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Wednesday, August 13th, 2025
the Week of Proper 14 / Ordinary 19
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Read the Bible

Brenton's Septuagint

Numbers 23:20

Behold, I have received commandment to bless: I will bless, and not turn back.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - God;   God Continued...;   Pisgah;   Prophets;   Thompson Chain Reference - Balaam;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Desert, Journey of Israel through the;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Camp, Encampments;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Balaam;   Moab;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Blessing and Cursing;   Poetry;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Balaam;   Balak;   Kibroth-Hattaavah;   Moab, Moabites;   Prophecy, Prophets;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Numbers, Book of;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - On to Canaan;   Moses, the Man of God;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Balaam;   Poetry, Hebrew;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Shema';  

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
Behold, I have received [mitzvah] to bless: He has blessed, and I can't reverse it.
King James Version
Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it.
Lexham English Bible
Behold, I have received a command to bless; when he has blessed, I cannot cause it to return.
English Standard Version
Behold, I received a command to bless: he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.
New Century Version
He told me to bless them, so I cannot change the blessing.
New English Translation
Indeed, I have received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.
Amplified Bible
"Behold, I have received His command to bless [Israel]. He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.
New American Standard Bible
"Behold, I have received a command to bless; When He has blessed, I cannot revoke it.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Behold, I haue receiued commandement to blesse: for he hath blessed, and I cannot alter it.
Legacy Standard Bible
Behold, I have received a command to bless;When He has blessed, then I cannot revoke it.
Contemporary English Version
"My command from God was to bless these people, and there's nothing I can do to change what he has done.
Complete Jewish Bible
Look, I am ordered to bless; when he blesses, I can't reverse it.
Darby Translation
Behold, I have received [mission] to bless; and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it.
Easy-to-Read Version
He told me to bless them. He blessed them, so I cannot change that.
George Lamsa Translation
Behold, I was brought here to bless; and I cannot reverse the blessing.
Good News Translation
I have been instructed to bless, And when God blesses, I cannot call it back.
Christian Standard Bible®
I have indeed received a command to bless;since he has blessed, I cannot change it.
Literal Translation
Behold, I have received word to bless; yes, He has blessed; I cannot reverse it.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Beholde, I am brought hither to blesse, I blesse, & can not go backe there fro.
American Standard Version
Behold, I have received commandment to bless: And he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it.
Bible in Basic English
See, I have had orders to give blessing: and he has given a blessing which I have no power to take away.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Beholde, I haue taken vpon me to blesse: for he hath blessed, and it is not in my power to aulter it.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Behold, I am bidden to bless; and when He hath blessed, I cannot call it back.
King James Version (1611)
Behold, I haue receiued commandement to blesse: and hee hath blessed, and I cannot reuerse it.
English Revised Version
Behold, I have received commandment to bless: And he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it.
Berean Standard Bible
I have indeed received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot change it.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Y am brouyt to blesse, Y may not forbede blessyng.
Young's Literal Translation
Lo, to bless I have received: Yea, He blesseth, and I [can]not reverse it.
Update Bible Version
Look, I have received [commandment] to bless: And he has blessed, and I can't reverse it.
Webster's Bible Translation
Behold, I have received [commandment] to bless: and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it.
World English Bible
Behold, I have received [commandment] to bless: He has blessed, and I can't reverse it.
New King James Version
Behold, I have received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.
New Living Translation
Listen, I received a command to bless; God has blessed, and I cannot reverse it!
New Life Bible
See, I have been told to speak good of Israel. When He has spoken good of them, I cannot change it.
New Revised Standard
See, I received a command to bless; he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Lo! to bless, have I received command , - And I will bless, nor will I take it back.
Douay-Rheims Bible
I was brought to bless, the blessing I am not able to hinder.
Revised Standard Version
Behold, I received a command to bless: he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Behold, I have received a command to bless; When He has blessed, then I cannot revoke it.

