{
 "id": "john-newton/balaams-wish",
 "title": "Balaam’s Wish.",
 "ordinal": "20",
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "John Newton",
 "poet_slug": "john-newton",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Olney Hymns",
 "book_slug": "olney-hymns",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 20,
 "container": "Book I On Select Texts of Scripture",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1779,
  "venue": "Olney Hymns (1779)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_olney-hymns-in-three-bo_newton-john_1779",
   "https://cowperandnewtonmuseum.org.uk/bulletin/computerised-index-to-the-olney-hymns/",
   "https://archive.org/details/olneyhymnsinthre00cowpuoft"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/john-newton_william-cowper_olney-hymns",
  "file": "book-1.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Olney_Hymns_%281840%29",
   "https://archive.org/details/olneyhymnsinthre00cowpuoft"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-15"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 24,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 6,
  "longest_line_chars": 39,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [
  {
   "ordinal": "I",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    0,
    1
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "II",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    1,
    2
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "III",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    2,
    3
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "IV",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    3,
    4
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "V",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    4,
    5
   ]
  },
  {
   "ordinal": "VI",
   "title": null,
   "stanza_range": [
    5,
    6
   ]
  }
 ],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "How bless’d the righteous are",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When they resign their breath!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "No wonder Balaam wish’d to share",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In such a happy death.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "“Oh! let me die,” said he,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“The death the righteous do⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When life is ended, let me be",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Found with the faithful few.”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The force of truth, how great!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When enemies confess,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "None but the righteous, whom they hate,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "A solid hope possess.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "But Balaam’s wish was vain,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "His heart was insincere;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "He thirsted for unrighteous gain.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And sought a portion here.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "He seem’d the Lord to know,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And to offend him loath;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But Mammon proved his overthrow,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For none can serve them both.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "May you, my friends, and I,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Warning from hence receive,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "If like the righteous we would die,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To choose the life they live.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}