Numberschapter 23
30 verses · Moses, by tradition · 15th to 13th century BC · The Law
And Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven oxen and seven rams.
Introduction
Moses, by tradition, The Law, Numbers Overview.
This chapter carries the first two of Balaam's four oracles, spoken from the heights above Israel's camp. It belongs to the book of Numbers and shows a pagan rite from the inside. The king of Moab has paid for a curse and arranged every detail the diviner's trade required. Listen for the pattern that repeats, so that a reader knows the outcome before the king does. Listen also for the promises first made to Abraham, spoken now by a foreigner who came to undo them. The chapter teaches that the word of God stands whatever price is paid and wherever the altars are built.
Context
- Who
- A nation whose enemy kept changing the angle and getting the same answer
- What
- Poetry set in narrative, in which Balaam twice offers sacrifices, meets God, and speaks a blessing over Israel in place of a curse.
- Where
- The heights of Moab overlooking Israel's camp, first a high place of Baal and then the field of Zophim on the top of Pisgah.
- When
- The fortieth year after the exodus, while Israel camped on the plains of Moab, about 1406 BC by the count of 1 Kings 6:1, or near 1230 BC on a later dating of the exodus.
- Why
- To show that God keeps His word to His people, whatever is paid or offered against them.
Historical context
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.
Show the rest of the historical context, 6 more paragraphs
The scene follows directly on chapter 22, in the fortieth year, on the hills above the Moabite plain.
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.
Significance
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.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
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.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
The corpus carries one line of practice in this chapter, and it is Rashi's. He reads the lioness of the twenty-fourth verse as Israel rising in the morning. They show themselves "strong as a lioness and as a lion" to take hold of the commandments at once. The three he names are the prayer shawl, the recital of the Shema and the laying of the phylacteries (Rashi on Numbers 23:24:1, drawing on Midrash Tanchuma, Balak 14). That the same three still open a Jewish weekday morning is the writer's reading of Rashi's list, and is not a claim the corpus makes.
How it is read
Rashi reads the manner of God's coming to Balaam as part of the verdict on him. The verb of the fourth verse "is an expression ordinarily used to denote events of a casual character", and Rashi takes it as meeting him with reluctance and in contempt. He adds that God came by day on this occasion only to show how dear Israel was to him (Rashi on Numbers 23:4:1, citing Genesis Rabbah 52:5). On the request of the third verse he notes the same point from Balaam's own mouth, that God was not accustomed to speak with him by day (Rashi on Numbers 23:3:1).
The first oracle is read as a record of what could not be cursed. Rashi holds that Balak named Israel twice because one name alone might not mark them out beyond doubt (Rashi on Numbers 23:7:1). He then gathers the places where a curse was owed and withheld. Jacob cursed the anger of Simeon and Levi rather than the men. Isaac confirmed the blessing after the deceit. The tribes at Ebal were set for the curse rather than told to curse the people (Rashi on Numbers 23:8:1, citing Midrash Tanchuma, Balak 12). On the rocks of the ninth verse he reads descent rather than terrain, and sees Israel founded firm through its ancestors (Rashi on Numbers 23:9:1). The dust of the tenth verse he takes with the Targum as the infants of the house of Jacob. He offers a second reading beside it, that the dust stands for the many commandments Israel keeps in dust (Rashi on Numbers 23:10:1).
Ramban parts from other readers over what Balaam knew. He reports that some commentators held that Balaam did not understand the words, and that God filled his mouth with them. He cites the Rabbis' saying to the same effect. God "shaped his mouth and formed it [so that he would speak as He desired], like a person who fixes a nail onto a board" (Ramban on Numbers 23:5:1). He cites it to Tanchuma, Balak 12 and to Bamidbar Rabbah 20:16. Ramban then rejects it. Balaam says himself that he hears the words of God and sees the vision of the Almighty, so Ramban takes the verb as teaching rather than filling. God taught him the words so that he would recite them without forgetting or omitting any part (Ramban on Numbers 23:5:1, the Chavel translation, CC-BY). Sforno reads the same exchange from Balaam's side. Balak already knew that God "is the G'd of Israel, and that therefore He will only speak well of the Israelites" (Sforno on Numbers 23:12:1, the Munk translation, CC-BY).
