The Wilderness Years

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,

He said to Balac: Stand here by thy burnt offering while I go to meet him.

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.

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?

But he taking up his parable, said: Stand, O Balac, and give ear: hear, thou son of Sephor:

God is not a man, that he should lie, nor is 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?

I was brought to bless, the blessing I am not able to hinder.

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.

God hath brought him out of Egypt, whose strength is like to the rhinoceros.

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.

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.

And Balac said to Balaam: Neither curse, nor bless him.

And he said: Did I not tell thee, that whatsoever God should command me, that I would do?

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.

And when he had brought him upon the top of mount Phogor, which looketh towards the wilderness,

Balaam said to him: Build me here seven altars, and prepare as many calves, and the same number of rams.

Balac did as Balaam had said: and he laid on every altar, a calf and a ram.

And when Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord that he should bless Israel, he went not as he had gone before, to seek divination: but setting his face towards the desert,

And lifting up his eyes, he saw Israel abiding in their tents by their tribes: and the spirit of God rushing upon him,

He took up his parable and said: Balaam the son of Beor hath said: The man hath said, whose eye is stopped up:

The bearer of the words of God hath said, he that hath beheld the vision of the Almighty, he that falleth, and so his eyes are opened:

How beautiful are thy tabernacles O Jacob, and thy tents, O Israel!

As woody valleys, as watered gardens near the rivers, as tabernacles which the Lord hath pitched, as cedars by the waterside.

Water shall flow out of his bucket, and his seed shall be in many waters. For Agag his king shall be removed, and his kingdom shall be taken away.

God hath brought him out of Egypt, whose strength is like to the rhinoceros. They shall devour the nations that are his enemies, and break their bones, and pierce them with arrows.