the Third Week after Easter
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!
Read the Bible
کتاب مقدس
اعداد 22:17
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- AmericanEncyclopedias:
- CondensedBible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
I will promote: Numbers 24:11, Deuteronomy 16:9, Esther 5:11, Esther 7:9, Matthew 4:8, Matthew 4:9, Matthew 16:26
and I will do: Numbers 23:2, Numbers 23:3, Numbers 23:29, Numbers 23:30, Matthew 14:7
come: Numbers 22:6
curse me: An erroneous opinion prevailed, both in those days and in after ages, that some men had the power, by the help of their gods, to devote, not only particular persons, but cities and whole armies, to destruction. This they are said to have done sometimes by words of imprecation; of which there was a set form among some people, which schines calls היןסיזןלוםחם בסבם , "the determinate curse." Macrobius has a whole chapter on this subject. He gives us two of the ancient forms used in reference to the destruction of Carthage; the first, which was only pronounced by the dictator, or general, was to call over the protecting deities to their side, and the other to devote the city to destruction, which they were supposed to have abandoned. The Romans held, that no city would be taken till its tutelary god had forsaken it; or if it could be taken, it would be unlawful, as it would be sacrilege to lead the gods into captivity. Virgil intimates, that Troy was destroyed because Excessere omnes adytis, arisque relictis dii, quibus imperium hoc steterat, "All the gods, by whose assistance the empire had hitherto been preserved, forsook their altars and temples." See more on this subject in Dr. A. Clarke, Bp. Patrick, and Burder's Oriental Customs, No. 734.
Reciprocal: Numbers 22:37 - General Numbers 23:7 - Come Numbers 23:11 - General Numbers 24:10 - I called Deuteronomy 23:4 - because they hired Judges 16:5 - we will 2 Samuel 13:28 - fear not 2 Kings 5:5 - and took Daniel 2:6 - ye shall Daniel 2:48 - a great Daniel 5:7 - be clothed Acts 1:18 - with 1 Timothy 6:9 - they
Gill's Notes on the Bible
For I will promote thee unto very great honour,.... In his court, by making him some great officer there, perhaps his prime minister; so that as before he laid a bait for his covetousness, sending him large presents, and rewards of divination; here, for his pride and ambition, promising him court preferment; though Aben Ezra interprets it of mammon or riches, of which he could give him an immense sum: "in honouring I will exceedingly honour thee" f; or load thee with wealth and riches; and so Balaam seems to understand it, since in his answer he says, "if Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold"; both civil honour and worldly wealth may be taken into the account, since they are both heavy and weighty things, and very desirable and ensnaring:
and I will do whatsoever thou sayest unto me; give him what money he should ask of him, put him into whatsoever place and office he should desire; and though he was a sovereign prince, would be at his beck and command, and do whatever he should direct him to do in his kingdom, as well as in what concerned the affair of cursing Israel; as we find he afterwards did, with respect to sacrifices and rites relative thereunto:
come therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people; renewing the request made in the first embassy with great importunity, Numbers 22:6 but using here a different word for "cursing"; there, as Munster observes, the word signifies to curse lightly; here, to blaspheme and utterly devote to ruin; to which may be added, to curse expressly and by name, to pierce through and through, to deprive of all benefits, and to destroy utterly.
f כבד אכבדך מאד "honorando honorabo te valde", Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator.