Numbers 22:14-27

¹⁴And the princes of Moab arose and came to Balak, and said, Bileam refuseth to come with us.

¹⁵But Balak added to send princes more (in number) and nobler than those.

¹⁶And they came to Bileam, and said to him: Thus saith Balak bar Zippor: Be not, I beseech thee, hindered from coming to me;

¹⁷For I will greatly honour thee with honour, and will do all that thou shalt bid me. Come, then, curse me this people.

¹⁸Bileam responded, and said to the servants of Balak: If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I have no power to transgress the decree of the Word of the Lord my God, to do either little or great.

¹⁹But now I beg you tarry here this night, that I may know what yet the Lord will speak unto me.

²⁰And word came from before the Lord unto Bileam by night, and said to him: If the men come to call thee, arise and go with them; nevertheless the word that I speak with thee, that thou shalt do.

²¹And Bileam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab.

²²But the displeasure of the Lord was provoked because he (so) went; and the angel of the Lord stood in the road to withstand him: and he was riding upon his ass, and his two young men with him.

²³And the ass discerned the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his sword drawn in his hand; and the ass started aside from the road, and went into the field. And Bileam struck the ass to make her to return into the road.

²⁴And the angel of the Lord (again) stood in the way of the vineyards in a place where there was a fence here and a fence there.

²⁵And the ass discerned the angel of the Lord, and thrust herself to the wall, and drave Bileam’s foot against the wall; and he smote her again.

²⁶And the angel of the Lord yet passed on, and stood in a narrow place where there was no way to turn to the right or to the left.

²⁷And the ass discerned the angel of the Lord, and fell down under Bileam; and Bileam’s wrath was provoked, and he smote the ass with his staff.