gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural absolute
said
וַיֹּ֤אמֶרvai.Yo.mer
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Balaam
בִּלְעָ֔םbil.'Am
H1109
Bilam · proper noun, a man's name
go
יָלַךְyâlak
H3212
to walk (literally or figuratively)
curse
תָאֹר֙ta.'Or
H779
to execrate · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
people
הָעָ֔םha.'Am
H5971
a people (as a congregated unit) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
blessed
בָר֖וּךְva.Rukh
H1288
to kneel · verb, qal passive participle, masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Deuteronomy 23:5 Nevertheless the LORD thy God would not hearken unto Balaam; but the LORD thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the LO…
Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
Romans 11:29 For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
Genesis 12:2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
Numbers 23:19-20 God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken…
Deuteronomy 33:29 Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency!…
Romans 4:6-7 Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works,
Genesis 22:16-18 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Numbers 22:1-14
The children of Israel have at length finished their wanderings in the wilderness, out of which they went up (Num 21:18), and are now encamped in the plains of Moab near Jordan, where they continued till they passed through Jordan under Joshua, after the death of Moses. Now we have here,
I. The fright which the Moabites were in upon the approach of Israel, Num 22:2-4. They needed not to fear any harm from them if they knew (and it is probable that Moses let them know) the orders God had given to Israel not to contend with the Moabites, nor to use any hostility against them, Deu 2:9. But, if they had any notice of this, they were jealous that it was but a sham, to make them secure, that they…
Lodge here this night, and I will bring you word again, as the Lord shall speak unto me, &c.--God usually revealed His will in visions and dreams; and Balaam's birth and residence in Mesopotamia, where the remains of patriarchal religion still lingered, account for his knowledge of the true God. His real character has long been a subject of discussion. Some, judging from his language, have thought him a saint; others, looking to his conduct, have described him as an irreligious charlatan; and a third class consider him a novice in the faith, who had a fear of God, but who had not acquired power over his passions [HENGSTENBERG].
John Gill on Numbers 22:12
And God said unto Balaam, thou shalt not go with them,.... Which is a denial of the first thing Balak requested, "come now, therefore", &c. Numbers 22:6.
thou shall not curse the people; which was the principal thing desired, and in order to which he was solicited to go with the messengers; but this is absolutely forbidden:
for they are blessed; by the Lord himself, with an irrevocable blessing, and therefore it would be vain and fruitless, as well as dangerous for him to attempt to curse them, Genesis 12:3 this may have a special respect to the blessing of Jacob by Isaac, which could not be reversed by the solicitations of Esau, and which descended to Jacob's posterity, the Israelites, Ge…
Here a deeper question arises, and I do not know whether it is fitting to lay bare a matter of such profound mystery and to bring it forth to the crowds—and those crowds who come to the hearing of the word of God only for a few days and immediately depart, nor tarry longer in the meditation of the word of God; yet for the sake of those who are studious and thirst to hear and are able to grasp the spiritual sense, we shall say a few things out of many. Something of this sort, then, can be objected. Suppose Balaam invokes the demons, suppose he curses the people, suppose the invoked demons do what they can: can God not defend the people from the demons and destroy their power in doing harm? What need was there, then, that he himself should come to Balaam and forbid the accustomed demons to approach, lest they even attempt or endeavor to wish to injure his people? To these things, then, although not all that can occur are to be brought forth, nevertheless we shall say in part that God does not wish to condemn the race of demons before the time. For the demons themselves also know that the present age contains their time. For this reason, in fact, they even begged the Lord that he would not torment them before the time, nor send them into the abyss. And on account of this he has not removed the devil from the principality of this age, because there is still need of his work for the perfection of those who are to be crowned; there is still need of his work for the exercises of the contests and the victories of the blessed. So, then, neither does he wish to draw away the rest of the demons violently, before the time, from the intention of their purpose; and therefore from the beginning he did not permit them to be invoked through Balaam, lest perhaps, being invoked, they should be destroyed before the time and be done away with, while God defended his people. For it is one thing if a demon requests from God someone to tempt, as in the case of Job, and receives power over him with a certain distinction—for example, that it be said to him: I give you all his goods into your power, but do not touch him himself; or again: I give you power over him, but guard his soul. And it is another thing if, at a magician's demand and with certain adjurations extorting it, the demons rage without any restriction; in which case, if freedom of will be preserved for them, they will…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Moab — The seed of the father, or, according to others, the desirable land, the eldest son of Lot (Gen. 19:37), of incestuous birth. (2.) Used to denote the people of Moab (Num. 22:3-14; Judg. 3:30; 2 Sam.…
Desert, Journey Of Israel Through The · Balaam not permitted to curse Israel — Balaam not permitted to curse Israel
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Calvin on Numbers 22:12-14
Thou shalt not go with them. If there were any room for doubt, God peremptorily removes it, and confirms the prohibition; because it was unlawful to curse, those whom He had blessed. For nothing more is permitted to prophets than that they should be the witnesses, or ambassadors (internuntii,) or heralds of the grace which God freely deigns to bestow at His own pleasure upon whom He will. Moreover, God is said to bless those whom He has embraced with His favor, and to whom He experimentally declares Himself to be propitious, when He displays His liberality towards them. Of this blessing He willed that the prophets should be His ministers in such a manner that the power should still remain al…
The rapid defeat of the two mighty kings of the Amorites filled the Moabites with such alarm at the irresistible might of Israel, that Balak their king, with the princes of Midian, sought to bring the powers of heathen magic to bear against the nation of God; and to this end he sent messengers with presents to Balaam, the celebrated soothsayer, in Mesopotamia, who had the reputation of being able both to bless and curse with great success, to entreat him to come, and so to weaken the Israelites with his magical curses, that he might be able to smite them, and drive them out of his land (Num 22:1-7). At first Balaam declined this invitation, in consequence of divine instructions (Num 22:8-14)…
God prohibited Balaam from going with Balak’s messengers.
Rashi on Numbers 22:12
לא תלך עמהם THOU SHALT NOT GO WITH THEM — He said: If so, I will curse them in my own place. Whereupon God answered: לא תאור את העם THOU SHALT NOT CURSE THE PEOPLE. — He said to Him: If so, I will bless them. He replied to him: They do not need your blessing, כי ברוך הוא FOR THEY ARE ALREADY BLESSED. A parable! People say to the hornet: neither any of your honey nor any of your sting! (Midrash Tanchuma, Balak 6).
