Numberschapter 23
30 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
Key verse
Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me seven altars here, and prepare for me seven bulls and seven rams.”
It stands in Seven altars, and a blessing instead, verses 1 to 12.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Balaam's first two oracles. Seven altars, seven bullocks, seven rams on each of Bamoth-baal, Zophim, and the top of Pisgah. ‘How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? Or how shall I defy, whom the LORD hath not defied? … Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his’ (23:10). Balak moves him to another vantage; a second oracle: ‘God is not a man, that he should lie … hath he said, and shall he not do it?’ (23:19). Israel seen from a fresh hill; the verdict is the same. Balak is in turmoil: ‘if thou canst not curse them at all, then bless them not at all’.
Context
Law · Moses · Numbers overview
The world behind this chapter
Numbers 23The history
The speaker is Balaam, a hired diviner, and the client standing beside the altars is Balak king of Moab. Neither man is an Israelite and neither is called a prophet of Israel by the book.
The scene follows directly on chapter 22, in the fortieth year, on the hills above the Moabite plain.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
Balak moves the seer twice, from a high place of Baal to the field of watchers on the ridge of Pisgah, and then to the top of Peor. Albert Barnes renders the field of Zophim as the field of watchers, a lookout on the ridge.
The occasion is a contract for a curse that the client is trying to get delivered.
A first hearer knew the procedure. Seven altars, seven bulls and seven rams, with seven the standard ritual number across the region, then a withdrawal alone to watch for an omen. Mesopotamian diviners read the liver and entrails of sacrificed animals and worked from detailed reference manuals.
He also knew that location was thought to matter, which is why Balak moves the man three times to overlooks with a partial view of the camp. High places were open air hilltop shrines with altars, and this business really was conducted at them.
And he knew the Abrahamic promise the first oracle answers, that God would bless those who bless Abraham's seed and curse those who curse it.
What it meant to them
Israel learned that they were protected by something no ritual could get behind. The oracles never say that Israel was better than Moab. They say that God had not cursed them.
The line about God not changing his mind became one of the bedrock statements in the Old Testament about the character of God, and it came out of the mouth of a hired pagan seer.
Sources cited
- James B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament
- Timothy R. Ashley, The Book of Numbers (NICOT)
- Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments , 1832 to 1869, on Numbers 23:14
- John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament , 1748 to 1763, on Numbers 23:1
Where the chapter sits
Numbers 23 falls in Approach to Moab (chapters 21–25). The bronze serpent; Balaam's oracles; apostasy at Baal-peor.
Balaam's first oracles. ‘How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed?’ The unwilling prophet's blessing.
Before it: Wilderness rebellions and instruction, chapters 15–20. After it: Second census and preparations, chapters 26–36.
The whole shape of Numbers→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Seven altars, and a blessing instead
1. (vv. 1-3)
Numbers 23:1
“It is plain that Balaam was infected by this fanciful notion, when he endeavours to draw down God by seven altars, and twice seven sacrifices. Let us, however, learn from Balak's prompt compliance, that the superstitious neither spare expense, nor refuse anything which is demanded by the masters of their errors.”
John Calvin· Commentaries (1554)reformed
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Numbers 23:1
“Balaam, after the general custom of the pagan, prefaced his divinations by sacrifice. In the number of the altars regard was probably had to the number of the then known planets. Yet Balaam evidently intended his sacrifice as an offering to the true God.”
Numbers 23:1
“It is evident, from Nu 23:4 that they were prepared for the worship of the true God; although in choosing the high places of Baal as their site and rearing a number of altars (2Ki 18:22; 10:1), instead of one only, as God had appointed, Balaam blended his own superstitions with the divine worship.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Numbers 23:2
“And Balak did as Balaam had spoken,....”
