them. 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 gave a bull and a ram on each altar. ¹⁵ Balaam said to Balak, “Stand here beside your burnt gift, while I meet the Lord over there.” ¹⁶ The Lord met Balaam and put words in his mouth and said, “Return to Balak. This is what you should say.” ¹⁷ So he returned to Balak, and saw him and all the leaders of Moab standing beside his burnt gift. Balak said to him, “What has the Lord said?” ¹⁸ Then Balaam began speaking and said, “Rise, O Balak, and hear! Listen to me, O son of Zippor! ¹⁹ God is not a man, that He should lie. He is not a son of man, that He should be sorry for what He has said. Has He said, and will He not do it? Has He spoken, and will He not keep His Word? ²⁰ See, I have been told to speak good of Israel. When He has spoken good of them, I cannot change it. ²¹ No hard times are seen in Jacob. No trouble is seen in Israel. The Lord their God is with them. And the cry of a king is among them. ²² God brings them out of Egypt. He is for them like the horns of the wild bull. ²³ For there is no special thing that has been shown against Jacob. Nothing has told of a bad future for Israel. Now it will be said of Jacob and Israel, ‘Look what God has done!’ ²⁴ See, people rise like a female lion. It lifts itself like a lion. It will not lie down until it eats the food it has killed, and drinks the blood of the kill.” ²⁵ Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all or pray that good would come to them!” ²⁶ But Balaam answered Balak, “Did I not tell you that I must do whatever the Lord says?”

Balaam Tells What Will Happen the Third Time

²⁷ Then Balak said to Balaam, “I beg you, come. I will take you to another place. It might be that God will be pleased to have you curse them for me from there.” ²⁸ So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor which looks over the desert. ²⁹ Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here. And make ready seven bulls and seven rams for me here.” ³⁰ Balak did just as Balaam had said. He gave a bull and a ram on each altar in worship.

24 Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to speak good of Israel. So he did not go, as at other times, and look for special things to see. Instead he looked toward the desert. ² Balaam looked up and saw Israel living in their tents by their families. And the Spirit of God came upon him. ³ He began speaking and said, “Balaam the son of Beor is the man whose eye is opened. ⁴ He hears the words of God. He sees what the All-powerful wants him to see. He falls down, but has his eyes open. ⁵ How fair are your tents, O Jacob, and your homes, O Israel! ⁶ They are like valleys that spread out, and like gardens beside the river. They are like aloes planted by the Lord, and like cedars beside the waters. ⁷ Water will flow from his pails. His seed will be by many waters. His king will be more powerful than Agag, and his nation will be honored. ⁸ God brings him out of Egypt. He is for him like the horns of the wild bull. He will destroy the nations who fight against him. He will crush their bones in pieces and cut through them with his arrows. ⁹ He bows down. He lies down like a lion. And as a lion, who will wake him? Good will come to everyone who prays for you. And cursed is everyone who curses you.”

¹⁰ Then Balak’s anger burned against Balaam, and he hit his hands together. Balak said to Balaam, “I called you to curse those who hate me. But see, you have done nothing but pray that good would come to them these three times! ¹¹ So now run away to your place. I said I would give you much honor, but the Lord has kept you from honor.” ¹² Then Balaam said to Balak, “Did I not tell the men you had sent to me, ¹³ ‘Even if Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot do anything against the Word of the Lord’? I said, ‘I cannot do good or bad because I want to. What the Lord says, I will say.’ ¹⁴ Now see, I am going to my people. Come, I will tell you what this people will do to your people in the days to come.”

Balaam Tells What Will Happen the Fourth Time

¹⁵ Then he began speaking and said, “Balaam the son of Beor is the man whose eye is opened. ¹⁶ He hears the words of God. He knows what the Most High wants him to know. He sees what the All-powerful wants him to see. He falls down, but has his eyes open. ¹⁷ I see him, but not now. I see him, but he is not near. A star will come out of Jacob. A special stick of power will rise from Israel. It will crush the forehead of Moab, and break down all the sons of Sheth. ¹⁸ It will take the land of Edom. And it will take the land of Seir, who fights against Israel. And Israel will fight with much power. ¹⁹ One from Jacob will rule. He will destroy from the city all who are left alive.” ²⁰ Then Balaam looked at Amalek and said, “Amalek was the first of the nations. But he will be destroyed in the end.” ²¹ Then he looked at the Kenite and said, “The place where you live is strong. Your nest is set in the rock. ²² But Kain will be destroyed. How long will Asshur keep you against your will?” ²³ Then Balaam said, “Who can live when God does this? ²⁴ But ships will come from Kittim. They will bring trouble to Asshur and Eber, but they will be destroyed also.” ²⁵ Then Balaam got up and left. He returned to his place, and Balak went on his way.

Israel Sins in Moab

25 While Israel stayed at Shittim, the people were not faithful to the Lord and began to have sex with the daughters of Moab. ² They asked the people of Israel to bring gifts to their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. ³ So Israel joined themselves to Baal of Peor, and the Lord was angry with Israel. ⁴ The Lord said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people, kill them, and put their bodies in the bright daylight before the Lord. Then the strong anger of the Lord may turn away from Israel.” ⁵ So Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you kill his men who have joined themselves to Baal of Peor.”

⁶ Then one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family. Moses and all the people of Israel saw this while they were crying at the door of the meeting tent. ⁷ When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the religious leader, saw it, he rose up from among the people. He took a spear in his hand ⁸ and went after the man of Israel into the tent. Then he cut through the bodies of both the man of Israel and the woman. So the very bad disease that spread on the people of Israel was stopped. ⁹ Those who died because of this bad disease were 24,000.

¹⁰ Then the Lord said to Moses, ¹¹ “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the religious leader, has turned My anger away from the people of Israel. He was jealous with My jealousy among them, so I did not destroy the people of Israel in My jealousy. ¹² So say to them that I make My agreement of peace with Phinehas. ¹³ It will be an agreement for him and his children after him that they will always be religious leaders, because he was jealous for his God, and did what he was to do to pay for the sin of the people of Israel.”

¹⁴ The name of the man of Israel who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri the son of Salu. He was a leader of a father’s house among the Simeonites. ¹⁵ The name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi the daughter of Zur. Zur was the head of the people of a father’s house in Midian.

¹⁶ The Lord said to Moses, ¹⁷ “Be angry at the Midianites and fight against them. ¹⁸ For they have brought trouble to you with their false ways. They have fooled you and turned you to the wrong way. They have brought you trouble at Peor with Cozbi, the daughter of the leader of Midian, their sister. She was killed on the day the very bad disease came because of Peor.”