Rashi reads the second summons as compulsion. When Balaam saw he could not curse, he asked why he should return to Balak at all. God "put a halter and hook in his mouth" to bring him back against his will (Rashi on Numbers 23:16:1, citing Sanhedrin 105b). Rashi notices that only part of the princes of Moab remained by then, because the rest had given up hope in him (Rashi on Numbers 23:17:1). He reads the command to Balak to stand as Balaam turning the mockery back, and claiming a mission from God as his warrant (Rashi on Numbers 23:18:1). On the nineteenth verse he takes the point as the oath about the land. God had sworn to bring Israel in and give them the land of the seven peoples, so the plan to kill them in the wilderness was already answered (Rashi on Numbers 23:19:1). On the twenty-third verse he holds that Israel is fit to be blessed because it keeps no enchanters and no diviners (Rashi on Numbers 23:23:1).
Ibn Ezra comments at the first two verses and the corpus carries neither text, because the licence Sefaria reports for it does not permit keeping it. He stands cited and unquoted at Ibn Ezra on Numbers 23:1:1 and 23:2:1. Malbim comments at the eleventh verse, and Sefaria holds no English version of it, so he stands cited at Malbim on Numbers 23:11:1.
A Christian reader should see where the readings part. Christian teaching reads the nineteenth verse as a statement about the character of God, that he does not lie and does not change his mind. Rashi reads it narrowly, as the oath about the land held against Balak's hope. This site carries a theology entry titled "Balaam: a pagan seer forced to bless" on Numbers 23:8 and 24:17, in src/components/book/dossier-content/numbers.ts. The commentators here are reported in their own terms.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries forty locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. Thirty of them are midrashic and ten are Talmudic. Midrash Lekach Tov carries the heaviest run. It stands at Numbers 23:2:1, 23:13:1, 23:14:1, 23:16:1, 23:20:1, 23:25:1, 23:26:1 and 23:27:1, and outside the book at Exodus 1:22:1. Bamidbar Rabbah stands at 14:20, 19:26, 20:17, 20:18 and 20:20. Midrash Aggadah stands at Numbers 23:5:1, 23:12:1 and 23:28:1.
The rest of the midrashic locators sit in seven works. Ein Yaakov in the Glick Edition stands at Sotah 1:26 and Sanhedrin 11:96, and Ein Yaakov at Sotah 1:32 and Rosh Hashanah 4:7. Bereshit Rabbah stands at 52:5 and 74:7, Aggadat Bereshit at 28:4 and 66:1, and Bereshit Rabbati at Parashat Toldot 13 and Parashat Vayetze 28. Midrash Tanchuma stands at Balak 13:1, the Buber recension at Balak 16:2, and Midrash Sekhel Tov at Bereshit 31:49:2. The Talmudic locators are fewer. Avodah Zarah stands at 4b:5, 25a:1 and 25a:11, Berakhot at 12b:15, Chullin at 35b:14 and Avot DeRabbi Natan at 21:1. The Jerusalem Talmud stands at Sotah 5:6:3, Taanit 2:1:15, Shabbat 2:6:9 and Nedarim 6:8:11. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text, because the corpus holds these locators without it.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Numbers 23:3:1 to 23:25:1, the Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary translated by M. Rosenbaum and A. M. Silbermann, 1929 to 1934, public domain; Ramban, Ramban on Numbers 23:5:1, the Commentary on the Torah translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel, New York, Shilo Publishing House, 1971 to 1976, CC-BY; Sforno, Sforno on Numbers 23:12:1, the HaChut Hameshulash translation by Eliyahu Munk, CC-BY; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Numbers 23:1:1 and 23:2:1, cited by ref because the licence the corpus reports does not permit keeping the text; Malbim, Malbim on Numbers 23:11:1, cited by ref because Sefaria holds no English version; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/numbers/23.json, the 30 Midrash and 10 Talmud locators of this chapter, fetched 2026-09-19; MannaFest, src/components/book/dossier-content/numbers.ts, for the theology entry on Balaam anchored at Numbers 23:8 and 24:17.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Seven altars, and a blessing instead
Numbers 23:1-3
Balaam opens with seven altars, seven bulls and seven rams, raised at Bamoth-baal where Balak had taken him at 22:41. John Gill observes that the patriarchs raised one altar at a time, so the multiplied altars belong to Balaam's trade. Albert Barnes reads his going off to a barren height as watching for an omen, and 24:1 says he later did not resort to sorcery.
