Balaam’s First Message
1 Balaam said, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.”
2
Balak did as Balaam said, and the two of them offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
3
Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offering while I go aside. Perhaps the LORD will come to meet with me. Whatever he reveals to me I will tell you.” Then he went off to a barren height.
4
God met with him, and Balaam said, “I have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram.”
5
The LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this word.”
6
So he went back to him and found him standing beside his offering, with all the Moabite officials.
7
Then Balaam spoke his message: “Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains. ‘Come,’ he said, ‘curse Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel.’
8
How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the LORD has not denounced?
9
From the rocky peaks I see them, from the heights I view them. I see a people who live apart and do not consider themselves one of the nations.
10
Who can count the dust of Jacob or number even a fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and may my final end be like theirs!”