Numbers 23:13-26

¹³So Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place where you can see them. You will only see the nearest of them, not all of them. There you will curse them for me.”

¹⁴So he took Balaam into the field of Zophim, to the top of Mount Pisgah, and built seven more altars. He offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.

¹⁵Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand here by your burnt offering, while I meet with Yahweh over there.”

¹⁶So Yahweh met Balaam and put a message in his mouth. He said, “Return to Balak and give him my message.”

¹⁷Balaam returned to him, and look, he was standing by his burnt offering, and the leaders of Moab were with him. Then Balak said to him, “What has Yahweh said?”

¹⁸Balaam began his prophecy. He said, “Rise up, Balak, and hear. Listen to me, you son of Zippor.

¹⁹God is not a man, that he should lie, Or a human being, that he should change his mind. Has he promised anything without doing it? Has he said he would do something without carrying it out?

²⁰Look, I have been commanded to bless. God has given a blessing, and I cannot reverse it.

²¹He has seen no hardship in Jacob or trouble in Israel. Yahweh their God is with them, and shouts for their king are among them.

²²God brought them out of Egypt with strength like that of a wild ox.

²³There is no sorcery that works against Jacob, and no fortune-telling harms Israel. Instead, it must be said about Jacob and Israel, 'Look what God has done!'

²⁴Look, the people rise like a lioness, as a lion emerges and attacks. He does not lie down until he eats his victim and drinks the blood of what he has killed.”

²⁵Then Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them or bless them at all.”

²⁶But Balaam answered and said to Balak, “Did I not tell you that I must say all that Yahweh tells me to say?”