3. Bil‛am then said to Balaq, “Stand by your burnt offering, and let me go on. It might be that יהוה does come to meet me, and whatever He shows me I shall declare to you.” And he went to a bare height.
4. And Elohim came to Bil‛am, and he said to Him, “I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.”
5. And יהוה put a word in the mouth of Bil‛am, and said, “Return to Balaq, and this is what you say.”
6. And he returned to him and saw him standing by his burnt offering, he and all the heads of Mo’aḇ.
7. And he took up his proverb and said, “Balaq the sovereign of Mo’aḇ has brought me from Aram, from the mountains of the east. ‘Come, curse Ya‛aqoḇ for me, and come, rage at Yisra’ĕl!’
8. “How do I curse whom Ěl has not cursed? And how do I rage at whom יהוה has not raged?
9. “For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I observe him. Look, a people dwelling alone, not reckoning itself among the nations.
10. “Who shall count the dust of Ya‛aqoḇ, and the number of one-fourth of Yisra’ĕl? Let me die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his!”
11. And Balaq said to Bil‛am, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and look, you have kept on blessing!”
12. And he answered and said, “Should I not take heed to speak what יהוה has put in my mouth?”
13. And Balaq said to him, “Please come with me to another place from where you see them. You only see the extremity but not all of them. Curse them for me from there.”
14. And he took him to the field of Tsophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
15. And he said to Balaq, “Stand here by your burnt offering while I meet over there.”
16. And יהוה came to Bil‛am, and put a word in his mouth, and said, “Go back to Balaq, and say this.”
17. So he went to him and saw him standing by his burnt offering, and the heads of Mo’aḇ with him. And Balaq asked him, “What did יהוה say?”
18. And he took up his proverb and said, “Rise up, Balaq, and hear! Listen to me, son of Tsippor!
19. “Ěl is not a man, to lie; nor a son of man, to repent! Has He said, and would He not do it; or spoken, and would not confirm it?
20. “See, I have received, to bless. And He has blessed, and I do not reverse it.
21. “He has not looked upon wickedness in Ya‛aqoḇ, nor has He seen trouble in Yisra’ĕl. יהוה his Elohim is with him, and the shout of a Sovereign is in him.