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⁵The Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, ‘Return to Balak, and this is what you must say.’ ⁶So he returned to Balak,^* who was standing beside his burnt-offerings with all the officials of Moab. ⁷Then Balaam^* uttered his oracle, saying:
‘Balak has brought me from Aram,
   the king of Moab from the eastern mountains:
“Come, curse Jacob for me;
   Come, denounce Israel!”
⁸ How can I curse whom God has not cursed?
   How can I denounce those whom the Lord has not denounced?
⁹ For from the top of the crags I see him,
   from the hills I behold him;
Here is a people living alone,
   and not reckoning itself among the nations!
¹⁰ Who can count the dust of Jacob,
   or number the dust-cloud^* of Israel?
Let me die the death of the upright,
   and let my end be like his!’

11 Then Balak said to Balaam, ‘What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but now you have done nothing but bless them.’ ¹²He answered, ‘Must I not take care to say what the Lord puts into my mouth?’