Old Testament

New Testament

Numbers 23:3-14 Douay-Rheims Challoner Revision 1752 (DRC1752)

3. And Balaam said to Balac: Stand a while by thy burnt offering, until I go, to see if perhaps the Lord will meet me, and whatsoever he shall command, I will speak to thee.

4. And when he was gone with speed, God met him. And Balaam speaking to him, said: I have erected seven altars, and have laid on everyone a calf and a ram.

5. And the Lord put the word in his mouth, and said: Return to Balac, and thus shalt thou speak.

6. Returning he found Balac standing by his burnt offering, with all the princes of the Moabites:

7. And taking up his parable, he said: Balac king of the Moabites hath brought me from Aram, from the mountains of the east: Come, said he, and curse Jacob: make haste and detest Israel.

8. How shall I curse him, whom God hath not cursed? By what means should I detest him, whom the Lord detesteth not?

9. I shall see him from the tops of the rocks, and shall consider him from the hills. This people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.

10. Who can count the dust of Jacob, and know the number of the stock of Israel? Let my soul die the death of the just, and my last end be like to them.

11. And Balac said to Balaam: What is this that thou dost? I sent for thee to curse my enemies: and thou contrariwise blessest them.

12. He answered him: Call I speak any thing else but what the Lord commandeth?

13. Balac therefore said: Come with me to another place from whence thou mayest see part of Israel, and canst not see them all: curse them from thence.

14. And when he had brought him to a high place, upon the top of mount Phasga, Balaam built seven altars, and laying on every one a calf and a ram,

Read complete chapter Numbers 23