Study Desk

Then 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!"

Then 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."

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

Then 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."

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

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

'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'?

for in the wilderness of Zin, during the strife of the congregation, you rebelled against My command to treat Me as holy before their eyes at the water." (These are the waters of Meribah of Kadesh in the wilderness of Zin.)

"Command the sons of Israel and say to them, 'You shall be careful to present to Me My offering, My food for My offerings by fire, of a soothing aroma to Me, at their appointed time.'

'None of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; for they did not follow Me fully,

"And you answered me and said, 'The thing which you have said to do is good.'

'You are not to show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You are not to be afraid of any person, for the judgment is God's. The case that is too difficult for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.'

"Then all of you approached me and said, 'Let us send men ahead of us, so that they may spy out the land for us, and bring back to us word of the way by which we should go up, and the cities which we should enter.'

"The plan pleased me, and I took twelve of your men, one man for each tribe.

"The LORD was angry with me also on your account, saying, 'Not even you shall enter there.

"Then you replied to me, 'We have sinned against the LORD; we ourselves will go up and fight, just as the LORD our God commanded us.' And every man of you strapped on his weapons of war, and you viewed it as easy to go up into the hill country.

"But the LORD said to me, 'Say to them, "Do not go up nor fight, for I am not among you; otherwise you will be defeated by your enemies."'

"Then we turned and set out for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea, as the LORD spoke to me, and we circled Mount Seir for many days.

"And the LORD spoke to me, saying,

"Then the LORD said to me, 'Do not attack Moab, nor provoke them to war, for I will not give you any of their land as a possession, because I have given Ar to the sons of Lot as a possession.'