Numbers 23
1Balaam said to Balak, “Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bulls and seven rams.” 2Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bull and a ram. 3Balaam said to Balak, “Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go: perhaps the LORD will come to meet me; and whatever he shows me I will tell you.” He went to a bare height. 4God met Balaam: and he said to him, “I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.” 5The LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” 6He returned to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, he, and all the princes of Moab. 7He took up his parable, and said,“From Aram has Balak brought me,
the king of Moab from the mountains of the East.
Come, curse Jacob for me.
Come, defy Israel.
How shall I curse whom God has not cursed?
How shall I defy whom the LORD has not defied?
How shall I defy whom the LORD has not defied?
For from the top of the rocks I see him.
From the hills I see him.
From the hills I see him.
Behold, it is a people that dwells alone,
and shall not be reckoned among the nations.
Who can count the dust of Jacob,
or number the fourth part of Israel?
or number the fourth part of Israel?
Let me die the death of the righteous!
Let my last end be like his!”
“Rise up, Balak, and hear!
Listen to me, you son of Zippor.
God is not a man, that he should lie,
nor the son of man, that he should repent.
nor the son of man, that he should repent.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?
Behold, I have received a command to bless.
He has blessed, and I can’t reverse it.
He has blessed, and I can’t reverse it.
He has not seen iniquity in Jacob.
Neither has he seen perverseness in Israel.
Neither has he seen perverseness in Israel.
The LORD his God is with him.
The shout of a king is among them.
God brings them out of Egypt.
He has as it were the strength of the wild ox.
He has as it were the strength of the wild ox.
Surely there is no enchantment with Jacob;
Neither is there any divination with Israel.
Neither is there any divination with Israel.
Now it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel,
What has God done!
Behold, the people rises up as a lioness,
As a lion he lifts himself up.
As a lion he lifts himself up.
He shall not lie down until he eat of the prey,
and drinks the blood of the slain.”
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