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Numbers 23 :: New International Version (NIV)

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Balaam’s First Message

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:1 - Balaam said, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.”
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:2 - Balak did as Balaam said, and the two of them offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:3 - Then 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.
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:4 - God met with him, and Balaam said, “I have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram.”
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:5 - The LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this word.”
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:6 - So he went back to him and found him standing beside his offering, with all the Moabite officials.
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:7 - Then Balaam spoke his message: “Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains. ‘Come,’ he said, ‘curse Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel.’
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:8 - How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the LORD has not denounced?
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:9 - From 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.
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:10 - Who can count the dust of Jacob or number even a fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and may my final end be like theirs!”
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:11 - Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but you have done nothing but bless them!”
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:12 - He answered, “Must I not speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?”

Balaam’s Second Message

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:13 - Then Balak said to him, “Come with me to another place where you can see them; you will not see them all but only the outskirts of their camp. And from there, curse them for me.”
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:14 - So 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.
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:15 - Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offering while I meet with him over there.”
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:16 - The LORD met with Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this word.”
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:17 - So he went to him and found him standing beside his offering, with the Moabite officials. Balak asked him, “What did the LORD say?”
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:18 - Then he spoke his message: “Arise, Balak, and listen; hear me, son of Zippor.
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:19 - God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:20 - I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot change it.
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:21 - “No misfortune is seen in Jacob, no misery observed[fn] in Israel. The LORD their God is with them; the shout of the King is among them.
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:22 - God brought them out of Egypt; they have the strength of a wild ox.
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:23 - There is no divination against[fn] Jacob, no evil omens against[fn] Israel. It will now be said of Jacob and of Israel, ‘See what God has done!’
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:24 - The people rise like a lioness; they rouse themselves like a lion that does not rest till it devours its prey and drinks the blood of its victims.”
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:25 - Then Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse them at all nor bless them at all!”
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:26 - Balaam answered, “Did I not tell you I must do whatever the LORD says?”

Balaam’s Third Message

Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:27 - Then 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.”
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:28 - And Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, overlooking the wasteland.
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:29 - Balaam said, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.”
Unchecked Copy BoxNum 23:30 - Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
NIV Footnotes
Or He has not looked on Jacob’s offenses / or on the wrongs found
Or in
Or in
NIV

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV®
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®
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For more information on this translation, see the NIV Preface.

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