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
Balak builds and pays, and Balaam gives the orders. Matthew Henry notes that the king raised no objection to the charge, while the offering cost Balaam nothing. John Wesley holds that the altars were raised to the God of Israel, since Balaam names them to God in verse 4 as a reason to be heard.
Balaam speaks of meeting the LORD with a perhaps. Matthew Henry reads the word as the doubt of a man who knew God had lately met him in anger. John Calvin sees him copying the true servants of God, who went apart to meet Him, and telling the king to keep still by the altar as Moses might have done.
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
Numbers 23:4-6
God met with him, and Balaam's first words are an inventory: on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram. Matthew Henry reads it as a man presenting a bill. Verse 5 gives the sentence the chapter runs on, the LORD put a message in Balaam’s mouth, which returns at verse 16 and which Balaam had promised Balak at 22:38.
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.”
John Gill separates the mouth from the heart in this verse. The LORD gave Balaam words to deliver and pressed them on him so firmly that he could not forget them, while no grace was given to his heart. Matthew Henry sets the verse against Psalm 12:4, where men boast that their lips are their own. The One who made the mouth governs it.
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
Balak has not left the altar. Matthew Henry pictures him standing by it closely and expecting success. John Gill thinks all the princes of the kingdom had gathered there, because the nation believed itself in danger. Henry traces that fear to 22:3, where Moab dreaded Israel because the people were many.
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.”
Numbers 23:7-8
Balaam lifted up an oracle that opens by quoting the contract back: put a curse on Jacob for me. Verse 8 turns on him the promise of Genesis 12:3, curse those who curse you, and Deuteronomy 23:5 says the LORD turned the curse into a blessing. Albert Barnes identifies Aram and the mountains of the east with the Aram-naharaim of Deuteronomy 23:4.
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
Adam Clarke notes that everyone in that world granted one rule, that no curse could work unless God ratified it. Balaam's question applies that rule against his own trade. Matthew Henry calls it the confession of the most famous diviner of the east that his art had failed. Israel had seen the magicians of Egypt fail in the same way.
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
The vantage was chosen for cursing and yields a description: a people dwelling apart, not reckoning themselves among the nations. It states from outside what Leviticus 20:24 states from within. Matthew Henry adds that Israel held that standing until they mingled with the nations, as Psalm 106:35 says and Numbers 25:1 records two chapters later.
Who can count the dust: The dust of Jacob answers Genesis 13:16 and 28:14, so a hired seer recites the covenant to Moab. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take a fourth of Israel as one of the four camps of Numbers 2, a quarter found past counting. He asks, Let me die the death of the righteous, without asking for the life, and Numbers 31:8 records that he was killed with the sword.
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
Numbers 23:11-12
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.
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
John Wesley hears the question as a plea to be excused: was it not his duty, and could Balak blame him for it? Matthew Henry calls it a confession of God's power forced from a wicked prophet, to the greater confusion of a wicked prince. Yet Balaam still follows Balak to the next hill.
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
God is not a man, that he should lie
Numbers 23:13-15
Balak's remedy is a smaller view, the outskirts of their camp, on the theory that a smaller sight yields a smaller word. Albert Barnes renders the field of Zophim as the field of watchers, a lookout on Pisgah. There Deuteronomy 34:1 later sets Moses to see the land, so two men look at one people from one hill on opposite errands.
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.”
A second set of seven altars goes up. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown describe the field as a flat stretch of cultivated land on the summit of the range. Matthew Henry asks readers to seek a blessing as earnestly as Balak sought a curse, and to grudge neither the charge nor the labour.
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.”
At verse 3 Balaam said Perhaps the LORD will meet with me, and here the perhaps is gone. John Gill reads the change as confidence, since he had been met once already. He points to a spot a little way off. John Wesley says he went there to consult the LORD and to receive an answer.
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.”
