Numbers 22:8-19

⁸Balaam said, “Stay here tonight. Tomorrow morning I will tell you whatever Yahweh tells me that I should say to you.” So the leaders from Moab stayed there that night.

⁹During the night, God appeared to Balaam and asked him, “◄Who are/Tell me about► these men who are staying with you.”

¹⁰Balaam replied, “Balak, the king of Moab, sent these men to tell me this:

¹¹‘A huge group of people has come from Egypt, and they have spread all over this area. Please come immediately to curse them. Then I may be able to defeat them and expel them from this area.’”

¹²God replied to Balaam, “Do not go with them! I have blessed those people, so you must not curse them!”

¹³The next morning, Balaam got up and told Balak's men, “Go back home. But go by yourselves, because Yahweh is not allowing me to go with you.”

¹⁴So the men from Moab returned to King Balak and they reported to him, “Balaam refused to come with us.”

¹⁵But Balak sent another group of leaders to Balaam. It was a group that was larger and they were more important than the men in the first group.

¹⁶They went to Balaam and told him this: “This is what King Balak says: ‘Please do not allow anything to hinder you from coming here.

¹⁷I will pay you ◄a lot of money/very well► if you come, and I will do anything that you ask me to do. Just come and curse these Israeli people for me!’”

¹⁸But Balaam answered them, “Even if Balak would give me a palace filled with silver and gold, I would not do anything to disobey Yahweh, ◄my God/the God whom I worship►.

¹⁹But stay here one more night, like the other messengers did, and I will find out if Yahweh has anything more to say to me.”