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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0; maximum-scale=1.0; user-scalable=0;"/><title>Numbers 23 New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/numbers/23.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="/bmcc/numbers/23-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com/catholic">Bible</a> > <a href="../">NRSVCE</a> > Numbers 23</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../numbers/22.htm" title="Numbers 22">◄</a> Numbers 23 <a href="../numbers/24.htm" title="Numbers 24">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition</td><td width="1%" valign="top"></td></tr></table></div><div class="chap"><div class="text-html"><p> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="chapternum mid-paragraph">23</span><span class="versenum mid-paragraph">1</span>Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">2</span>Balak did as Balaam had said; and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">3</span>Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your burnt offerings while I go aside. Perhaps the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> will come to meet me. Whatever he shows me I will tell you.” And he went to a bare height.</span></p> <p><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">4</span>Then God met Balaam; and Balaam said to him, “I have arranged the seven altars, and have offered a bull and a ram on each altar.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">5</span>The <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and this is what you must say.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">6</span>So he returned to Balak,<span data-fn='#fen' class='footnote' data-link='[<a href="#fen-NRSVCE-4423a" title="See footnote a">a</a>]'>[<a href="#fen" xtitle="See footnote a">a</a>]</span> who was standing beside his burnt offerings with all the officials of Moab. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">7</span>Then Balaam<span data-fn='#fen' class='footnote' data-link='[<a href="#fen-NRSVCE-4424b" title="See footnote b">b</a>]'>[<a href="#fen" xtitle="See footnote b">b</a>]</span> uttered his oracle, saying:</span></p><div class="poetry"><p class="line"><span class="text">“Balak has brought me from Aram,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">the king of Moab from the eastern mountains:</span></span><br /><span class="text">‘Come, curse Jacob for me;</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">Come, denounce Israel!’</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">8</span>How can I curse whom God has not cursed?</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">How can I denounce those whom the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> has not denounced?</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">9</span>For from the top of the crags I see him,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">from the hills I behold him.</span></span><br /><span class="text">Here is a people living alone,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">and not reckoning itself among the nations!</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">10</span>Who can count the dust of Jacob,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">or number the dust-cloud<span data-fn='#fen' class='footnote' data-link='[<a href="#fen-NRSVCE-4427c" title="See footnote c">c</a>]'>[<a href="#fen" xtitle="See footnote c">c</a>]</span> of Israel?</span></span><br /><span class="text">Let me die the death of the upright,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">and let my end be like his!”</span></span></p></div> <p><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">11</span>Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but now you have done nothing but bless them.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">12</span>He answered, “Must I not take care to say what the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> puts into my mouth?”</span></p> <h3><span id="en" class="text">Balaam’s Second Oracle</span></h3><p><span class="text"><span class="versenum">13</span>So Balak said to him, “Come with me to another place from which you may see them; you shall see only part of them, and shall not see them all; then curse them for me from there.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">14</span>So he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah. He built seven altars, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">15</span>Balaam said to Balak, “Stand here beside your burnt offerings, while I meet the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> over there.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">16</span>The <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> met Balaam, put a word into his mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and this is what you shall say.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">17</span>When he came to him, he was standing beside his burnt offerings with the officials of Moab. Balak said to him, “What has the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> said?” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">18</span>Then Balaam uttered his oracle, saying:</span></p><div class="poetry"><p class="line"><span class="text">“Rise, Balak, and hear;</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">listen to me, O son of Zippor:</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">19</span>God is not a human being, that he should lie,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">or a mortal, that he should change his mind.</span></span><br /><span class="text">Has he promised, and will he not do it?</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">Has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">20</span>See, I received a command to bless;</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">21</span>He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob;</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">nor has he seen trouble in Israel.</span></span><br /><span class="text">The <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> their God is with them,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">acclaimed as a king among them.</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">22</span>God, who brings them out of Egypt,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">is like the horns of a wild ox for them.</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">23</span>Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">no divination against Israel;</span></span><br /><span class="text">now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">‘See what God has done!’</span></span><br /><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">24</span>Look, a people rising up like a lioness,</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">and rousing itself like a lion!</span></span><br /><span class="text">It does not lie down until it has eaten the prey</span><br /><span class="indent-1"><span class="indent-1-breaks">    </span><span class="text">and drunk the blood of the slain.”</span></span></p></div> <p><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">25</span>Then Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all, and do not bless them at all.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">26</span>But Balaam answered Balak, “Did I not tell you, ‘Whatever the <span style="font-variant: small-caps" class="small-caps">Lord</span> says, that is what I must do’?”</span></p> <p><span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">27</span>So Balak said to Balaam, “Come now, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">28</span>So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the wasteland.<span data-fn='#fen' class='footnote' data-link='[<a href="#fen-NRSVCE-4445d" title="See footnote d">d</a>]'>[<a href="#fen" xtitle="See footnote d">d</a>]</span> </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">29</span>Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.” </span> <span id="en" class="text"><span class="versenum">30</span>So Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.</span></p> <A name="fen"></a><div class="footnotes"><h4>Footnotes</h4><ol><li id="fen"><a hlef="#en" xtitle="Go to Numbers 23:6">Numbers 23:6</a> <span class='footnote-text'>Heb <i>him</i></span></li><li id="fen"><a hlef="#en" xtitle="Go to Numbers 23:7">Numbers 23:7</a> <span class='footnote-text'>Heb <i>he</i></span></li><li id="fen"><a hlef="#en" xtitle="Go to Numbers 23:10">Numbers 23:10</a> <span class='footnote-text'>Or <i>fourth part</i></span></li><li id="fen"><a hlef="#en" xtitle="Go to Numbers 23:28">Numbers 23:28</a> <span class='footnote-text'>Or <i>overlooks Jeshimon</i></span></li></ol></div> </div></div></div></div></div> </div> </div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. 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