1And Balaam said to Balak, "Build for me here seven altars, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams."
2And Balak did just as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.
3And Balaam said to Balak, "Station yourself by your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps YHWH will come to meet me, and the word of whatever He shows me I will tell you." And he went to a bare height.
4And God met Balaam; and he said to Him, "I have arranged the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on each altar."
5And YHWH put a word in the mouth of Balaam, and said, "Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak."
6And he returned to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, he and all the princes of Moab.
7And he took up his parable, and said: "From Aram Balak leads me, the king of Moab from the mountains of the east: Come, curse for me Jacob, and come, denounce Israel.
8How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? And how shall I denounce whom YHWH has not denounced?
9For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: behold, a people dwelling alone, and among the nations it does not reckon itself.
10Who has counted the dust (aphar) of Jacob, or the number of a fourth of Israel? Let my soul (nephesh) die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his!"
11And Balak said to Balaam, "What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have utterly blessed them."
12And he answered and said, "Must I not take care to speak that which YHWH puts in my mouth?"
13And Balak said to him, "Come, please, with me to another place, from where you will see them; you will see only the edge of them, and you will not see all of them; and curse them for me from there."
14And he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.
15And he said to Balak, "Station yourself here by your burnt offering, while I meet yonder."
16And YHWH met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, "Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak."
17And he came to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, "What has YHWH spoken?"
18And he took up his parable, and said: "Arise, Balak, and hear; give ear to me, son of Zippor:
19God is not a man (ish), that He should lie, nor a son of man (adam), 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 have received to bless; and He has blessed, and I cannot turn it back.
21He has not beheld iniquity in Jacob, nor has He seen trouble in Israel; YHWH his God is with him, and the shout of a king is in him.
22God who brings them out from Egypt is for him like the lofty horns of the wild ox.
23For there is no enchantment in Jacob, nor divination in Israel; at the time it shall be said to Jacob and to Israel: What has God wrought!
24Behold, a people that rises up like a lioness, and lifts itself up like a lion; it will not lie down until it eats prey, and drinks the blood of the slain.
25And Balak said to Balaam, "Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all."
26And Balaam answered and said to Balak, "Did I not speak to you, saying: All that YHWH speaks, that I must do?"
27And Balak said to Balaam, "Come, please, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will be right in the eyes of God that you curse them for me from there."
28And Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that looks down upon the face of the wasteland.
29And Balaam said to Balak, "Build for me here seven altars, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams."
30And Balak did just as Balaam had said, and offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.