4Q175

The Lord spoke to Moses saying: You have heard the words which this people have spoken to you; all they have said is right.^[1] O that their heart were always like this, to fear me and to keep my commandments always, that it might be well with them and their children for ever! I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren. I will put my words into his mouth and he shall tell them all that I command him. And I will require a reckoning of whoever will not listen to the words which the Prophet shall speak in my Name. He took up his discourse and said: Oracle of Balaam son of Beor. Oracle of the man whose eye is penetrating. Oracle of him who has heard the words of God, who knows the wisdom of the Most High and sees the vision of the Almighty, who falls and his eyes are opened. I see him but not now. I behold him but not near. A star shall come out of Jacob and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel; he shall crush the temples of Moab and destroy all the children of Sheth. And of Levi he said: Give Thy Tummim to Levi, and Thy Urim to Thy pious one whom Thou didst test at Massah, and with whom Thou didst quarrel at the waters of Meribah; who said to his father and mother, ‘I know you not’, and who did not acknowledge his brother, or know his sons. For they observed Thy word and kept Thy Covenant. They shall cause Thy precepts to shine before Jacob and Thy Law before Israel. They shall send up incense towards Thy nostrils and place a burnt-offering upon Thine altar. Bless his power, O Lord, and delight in the work of his hands. Smite the loins of his adversaries and let his enemies rise no more. When Joshua had finished offering praise and thanksgiving, he said: Cursed be the man who rebuilds this city! May he lay its foundation on his first-born, and set its gate upon his youngest son. Behold, an accursed man, a man of Belial, has risen to become a fowler’s net to his people, and a cause of destruction to all his neighbours. And his brother arose and ruled in lies, both being instruments of violence. They have rebuilt this city and have set up for it a wall and towers to make of it a stronghold of ungodliness in Israel, and a horror in Ephraim and in Judah ... They have committed an abomination in the land, and a great blasphemy among the children of Jacob. They have shed blood like water upon the ramparts of the daughter of Zion and within the precincts of Jerusalem.