He replied to them, “Stay ¹  here tonight, and I will bring back to you whatever word the Lord may speak to me.” So the princes of Moab stayed with Balaam.

When Balak heard that Balaam was coming, he went out to meet him at a city of Moab which was on the border of the Arnon at the boundary of his territory.

Then Balaam ¹  uttered ²  his oracle, saying, “Balak, the king of Moab, brought me ³  from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, ‘Come, pronounce a curse on Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel.’ ⁴ 

When Balaam ¹  came to him, he was still standing by his burnt offering, along with the princes of Moab. And Balak said to him, “What has the Lord spoken?”

These are those who were numbered by Moses and Eleazar the priest, who numbered the Israelites in the plains of Moab along the Jordan River opposite Jericho. ¹ 

These are the commandments and the decisions that the Lord commanded the Israelites through the authority ¹  of Moses, on the plains of Moab by the Jordan River ²  opposite Jericho. ³ 

For Heshbon was the city of King Sihon of the Amorites. Now he had fought against the former king of Moab and had taken all of his land from his control, ¹  as far as the Arnon.

So the Moabites said to the elders of Midian, “Now this mass of people ¹  will lick up everything around us, as the bull devours the grass of the field. Now Balak son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at this time.

‘I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not close at hand. ¹  A star ²  will march forth ³  out of Jacob, and a scepter ⁴  will rise out of Israel. He will crush the skulls ⁵  of Moab, and the heads ⁶  of all the sons of Sheth. ⁷ 

They brought the captives and the spoils and the plunder to Moses, to Eleazar the priest, and to the Israelite community, to the camp on the plains ¹  of Moab, along the Jordan River ²  across from Jericho. ³