¹Balaam said to Balak, Build for me here seven altars, and prepare for me here seven young bulls and seven rams.

²Balak did just as Balaam had spoken. Then Balak and Balaam brought up a young bull and a ram on each altar.

³Balaam said to Balak, Take your stand beside your burnt offering, and let me go; perhaps Yahweh will happen to meet me, and whatever word he shows me, I will tell you. And he went to a bare height.

⁴God met Balaam, and he said to him: I have arranged the seven altars, and I brought up a young bull and a ram on each altar.

⁵Yahweh put a word in the mouth of Balaam, and said: Return to Balak, and like this you shall speak.

⁶He returned to him, and look, he was stationed beside his burnt offering, he and all the officials of Moab.

⁷He lifted up his poem and said: From Aram Balak leads me, the king of Moab, from the mountains of the east: Come, curse Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel.

⁸How can I curse one whom God has not cursed? And how can I denounce one whom Yahweh has not denounced?

⁹For from the top of the rocks I see them, and from the hills I watch them. Look, a people that dwells alone, and among the nations does not reckon itself.

¹⁰Who has counted the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let my being die the death of the upright, and let my end be like theirs.

¹¹Balak said to Balaam: What have you done to me? To curse my enemies I took you, and look, you have indeed blessed.

¹²He answered and said: Is it not what Yahweh puts in my mouth that I take care to speak?

¹³Balak said to him: Come, please, with me to another place, where you will see it from there; only its farthest part you will see, and all of it you will not see. And curse it for me from there.

¹⁴He took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and brought up a young bull and a ram on each altar.

¹⁵He said to Balak: Take your stand here beside your burnt offering, and I will meet him over there.

¹⁶Yahweh met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said: Return to Balak, and like this you shall speak.

¹⁷He came to him, and look, he was stationed beside his burnt offering, and the officials of Moab were with him. And Balak said to him: What has Yahweh spoken?

¹⁸He lifted up his poem and said: Rise, O Balak, and hear; give ear to me, O son of Zippor.

¹⁹God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of humankind, that he should be sorry. Has he said, and will he not do it? Has he spoken, and will he not make it stand?

²⁰Look, I have received blessing; and he has blessed, and I will not turn it back.

²¹No one has looked on wickedness in Jacob, nor seen trouble in Israel. Yahweh his God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them.

²²God is bringing them out of Egypt; like the horns of a wild bull are his.

²³For there is no omen in Jacob, and no divination in Israel; at this time it will be said to Jacob and to Israel, What God has done!

²⁴Look, a people rises like a lioness, and like a lion lifts itself up; it will not lie down until it eats the prey and drinks the blood of the slain.

²⁵Balak said to Balaam, You shall neither curse it at all, nor bless it at all.

²⁶Balaam answered and said to Balak, Did I not speak to you, saying, All that Yahweh speaks, that I will do.

²⁷Balak said to Balaam, Come now, let me take you to another place; perhaps it will be pleasing in the eyes of God, and you can curse it for me from there.

²⁸Balak took Balaam to the head of Peor, which looks down over the face of the wasteland.

²⁹Balaam said to Balak, Build for me in this place seven altars, and prepare for me in this place seven young bulls and seven rams.

³⁰Balak did just as Balaam had said, and brought up a young bull and a ram on the altar.