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Chapter 23
Balaam's First Oracle
1Balaam said, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.”
2Balak did as Balaam said, and the two of them offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
3Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offering while I go aside. Perhaps the LORD will come to meet with me. Whatever he reveals to me I will tell you.” Then he went off to a barren height.
4God met with him, and Balaam said, “I have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram.”
5The LORD put a message in Balaam's mouth and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this message.”
6So he went back to him and found him standing beside his offering, with all the princes of Moab.
7Then Balaam uttered his oracle:
“Balak brought me from Aram,
the king of Moab from the eastern mountains.
‘Come,’ he said, ‘curse Jacob for me;
come, denounce Israel.’
8How can I curse
those whom God has not cursed?
How can I denounce
those whom the LORD has not denounced?
9From the rocky peaks I see them,
from the heights I view them.
I see a people who live apart
and do not consider themselves one of the nations.
10Who can count the dust of Jacob
or number the fourth part of Israel?
Let me die the death of the righteous,
and may my end be like theirs!”
11Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but you have done nothing but bless them!”
12He answered, “Must I not speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?”
Balaam's Second Oracle
13Then Balak said to him, “Come with me to another place where you can see them; you will see only a part but not all of them. And from there, curse them for me.”
14So he took him to the field of Zophim on the top of Pisgah, and there he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
15Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offering while I meet with him over there.”
16The LORD met with Balaam and put a message in his mouth and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this message.”
17So he went to him and found him standing beside his offering, with the princes of Moab. Balak asked him, “What did the LORD say?”
18Then he uttered his oracle:
“Arise, Balak, and listen;
hear me, son of Zippor.
19God is not a man, that he should lie,
nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act?
Does he promise and not fulfill?
20I have received a command to bless;
he has blessed, and I cannot change it.
21“No misfortune is seen in Jacob,
no misery observed in Israel.Or He has not looked on Jacob's offenses / or on the wrongs found in Israel.
The LORD their God is with them;
the shout of the King is among them.
22God brought them out of Egypt;
they have the strength of a wild ox.
23There is no sorcery against Jacob,
no divination against Israel.
It will now be said of Jacob
and of Israel, ‘See what God has done!’
24The people rise like a lioness;
they rouse themselves like a lion
that does not rest till he devours his prey
and drinks the blood of his victims.”
25Then Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse them at all nor bless them at all!”
26Balaam answered, “Did I not tell you I must do whatever the LORD says?”
Balaam's Third Oracle
27Then Balak said to Balaam, “Come, let me take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God to let you curse them for me from there.”
28And Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, overlooking the wasteland.
29Balaam said, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.”
30Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
Chapter 24
1Now when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he did not resort to sorcery as at other times, but turned his face toward the desert.
2When Balaam looked out and saw Israel encamped tribe by tribe, the Spirit of God came upon him
3and he uttered his oracle:
“The oracle of Balaam son of Beor,
the oracle of one whose eye sees clearly,
4the oracle of one who hears the words of God,
who sees a vision from the Almighty,Hebrew Shaddai; also in verse 16
who falls prostrate, and whose eyes are opened:
5“How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob,
your dwelling places, O Israel!
6“Like valleys they spread out,
like gardens beside a river,
like aloes planted by the LORD,
like cedars beside the waters.
7Water will flow from their buckets;
their seed will have abundant water.
“Their king will be greater than Agag;
their kingdom will be exalted.
8“God brought them out of Egypt;
they have the strength of a wild ox.
They devour hostile nations
and break their bones in pieces;
with their arrows they pierce them.
9Like a lion they crouch and lie down,
like a lioness—who dares to rouse them?
“May those who bless you be blessed
and those who curse you be cursed!”
10Then Balak's anger burned against Balaam. He struck his hands together and said to him, “I summoned you to curse my enemies, but you have blessed them these three times.
11Now leave at once and go home! I said I would reward you handsomely, but the LORD has kept you from being rewarded.”
12Balaam answered Balak, “Did I not tell the messengers you sent me,
13‘Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold, I could not do anything of my own accord, good or bad, to go beyond the command of the LORD—and I must say only what the LORD says’?
14Now I am going back to my people, but come, let me warn you of what this people will do to your people in days to come.”
Balaam's Fourth Oracle
15Then he uttered his oracle:
“The oracle of Balaam son of Beor,
the oracle of one whose eye sees clearly,
16the oracle of one who hears the words of God,
who has knowledge from the Most High,
who sees a vision from the Almighty,
who falls prostrate, and whose eyes are opened:
17“I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near.
A star will come out of Jacob;
a scepter will rise out of Israel.
He will crush the foreheads of Moab,
the skullsSamaritan Pentateuch (see also Jer. 48:45); the meaning of the word in the Masoretic Text is uncertain. ofOr possibly Moab, / batter all the sons of Sheth.Or all the noisy boasters
18Edom will be conquered;
Seir, his enemy, will be conquered,
but Israel will grow strong.
19A ruler will come out of Jacob
and destroy the survivors of the city.”
Balaam's Final Oracles
20Then Balaam saw Amalek and uttered his oracle:
“Amalek was first among the nations,
but he will come to ruin at last.”
21Then he saw the Kenites and uttered his oracle:
“Your dwelling place is secure,
your nest is set in a rock;
22yet you Kenites will be destroyed
when Asshur takes you captive.”
23Then he uttered his oracle:
“Ah, who can live when God does this?Masoretic Text; with a different word division of the Hebrew A people will gather from the north.
24Ships will come from the shores of Kittim;
they will subdue Asshur and Eber,
but they too will come to ruin.”
25Then Balaam got up and returned home and Balak went his own way.
Chapter 25
Moab Seduces Israel
1While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women,
2who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate and bowed down before these gods.
3So Israel joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor. And the LORD's anger burned against them.
4The LORD said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of these people, kill them and expose them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that the LORD's fierce anger may turn away from Israel.”
5So Moses said to Israel's judges, “Each of you must put to death those of your men who have joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor.”
6Then an Israelite man brought to his family a Midianite woman right before the eyes of Moses and the whole assembly of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.
7When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw this, he left the assembly, took a spear in his hand
8and followed the Israelite into the tent. He drove the spear through both of them—through the Israelite and into the woman's body. Then the plague against the Israelites was stopped;
9but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000.
10The LORD said to Moses,
11“Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites; for he was as zealous as I am for my honor among them, so that in my zeal I did not put an end to them.
12Therefore tell him I am making my covenant of peace with him.
13He and his descendants will have a covenant of a lasting priesthood, because he was zealous for the honor of his God and made atonement for the Israelites.”
14The name of the Israelite who was killed with the Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, the leader of a Simeonite family.
15And the name of the Midianite woman who was put to death was Cozbi daughter of Zur, a tribal chief of a Midianite family.
16The LORD said to Moses,
17“Treat the Midianites as enemies and kill them,
18because they treated you as enemies when they deceived you in the affair of Peor and their sister Cozbi, the daughter of a Midianite leader, the woman who was killed when the plague came as a result of Peor.”
 
 

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