3. Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here near this altar. I will go to another place. Then the Lord will come to me, and he will tell me what I must say.” Then Balaam went away to a higher place.
4. God came to Balaam at that place, and Balaam said, “I have prepared seven altars. And I have killed a bull and a ram as a sacrifice on each altar.”
5. Then the Lord gave Balaam a message for Balak and said, “Go back to Balak and say the things that I have given you to say.”
6. So Balaam went back to Balak. Balak was still standing near the altar, and all the leaders of Moab were standing there with them.
7. Then Balaam spoke, and this was his message: “Balak, the king of Moab, brought me here from the eastern mountains of Aram. Balak said to me, ‘Come, curse Jacob for me. Come, speak against the Israelites.’
8. But God is not against them, so I cannot speak against them either! The Lord has not asked for bad things to happen to these people. So I cannot do that either.