Numbers 23:20
in Numbers 23I have indeed received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot change it.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Behold, I have received commandment to bless: And he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it.
KJV
Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it.
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This verse in Numbers 23
Commentary
3 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
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.
This site's exposition
received commandment to bless
on Numbers 23:20-21
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.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Behold, I have received commandment to bless,....
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery 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.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| הִנֵּ֥ה | hineh | here! | H2009 → | 843 times |
| בָרֵ֖ךְ | varekh | [surely] blessing | H1288 → | 330 times |
| לָקָ֑חְתִּי | lakacheti | I have received | H3947 → | 966 times |
| וּבֵרֵ֖ךְ | uverekh | and he has blessed | H1288 → | 330 times |
| וְלֹ֥א | velo' | and not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| אֲשִׁיבֶֽנָּה׃ | ʾashivenah | I will turn back it | H7725 → | 1056 times |
הִנֵּ֥הhere!
hinehH2009 →843 times
בָרֵ֖ךְ[surely] blessing
varekhH1288 →330 times
לָקָ֑חְתִּיI have received
lakachetiH3947 →966 times
וּבֵרֵ֖ךְand he has blessed
uverekhH1288 →330 times
וְלֹ֥אand not
velo'H3808 →5168 times
אֲשִׁיבֶֽנָּה׃I will turn back it
ʾashivenahH7725 →1056 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach 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
Genesis 12:2I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
it leads to
- 2 Samuel 7:9
I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you. Now I will make for you a name like the greatest in the land.
- Galatians 3:14
He redeemed us in order that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit.
- Genesis 18:18
Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and through him all the nations of the earth will be blessed.
- Genesis 17:4–6
“As for Me, this is My covenant with you: You will be the father of many nations.
- Genesis 28:3–4
May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, so that you may become a company of peoples.
- 2 Samuel 7:9
Through
Isaiah 43:13Even from eternity I am He, and none can deliver out of My hand. When I act, who can reverse it?”
it leads to
- Isaiah 14:27
The LORD of Hosts has purposed, and who can thwart Him? His hand is outstretched, so who can turn it back?
- Isaiah 14:27
Through
Genesis 22:17I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies.
it leads to
- Genesis 15:5
And the LORD took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be.”
- Genesis 24:60
And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, “Our sister, may you become the mother of thousands upon thousands. May your offspring possess the gates of their enemies.”
- Genesis 15:5
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Numbers
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.