He sent messengers therefore unto Balaam the son of Beor to Pethor, which is by the river of the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying, Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt: behold, they cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against me:

Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people; for they are too mighty for me: peradventure I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land: for I wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed.

So the responsible men of Moab and Midian went away, taking in their hands rewards for the prophet; and they came to Balaam and said to him what Balak had given them orders to say.

And he said to them, Take your rest here tonight, and I will give you an answer after hearing what the Lord says; so the chiefs of Moab kept there with Balaam that night.

And God came unto Balaam, and said, What men are these with thee?

Behold, there is a people come out of Egypt, which covereth the face of the earth: come now, curse me them; peradventure I shall be able to overcome them, and drive them out.

and God saith unto Balaam, 'Thou dost not go with them; thou dost not curse the people; for it is blessed.'

And Balak sent yet again princes, more, and more honourable than they.

They came to Balaam and said to him, “This is what Balak son of Zippor says: ‘Let nothing keep you from coming to me,

But Balaam, in answer; said to the servants of Balak, Even if Balak gave me his house full of silver and gold, it would not be possible for me to do anything more or less than the orders of the Lord my God.

Now therefore, I pray you, tarry ye also here this night, that I may know what the LORD will say unto me more.

And God came unto Balaam at night, and said unto him, If the men come to call thee, rise up, and go with them; but yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do.

At this, the anger of the LORD flared up against Balaam, because he was leaving. So the angel of the LORD stood in the way to oppose him. As Balaam was riding his donkey, accompanied by two of his servants,

And the ass saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand: and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field: and Balaam smote the ass, to turn her into the way.

but the angel of the LORD stood on a narrow path that crossed the vineyards. It had walls on both sides of the path.

When the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord, she pressed herself against the wall and crushed Balaam’s foot against it, and he struck her again.

Then the angel of the LORD went along a little further and stood in a much narrower space, where it was impossible to turn either right or left.

And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?

and the ass saith unto Balaam, 'Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden since I was thine unto this day? have I at all been accustomed to do to thee thus?' and he saith, 'No.'

And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? behold, I went out to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse before me:

and the ass seeth me, and turneth aside at my presence these three times; unless she had turned aside from my presence, surely now also, thee I had slain, and her kept alive.'

And Balaam said unto the angel of the LORD, I have sinned; for I knew not that thou stoodest in the way against me: now therefore, if it displease thee, I will get me back again.

And the messenger of Jehovah saith unto Balaam, 'Go with the men; and only the word which I speak unto thee -- it thou dost speak;' and Balaam goeth with the princes of Balak.

And when Balak heard that Balaam was come, he went out to meet him unto a city of Moab, which is in the border of Arnon, which is in the utmost coast.

And Balaam said unto Balak, Lo, I am come unto thee: have I now any power at all to say any thing? the word that God putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak.

And it came to pass on the morrow, that Balak took Balaam, and brought him up into the high places of Baal, that thence he might see the utmost part of the people.

and Balaam saith to Balak, 'Station thyself by thy burnt-offering and I go on, it may be Jehovah doth come to meet me, and the thing which He sheweth me -- I have declared to thee;' and he goeth to a high place.

Then the Lord put a message in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak and say what I tell you.”

And he took up his parable, and said, Balak the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse me Jacob, and come, defy Israel.

What -- do I pierce? -- God hath not pierced! And what -- am I indignant? -- Jehovah hath not been indignant!

For from the top of the rocks I see him, And from the hills I behold him: lo, it is a people that dwelleth alone, And shall not be reckoned among the nations.

Who divided out the dust of Jacob and who numbered the fourth of Israel? My soul shall die the death of the just, and my latter state shall be as his.

And Balak said unto Balaam, What hast thou done unto me? I took thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast blessed them altogether.

and he answereth and saith, 'That which Jehovah doth put in my mouth -- it do I not take heed to speak?'

And Balak saith unto him, 'Come, I pray thee, with me unto another place, whence thou dost see it, only its extremity thou dost see, and all of it thou dost not see, and pierce it for me thence;'

Balaam said to Balak, "Station yourself here at the burnt offering while I myself meet with [Yahweh] there."

The Lord met with Balaam and put a message in his mouth. Then He said, “Return to Balak and say what I tell you.”

And when he came to him, behold, he stood by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said unto him, What hath the LORD spoken?

Balaam proclaimed his poem:

Balak, get up and listen;
son of Zippor, pay attention to what I say!

God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?

Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it.

He has not responded to iniquity in Jacob or gazed at mischief in Israel. The LORD his God is with them, and the triumphant cry of a king is among them.

God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.

Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!

Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion: he shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the slain.

And Balak said unto Balaam, Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.

and Balaam answereth and saith unto Balak, 'Have I not spoken unto thee, saying, All that Jehovah speaketh -- it I do?'

And Balak said unto Balaam, Come, I pray thee, I will bring thee unto another place; peradventure it will please God that thou mayest curse me them from thence.

Balak did just what Balaam had instructed he offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

And when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he went not, as at other times, to seek for enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness.

Balaam lift up his eyes, and he saw Israel dwelling according to its tribes, and the spirit of God was upon it.

