The Living Bible (52 page)

Numbers
22

The people of Israel now traveled to the plains of Moab and camped east of the Jordan River opposite Jericho.
^2-3
 When King Balak of Moab (the son of Zippor) realized how many of them there were, and when he learned what they had done to the Amorites, he and his people were terrified.
⁴
 They quickly consulted with the leaders of Midian.

    
“This mob will eat us like an ox eats grass,” they exclaimed.

    
So King Balak
^5-6
 sent messengers to Balaam (son of Beor) who was living in his native land of Pethor, near the Euphrates River. He begged Balaam to come and help him.

    
“A vast horde of people has arrived from Egypt, and they cover the face of the earth and are headed toward me,” he frantically explained. “Please come and curse them for me, so that I can drive them out of my land; for I know what fantastic blessings fall on those whom you bless, and I also know that those whom you curse are doomed.”

    
⁷
 The messengers he sent were some of the top leaders of Moab and Midian. They went to Balaam with money in hand and urgently explained to him what Balak wanted.

    
⁸
 “Stay here overnight,” Balaam said, “and I’ll tell you in the morning whatever the Lord directs me to say.” So they did.

    
⁹
 That night God came to Balaam and asked him, “Who are these men?”

    
¹⁰
 “They have come from King Balak of Moab,” he replied.
¹¹
 “The king says that a vast horde of people from Egypt has arrived at his border, and he wants me to go at once and curse them, in the hope that he can battle them successfully.”

    
¹²
 “Don’t do it!” God told him. “You are not to curse them, for I have blessed them!”

    
¹³
 The next morning Balaam told the men, “Go on home! The Lord won’t let me do it.”

    
¹⁴
 So King Balak’s ambassadors returned without him and reported his refusal.
¹⁵
 Balak tried again. This time he sent a larger number of even more distinguished ambassadors than the former group.
^16-17
 They came to Balaam with this message:

    
“King Balak pleads with you to come. He promises you great honors plus any payment you ask. Name your own figure! Only come and curse these people for us.”

    
¹⁸
 But Balaam replied, “If he were to give me a palace filled with silver and gold, I could do nothing contrary to the command of the Lord my God.
¹⁹
 However, stay here tonight so that I can find out whether the Lord will add anything to what he said before.”

    
²⁰
 That night God told Balaam, “You may get up and go with these men, but be sure to say only what I tell you to.”

    
²¹
 So the next morning he saddled his donkey and started off with them.
^22-23
 But God was angry about Balaam’s eager attitude,
*
so he sent an Angel to stand in the road to kill him. As Balaam and two servants were riding along, Balaam’s donkey suddenly saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the road with a drawn sword. She bolted off the road into a field, but Balaam beat her back onto the road.
²⁴
 Now the Angel of the Lord stood at a place where the road went between two vineyard walls.
²⁵
 When the donkey saw him standing there, she squirmed past by pressing against the wall, crushing Balaam’s foot in the process. So he beat her again.
²⁶
 Then the Angel of the Lord moved farther down the road and stood in a place so narrow that the donkey couldn’t get by at all.
²⁷
 So she lay down in the road! In a great fit of temper Balaam beat her again with his staff.

    
²⁸
 Then the Lord caused the donkey to speak! “What have I done that deserves your beating me these three times?” she asked.

    
²⁹
 “Because you have made me look like a fool!” Balaam shouted. “I wish I had a sword with me, for I would kill you.”

    
³⁰
 “Have I ever done anything like this before in my entire life?” the donkey asked.

    
“No,” he admitted.

    
³¹
 Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes and he saw the Angel standing in the roadway with drawn sword, and he fell flat on the ground before him.

    
³²
 “Why did you beat your donkey those three times?” the Angel demanded. “I have come to stop you because you are headed for destruction.
³³
 Three times the donkey saw me and shied away from me; otherwise I would certainly have killed you by now and spared her.”

    
³⁴
 Then Balaam confessed, “I have sinned. I didn’t realize you were there. I will go back home if you don’t want me to go on.”

    
³⁵
 But the Angel told him, “Go with the men, but say only what I tell you to say.” So Balaam went on with them.
³⁶
 When King Balak heard that Balaam was on the way, he left the capital and went out to meet him at the Arnon River, at the border of his land.

