Chronological Plan

¹Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.”

²Balak did just as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.

³Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps the LORD will come to meet me, and whatever He shows me I will tell you.” So he went to a bare hill.

⁴Now God met with Balaam, and he said to Him, “I have set up the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.”

⁵Then the LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and this is what you shall speak.”

⁶So he returned to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, he and all the leaders of Moab.

⁷And he took up his discourse and said, “From Aram Balak has brought me, Moab’s king from the mountains of the East, saying, ‘Come, declare Jacob cursed for me, And come, curse Israel!’

⁸How am I to put a curse on him upon whom God has not put a curse? And how am I to curse him whom the LORD has not cursed?

⁹For I see him from the top of the rocks, And I look at him from the hills; Behold, a people that lives in isolation, And does not consider itself to be among the nations.

¹⁰Who has counted the dust of Jacob, Or the number of the fourth part of Israel? May I die the death of the upright, And may my end be like his!”

¹¹Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to put a curse on my enemies, but behold, you have actually blessed them!”

¹²He replied, “Must I not be careful to speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?”

¹³Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from where you may see them, although you will only see the extreme end of them and will not see all of them; and put a curse on them for me from there.”

¹⁴So he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

¹⁵Then he said to Balak, “Stand here beside your burnt offering while I myself meet the LORD over there.”

¹⁶Then the LORD met Balaam and put a word in his mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and this is what you shall speak.”

¹⁷So he came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the leaders of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the LORD spoken?”

¹⁸Then he took up his discourse and said, “Arise, Balak, and hear; Listen to me, son of Zippor!

¹⁹God is not a man, that He would lie, Nor a son of man, that He would change His mind; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

²⁰Behold, I have received a command to bless; When He has blessed, I cannot revoke it.

²¹He has not looked at misfortune in Jacob; Nor has He seen trouble in Israel; The LORD his God is with him, And the joyful shout of a king is among them.

²²God brings them out of Egypt, He is for them like the horns of the wild ox.

²³For there is no magic curse against Jacob, Nor is there any divination against Israel; At the proper time it shall be said to Jacob And to Israel, what God has done!

²⁴Behold, a people rises like a lioness, And like a lion it raises itself; It will not lie down until it devours the prey, And drinks the blood of those slain.”

²⁵Then Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all nor bless them at all!”

²⁶But Balaam replied to Balak, “Did I not tell you, ‘Whatever the LORD speaks, I must do’?”

²⁷Then Balak said to Balaam, “Please come, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will be agreeable with God that you curse them for me from there.”

²⁸So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the desert.

²⁹And Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.”

³⁰Balak did just as Balaam had said, and offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.

¹When Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he did not go as at other times to seek omens, rather he turned his attention toward the wilderness.

²And Balaam raised his eyes and saw Israel camping tribe by tribe; and the Spirit of God came upon him.

³Then he took up his discourse and said, “The declaration of Balaam the son of Beor, And the declaration of the man whose eye is opened;

⁴The declaration of him who hears the words of God, Who sees the vision of the Almighty, Falling down, yet having his eyes uncovered,

⁵How pleasant are your tents, Jacob, Your dwelling places, Israel!

⁶Like valleys that stretch out, Like gardens beside a river, Like aloes planted by the LORD, Like cedars beside the waters.

⁷Water will flow from his buckets, And his seed will be by many waters, And his king shall be higher than Agag, And his kingdom shall be exalted.

⁸God brings him out of Egypt, He is for him like the horns of the wild ox. He will devour the nations who are his adversaries, And will crush their bones, And smash them with his arrows.

⁹He crouches, he lies down like a lion, And like a lioness, who dares to rouse him? Blessed is everyone who blesses you, And cursed is everyone who curses you.”

¹⁰Then Balak’s anger burned against Balaam, and he struck his hands together; and Balak said to Balaam, “I called you to curse my enemies, but behold, you have persisted in blessing them these three times!

¹¹So flee to your place now. I said I would honor you greatly, but behold, the LORD has held you back from honor.”

¹²And Balaam said to Balak, “Did I not in fact tell your messengers whom you had sent to me, saying,

¹³‘If Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not do anything contrary to the command of the LORD, either good or bad, of my own accord. What the LORD speaks, I will speak’?

¹⁴So now, behold, I am going to my people; come, and I will advise you of what this people will do to your people in the days to come.”

¹⁵Then he took up his discourse and said, “The declaration of Balaam the son of Beor, And the declaration of the man whose eye is opened,

¹⁶The declaration of him who hears the words of God, And knows the knowledge of the Most High, Who sees the vision of the Almighty, Falling down, yet having his eyes uncovered:

¹⁷I see him, but not now; I look at him, but not near; A star shall appear from Jacob, A scepter shall rise from Israel, And shall smash the forehead of Moab, And overcome all the sons of Sheth.

¹⁸And Edom shall be a possession, Seir, its enemies, also will be a possession, While Israel performs valiantly.

¹⁹One from Jacob shall rule, And will eliminate the survivors from the city.”

²⁰And he looked at Amalek and took up his discourse and said, “Amalek was the first of the nations, But his end shall be destruction.”

²¹And he looked at the Kenite, and took up his discourse and said, “Your dwelling place is enduring, And your nest is set in the cliff.

²²Nevertheless Kain will suffer devastation; How long will Asshur keep you captive?”

²³Then he took up his discourse and said, “Oh, who can live unless God has ordained it?

²⁴But ships shall come from the coast of Kittim, And they shall oppress Asshur and oppress Eber; So they also will come to destruction.”

²⁵Then Balaam arose, and he departed and returned to his place, and Balak also went on his way.

¹While Israel remained at Shittim, the people began to commit infidelity with the daughters of Moab.

²For they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods.

³So Israel became followers of Baal of Peor, and the LORD was angry with Israel.

⁴And the LORD said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel.”

⁵So Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you kill his men who have become followers of Baal of Peor.”

⁶Then behold, one of the sons of Israel came and brought to his relatives a Midianite woman, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the sons of Israel, while they were weeping at the entrance of the tent of meeting.

⁷When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from the midst of the congregation and took a spear in his hand,

⁸and he went after the man of Israel into the inner room of the tent and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman, through the abdomen. So the plague on the sons of Israel was brought to a halt.

⁹But those who died from the plague were twenty-four thousand in number.

¹⁰Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

¹¹“Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has averted My wrath from the sons of Israel in that he was jealous with My jealousy among them, so that I did not destroy the sons of Israel in My jealousy.

¹²Therefore say, ‘Behold, I am giving him My covenant of peace;

¹³and it shall be for him and for his descendants after him, a covenant of a permanent priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the sons of Israel.’ ”

¹⁴Now the name of the dead man of Israel who was killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri the son of Salu, a leader of a father’s household among the Simeonites.

¹⁵And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi the daughter of Zur, who was head of the people of a father’s household in Midian.

¹⁶Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,

¹⁷“Be hostile to the Midianites and attack them;

¹⁸for they have been hostile to you with their tricks, with which they have deceived you in the matter of Peor and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the leader of Midian, their sister who was killed on the day of the plague because of Peor.”