^{3 Ref} Balaam said to Balak, Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go: perhaps Yahweh will come to meet me; and whatever he shows me I will tell you. He went to a bare height.

^{4 Ref} God met Balaam: and he said to him, I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.

^{5 Ref} Yahweh put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.

⁶ He returned to him, and, behold, he was standing by his burnt-offering, he, and all the princes of Moab.

^{7 Ref} He took up his parable, and said, From Aram has Balak brought me, The king of Moab from the mountains of the East: Come, curse me Jacob, Come, defy Israel.

^{8 Ref} How shall I curse, whom God has not cursed? How shall I defy, whom Yahweh has not defied?

^{9 Ref} For from the top of the rocks I see him, From the hills I see him: behold, it is a people that dwells alone, And shall not be reckoned among the nations.

^{10 Ref} Who can count the dust of Jacob, Or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, Let my last end be like his!

^{11 Ref} Balak said to Balaam, What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and, behold, you have blessed them altogether.

^{12 Ref} He answered and said, Must I not take heed to speak that which Yahweh puts in my mouth?