Numbers 23:2

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹Then Balaam said to Balak, "Build me seven altars here, and prepare for me seven bulls and seven rams." ²So Balak did as Balaam had directed, and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar.³"Stay here by your burnt offering while I am gone," Balaam said to Balak. "Perhaps the LORD will meet with me. And whatever He reveals to me, I will tell you." So Balaam went off to a barren height, ⁴and God met with him. "I have set up seven altars," Balaam said, "and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram." ⁵Then the LORD put a message in Balaam's mouth, saying, "Return to Balak and give him this message." ⁶So he returned to Balak, who was standing there beside his burnt offering, with all the princes of Moab. ⁷And Balaam lifted up an oracle, saying: "Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the mountains of the east. 'Come,' he said, 'put a curse on Jacob for me; come and denounce Israel!' ⁸How can I curse what God has not cursed? How can I denounce what the LORD has not denounced? ⁹For I see them from atop the rocky cliffs, and I watch them from the hills. Behold, a people dwelling apart, who will not reckon themselves among the nations. ¹⁰Who can count the dust of Jacob or number even a fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous; let my end be like theirs!"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

offered: Numbers 23:14, Numbers 23:30

Reciprocal: Numbers 22:17 - and I will do Numbers 22:40 - General Numbers 23:29 - General 1 Chronicles 15:26 - bullocks Ezekiel 45:23 - seven bullocks

Cross-References

Genesis 13:18
So Abram moved his tent and went to live near the oaks of Mamre in Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD.

Genesis 23:14
Ephron answered Abraham,

Genesis 23:15
"Listen to me, my lord. The land is worth four hundred shekels of silver, but what is that between you and me? Bury your dead."

Genesis 23:16
Abraham agreed to Ephron's terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the standard of the merchants.

Genesis 23:18
to Abraham's possession in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city.

Genesis 23:19
After this, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave of the field at Machpelah near Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan.

Genesis 27:41
Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him. And Esau said in his heart: "The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then I will kill my brother Jacob."

Genesis 50:10
When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, which is across the Jordan, they lamented and wailed loudly, and Joseph mourned for his father seven days.

Numbers 13:22
They went up through the Negev and came to Hebron, where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, dwelled. It had been built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.

Numbers 20:29
When all the congregation saw that Aaron had died, the entire house of Israel mourned for him thirty days.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And Balak did as Balaam had spoken,.... Ordered seven altars to be built, and prepared seven bullocks and rams for sacrifice:

and Balak and Balsam offered on every altar a bullock and a ram; both seem to be concerned in offering the sacrifices; Balak, though a king, it being usual for kings to be priests also, as Melchizedek was, and Balaam as a prophet; and these sacrifices were offered to the true God, as seems clear from Numbers 23:4 and to which Balak, at the direction of Balaam, agreed, in order to gain the Lord on his side, that he might prevail over the people of Israel.