Numbers 23

NEW JERUSALEM	DOUAI-RHEIMS
1 Balaam said to Balak, 'Build me seven altars here and prepare me seven bulls and seven rams.'	1 And Balaam said to Balac: Build me here seven altars, and prepare as many calves, and the same number of rams.
2 Balak did as Balaam said and offered a burnt offering of one bul and one ram on each altar.	2 And when he had done according to the word of Balaam, they laid together a calf and a ram upon every altar.
3 Balaam then said to Balak, 'Stand beside your burnt offerings while I go away. Perhaps Yahweh wilcome and meet me. If he does, I shal tel you whatever he reveals to me.' And he withdrew to a bare hil .	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.
4 God came to meet Balaam, who said to him, 'I have prepared the seven altars and offered a burntoffering of one bul and one ram on each altar.'	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.
5 Yahweh then put a prophecy into his mouth and said to him, 'Go back to Balak, and that is what youmust say to him.'	5 And the Lord put the word in his mouth, and said: Return to Balac, and thus shalt thou speak.
6 So Balaam went back to him, and found him stil standing beside his burnt offering, with all the chiefsof Moab.	6 Returning he found Balac standing by his burnt offering, with all the princes of the Moabites:
7 He then declaimed his poem as fol ows: Balak has brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from thehil s of Kedem: 'Come and curse Jacob for me, come and denounce Israel!'	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.
8 How shal I curse someone whom God has not cursed, how denounce someone God has notdenounced?	8 How shall I curse him, whom God hath not cursed? By what means should I detest him, whom the Lord detesteth not?
9 Yes, from the top of the crags I see him, from the hills I descry him: a people that dwel s on its own,not to be reckoned among other nations!	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.
10 Who can count the dust of Jacob? Who can number the cloud of Israel? May I die the death of thejust, and may my future be like theirs!	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.
11 Balak said to Balaam, 'What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, and youhave heaped blessings on them!'	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.
12 Balaam replied, 'Am I to depart from what Yahweh puts into my mouth?'	12 He answered him: Call I speak any thing else but what the Lord commandeth?
13 Balak then said, 'Please come somewhere else. From here you can see only the fringe of them, youcannot see them al . Curse them for me over there.'	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.
14 He led him to the Lookouts' Field on the top of Pisgah. There he built seven altars and offered aburnt offering of one bul and one ram on each altar.	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,
15 Balaam said to Balak, 'Stand here beside your burnt offerings while I wait over there.'	15 He said to Balac: Stand here by thy burnt offering while I go to meet him.
16 God came to meet Balaam, he put a prophecy into his mouth and said to him, 'Go back to Balak,and that is what you must say to him.'	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.
17 So Balaam went to him and found him stil standing beside his burnt offering and all the chiefs ofMoab with him. 'What did Yahweh say?' Balak said to him.	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?
18 Balaam then declaimed his poem, as fol ows: Stand up, Balak, and listen, give ear to me, son ofZippor.	18 But he taking up his parable, said: Stand, O Balac, and give ear: hear, thou son of Sephor:
19 God is no human being that he should lie, no child of Adam to change his mind. Is it his to say andnot to do, is it his to speak and not fulfil?	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?
20 The charge laid on me is to bless, I shal bless, and I cannot reverse it.	20 I was brought to bless, the blessing I am not able to hinder.
21 I have perceived no guilt in Jacob, have seen no perversity in Israel. Yahweh his God is with him,and a royal acclamation to greet him.	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.
22 God has brought him out of Egypt, is like the wild ox's horns to him.	22 God hath brought him out of Egypt, whose strength is like to the rhinoceros.
23 There is no omen whatever against Jacob, no augury at al against Israel. Wel may people say ofJacob, of Israel, 'What has God achieved?'	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.
24 for here is a people like a lioness rising, poised like a lion to spring; nor wil he lie down till he hasdevoured his prey and drunk the blood of his slain.	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.
25 Balak said to Balaam, 'Very wel ! Do not curse them. But at least do not bless them!'	25 And Balac said to Balaam: Neither curse, nor bless him.
26 Balaam retorted to Balak, 'Did I not tel you? Whatever Yahweh says, I must do.'	26 And he said: Did I not tell thee, that whatsoever God should command me, that I would do?
27 Balak then said to Balaam, 'Come with me now and I shal take you somewhere else. From thereperhaps it wil please God to curse them for 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.
28 So Balak led Balaam to the summit of Peor, overlooking the wastelands.	28 And when he had brought him upon the top of mount Phogor, which looketh towards the wilderness,
29 Balaam then said to Balak, 'Build me seven altars here and prepare me seven bul s and sevenrams.'	29 Balaam said to him: Build me here seven altars, and prepare as many calves, and the same number of rams.
30 Balak did as Balaam said and offered a burnt offering of one bull and one ram on each altar.	30 Balac did as Balaam had said: and he laid on every altar, a calf and a ram.