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Numbers 23:2

in Numbers 23

So Balak did as Balaam had instructed, and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bullock and a ram.

KJV

And Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bullock and a ram.

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This verse in Numbers 23

Commentary

2 notes on this verse

This site's exposition

Build me here seven altars

on Numbers 23:1-3

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.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

And Balak did as Balaam had spoken,....

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

On the verses either side of this one

Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra alluded here to a profound secret. 106 “There are profound secrets which are understood by few in number. There is a unit of seven, in days [making a week] etc.
Ramban: Spain, 1194–1270 · Ramban on Numbers 23:1:1, via Sefaria, Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

11 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיַּ֣עַשׂand he did

    vaiyaasH6213 →2628 times

  • בָּלָ֔קBalak

    balakH1111 →43 times

  • כַּאֲשֶׁ֖רjust as

    kaasherH834 →5497 times

  • דִּבֶּ֣רhe had spoken

    diberH1696 →1141 times

  • בִּלְעָ֑םBalaam

    bilamH1109 →61 times

  • וַיַּ֨עַלand he offered up

    vaiyaalH5927 →890 times

  • בָּלָ֧קBalak

    balakH1111 →43 times

  • וּבִלְעָ֛םand Balaam

    uvilamH1109 →61 times

  • פָּ֥רa young bull

    parH6499 →132 times

  • וָאַ֖יִלand a ram

    vaayilH352 →187 times

  • בַּמִּזְבֵּֽחַ׃on the altar

    bamizbeachH4196 →401 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

3 in all, six open

The walk

5 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Numbers 23:14

    So 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.

    it leads to

    • Isaiah 46:6

      They pour out their bags of gold and weigh out silver on scales; they hire a goldsmith to fashion it into a god, so they can bow down and worship.

    • Deuteronomy 3:27

      Go to the top of Pisgah and look to the west and north and south and east. See the land with your own eyes, for you will not cross this Jordan.

    • Isaiah 1:10–11

      Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah!

    • Hosea 12:11

      Is there iniquity in Gilead? They will surely come to nothing. Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal? Indeed, their altars will be heaps of stones in the furrows of the field.

    • Numbers 23:29

      Then Balaam said, “Build for me seven altars here, and prepare for me seven bulls and seven rams.”

Where this verse is studied

About Numbers

The Bronze Serpent, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
The Bronze Serpent, Gustave Doré, 1866. Public domain.
Numbers: the study guide →Read Numbers 23 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).

Read on in Numbers 23 →