1. Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.”
2. Balak did what Balaam told him, and the two of them offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
3. Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your burnt offering while I’m gone. Maybe the Lord will come and meet with me. I will tell you whatever he reveals to me.” Then Balaam went off to a higher place where there were no trees.
4. God came to him, and Balaam said, “I have set up seven altars, and I offered a bull and a ram on each altar.”
5. The Lord told Balaam, “Go back to Balak, and give him my message.”
6. So he went back to Balak and found him standing beside his burnt offering with all the princes of Moab.
7. Then Balaam delivered this message:“Balak brought me from Aram.The king of Moab summoned me from the eastern mountains.‘Come, curse Jacob for me,’ he said.‘Come, condemn Israel.’
8. How can I curse those whom God hasn’t cursed?How can I condemn those whom the Lord hasn’t condemned?
9. I see them from the top of rocky cliffs,I look at them from the hills.I see a nation that lives by itself,people who do not consider themselvesto be like other nations.
10. The descendants of Jacob are like specks of dust.Who can count themor number even one-fourth of the people of Israel?Let me die the death of innocent people.Let my end be like theirs.”
11. Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you here to curse my enemies, but all you’ve done is bless them!”
12. Balaam answered, “I must say what the Lord tells me to say.”
13. Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place, where you can see the Israelites. You will see only some of them, not all of them. Curse them for me from there.”
14. So he took him to the Field of Zophim on top of Mount Pisgah, where he built seven altars. He offered a bull and a ram on each altar.