Chronological Plan

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

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

³Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand by 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 desolate height.

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

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

⁶So he returned to him, and there he was, standing by his burnt offering, he and all the princes of Moab.

⁷And he took up his oracle and said: “Balak the king of Moab has brought me from Aram, From the mountains of the east. ‘Come, curse Jacob for me, And come, denounce Israel!’

⁸“How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? And how shall I denounce whom the LORD has not denounced?

⁹For from the top of the rocks I see him, And from the hills I behold him; There! A people dwelling alone, Not reckoning itself among the nations.

¹⁰“Who can count the dust of Jacob, Or number one-fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, And let my end be like his!”

¹¹Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and look, you have blessed them bountifully!”

¹²So he answered and said, “Must I not take heed to speak what the LORD has put in my mouth?”

¹³Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from which you may see them; you shall see only the outer part of them, and shall not see them all; curse them for me from there.”

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

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

¹⁶Then the LORD met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, “Go back to Balak, and thus you shall speak.”

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

¹⁸Then he took up his oracle and said: “Rise up, Balak, and hear! Listen to me, son of Zippor!

¹⁹“God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

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

²¹“He has not observed iniquity in Jacob, Nor has He seen wickedness in Israel. The LORD his God is with him, And the shout of a King is among them.

²²God brings them out of Egypt; He has strength like a wild ox.

²³“For there is no sorcery against Jacob, Nor any divination against Israel. It now must be said of Jacob And of Israel, ‘Oh, what God has done!’

²⁴Look, a people rises like a lioness, And lifts itself up like a lion; It shall not lie down until it devours the prey, And drinks the blood of the slain.”

²⁵Then Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all!”

²⁶So Balaam answered and said to Balak, “Did I not tell you, saying, ‘All that the LORD speaks, that I must do’?”

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

²⁸So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that overlooks the wasteland.

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

³⁰And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on every altar.

¹Now when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he did not go as at other times, to seek to use sorcery, but he set his face toward the wilderness.

²And Balaam raised his eyes, and saw Israel encamped according to their tribes; and the Spirit of God came upon him.

³Then he took up his oracle and said: “The utterance of Balaam the son of Beor, The utterance of the man whose eyes are opened,

⁴The utterance of him who hears the words of God, Who sees the vision of the Almighty, Who falls down, with eyes wide open:

⁵“How lovely are your tents, O Jacob! Your dwellings, O Israel!

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

⁷He shall pour water from his buckets, And his seed shall be in many waters. “His king shall be higher than Agag, And his kingdom shall be exalted.

⁸“God brings him out of Egypt; He has strength like a wild ox; He shall consume the nations, his enemies; He shall break their bones And pierce them with his arrows.

⁹‘He bows down, he lies down as a lion; And as a lion, who shall rouse him?’ “Blessed is he who blesses you, And cursed is he who curses you.”

¹⁰Then Balak’s anger was aroused against Balaam, and he struck his hands together; and Balak said to Balaam, “I called you to curse my enemies, and look, you have bountifully blessed them these three times!

¹¹Now therefore, flee to your place. I said I would greatly honor you, but in fact, the LORD has kept you back from honor.”

¹²So Balaam said to Balak, “Did I not also speak to your messengers whom you sent to me, saying,

¹³‘If Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not go beyond the word of the LORD, to do good or bad of my own will. What the LORD says, that I must speak’?

¹⁴And now, indeed, I am going to my people. Come, I will advise you what this people will do to your people in the latter days.”

¹⁵So he took up his oracle and said: “The utterance of Balaam the son of Beor, And the utterance of the man whose eyes are opened;

¹⁶The utterance of him who hears the words of God, And has the knowledge of the Most High, Who sees the vision of the Almighty, Who falls down, with eyes wide open:

¹⁷“I see Him, but not now; I behold Him, but not near; A Star shall come out of Jacob; A Scepter shall rise out of Israel, And batter the brow of Moab, And destroy all the sons of tumult.

¹⁸“And Edom shall be a possession; Seir also, his enemies, shall be a possession, While Israel does valiantly.

¹⁹Out of Jacob One shall have dominion, And destroy the remains of the city.”

²⁰Then he looked on Amalek, and he took up his oracle and said: “Amalek was first among the nations, But shall be last until he perishes.”

²¹Then he looked on the Kenites, and he took up his oracle and said: “Firm is your dwelling place, And your nest is set in the rock;

²²Nevertheless Kain shall be burned. How long until Asshur carries you away captive?”

²³Then he took up his oracle and said: “Alas! Who shall live when God does this?

²⁴But ships shall come from the coasts of Cyprus, And they shall afflict Asshur and afflict Eber, And so shall Amalek, until he perishes.”

²⁵So Balaam rose and departed and returned to his place; Balak also went his way.

¹Now Israel remained in Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab.

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

³So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the LORD was aroused against Israel.

⁴Then the LORD said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and hang the offenders before the LORD, out in the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel.”

⁵So Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Every one of you kill his men who were joined to Baal of Peor.”

⁶And indeed, one of the children of Israel came and presented to his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping at the door of the tabernacle of meeting.

⁷Now when Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand;

⁸and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel.

⁹And those who died in the plague were twenty-four thousand.

¹⁰Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:

¹¹“Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the children of Israel, because he was zealous with My zeal among them, so that I did not consume the children of Israel in My zeal.

¹²Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace;

¹³and it shall be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.’ ”

¹⁴Now the name of the Israelite who was killed, who was killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri the son of Salu, a leader of a father’s house among the Simeonites.

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

¹⁶Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying:

¹⁷“Harass the Midianites, and attack them;

¹⁸for they harassed you with their schemes by which they seduced you in the matter of Peor and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a leader of Midian, their sister, who was killed in the day of the plague because of Peor.”