Numbers 23:3
“Balaam apparently expected to mark some phenomenon in the sky or in nature, which he would be able, according to the rules of his art, to interpret as a portent. It was for such “auguries” (not as the King James Version “enchantments” Num 23:23) that he now departed to watch; contrast Num 24:1. An high place - Or, “A bare place on the hill,” as opposed to the high place with its grove of trees.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 23:3
“You would say that he was another Moses, when he exhorts the king to persevering prayer, and, in order that he may be more earnest in supplication, bids him remain perfectly still by the altars.”
John Calvin· Commentaries (1554)reformed
Balaam opens with sevens, seven altars and seven oxen and seven rams, raised on a high place of Baal where Balak had taken him at 22:41. John Gill observes that Israel had one altar and that the patriarchs raised one at a time, so the multiplied altars belong to Balaam's own trade rather than to the worship of the God he is about to meet. Albert Barnes reads his going aside to a bare height as watching for an omen he could interpret by the rules of his art, and 24:1 later says he stopped seeking enchantments.
2. (vv. 4-6)
Numbers 23:4
“God met Balaam - God served His own purposes through the arts of Balaam, and manifested His will through the agencies employed to seek it, dealing thus with Balaam in an exceptional manner. To God’s own people auguries were forbidden Lev 19:26. I have prepared seven altars - And therefore Balaam expected that God on His part would do what was desired by the donor; compare Num 22:15 note.”
Numbers 23:5
“The prophet Balaam, in Numbers, was sent forth by king Balak to curse Israel, with whom he was commencing war. But at the same moment he was filled with the spirit. Instead of the curse which he came to pronounce, he uttered the blessing which the spirit at that very hour inspired him with. This is he who had previously declared to the king's messengers, and then to the king himself, that he could only speak forth that which God should put into his mouth.”
Tertullian· written before 220· AGAINST MARCION 4.28.8patristic
Numbers 23:6
“And he returned unto him,.... Immediately, as soon as he was told what to say: and, lo, he stood by his burnt sacrifice; continued in his devotions, hoping for success, and waiting for Balaam's return: he and all the princes of Moab; not only those that were sent to Balaam, but perhaps all the princes of the kingdom who were got together on this occasion, and by reason of the imminent danger they apprehended the nation was in on account of Israel.”
God meets him, and the first thing Balaam says is an inventory of what he has spent, seven altars with a bullock and a ram on each. Matthew Henry reads that as a man presenting a bill and expecting the gift to buy the answer. Verse 5 gives the sentence the whole chapter runs on, the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth, which repeats at 23:16 and which Balaam himself had promised Balak at 22:38. The prophet for hire becomes a channel for words he did not choose.
3. (vv. 7-8)
Numbers 23:7
“Aram - Or, “highland.” This term denotes the whole elevated region, from the northeastern frontier of Palestine to the Euphrates and the Tigris. The country between these streams was especially designated “Aram-naharaim,” or “Aram of the two rivers:” the Greeks called it Mesopotamia; and here, according to Deu 23:4, was Balaam’s home. Compare Num 22:5 note.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 23:7
“His parable - That is, his oracular and prophetical speech; which he calls a parable, because of the weightiness of the matter, and the liveliness of the expressions which is usual in parables.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
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 endeavors to injure them must be in vain.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
He takes up his parable, and the first oracle opens by quoting the contract back, come curse me Jacob, and come defy Israel. The answer in verse 8 is the Abrahamic promise turned on the man who paid for it, since Genesis 12:3 had said God would curse him that curseth the seed of Abraham. Deuteronomy 23:5 says the Lord turned the curse into a blessing, and Joshua 24:10, Nehemiah 13:2 and Micah 6:5 all recall this hill as the day it happened. Aram and the mountains of the east put his home far to the northeast, which Albert Barnes identifies with the Aram of the two rivers named at Deuteronomy 23:4.
4. (v. 9)
The vantage was chosen for cursing and it produces a description. The people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations, states from outside what Exodus 19:5 and Leviticus 20:24 had stated from within, that this nation is severed from the rest. Matthew Henry adds that Israel held that standing until they mingled among the heathen, which Psalm 106:35 says of them and which Numbers 25:1 records happening two chapters after this hillside.