Contextual Overview

13 And Balac said to him, Come yet with me to another place where thou shalt not see the people, but only thou shalt see a part of them, and shalt not see them all; and curse me them from thence. 14 And he took him to a high place of the field to the top of the quarried rock, and he built there seven altars, and offered a calf and a ram on every altar. 15 And Balaam said to Balac, Stand by thy sacrifice, and I will go to enquire of God. 16 And God met Balaam, and put a word into his mouth, and said, return to Balac, and thus shalt thou speak. 17 And he returned to him: and he also was standing by his whole-burnt-sacrifice, and all the princes of Moab with him; and Balac said to him, What has the Lord spoken? 18 And he took up his parable, and said, rise up, Balac, and hear; hearken as a witness, thou son of Sepphor. 19 God is not as man to waver, nor as the son of man to be threatened; shall he say and not perform? shall he speak and not keep to his word? 20 Behold, I have received commandment to bless: I will bless, and not turn back. 21 There shall not be trouble in Jacob, neither shall sorrow be seen in Israel: the Lord his God is with him, the glories of rulers are in him. 22 It was God who brought him out of Egypt; he has as it were the glory of a unicorn.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

he hath: Numbers 22:12, Genesis 12:2, Genesis 22:17

I cannot: Numbers 22:18, Numbers 22:38, John 10:27-29, Romans 8:38, Romans 8:39, 1 Peter 1:5

Reciprocal: Numbers 6:27 - and I will Numbers 23:8 - General Numbers 23:12 - General Numbers 23:27 - peradventure Numbers 24:1 - saw Deuteronomy 33:29 - Happy Judges 7:14 - his fellow 1 Kings 22:23 - and the Lord Job 23:13 - who can Psalms 109:28 - Let them Isaiah 45:19 - speak righteousness Jeremiah 38:21 - this is Acts 4:20 - we cannot

Cross-References

Genesis 23:7
And Abraam rose up and did obeisance to the people of the land, to the sons of Chet.
Genesis 23:10
Now Ephron was sitting in the midst of the children of Chet, and Ephron the Chettite answered Abraam and spoke in the hearing of the sons of Chet, and of all who entered the city, saying,
Genesis 23:14
But Ephron answered Abraam, saying,
Genesis 25:9
And Isaac and Ismael his sons buried him in the double cave, in the field of Ephron the son of Saar the Chettite, which is over against Mambre:
Genesis 50:5
My father adjured me, saying, In the sepulchre which I dug for myself in the land of Chanaan, there thou shalt bury me; now then I will go up and bury my father, and return again.
Genesis 50:13
So his sons carried him up into the land of Chanaan, and buried him in the double cave, which cave Abraam bought for possession of a burying place, of Ephrom the Chettite, before Mambre.
2 Samuel 24:24
And the king said to Orna, Nay, but I will surely buy it of thee at a fair price, and I will not offer to the Lord my God a whole-burnt-offering for nothing. So David purchased the threshing-floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
2 Kings 21:18
And Manasses slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his house, even in the garden of Oza: and Amos his son reigned in his stead.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Behold, I have received [commandment] to bless,.... The people of Israel, to pronounce a blessing upon them, to declare them a happy people:

and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it; God has blessed them, has determined to bless them, has promised to bless them, has blessed them in the victories he has given them, and will complete the blessing of them, by bringing them into the land he has given them: so the blessings which God has designed for his spiritual Israel, and bestows upon them, are irreversible; they are blessings indeed, spiritual ones, and are for ever; he blesses them with himself, as their covenant; God, their portion here and hereafter, with Christ his Son, and all things with him, with righteousness, peace, and pardon, with his Spirit and the grace thereof, with sonship, heirship, and eternal life.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I have received commandment to bless - literally, “I have received to bless.” The reason of his blessing lay in the augury which he acknowledged, and in the divine overruling impulse which he could not resist, not in any “commandment” in words.


 
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