Numbers 23:20

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

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
Then Abraham rose and bowed down before the people of the land, the Hittites.

Genesis 23:10
Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth. So in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city, Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham,

Genesis 23:14
Ephron answered Abraham,

Genesis 25:9
His sons Isaac and Ishmael buried him in the cave of Machpelah near Mamre, in the field of Ephron son of Zohar the Hittite.

Genesis 50:5
my father made me swear an oath when he said, 'I am about to die. You must bury me in the tomb that I dug for myself in the land of Canaan.' Now let me go and bury my father, and then return."

Genesis 50:13
They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave at Machpelah in the field near Mamre, which Abraham had purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site.

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.

2 Kings 21:18
And Manasseh rested with his fathers and was buried in his palace garden, the garden of Uzza. And his son Amon became king in his place.

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.