Numbers 23:16-17
The second meeting repeats the first, the LORD met with Balaam and put a message in his mouth, so the mechanism holds at a new address. John Gill notes that verse 6 says all the princes of Moab and verse 17 only the princes of Moab. He passes on the older reading that some had gone home.
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
Balak's question is new, since after the first oracle he only complained. Adam Clarke reads it as a sign that Balak now knew Balaam would say only what the LORD commanded, while he still hoped the LORD might change His mind. Verse 19 answers that hope. Matthew Henry hears impatience in it, a king asking for better news.
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.”
Numbers 23:18-19
The chapter's best-known line comes from a man paid to reverse it: God is not a man, that He should lie. Moving a prophet to a fresh hill assumes God can be worked on like a man, and verse 19 denies it at the root. The same is said at 1 Samuel 15:29, while 15:35 says the LORD regretted making Saul king, and readers reconcile the two differently. Malachi 3:6, Titus 1:2 and Hebrews 6:18 carry the line forward.
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.”
Men break their word when they change their mind. Matthew Henry puts it so, and says God does neither. Where Scripture says God relents, Henry takes it as a change in His way of dealing, with His purpose unchanged. John Wesley reads the line as a promise kept for Israel's preservation, with a condition drawn from verse 21, unless God saw iniquity in Jacob.
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
Numbers 23:20-21
Albert Barnes points out that the Hebrew of verse 20 reads I have received to bless, with command supplied by the translators. Verse 21 is said of a camp that grumbled through chapters 11 to 14 and joins Baal of Peor at 25:3. The shout of the King uses the word Leviticus 23:24 uses of the trumpet blast, the sound of a king present in the camp.
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.”
The Berean wording, no disaster and no trouble, follows a sense Matthew Henry reports, that God will not stand by while wrong is done to Israel. The words cut both ways. Albert Barnes explains why, since the two Hebrew terms join wickedness with the trouble that follows it, as they do again in Psalm 10:7 and 90:10.
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.
Numbers 23:22-23
brought them out of Egypt: The oracle grounds Israel's strength in God, who brought them out of Egypt with strength like a wild ox. The King James has unicorn, and Adam Clarke judged that creature of heraldry to have no counterpart in nature. Verse 23 puts Balaam's trade out of work, no spell against Jacob and no divination against Israel, and Joshua 13:22 calls him the diviner.
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
The second half looks ahead. Matthew Henry reads it as a deed Israel would recount with wonder, and he thinks Deuteronomy 32:31, where even the enemies concede that their rock is unlike Israel's Rock, may point back to Balaam. Adam Clarke renders the clause another way, that at each time Israel would be told what God was doing.
Numbers 23:24-26
Genesis 49:9 gave the lion to Judah alone, and here the whole people rise like a lioness. Albert Barnes suggests the omen Balaam watched for may have been a real lion from the Jordan thicket. Balak's request falls from a curse to silence, neither curse them at all nor bless them at all.
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
Neither curse them at all: Matthew Henry hears a general's worry in the request. If Balaam could not help Moab's forces, Balak wanted him at least to stop dispiriting them. Henry cites Isaiah 47:13 on those worn out by their many counsels. Two verses later Balak tries again all the same.
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
Balaam points back to 22:38, where he said before setting out that he could speak only the word God put in his mouth. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown call this a remarkable confession. He was made to say what he neither intended nor wished to say. Matthew Henry links it with Isaiah 54:17, where every tongue raised against God's people is condemned.
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
One more mountain, one more attempt
Numbers 23:27-30
The third station is the top of Peor, and the name carries the rest of the book. Numbers 25:3 records that Israel joined in worshiping Baal of Peor, and 31:16 says the counsel behind it was Balaam's, so he stands where his advice will do what his oracles cannot. Seven altars go up a third time.
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
The wasteland is Jeshimon, and Albert Barnes places it in the valley below, where Beth-jeshimoth stood. John Gill ties the hill to Beth-peor, the house of the god of Peor. Deuteronomy 34:6 says Moses was buried in a valley of Moab facing Beth-peor. The third oracle is spoken near his grave.
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
The order repeats verse 1 word for word, so by now twenty-one bulls and twenty-one rams have been offered. Nothing in the rite has changed. Matthew Henry notes that they kept up the costly offerings with no promise to rest their hopes on. He tells readers who do hold a promise to keep praying, citing Luke 18:1.
