1. Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.”
2. So Balak did just as Balaam had said. Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
3. Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offering. I will go and perhaps Adonai will meet me. Whatever message He shows me, I will tell you. Then he went to a barren height.
4. God met with Balaam and he said to Him, “I have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I offered a bull and a ram.”
5. Adonai put a message into Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak and speak this.”
6. Balaam went back to him. Behold, he was standing beside his offering with all the princes of Moab.
7. Then he uttered his oracle and said, “From Aram, Balak brought me, Moab’s king from the mountains of the east: ‘Come! Curse Jacob for me! ‘Come! Denounce Israel!’
8. How can I curse one whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce one whom Adonai has not denounced?
9. From the rocky peaks I see him. From the heights I behold him. Look, he lives as a nation apart, and does not consider himself as being like the other nations.
10. Who can count Jacob’s dust? Who can number a fourth of Israel? Let my soul die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his!”
11. Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but look, you’ve actually blessed them!”
12. But in response he said, “Mustn’t I speak whatever Adonai puts into my mouth?”
13. Then Balak said to him, “Come now with me to another place where you can see a part of them only, not all of them. Curse them for me from there.”
14. He took him to Lookout Field on top of Pisgah. He built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
15. “Stay here beside your offering,” he said to Balak, “while I am meeting over there.”