Numbers 23:8

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

Numbers 23:20, Numbers 23:23, Isaiah 44:25, Isaiah 47:12, Isaiah 47:13

Reciprocal: Genesis 27:29 - cursed Genesis 31:55 - blessed Numbers 22:6 - curse me Numbers 23:11 - General Deuteronomy 32:31 - General 1 Samuel 17:10 - I defy 2 Samuel 23:9 - defied Nehemiah 13:2 - our God Proverbs 26:2 - so Isaiah 49:25 - I will contend

Cross-References

Genesis 23:1
Now Sarah lived to be 127 years old.

Genesis 23:2
She died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went out to mourn and to weep for her.

Genesis 23:3
Then Abraham got up from beside his dead wife and said to the Hittites,

Genesis 23:4
"I am a stranger and an outsider among you. Give me a burial site among you so that I can bury my dead."

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.

1 Kings 2:17
Adonijah replied, "Please speak to King Solomon, since he will not turn you down. Let him give me Abishag the Shunammite as my wife."

Hebrews 7:26
Such a high priest truly befits us-One who is holy, innocent, undefiled, set apart from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed?.... The sense is, that it was impossible for him to curse those that God did not curse himself, or would not have cursed by others; not but that he had a good will to it, to get Balak's money and honour, but he knew not how to accomplish it; yea, he saw it was in vain to attempt it, it was a thing that could not possibly be done: God does not, nor will he curse his spiritual Israel; they are blessed by him in Christ, and they shall be blessed; nor is it in the power of their enemies to curse them, or do them any harm: the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem, instead of God and the Lord in this and the following clause, use the phase,

"the Word of the Lord;''

the essential Word, the Son of God, who is so far from cursing his people, that he has delivered them from the curses of the law, being made a curse for them, that the blessings of the everlasting covenant of grace might come upon them; and they are blessed of God in him, and for his sake, with all spiritual blessings:

or how shall I defy whom the Lord hath not defied? which is the same thing in other words, only this last word is expressive of more contempt and indignation.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Numbers 23:8. How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? — It was granted on all hands that no incantations nor imprecations could avail, unless God concurred and ratified them. From God's communication to Balaam he saw that God was determined to bless and defend Israel, and therefore all endeavours to injure them must be in vain.