"27 And Balak said to Balaam, “Come now, I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.” 28 So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the desert. 29 And Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me here seven altars and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.” 30 And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
24 When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he did not go, as at other times, to look for omens, but set his face toward the wilderness. 2 And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel camping tribe by tribe. And the Spirit of God came upon him, 3 and he took up his discourse and said,
“The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor,
the oracle of the man whose eye is opened,
4 the oracle of him who hears the words of God,
who sees the vision of the Almighty,
falling down with his eyes uncovered:
5 How lovely are your tents, O Jacob,
your encampments, O Israel!
6 Like palm groves[b] that stretch afar,
like gardens beside a river,
like aloes that the Lord has planted,
like cedar trees beside the waters.
7 Water shall flow from his buckets,
and his seed shall be in many waters;
his king shall be higher than Agag,
and his kingdom shall be exalted.
8 God brings him out of Egypt
and is for him like the horns of the wild ox;
he shall eat up the nations, his adversaries,
and shall break their bones in pieces
and pierce them through with his arrows.
9 He crouched, he lay down like a lion
and like a lioness; who will rouse him up?
Blessed are those who bless you,
and cursed are those who curse you."
Numbers 23:27-24:9
Balak is nothing if not persistent and tries yet again to get Balaam to curse Israel by suggesting another place from which to do so. He has not, apparently, 'got the message' that there is no place from which the people of God can be cursed. But Balaam is 'getting the message' all right, and he changes his tack (24:1) going into the wilderness, where he views the encamped Israelites spread out before him. The sight seem to have moved him deeply, and the Spirit of God came upon him, causing him to prophesy once again. On the two earlier occasions, it was a case of the word of the Lord being given him, whereas here the seer was brought into an ecstatic state in which he received the word of the Lord. Perhaps we are meant to regard this as an accumulative effect, as if to underline that God was really intent on blessing, not cursing, His people. At all events, the blessing he pronounced on Israel was very definite, and of a twofold nature: on the one hand he spoke of the glorious prosperity of Israel, and the exaltation of their kingdom (57); on the other, he spoke of the terrible power, so fatal to all its foes, of the people which was sent to be a curse or a blessing to all the nations (8, 9). This twofold blessing we will next look at in more detail.