1. Then Balaam said to King Balak, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven young bulls and seven rams for me to sacrifice.”
2. Balak followed his instructions, and the two of them sacrificed a young bull and a ram on each altar.
3. Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand here by your burnt offerings, and I will go to see if the lord will respond to me. Then I will tell you whatever he reveals to me.” So Balaam went alone to the top of a bare hill,
4. and God met him there. Balaam said to him, “I have prepared seven altars and have sacrificed a young bull and a ram on each altar.”
5. The lord gave Balaam a message for King Balak. Then he said, “Go back to Balak and give him my message.”
6. So Balaam returned and found the king standing beside his burnt offerings with all the officials of Moab.
7. This was the message Balaam delivered:“Balak summoned me to come from Aram;the king of Moab brought me from the eastern hills.‘Come,’ he said, ‘curse Jacob for me!Come and announce Israel’s doom.’
8. But how can I curse thosewhom God has not cursed?How can I condemn thosewhom the lord has not condemned?
9. I see them from the cliff tops;I watch them from the hills.I see a people who live by themselves,set apart from other nations.
10. Who can count Jacob’s descendants, as numerous as dust?Who can count even a fourth of Israel’s people?Let me die like the righteous;let my life end like theirs.”
11. Then King Balak demanded of Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies. Instead, you have blessed them!”
12. But Balaam replied, “I will speak only the message that the lord puts in my mouth.”
13. Then King Balak told him, “Come with me to another place. There you will see another part of the nation of Israel, but not all of them. Curse at least that many!”