Balaam’s First Oracle
1Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.” 2Balak did as Balaam had said, and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 3Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand here by your burnt offering while I go aside. Perhaps Yahweh will come to meet me, and whatever he shows me I will tell you.” So he went off to a barren height. 4God met Balaam, and Balaam said to him, “I have set up seven altars, and I have offered a bull and a ram on each altar.” 5Then Yahweh put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and speak these words.” 6So he returned to him, and there he was, standing by his burnt offering, he and all the princes of Moab. 7Then Balaam took up his poem and said: “From Aram Balak has brought me, the king of Moab from the mountains of the east. ‘Come, curse Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel!’ 8How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce whom Yahweh has not denounced? 9From the top of the rocks I see him; from the hills I behold him. Look, a people dwelling alone, not reckoning itself among the nations. 10Who can count the dust of Jacob, or number even a fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the upright, and let my end be like theirs!” 11Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, and look, you have done nothing but bless them!” 12He answered, “Must I not take care to speak only what Yahweh puts in my mouth?”
Balaam’s Second Oracle
13Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from which you can see them — you will see only the outermost part of them, not all of them — and curse them for me from there.” 14So he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 15Balaam said to Balak, “Stand here by your burnt offering while I meet him over there.” 16Yahweh met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and speak these words.” 17So he came to him, and there he was, standing by his burnt offering, with the princes of Moab beside him. Balak said to him, “What did Yahweh say?” 18Then Balaam took up his poem and said: “Rise, Balak, and listen; give ear to me, son of Zippor! 19God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill it? 20Look, I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot reverse it. 21He has not seen iniquity in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble in Israel. Yahweh his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them. 22God brought them out of Egypt; he is like the horns of a wild ox to them. 23For there is no divination against Jacob, no omen against Israel. In its season it will be said of Jacob and of Israel, ‘What has God done!’ 24Look, a people that rises like a lioness, that lifts itself up like a lion. It does not lie down until it devours the prey and drinks the blood of the slain.” 25Then Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all, and do not bless them at all!” 26But Balaam answered Balak, “Did I not tell you that whatever Yahweh says, that I must do?”
Balak Tries Again
27Then Balak said to Balaam, “Please come, I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God for you to curse them for me from there.” 28So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which looks down over Jeshimon. 29Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.” 30Balak did as Balaam had said, and he offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
