Numbers 23 · Clearspring

Balaam’s First Oracle

¹Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me seven altars here, and prepare for me seven bulls and seven rams.”+ ²So Balak did as Balaam had instructed, and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar.+ ³“Stay here by your burnt offering while I am gone,” Balaam said to Balak. “Perhaps the LORD will meet with me. And whatever He reveals to me, I will tell you.” So Balaam went off to a barren height,+ ⁴and God met with him. “I have set up seven altars,” Balaam said, “and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram.”+ ⁵Then the LORD put a message in Balaam’s mouth, saying, “Return to Balak and give him this message.”+ ⁶So he returned to Balak, who was standing there beside his burnt offering, with all the princes of Moab.+ ⁷And Balaam lifted up an oracle, saying: “Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the mountains of the east. ‘Come,’ he said, ‘put a curse on Jacob for me; come and denounce Israel!’+ ⁸How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the LORD has not denounced?+ ⁹For I see them from atop the rocky cliffs, and I watch them from the hills. Behold, a people dwelling apart, not reckoning themselves among the nations.+ ¹⁰Who can count the dust of Jacob or number even a fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous; let my end be like theirs!”+ ¹¹Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you here to curse my enemies, and behold, you have only blessed them!”+ ¹²But Balaam replied, “Should I not speak exactly what the LORD puts in my mouth?”+

Balaam’s Second Oracle

¹³Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place where you can see them. You will only see the outskirts of their camp — not all of them. And from there, curse them for me.”+ ¹⁴So Balak took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, where he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.+ ¹⁵Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your burnt offering while I meet the LORD over there.”+ ¹⁶And the LORD met with Balaam and put a message in his mouth, saying, “Return to Balak and speak what I tell you.”+ ¹⁷So he returned to Balak, who was standing there by his burnt offering with the princes of Moab. “What did the LORD say?” Balak asked.+ ¹⁸Then Balaam lifted up an oracle, saying: “Arise, O Balak, and listen; give ear to me, O son of Zippor.+ ¹⁹God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?+ ²⁰I have indeed received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot change it.+ ²¹He considers no disaster for Jacob; He sees no trouble for Israel. The LORD their God is with them, and the shout of the King is among them.+ ²²God brought them out of Egypt with strength like a wild ox.+ ²³For there is no spell against Jacob and no divination against Israel. It will now be said of Jacob and Israel, ‘What great things God has done!’+ ²⁴Behold, the people rise like a lioness; they rouse themselves like a lion, not resting until they devour their prey and drink the blood of the slain.”+ ²⁵Now Balak said to Balaam, “Then neither curse them at all nor bless them at all!”+ ²⁶But Balaam replied, “Did I not tell you that whatever the LORD says, I must do?”+ ²⁷“Please come,” said Balak, “I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God that you curse them for me from there.”+ ²⁸And Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the wasteland.+ ²⁹Then Balaam said, “Build for me seven altars here, and prepare for me seven bulls and seven rams.”+ ³⁰So Balak did as Balaam had instructed, and he offered a bull and a ram on each altar.+

Balaam’s First Oracle

Balaam’s Second Oracle

Study Numbers 23