The Wilderness Years

So Balak took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, where he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your burnt offering while I meet the LORD over there.”

And the LORD met with Balaam and put a message in his mouth, saying, “Return to Balak and speak what I tell you.”

So he returned to Balak, who was standing there by his burnt offering with the princes of Moab. “What did the LORD say?” Balak asked.

Then Balaam lifted up an oracle, saying: “Arise, O Balak, and listen; give ear to me, O son of Zippor.

God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?

I have indeed received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot change it.

He considers no disaster for Jacob; He sees no trouble for Israel. The LORD their God is with them, and the shout of the King is among them.

God brought them out of Egypt with strength like a wild ox.

For there is no spell against Jacob and no divination against Israel. It will now be said of Jacob and Israel, ‘What great things God has done!’

Behold, the people rise like a lioness; they rouse themselves like a lion, not resting until they devour their prey and drink the blood of the slain.”

Now Balak said to Balaam, “Then neither curse them at all nor bless them at all!”

But Balaam replied, “Did I not tell you that whatever the LORD says, I must do?”

“Please come,” said Balak, “I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God that you curse them for me from there.”

And Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the wasteland.

Then Balaam said, “Build for me seven altars here, and prepare for me seven bulls and seven rams.”

So Balak did as Balaam had instructed, and he offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

And when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he did not resort to sorcery as on previous occasions, but he turned his face toward the wilderness.

When Balaam looked up and saw Israel encamped tribe by tribe, the Spirit of God came upon him,

and he lifted up an oracle, saying: “This is the prophecy of Balaam son of Beor, the prophecy of a man whose eyes are open,

the prophecy of one who hears the words of God, who sees a vision from the Almighty, who bows down with eyes wide open:

How lovely are your tents, O Jacob, your dwellings, O Israel!

They spread out like palm groves, like gardens beside a stream, like aloes the LORD has planted, like cedars beside the waters.

Water will flow from his buckets, and his seed will have abundant water. His king will be greater than Agag, and his kingdom will be exalted.

God brought him out of Egypt with strength like a wild ox, to devour hostile nations and crush their bones, to pierce them with arrows.