Numbers [In the desert] 23

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¹Balaam Not people, Destroyer of people said to Balak, “Build here seven altars for me, and prepare here seven bulls and seven rams for me.”

²Balak did as Balaam Not people, Destroyer of people had spoken; and Balak and Balaam Not people, Destroyer of people offered on every altar a bull and a ram.

³Balaam Not people, Destroyer of people said to Balak, “Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps Adonai will come to meet me. Whatever he shows me I will tell you.” He went to a bare height.

⁴God met Balaam Not people, Destroyer of people, and he said to him, “I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.”

⁵Adonai put a word in Balaam Not people, Destroyer of people’s mouth, and said, “Teshuvah ·Completely return· to Balak, and thus you shall speak.”

⁶He returned to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, he, and all the princes of Moab From father.

⁷He took up his parable, and said, “From Aram Elevated has Balak brought me, the king of Moab From father from the mountains of the East. Come, curse Jacob Supplanter for me. Come, defy Israel God prevails.

⁸How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? How shall I defy whom Adonai has not defied?

⁹For from the top of the rocks I see him. From the hills I see him. Behold, it is a people that dwells alone, and shall not be listed among the nations.

¹⁰Who can count the dust of Jacob Supplanter, or count the fourth part of Israel God prevails? Let me die the death of the upright! Let my last end be like his!”

¹¹Balak said to Balaam Not people, Destroyer of people, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them altogether.”

¹²He answered and said, “Must I not take heed to speak that which Adonai puts in my mouth?” (LY:5)

¹³Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place, where you may see them. You shall see just part of them, and shall not see them all. Curse them from there for me.”

¹⁴He took him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.

¹⁵He said to Balak, “Stand here by your burnt offering, while I meet over there.”

¹⁶Adonai met Balaam Not people, Destroyer of people, and put a word in his mouth, and said, “Teshuvah ·Completely return· to Balak, and say this.”

¹⁷He came to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab From father with him. Balak said to him, “What has Adonai spoken?”

¹⁸He took up his parable, and said, “Rise up, Balak, and sh'ma ·hear obey·! Listen to me, you son of Zippor.

¹⁹God is not a man, that he should lie, nor the son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?

²⁰Behold, I am ordered to bless. When he blesses, and I can’t reverse it.

²¹He has not seen iniquity in Jacob Supplanter. Neither has he seen perverseness in Israel God prevails. Adonai his God is with him. The shout of a king is among them.

²²God brings them out of Egypt Abode of slavery. He has as it were the strength of the wild ox.

²³Surely there is no enchantment with Jacob Supplanter; Neither is there any divination with Israel God prevails. Now it shall be said of Jacob Supplanter and of Israel God prevails, ‘What has God done!’

²⁴Behold, the people rises up as a lioness. As a lion he lifts himself up. He shall not lie down until he eats of the prey, and drinks the blood of the slain.”

²⁵Balak said to Balaam Not people, Destroyer of people, “Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.”

²⁶But Balaam Not people, Destroyer of people answered Balak, “Didn’t I tell you, saying, ‘All that Adonai speaks, that I must do?’” (RY:7, LY:6)

²⁷Balak said to Balaam Not people, Destroyer of people, “Come now, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.”

²⁸Balak took Balaam Not people, Destroyer of people to the top of Peor, that looks down on the desert.

²⁹Balaam Not people, Destroyer of people said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.”

³⁰Balak did as Balaam Not people, Destroyer of people had said, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.