1: Balaam said, "Build me seven altars here, and then prepare seven bulls and seven rams."
2: Balak did it. Then Balaam and Balak sacrificed a bull and a ram on each of the altars.
3: Balaam instructed Balak: "Stand watch here beside your Whole-Burnt-Offering while I go off by myself. Maybe GOD will come and meet with me. Whatever he shows or tells me, I'll report to you." Then he went off by himself.
4: God did meet with Balaam. Balaam said, "I've set up seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar."
5: Then GOD gave Balaam a message: "Return to Balak and give him this message."
6: He went back and found him stationed beside his Whole-Burnt-Offering and with him all the nobles of Moab.
7: Then Balaam spoke his message-oracle: Balak led me here from Aram, the king of Moab all the way from the eastern mountains. "Go, curse Jacob for me; go, damn Israel."
8: How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I damn whom GOD has not damned?
9: From rock pinnacles I see them, from hilltops I survey them: Look! a people camping off by themselves, thinking themselves outsiders among nations.
10: But who could ever count the dust of Jacob or take a census of cloud-of-dust Israel? I want to die like these right-living people! I want an end just like theirs!
11: Balak said to Balaam, "What's this? I brought you here to curse my enemies, and all you've done is bless them."
12: Balaam answered, "Don't I have to be careful to say what GOD gives me to say?" [JC]
13: Balak said to him, "Go with me to another place from which you can only see the outskirts of their camp--you won't be able to see the whole camp. From there, curse them for my sake."
14: So he took him to Watchmen's Meadow at the top of Pisgah. He built seven altars there and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
15: Balaam said to Balak, "Take up your station here beside your Whole-Burnt-Offering while I meet with him over there."
16: GOD met with Balaam and gave him a message. He said, "Return to Balak and give him the message."
17: Balaam returned and found him stationed beside his Whole-Burnt-Offering and the nobles of Moab with him. Balak said to him, "What did GOD say?"
18: Then Balaam spoke his message-oracle: On your feet, Balak. Listen, listen carefully son of Zippor:
19: God is not man, one given to lies, and not a son of man changing his mind. Does he speak and not do what he says? Does he promise and not come through?
20: I was brought here to bless; and now he's blessed--how can I change that?
21: He has no bone to pick with Jacob, he sees nothing wrong with Israel. GOD is with them, and they're with him, shouting praises to their King.
22: God brought them out of Egypt, rampaging like a wild ox.
23: No magic spells can bind Jacob, no incantations can hold back Israel. People will look at Jacob and Israel and say, "What a great thing has God done!"
24: Look, a people rising to its feet, stretching like a lion, a king-of-the-beasts, aroused, Unsleeping, unresting until its hunt is over and it's eaten and drunk its fill.
25: Balak said to Balaam, "Well, if you can't curse them, at least don't bless them."
26: Balaam replied to Balak, "Didn't I tell you earlier: "All God speaks, and only what he speaks, I speak'?" [JC]
27: Balak said to Balaam, "Please, let me take you to another place; maybe we can find the right place in God's eyes where you'll be able to curse them for me."
28: So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, with a vista over the Jeshimon (Wasteland).
29: Balaam said to Balak, "Build seven altars for me here and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for sacrifice."
30: Balak did it and presented an offering of a bull and a ram on each of the altars.