5. (v. 10)
Numbers 23:10
“Who can count the dust of Jacob?--an Oriental hyperbole for a very populous nation, as Jacob's posterity was promised to be (Ge 13:16; 28:14). the number of the fourth part of Israel--that is, the camp consisted of four divisions; every one of these parts was formidable in numbers. Let me die the death of the righteous--Hebrew, "of Jeshurun"; or, the Israelites.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Numbers 23:10
You have caused me, my brother, not to fear death, and I only would that my life might die with yours! This Balaam wished for as the greatest good for himself, when, inspired by the spirit of prophecy, he said, "Let my soul die in the souls of the righteous, and let my seed be like the seed of them."
Ambrose of Milan· written before 397· On the Death of Satyrus 2.43patristic
Numbers 23:10
“Let me die the death of the righteous - Probably Balaam had some presentiment that he should be taken off by a premature death, and therefore he lodges this petition against it. The death of the righteous in those times implied being gathered to one’s fathers in a good old age, having seen his children, and children’s children; and to this, probably, the latter part of this petition applies: And let my last end be like his, (ותהי אחריתי כמהו uthehi acharithi chamohu, And let my Posterity be like his).”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Who can count the dust: The dust of Jacob answers Genesis 13:16 and 28:14, where the seed was promised as the dust of the earth, so a hired seer recites the covenant back to Moab. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take the fourth part of Israel as one of the four camp standards of Numbers 2, which makes him count a quarter of the camp and find it past counting. Then he asks for the end of a righteous man without asking for the life, and Numbers 31:8 records how he did die, killed with the sword among the kings of Midian.
6. (vv. 11-12)
Numbers 23:11
“And Balak said unto Balaam, what hast thou done unto me?....”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 23:11
“He pretended to honour the Lord with his sacrifices, and to wait for the answer God would send him; and yet, when it did not prove according to his mind, he forgot God, and flew into a great passion against Balaam, as if it had been purely his doing: " What hast thou done unto me!”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Numbers 23:12
“And he answered and said,.... By reply to Balak: must I not take heed to speak that which the Lord hath put in my mouth? pretending a great regard to the word of God, and to great carefulness to speak it, exactly and punctually as he received it, whereas he was forced to it, and could not do otherwise.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 23:12
“23 Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought! 24 Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion: he shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the slain.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Balak paid for a curse and heard a blessing, and his question is the question of a man who thought he had bought an outcome. Balaam's reply is exactly true, and he had already said it at 22:38 before he left home, and he took the fee and came. John Gill reads the answer as a show of scruple from a man under compulsion.
B. God is not a man, that he should lie
1. (vv. 13-15)
Numbers 23:13
“Balak seems to hope that the prophet’s words in Num 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.”
Numbers 23:14
“The field of Zophim - Or, “of watchers.” It lay upon the top of Pisgah, north of the former station, and nearer to the Israelite camp; the greater part of which was, however, probably concealed from it by an intervening spur of the hill. Beyond the camp Balaam’s eye would pass on to the bed of the Jordan. It was perhaps a lion coming up in his strength from the swelling of that stream (compare Jer 49:19) that furnished him with the augury he awaited, and so dictated the final similitude of his next parable.”
Numbers 23:15
“And he said unto Balak, stand here by thy burnt offering,.... As he had before directed him, Num 23:3. while I meet the Lord yonder; pointing to some place at a little distance, where he expected to meet the Lord, and have some instructions from him, which he seemed confident of, having met with him once already.”
Balak's remedy is a shorter view. He wants Balaam to see the utmost part of the camp and not the whole of it, on the theory that a smaller sight will yield a smaller word. Albert Barnes renders the field of Zophim as the field of watchers, a lookout on the ridge of Pisgah. This is the Pisgah where Deuteronomy 34:1 sets Moses to see the land he will not enter, so two men stand on one hill and look at the same people on opposite errands.
