Numbers 23:13

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹³Then Balak said to him, "Please come with me to another place where you can see them. You will only see the outskirts of their camp-not all of them. And from there, curse them for me."¹⁴So Balak took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, where he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. ¹⁵Balaam said to Balak, "Stay here beside your burnt offering while I meet the LORD over there." ¹⁶And the LORD met with Balaam and put a message in his mouth, saying, "Return to Balak and speak what I tell you." ¹⁷So he returned to Balak, who was standing there by his burnt offering with the princes of Moab. "What did the LORD say?" Balak asked. ¹⁸Then Balaam lifted up an oracle, saying: "Arise, O Balak, and listen; give ear to me, O son of Zippor. ¹⁹God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill? ²⁰I have indeed received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot change it. ²¹He considers no disaster for Jacob; He sees no trouble for Israel. The LORD their God is with them, and the shout of the King is among them. ²²God brought them out of Egypt with strength like a wild ox.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

unto: 1 Kings 20:23, 1 Kings 20:28, Micah 6:5

utmost: Numbers 22:41

and curse me: Joshua 24:9, Psalms 109:17, James 3:9, James 3:10

Reciprocal: Numbers 22:12 - thou shalt not curse Numbers 23:26 - General Numbers 23:27 - Come

Cross-References

Genesis 23:5
The Hittites replied to Abraham,

Genesis 23:8
"If you are willing for me to bury my dead," he said to them, "listen to me, and approach Ephron son of Zohar on my behalf

2 Samuel 24:24
"No," replied the king, "I insist on paying a price, for I will not offer to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.

Acts 20:35
In everything, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus Himself: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"

Romans 13:8
Be indebted to no one, except to one another in love, for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.

Colossians 4:5
Act wisely toward outsiders, redeeming the time.

Hebrews 13:5
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, for God has said: "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And Balak said unto him,.... Seemingly satisfied with his answer, however, he could not help himself, and was willing to make the best of him he could, and try what he could do with him another time and elsewhere:

come, I pray thee, with me unto another place, from whence thou mayest see them; for he had a mighty notion that both the sight of the people, and the place from whence they were seen, would greatly contribute to answer the end he had in view, cursing the people:

thou shall see but the utmost part of them, and shalt not see them all; for he thought, either that he was so charmed with so glorious a sight as the regular encampment of such a body of people was, that he could not find in his heart to curse them; or that he was so terrified at the sight of such a vast number of people, that he dared not attempt it; and therefore Balak proposed to have him to a place where he could only see a part of them and not the whole:

and curse me them from thence: that part, hoping that when he had cursed them he would gradually go on till he had cursed them all: but there is this objection to our version, and the sense it directs to, that Balaam had been brought to a place already, where he had seen the utmost part of the people, Numbers 22:41 wherefore some read h the middle clause in a parenthesis, and in the past tense "(for thou hast seen but the utmost part of them, and hast not seen them all)"; and therefore would have him come to a place where he might see them all, and curse them from thence.

h So Vatablus.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Balak seems to hope that the prophet’s words in Numbers 23:10 reflected the impression conveyed by the scene before him at the moment of the augury; and so that the sight of a mere few straggling Israelites in the utmost part of the camp might induce a different estimate of their resources and prospects.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Numbers 23:13. Thou shalt see but the utmost part of them — Balak thought that the sight of such an immense camp had intimidated Balaam, and this he might gather from what he said in the tenth verse: Who can count the dust of Jacob, c. he thought therefore that he might get Balaam to curse them in detached parties, till the whole camp should be devoted to destruction by successive execrations.