Numbers 23:13-26
Balaam’s Second Oracle
13And Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place, from which you may see them. You shall see only a fraction of them and shall not see them all. Then curse them for me from there.” 14And he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, aand built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 15Balaam said to Balak, b“Stand here beside your burnt offering, while I meet the Lord over there.” 16And the Lord met Balaam and cput a word in his mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus shall you speak.” 17And he came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the Lord spoken?” 18And Balaam took up his discourse and said,“Rise, Balak, and hear;
give ear to me, O son of Zippor:
19 dGod is not man, that he should lie,
or a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
20Behold, I received a command to bless:
ehe has blessed, and fI cannot revoke it.
21 gHe has not beheld misfortune in Jacob,
nor has he seen trouble in Israel.
The Lord their God is with them,
and the shout of a king is among them.
22 hGod brings them out of Egypt
and is for them like ithe horns of the wild ox.
23For there is no enchantment against Jacob,
no jdivination against Israel;
now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel,
k‘What has God wrought!’
24Behold, a people! lAs a lioness it rises up
and as a lion it lifts itself;
mit does not lie down until it has devoured the prey
and drunk the blood of the slain.”
25And Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all, and do not bless them at all.” 26But Balaam answered Balak, “Did I not tell you, n‘All that the Lord says, that I must do’?”
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