Numbers 23

DOUAI-RHEIMS	NEW AMERICAN BIBLE
1 And Balaam said to Balac: Build me here seven altars, and prepare as many calves, and the same number of rams.	1 Then Balaam said to Balak, "Build me seven altars, and prepare seven bullocks and seven rams for me here."
2 And when he had done according to the word of Balaam, they laid together a calf and a ram upon every altar.	2 So he did as Balaam had ordered, offering a bullock and a ram on each altar. And Balak said to him, "I have erected the seven altars, and have offered a bullock and a ram on each."
3 And Balaam said to Balac: Stand a while by thy burnt offering, until I go, to see if perhaps the Lord will meet me, and whatsoever he shall command, I will speak to thee.	3 Balaam then said to him, "Stand here by your holocaust while I go over there. Perhaps the LORD will meet me, and then I will tell you whatever he lets me see." He went out on the barren height,
4 And when he was gone with speed, God met him. And Balaam speaking to him, said: I have erected seven altars, and have laid on everyone a calf and a ram.	4 and God met him.
5 And the Lord put the word in his mouth, and said: Return to Balac, and thus shalt thou speak.	5 When he had put an utterance in Balaam's mouth, the LORD said to him, "Go back to Balak, and speak accordingly."
6 Returning he found Balac standing by his burnt offering, with all the princes of the Moabites:	6 So he went back to Balak, who was still standing by his holocaust together with all the princes of Moab.
7 And taking up his parable, he said: Balac king of the Moabites hath brought me from Aram, from the mountains of the east: Come, said he, and curse Jacob: make haste and detest Israel.	7 Then Balaam gave voice to his oracle: From Aram has Balak brought me here, Moab's king, from the Eastern Mountains: "Come and lay a curse for me on Jacob, come and denounce Israel."
8 How shall I curse him, whom God hath not cursed? By what means should I detest him, whom the Lord detesteth not?	8 How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How denounce whom the LORD has not denounced?
9 I shall see him from the tops of the rocks, and shall consider him from the hills. This people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.	9 For from the top of the crags I see him, from the heights I behold him. Here is a people that lives apart and does not reckon itself among the nations.
10 Who can count the dust of Jacob, and know the number of the stock of Israel? Let my soul die the death of the just, and my last end be like to them.	10 Who has ever counted the dust of Jacob, or numbered Israel's wind-borne particles? May I die the death of the just, may my descendants be as many as theirs!
11 And Balac said to Balaam: What is this that thou dost? I sent for thee to curse my enemies: and thou contrariwise blessest them.	11 "What have you done to me?" cried Balak to Balaam. "It was to curse my foes that I brought you here; instead, you have even blessed them."
12 He answered him: Call I speak any thing else but what the Lord commandeth?	12 Balaam replied, "Is it not what the LORD puts in my mouth that I must repeat with care?"
13 Balac therefore said: Come with me to another place from whence thou mayest see part of Israel, and canst not see them all: curse them from thence.	13 Then Balak said to him, "Please come with me to another place from which you can see only some and not all of them, and from there curse them for me."
14 And when he had brought him to a high place, upon the top of mount Phasga, Balaam built seven altars, and laying on every one a calf and a ram,	14 So he brought him to the lookout field on the top of Pisgah, where he built seven altars and offered a bullock and a ram on each of them.
15 He said to Balac: Stand here by thy burnt offering while I go to meet him.	15 Balaam then said to Balak, "Stand here by your holocaust, while I seek a meeting over there."
16 And when the Lord had met him, and had put the word in his mouth, he said: Return to Balac, and thus shalt thou say to him.	16 Then the LORD met Balaam, and having put an utterance in his mouth, he said to him, "Go back to Balak, and speak accordingly."
17 Returning he found him standing by his burnt sacrifice, and the princes of the Moabites with him. And Balac said to him: What hath the Lord spoken?	17 So he went back to Balak, who was still standing by his holocaust together with the princes of Moab. When Balak asked him, "What did the LORD say?"
18 But he taking up his parable, said: Stand, O Balac, and give ear: hear, thou son of Sephor:	18 Balaam gave voice to his oracle: Be aroused, O Balak, and hearken; give ear to my testimony, O son of Zippor!
19 God is not a man, that he should lie, nor as the son of man, that he should be changed. Hath he said then, and will he not do? hath he spoken, and will he not fulfil?	19 God is not man that he should speak falsely, nor human, that he should change his mind. Is he one to speak and not act, to decree and not fulfill?
20 I was brought to bless, the blessing I am not able to hinder.	20 It is a blessing I have been given to pronounce; a blessing which I cannot restrain.
21 There is no idol in Jacob, neither is there an image god to be seen in Israel. The Lord his God is with him, and the sound of the victory of the king in him.	21 Misfortune is not observed in Jacob, nor misery seen in Israel. The LORD, his God, is with him; with him is the triumph of his King.
22 God hath brought him out of Egypt, whose strength is like to the rhinoceros.	22 It is God who brought him out of Egypt, a wild bull of towering might.
23 There is no soothsaying in Jacob, nor divination in Israel. In their times it shall be told to Jacob and to Israel what God hath wrought.	23 No, there is no sorcery against Jacob, nor omen against Israel. It shall yet be said of Jacob, and of Israel, "Behold what God has wrought!"
24 Behold the people shall rise up as a lioness, and shall lift itself up as a lion: it shall not lie down till it devour the prey, and drink the blood of the slain.	24 Here is a people that springs up like a lioness, and stalks forth like a lion; It rests not till it has devoured its prey and has drunk the blood of the slain.
25 And Balac said to Balaam: Neither curse, nor bless him.	25 "Even though you cannot curse them," said Balak to Balaam, "at least do not bless them."
26 And he said: Did I not tell thee, that whatsoever God should command me, that I would do?	26 But Balaam answered Balak, "Did I not warn you that I must do all that the LORD tells me?"
27 And Balac said to him: Come and I will bring thee to another place; if peradventure it please God that thou mayest curse them from thence.	27 Then Balak said to Balaam, "Come, let me bring you to another place; perhaps God will approve of your cursing them for me from there."
28 And when he had brought him upon the top of mount Phogor, which looketh towards the wilderness,	28 So he took Balaam to the top of Peor, that overlooks Jeshimon.
29 Balaam said to him: Build me here seven altars, and prepare as many calves, and the same number of rams.	29 Balaam then said to him, "Here build me seven altars; and here prepare for me seven bullocks and seven rams."
30 Balac did as Balaam had said: and he laid on every altar, a calf and a ram.	30 And Balak did as Balaam had ordered, offering a bullock and a ram on each altar.