2. (vv. 16-17)
Numbers 23:16
“And the Lord met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth,.... As he did before, Num 23:5. and said, go again unto Balak, and say thus; the words which are expressed in Num 23:18.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 23:16
“When Balaam returned Balak was impatient to know what message he had: " What hath the Lord spoken? Are there any better tidings yet, any hopes of speeding?" This should be our enquiry when we come to hear the word of God.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Numbers 23:17
“And when he came to him, behold, he stood by his burnt offering,.... As before; Num 23:6 and the princes of Moab with him; Jarchi observes, that before it is said, all the princes of Moab, but not so here; for when they saw there was no hope of succeeding, some of them went away, and only some were left: and Balak said unto him, what hath the Lord spoken? being in haste to know what it was, whether agreeable or not.”
The second meeting uses the words of the first, met him and put a word in his mouth, so the mechanism holds although the address has changed. Balak stands by his burnt offering again and asks what the Lord has spoken. John Gill notes that verse 6 said all the princes of Moab and that this verse says only the princes of Moab, and he passes on the older reading that some of them had gone home.
3. (vv. 18-19)
Numbers 23:18
“And he took up his parable,.... Pronounced the word put into his mouth: and said, rise up Balak, and hear; not from his seat, as Eglon a successor of his did, Jdg 3:20 for he was now standing by his burnt offering; but the sense is, that he would raise his attention, and stir up himself with all diligence to hear what he was about to say: hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor; or to his word, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan, which follow.”
Numbers 23:19
God is not a man, that he should lie - This seems to be spoken to correct the foregoing supposition of Balak that God could change his mind. Even the heathen would not allow that their supreme god could be caught in a falsity. Hence Aeschylus, in Prometh. vinct. 1068: - Ψευδηγορειν γαρ ουκ επισταται στομα Το Διον, αλλα παν επος τελει. “The mouth of Jove knows not to frame a lie; But every word finds full accomplishment.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 23:19
“Men change their minds, and therefore break their words; they lie, because they repent. He never changes his mind, and therefore never recalls his promise.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
The line the chapter is known for comes out of the mouth of a man being paid to reverse it, and it answers Balak's whole method. Moving a prophet to a fresh hill assumes God can be worked on the way a man is worked on, and verse 19 says the assumption fails at the root. 1 Samuel 15:29 says the same of the Strength of Israel, while 15:11 and 15:35 in that same chapter say the Lord repented that he had set up Saul, and both sentences stand in the canon with readers holding them together in different ways. Malachi 3:6, Titus 1:2 and Hebrews 6:18 carry the line forward.
4. (vv. 20-21)
Numbers 23:20
“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.”
Numbers 23:21
“He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob--Many sins were observed and punished in this people. But no such universal and hopeless apostasy had as yet appeared, to induce God to abandon or destroy them. the Lord his God is with him--has a favor for them. and the shout of a king is among them--such joyful acclamations as of a people rejoicing in the presence of a victorious prince.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Numbers 23:21
“There was no idolatry among them, which is in a particular manner called iniquity and perverseness; we have found nothing of that kind in Israel since the golden calf, and therefore, though they were in other instances very provoking, yet God would not cast them off. Balaam knew that nothing would separate between them and God but sin.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Numbers 23:21
“Iniquity” and “perverseness” are found together again in the Hebrew of Psa 10:7; Psa 90:10, and elsewhere; and import wickedness together with that tribulation which is its proper result. The shout - The word is used (Lev 23:24 note) to describe the sound of the silver trumpets. The “shout of a king” will therefore refer to the jubilant sounds by which the presence of the Lord as their King among them was celebrated by Israel.
Albert Barnes points out that the Hebrew of verse 20 reads simply I have received to bless, with commandment supplied by the translators. Verse 21 says God has not beheld iniquity in Jacob, and it is said of the camp that murmured through chapters 11 to 14 and that joins itself to Baal-peor at 25:3. Matthew Henry takes the word of idolatry, absent since the calf, and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take it as an apostasy not yet so complete that God would abandon them. The shout of a king uses the word Leviticus 23:24 uses of the silver trumpets, the sound that announced the King present in the camp.
