Numbers 23:8-22

⁸But how can I curse what God has not cursed? How can I condemn what the Lord has not condemned?

⁹For I'm looking down on them from the top of rocky crags; I'm watching them from the hills. I see a people who live on their own, different from the other nations.

¹⁰Who can count Jacob's descendants? They are so many they're like dust! Who can count even a quarter of the Israelites? I would like to die as a good person dies! Let the end of my life be like their end!”

¹¹Then Balak complained to Balaam, “What on earth have you done to me? I brought you here to curse my enemies, and now look! All you have done is bless them!”

¹²But Balaam replied, “Don't you think I should I say precisely what the Lord tells me?”

¹³Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place where you can see them. But you'll only see a part of their camp—you won't see all of them. You can curse them for me from there.”

¹⁴He took him to the field of Zophim at the top of Mount Pisgah. There he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

¹⁵Balaam told Balak, “Wait here beside your burnt offering while I meet the Lord over there.”

¹⁶The Lord met Balaam and gave him a message to share. He told him, “Go back to Balak and this is what you are to say to him.”

¹⁷So he went back to Balak, who was waiting there beside his burnt offering, along with all the Moabite leaders. “What did the Lord say?” Balak asked.

¹⁸This is the prophecy that Balaam delivered: “Stand up, Balak, and pay attention! Listen to me, son of Zippor!

¹⁹God isn't a human being who would lie. He's not a mere mortal who changes his mind. Does he say he's going to do something but doesn't? Does he make promises he doesn't carry out?

²⁰Look, I have been ordered to give a blessing. God has blessed, and I can't change that.

²¹He's not expecting anything bad will happen to Jacob; he doesn't foresee any trouble for Israel. The Lord their God is with them; they celebrate him as their king.

²²God led them out of Egypt with great power, as strong as an ox.