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
Verse 2 said Balak and Balaam offered together, and here only Balak is named. John Gill notes that he spared no cost, though he could now have little hope. John Calvin, on Balak's first compliance, says the superstitious spare no expense for the masters of their errors. The third oracle follows in chapter 24.
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.”
How this psalm is built
The form: Two oracles in poetry, each set inside a short narrative frame of altars and sacrifices, as Keil and Delitzsch classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| Seven altars, seven bulls, seven rams | The apparatus is built at verses 1 and 2 and built again at verses 14 and 29, and Balak stands by his burnt offering each time. 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. | Numbers 23:1, Numbers 23:2, Numbers 23:14, Numbers 23:29 |
| The LORD put a word in his mouth | The sentence the chapter runs on stands at verse 5 and again at verse 16, in the same words. Balaam had already promised Balak the same thing at 22:38. The prophet for hire becomes a channel for words he did not choose. | Numbers 23:5, Numbers 23:16 |
| He took up his oracle | Both oracles open with the same formula at verses 7 and 18, and the first one quotes the contract back before answering it. Come curse Jacob for me, come denounce Israel, is Balak's own commission put into the poem. | Numbers 23:7, Numbers 23:18 |
| God is not a man | Verse 19 sets the two halves of one claim side by side, that God is not a man that he should lie, and not a son of man that he should change his mind. The line answers Balak's whole method, since moving a seer to a fresh hill assumes God can be worked on the way a man is worked on. | Numbers 23:19 |
The chapter is a study in a method failing on its own terms. The procedure Balaam runs is documented pagan practice. Seven is the standard ritual number across the region, and Mesopotamian diviners read the liver and entrails of sacrificed animals and worked from detailed reference manuals. Balaam goes off to a bare height and waits for a word, and Albert Barnes reads that as watching for an omen he could interpret by the rules of his art.
10 more paragraphs on the patterns
The first oracle does what the vantage was chosen to prevent. The hill was picked for cursing and it produces a description. The people shall dwell apart states from outside what Exodus 19:5 and Leviticus 20:24 state from within. Matthew Henry adds that Israel held that standing until they mingled among the nations, which Psalm 106:35 says of them and which Numbers 25:1 records happening two chapters later.
The second oracle uses the covenant's own arithmetic. The dust of Jacob at verse 10 answers Genesis 13:16 and 28:14, where the seed was promised as the dust of the earth. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take the fourth part of Israel as one of the four camp standards of Numbers 2, which makes Balaam count a quarter of the camp and find it past counting.
The New Testament's use
The line of verse 19 is carried forward at Malachi 3:6, at Titus 1:2 and at Hebrews 6:18, where the point is that God cannot lie. The same is said of the Strength of Israel at 1 Samuel 15:29. In that same chapter, at 15:11 and 15:35, the LORD regrets that he had made Saul king. Both sentences stand in the canon, and readers hold them together in different ways.
Deuteronomy 23:5, Joshua 24:10, Nehemiah 13:2 and Micah 6:5 all recall this hillside as the day the curse was turned into a blessing.
The debated point
What the reem of verse 22 is remains open. Adam Clarke says plainly that the animal behind the strength of a unicorn is uncertain and that the one horned creature of heraldry has no counterpart in nature. Later readers commonly take the reem as the wild ox, and Job 39:9 to 10 uses the word of an animal no man puts in a furrow.
Verse 21 is the second point. God has not beheld iniquity in Jacob is said of the camp that murmured through chapters 11 to 14 and that joins itself to Baal of Peor at 25:3. Matthew Henry takes the word of idolatry, absent since the golden calf. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take it as an apostasy not yet so complete that God would abandon them.
Where to go deeper
Balaam is owed a feature page, and this row carries the full presentation until it stands. The road that brought him is set out at Balaam's donkey, and the plague his later counsel produced at the covenant of Phinehas. The camp he was looking down on is set out at the wilderness generation.
Keep studying
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 form and classifications
Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments, 1832 to 1869, on Numbers 23:3; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch, 1866 to 1891, on Numbers 23 and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on Numbers 23:8.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown; John Calvin; John Gill; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry.