4 God met with Balaam and he said to Him, “I have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I offered a bull and a ram.”
5 Adonai put a message into Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak and speak this.”
6 Balaam went back to him. Behold, he was standing beside his offering with all the princes of Moab.
7 Then he uttered his oracle and said, “From Aram, Balak brought me, Moab’s king from the mountains of the east: ‘Come! Curse Jacob for me! ‘Come! Denounce Israel!’
8 How can I curse one whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce one whom Adonai has not denounced?
9 From the rocky peaks I see him. From the heights I behold him. Look, he lives as a nation apart, and does not consider himself as being like the other nations.
10 Who can count Jacob’s dust? Who can number a fourth of Israel? Let my soul die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his!”