Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here and have seven bulls and seven rams ready here for me.”
Balak did as Balaam directed; and Balak and Balaam offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.
Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offerings while I am gone. Perhaps GOD will grant me a manifestation, and whatever is revealed to me I will tell you.” And he went off alone.aalone In contrast to others “to a bare height”; exact meaning of Heb. shephi uncertain.
God became manifest to Balaam, who stated, “I have set up the seven altars and offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.”
And GOD put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak and speak thus.”
So he returned to him and found him standing beside his offerings, and all the Moabite dignitaries with him.
He took up his theme, and said:From Aram has Balak brought me,Moab’s king from the hills of the East:Come, curse me Jacob,Come, tell Israel’s doom!
How can I damn whom GodbGod Heb. ʼEl, as often in these poems. has not damned,How doom when GOD has not doomed?
As I see them from the mountain tops,Gaze on them from the heights,There is a people that dwells apart,Not reckoned among the nations,
Who can count the dustcdust Cf. Gen. 13.16. of Jacob,NumberdNumber Lit. “and the number of.” the dust-cloud of Israel?May I die the death of the upright,eupright Heb. yesharim, a play on yeshurun (“Jeshurun” in Deut. 32.15), a name for Israel. May my fate be like theirs!
Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? Here I brought you to damn my enemies, and instead you have blessed them!”
He replied, “I can only repeat faithfully what GOD puts in my mouth.”
Then Balak said to him, “Come with me to another place from which you can see them—you will see only a portion of them; you will not see all of them—and damn them for me from there.”
With that, he took him to Sedeh-zophim,fSedeh-zophim Or “Lookout Point.” on the summit of Pisgah. He built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
And [Balaam] said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offerings, while I seek a manifestation yonder.”
GOD became manifest to Balaam and put a word in his mouth, saying, “Return to Balak and speak thus.”
He went to him and found him standing beside his offerings, and the Moabite dignitaries with him. Balak asked him, “What did GOD say?”
And he took up his theme, and said:Up, Balak, attend,Give ear unto me, son of Zippor!
God is not human to be capricious,Or mortal to have a change of heart.Would [God] speak and not act,Promise and not fulfill?
My message was to bless:When [God] blesses, I cannot reverse it.
No harm is in sight for Jacob,No woe in view for Israel. The ETERNAL their God is with them,And their Sovereign’s acclaim in their midst.
God who freed them from EgyptIs for them like the hornsghorns Lit. “eminences,” used figuratively. of the wild ox.
Lo, there is no augury in Jacob,No divining in Israel:hNo divining in Israel Cf. Deut. 18.10–15. Jacob is told at once,Yea Israel, what God has planned.iJacob is told … what God has planned Or, “Else would it be told to Jacob, / Yea to Israel, what God has planned.”
Lo, a people that rises like a lioness,jlioness Or “lion”; nuance of Heb. laviʼ uncertain. Leaps up like a lion,Rests not till it has feasted on preyAnd drunk the blood of the slain.
Thereupon Balak said to Balaam, “Don’t curse them and don’t bless them!”
In reply, Balaam said to Balak, “But I told you: Whatever GOD says, that I must do.”
Then Balak said to Balaam, “Come now, I will take you to another place. Perhaps God will deem it right that you damn them for me there.”
Balak took Balaam to the peak of Peor, which overlooks the wasteland.kwasteland Cf. note at 21.20.
Balaam said to Balak, “Build me here seven altars, and have seven bulls and seven rams ready for me here.”
Balak did as Balaam said: he offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.