Numbers 23:8
in Numbers 23How can I curse what God has not cursed? How can I denounce what the LORD has not denounced?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? And how shall I defy, whom Jehovah hath not defied?
KJV
How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the Lord hath not defied?
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This verse in Numbers 23
Commentary
6 notes on this verseHow 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.
This site's exposition
hath brought me from Aram
on Numbers 23:7-8
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.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Hath he spoken in his word, in his promise, and shall he not make it good? Can we think otherwise of God than that he is unchangeably one with himself and true to his word? All his decrees are unalterable, and all his promises inviolable." 2.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed?....
Thirdly, It is a confession of the inviolable security of the people of God. God's Israel are owned and blessed of him. He has not cursed them, for they are delivered from the curse of the law; he has not defied them, nor rejected or abandoned them, though mean and vile.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed?--A divine blessing has been pronounced over the posterity of Jacob; and therefore, whatever prodigies can be achieved by my charms, all magical skill, all human power, is utterly impotent to counteract the decree of God.
The words behind it
10 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| מָ֣ה | mah | what? | H4100 → | 752 times |
| אֶקֹּ֔ב | ʾeko | will I curse | H6895 → | 14 times |
| לֹ֥א | lo' | [one whom] not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| קַבֹּ֖ה | kaboh | he has cursed him | H6895 → | 14 times |
| אֵ֑ל | ʾel | God | H410 → | 241 times |
| וּמָ֣ה | umah | and what? | H4100 → | 752 times |
| אֶזְעֹ֔ם | ʾezom | will I denounce | H2194 → | 12 times |
| לֹ֥א | lo' | [one whom] not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| זָעַ֖ם | zaam | he has denounced | H2194 → | 12 times |
| יְהוָֽה׃ | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
מָ֣הwhat?
mahH4100 →752 times
אֶקֹּ֔בwill I curse
ʾekoH6895 →14 times
לֹ֥א[one whom] not
lo'H3808 →5168 times
קַבֹּ֖הhe has cursed him
kabohH6895 →14 times
אֵ֑לGod
ʾelH410 →241 times
וּמָ֣הand what?
umahH4100 →752 times
אֶזְעֹ֔םwill I denounce
ʾezomH2194 →12 times
לֹ֥א[one whom] not
lo'H3808 →5168 times
זָעַ֖םhe has denounced
zaamH2194 →12 times
יְהוָֽה׃Yahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 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
Numbers 23:20I have indeed received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot change it.
it leads to
- Genesis 12:2
I 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.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- John 10:27–29
My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.
- Numbers 22:12
But God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them. You are not to curse this people, for they are blessed.”
- Genesis 12:2
Through
Numbers 23:23For there is no spell against Jacob and no divination against Israel. It will now be said of Jacob and Israel, ‘What great things God has done!’
it leads to
- Luke 10:18–19
So He told them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
- Joshua 13:22
The Israelites also killed the diviner Balaam son of Beor along with the others they put to the sword.
- Luke 10:18–19
Through
Isaiah 44:25who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who confounds the wise and turns their knowledge into nonsense,
it leads to
- Psalms 33:10
The LORD frustrates the plans of the nations; He thwarts the devices of the peoples.
- Job 5:12–14
He thwarts the schemes of the crafty, so that their hands find no success.
- Psalms 33:10
Through
Numbers 22:12But God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them. You are not to curse this people, for they are blessed.”
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 23:5
Yet the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam, and the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loves you.
- Deuteronomy 23:5
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Numbers
This page draws on 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 Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.