Balaam’s Discourse
13 Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from where you may see them, but you will only see the end of them and will not see all of them; and curse them for me from there.” 14 So he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 15 And he said to Balak, “Stand here beside your burnt offering while I myself meet Yahweh over there.” 16 Then Yahweh met Balaam and aput a word in his mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” 17 So he came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the leaders of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, “What has Yahweh spoken?” 18 Then he took up his discourse and said,
“Arise, O Balak, and hear;
Give ear to me, O son of Zippor!
19 aGod is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent;
bHas He said, and will He not do it?
Or has He spoken, and will He not establish it?
20 Behold, I have received a command to bless;
aWhen He has blessed, then bI cannot revoke it.
21 aHe has not observed misfortune in Jacob;
bNor has He seen trouble in Israel;
cYahweh his God is with him,
dAnd the shout of a king is among them.
22 aGod brings them out of Egypt,
He is for them like the bhorns of the wild ox.
23 aFor there is no omen against Jacob,
Nor is there any divination against Israel;
At the proper time it shall be said to Jacob
And to Israel, what God has done!
24 aBehold, a people rises like a lioness,
And as a lion it lifts itself;
It will not lie down until it devours the prey,
And drinks the blood of the slain.”
25 Then Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all nor bless them at all!” 26 But Balaam replied to Balak, “Did I not tell you, saying, ‘aWhatever Yahweh speaks, that I must do’?”