He took up his [third] discourse (oracle) and said:

“The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor,
And the oracle of the man whose eye is opened [at last, to see clearly the purpose and will of God],

A declaration from one who hears what God has to say, who saw the vision that the Almighty revealed, who keeps stumbling with open eyes.

As valleys they have been stretched out, As gardens by a river; As aloes Jehovah hath planted, As cedars by waters;

He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters, and his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted.

God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows.

He took his sleep stretched out like a lion, and like a she-lion: by whom will his rest be broken? May a blessing be on everyone who gives you blessing, and a curse on everyone by whom you are cursed.

Balak flew into a rage and he started hitting his fists together. "I called you to curse my enemies," he yelled at Balaam. "But look here! You've blessed them three times!

Therefore now flee to your place! I had intended to honor you greatly, but behold, the Lord has held you back from honor.”

And Balaam said unto Balak, - Was it not so that even unto thy messengers whom thou didst send unto m, I spake saying-

If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the LORD, to do either good or bad of mine own mind; but what the LORD saith, that will I speak?

And now, behold, I go unto my people: come therefore, and I will advertise thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days.

A declaration from one who hears what God has to say, who knows what the Most High knows, who saw the vision that the Almighty revealed, who keeps stumbling with open eyes.

I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.

Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city.

Balaam looked at Amalek and took up his [fifth] discourse (oracle) and said:

“Amalek was the first of the [neighboring] nations [to oppose the Israelites after they left Egypt],
But his end shall be destruction.”

And Balaam looked at the Kenites and took up his [sixth] discourse (oracle) and said:

“Strong is your dwelling place,
And you set your nest in the cliff.

Yet shall it be for destruction, O Kain, - How long shall Assyria hold thee captive?

Finally, he uttered this prophetic statement: "Ah, who can live, unless God makes it happen?

And -- ships are from the side of Chittim, And they have humbled Asshur, And they have humbled Eber, And it also for ever is perishing.'

While Israel remained at Shittim, the people began to play the harlot with the daughters of Moab.

And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods: and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.

And, behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the tent of meeting.

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

followed the Israelite man into the tent, and drove it through both the Israelite man and the woman—through her belly. Then the plague on the Israelites was stopped,

Then was it found that they who had died by the plague were four and twenty thousand.

And he shall have it, and his seed after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood; because he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for the children of Israel.

For they attacked you with the treachery that they used against you in the Peor incident. They did the same in the case involving their sister Cozbi, daughter of the Midianite leader who was killed the day the plague came at Peor.”

And it came to pass after the plague, that the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, saying,

'Take up the sum of all the company of the sons of Israel, from a son of twenty years and upward, by the house of their fathers, every one going out to the host in Israel.'

And Moses and Eleazar the priest spake with them in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying,

Take the sum of the people, from twenty years old and upward; as the LORD commanded Moses and the children of Israel, which went forth out of the land of Egypt.

The sons of Eliab were Nemuel, Dathan, and Abiram.
(It was Dathan and Abiram, chosen by the community, who fought against Moses and Aaron; they and Korah’s followers fought against the Lord.

And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up together with Korah, when that company died, what time the fire devoured two hundred and fifty men: and they became a sign.

And so, as to the sons of Judah, by their families, it was found that - To Shelah, pertained the family of the Shelanites, To Perez, the family of the Perezites, - To Zerah, the family of the Zerahites;

And, as to the sons of Perez, it was found that - To Hezron, pertained the family of the Hezronites, - To Hamul, the family of the Hamulites:

Increase the inheritance for a large tribe and decrease it for a small one. Each is to be given its inheritance according to those who were registered in it.

As it is ordered by the decision of the Lord, let distribution be made between those who are more in number and those who are less.

These are they that were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the children of Israel in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho.

And they stood before Moses, and before Eleazar the priest, and before the princes and all the congregation, at the door of the tent of meeting, saying,

“Our father died in the wilderness. He was not among those who assembled together against the Lord in the company of Korah, but he died for his own sin [as did all those who rebelled at Kadesh], and he had no sons.

Wherefore should the name of our father be withdrawn out of the midst of his family, because he had no son? Give ye unto us a possession, ill the midst of the brethren of our father.

“What Zelophehad’s daughters say is correct. You are to give them hereditary property among their father’s brothers and transfer their father’s inheritance to them.

And say to the children of Israel, If a man has no son at the time of his death, let his heritage go to his daughter.

And if his father have no brethren, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his kinsman that is next to him of his family, and he shall possess it: and it shall be unto the children of Israel a statute of judgment, as the LORD commanded Moses.

And when thou hast seen it, thou also shalt be gathered unto thy people, as Aaron thy brother was gathered.

For ye rebelled against my commandment in the desert of Zin, in the strife of the congregation, to sanctify me at the water before their eyes: that is the water of Meribah in Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.

Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, put a man at the head of this people,

Which may go out before them, and which may go in before them, and which may lead them out, and which may bring them in; that the congregation of the LORD be not as sheep which have no shepherd.

And he shall stand before Eleazar the priest, who shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim before the LORD: at his word shall they go out, and at his word they shall come in, both he, and all the children of Israel with him, even all the congregation.