5. (vv. 22-23)
Numbers 23:22
“Out of Egypt - Namely, by a strong hand, and in spite of all their enemies, and therefore it is in vain to seek or hope to overcome them. He - Israel, whom God brought out of Egypt, such change of numbers being very common in the Hebrew language. The sense is, Israel is not now what he was in Egypt, a poor, weak, dispirited, unarmed people, but high and strong and invincible.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 23:22
“The strength of a unicorn - ראם reem and ראים reim. It is generally allowed that there is no such beast in nature as the unicorn; i. e., a creature of the horse kind, with one long rich curled horn in the forehead. The creature painted from fancy is represented as one of the supporters of the royal arms of Great Britain. It is difficult to say what kind of beast is intended by the original word.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
brought them out of Egypt: The oracle grounds Israel's strength in what God did, God brought them out of Egypt, and the figure of the horn follows from that. Adam Clarke says plainly that the animal behind the strength of an unicorn is uncertain and that the one-horned creature of heraldry has no counterpart in nature, and later readers commonly take the reem as the wild ox. Verse 23 puts Balaam's own trade out of work, since Albert Barnes reads the two words as augury and soothsayer's token, the terms of the craft that Joshua 13:22 uses when it calls Balaam the soothsayer.
6. (vv. 24-26)
Numbers 23:24
“Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion - לביא labi, the great, mighty, or old lion, the king of the forest, who is feared and respected by all the other beasts of the field; so shall Israel be the subduer and possessor of the whole land of Canaan.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Numbers 23:25
“And Balak said unto Balaam, neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 23:25
“If thou canst no assist and encourage my forces, yet do not oppose and dispirit them" Note, God can make those that depart from him weary of the multitude of their counsels, Isa. xlvii. 10 . [2.] Balaam is still willing to own himself overruled, and appeals to what he had said in the beginning of this enterprise ( ch. xxii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Numbers 23:26
“All that the Lord speaketh, that I must do--a remarkable confession that he was divinely constrained to give utterances different from what it was his purpose and inclination to do.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Genesis 49:9 gave the lion to Judah alone, and here the whole people rises as the lion. Albert Barnes suggests the omen Balaam was watching for may have been a real lion coming up out of the Jordan thicket, which would set the picture before his eyes before it reached his mouth. Balak's request now falls from a curse to silence, neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all, which is a man asking for less because he has stopped expecting more.
C. One more mountain, one more attemptvv. 27-30
The third station is the top of Peor, and the name carries the rest of the book. Baal-peor is the god of that hill, Numbers 25:3 says Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor in the chapter after next, and Numbers 31:16 says the counsel behind it was Balaam's. He is standing on the ground where his advice will accomplish what his oracles cannot. Seven altars go up a third time and the offering is made again, and chapter 24 opens with Balaam giving up the search for enchantments.
Numbers 23:27
“And Balak said unto Balaam, come, I pray thee,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 23:27
“Thus he covers his malice against Israel with a show of devotion, but his sacrifice was an abomination, being brought with such a wicked mind, Prov. xxi. That which he aimed at was not to honour God with the sacrifices of righteousness, but to enrich himself with the wages of unrighteousness. How very obsequious Balak was.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Numbers 23:28
“Unto the top of Peor - Probably the place where the famous Baal-peor had his chief temple. He appears to have been the Priapus of the Moabites, and to have been worshipped with the same obscene and abominable rites.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Numbers 23:29
“And Balaam said unto Balak,....”
1 more voice on this verse
Numbers 23:29
“Thus do they persevere in their expensive oblations, though they had no promise on which to build their hopes of speeding. Let not us therefore, who have a promise that the vision at the end shall speak and not lie, be discouraged by delays, but continue instant in prayer, and not faint, Luke xviii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Numbers 23:30
“And Balak did as Balaam had said,.... Though the sacrifices were expensive, he did not grudge them; he spared no cost to gain his point, though he now could have but little hope of it: and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar; as he had done before, Num 23:2.”
This page carries no textual note on Numbers 23. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
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