    
³⁷
 “Why did you delay so long?” he asked Balaam. “Didn’t you believe me when I said I would give you great honors?”

    
³⁸
 Balaam replied, “I have come, but I have no power to say anything except what God tells me to say; and that is what I shall speak.”
³⁹
 Balaam accompanied the king to Kiriathhuzoth,
⁴⁰
 where King Balak sacrificed oxen and sheep, and gave animals to Balaam and the ambassadors for their sacrifices.
⁴¹
 The next morning Balak took Balaam to the top of Mount Bamoth-baal, from which he could see the people of Israel spread out before him.

Numbers
23

Balaam said to the king, “Build seven altars here, and prepare seven young bulls and seven rams for sacrifice.”

    
²
 Balak followed his instructions, and a young bull and a ram were sacrificed on each altar.

    
^3-4
 Then Balaam said to the king, “Stand here by your burnt offerings and I will see if the Lord will meet me; and I will tell you what he says to me.” So he went up to a barren height, and God met him there. Balaam told the Lord, “I have prepared seven altars and have sacrificed a young bull and a ram on each.”
⁵
 Then the Lord gave Balaam a message for King Balak.

    
⁶
 When Balaam returned, the king was standing beside the burnt offerings with all the princes of Moab.
^7-10
 This was Balaam’s message:

    
“King Balak, king of Moab, has brought me

    
From the land of Aram,

    
From the eastern mountains.

    
‘Come,’ he told me, ‘curse Jacob for me!

    
Let your anger rise on Israel.’

    
But how can I curse

    
What God has not cursed?

    
How can I denounce

    
A people God has not denounced?

    
I see them from the cliff tops,

    
I watch them from the hills.

    
They live alone,

    
And prefer to remain distinct

    
From every other nation.

    
They are as numerous as dust!

    
They are beyond numbering.

    
If only I could die as happy as an Israelite!

    
Oh, that my end might be like theirs!”

    
¹¹
 “What have you done to me?” demanded King Balak. “I told you to curse my enemies, and now you have blessed them!”

    
¹²
 But Balaam replied, “Can I say anything except what Jehovah tells me to?”

    
¹³
 Then Balak told him, “Come with me to another place; there you will see only a portion of the nation of Israel. Curse at least that many!”

    
¹⁴
 So King Balak took Balaam into the fields of Zophim at the top of Mount Pisgah, and built seven altars there; and he offered up a young bull and a ram on each altar.

    
¹⁵
 Then Balaam said to the king, “Stand here by your burnt offering while I go to meet the Lord.”
¹⁶
 And the Lord met Balaam and told him what to say.
¹⁷
 So he returned to where the king and the princes of Moab were standing beside their burnt offerings.

    
“What has Jehovah said?” the king eagerly inquired.

    
^18-24
 And he replied,

    
“Rise up, Balak, and hear:

    
Listen to me, you son of Zippor.

    
God is not a man, that he should lie;

    
He doesn’t change his mind like humans do.

    
Has he ever promised,

    
Without doing what he said?

    
Look! I have received a command to bless them,

    
For God has blessed them,

    
And I cannot reverse it!

    
He has not seen sin in Jacob.

    
He will not trouble Israel!

    
Jehovah their God is with them.

    
He is their king!

    
God has brought them out of Egypt.

    
Israel has the strength of a wild ox.

    
No curse can be placed on Jacob,

    
And no magic shall be done against him.

    
For now it shall be said of Israel,

    
‘What wonders God has done for them!’

    
These people rise up as a lion;

    
They shall not lie down

    
Until they have eaten what they capture

    
And have drunk the blood of the slain!”

    
²⁵
 “If you aren’t going to curse them, at least don’t
bless
them!” the king exclaimed to Balaam.

    
²⁶
 But Balaam replied, “Didn’t I tell you that I must say whatever Jehovah tells me to?”

    
²⁷
 Then the king said to Balaam, “I will take you to yet another place. Perhaps it will please God to let you curse them from there.”

    
²⁸
 So King Balak took Balaam to the top of Mount Peor, overlooking the desert.
²⁹
 Balaam again told the king to build seven altars, and to prepare seven young bulls and seven rams for the sacrifice.
³⁰
 The king did as Balaam said, and offered a young bull and ram on every altar.