1And Balaam said to Balak, "Build seven altars for me here and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams."2Balak did as Balaam had said. And Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar.3Balaam said to Balak, "Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps the LORD will happen to meet me, and whatever he shows me, I will tell you." And he went, his lip attentive.4And God met Balaam, and he said to him, "I have prepared the seven altars and have offered a bull and a ram on each altar."5The LORD put a word in the mouth of Balaam, and he said, "Return to Balak, and this is what you shall speak."6He returned to him, and there he was, standing by his burnt offering, he and all the chiefs of Moab.7He lifted up his oracle and said: From Aram Balak brought me, the king of Moab, from the mountains of the east. Come, curse Jacob for me, and come, rage against Israel.8How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce whom the LORD has not denounced?9For from the top of the rocks we have seen him, and from the hills we have viewed him. Look, a people that dwells alone, and among the nations it does not consider itself one of them.10Who can count the dust of Jacob or number the fourth of Israel? May my nephesh die the death of the upright ones, and may my end be like his!11And Balak said to Balaam, "What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and look, you have blessed them instead."12He answered and said, "Must I not keep what the LORD puts in my mouth to speak it?"