58 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
58 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
# Chapter 23
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1 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.”
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2 And Balak did just as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
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3 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps the Lord will come to meet me, and whatever He shows me I will tell you.” So he went to a desolate height.
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4 And God met Balaam, and he said to Him, “I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.”
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5 Then the Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.”
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6 So he returned to him, and there he was, standing by his burnt offering, he and all the princes of Moab.
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7 And he took up his oracle and said:
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“Balak the king of Moab has brought me from Aram,
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From the mountains of the east.
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‘Come, curse Jacob for me,
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And come, denounce Israel!’
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8 “How shall I curse whom God has not cursed?
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And how shall I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced?
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9 For from the top of the rocks I see him,
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And from the hills I behold him;
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There! A people dwelling alone,
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Not reckoning itself among the nations.
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10 “Who can count the dust of Jacob,
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Or number one-fourth of Israel?
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Let me die the death of the righteous,
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And let my end be like his!”
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11 Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and look, you have blessed them bountifully!”
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12 So he answered and said, “Must I not take heed to speak what the Lord has put in my mouth?”
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13 Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from which you may see them; you shall see only the outer part of them, and shall not see them all; curse them for me from there.”
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14 So he brought him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
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15 And he said to Balak, “Stand here by your burnt offering while I meet the Lord over there.”
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16 Then the Lord met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, “Go back to Balak, and thus you shall speak.”
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17 So he came to him, and there he was, standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab were with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the Lord spoken?”
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18 Then he took up his oracle and said:
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“Rise up, Balak, and hear!
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Listen to me, son of Zippor!
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19 “God is not a man, that He should lie,
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Nor a son of man, that He should repent.
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Has He said, and will He not do?
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Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
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20 Behold, I have received a command to bless;
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He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.
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21 “He has not observed iniquity in Jacob,
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Nor has He seen wickedness in Israel.
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The Lord his God is with him,
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And the shout of a King is among them.
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22 God brings them out of Egypt;
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He has strength like a wild ox.
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23 “For there is no sorcery against Jacob,
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Nor any divination against Israel.
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It now must be said of Jacob
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And of Israel, ‘Oh, what God has done!’
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24 Look, a people rises like a lioness,
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And lifts itself up like a lion;
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It shall not lie down until it devours the prey,
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And drinks the blood of the slain.”
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25 Then Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all!”
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26 So Balaam answered and said to Balak, “Did I not tell you, saying, ‘All that the Lord speaks, that I must do’?”
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27 Then Balak said to Balaam, “Please come, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.”
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28 So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that overlooks the wasteland.
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29 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me here seven altars, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.”
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30 And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on every altar. |