1. Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me this: seven altars. And prepare for me this: seven bulls and seven rams.”
2. And Balak did just as Balaam spoke, and Balak offered Balaam a bull and a ram on the altar.
3. And Balaam said to Balak, “Station yourself at your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps Yahweh will come to meet me, and whatever he shows me I will tell to you.” So he went to a barren height.
4. And God met with Balaam, and he said to him, “I have arranged seven altars, and I have offered a bull and a ram on the altar.”
5. Yahweh put a word in the mouth of Balaam and said, “Return to Balak, and you must speak thus.”
6. So he returned to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, he and all the leaders of Moab.
7. And he lifted up his oracle and said, “From Aram Balak lead me, from the mountains of the east the king of Moab, ‘Go for me, curse Jacob, and go, denounce Israel.’
8. How can I curse whom God has not cursed, and how can I denounce whom Yahweh has not denounced?