Then God gave Balaam a message: “Return to Balak and give him this message.”

6-10 He went back and found him stationed beside his Whole-Burnt-Offering and with him all the nobles of Moab. Then Balaam spoke his message-oracle:

Balak led me here from Aram,
    the king of Moab all the way from the eastern mountains.
“Go, curse Jacob for me;
    go, damn Israel.”
How can I curse whom God has not cursed?
    How can I damn whom God has not damned?
From rock pinnacles I see them,
    from hilltops I survey them:
Look! a people camping off by themselves,
    thinking themselves outsiders among nations.
But who could ever count the dust of Jacob
    or take a census of cloud-of-dust Israel?
I want to die like these right-living people!
    I want an end just like theirs!

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The Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth(A) and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this word.”(B)

So he went back to him and found him standing beside his offering, with all the Moabite officials.(C) Then Balaam(D) spoke his message:(E)

“Balak brought me from Aram,(F)
    the king of Moab from the eastern mountains.(G)
‘Come,’ he said, ‘curse Jacob for me;
    come, denounce Israel.’(H)

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