NOTES for Num 23:1-30
1 And Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven oxen and seven rams. |
2 And Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bullock and a ram. |
3 And Balaam said unto Balak, Stand by thy burnt offering, and I will go: peradventure the LORD will come to meet me: and whatsoever he sheweth me I will tell thee. And he went to an high place. |
4 And God met Balaam: and he said unto him, I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered upon every altar a bullock and a ram. |
5 And the LORD put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, Return unto Balak, and thus thou shalt speak. |
6 And he returned unto him, and, lo, he stood by his burnt sacrifice, he, and all the princes of Moab. |
7 And he took up his parable, and said, Balak the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curse me Jacob, and come, defy Israel. |
8 How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the LORD hath not defied? |
9 For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. |
10 Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his! |
11 And Balak said unto Balaam, What hast thou done unto me? I took thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast blessed them altogether. |
12 And he answered and said, Must I not take heed to speak that which the LORD hath put in my mouth? |
13 And Balak said unto him, Come, I pray thee, with me unto another place, from whence thou mayest see them: thou shalt see but the utmost part of them, and shalt not see them all: and curse me them from thence. |
14 And he brought him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar. |
15 And he said unto Balak, Stand here by thy burnt offering, while I meet the LORD yonder. |
16 And the LORD met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, Go again unto Balak, and say thus. |
17 And when he came to him, behold, he stood by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said unto him, What hath the LORD spoken? |
18 And he took up his parable, and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear; hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor: |
19 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, and shall he not make it good? |
20 Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it. |
21 He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them. |
22 God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn. |
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. |
25 And Balak said unto Balaam, Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all. |
26 But Balaam answered and said unto Balak, Told not I thee, saying, All that the LORD speaketh, that I must do? |
27 And Balak said unto Balaam, Come, I pray thee, I will bring thee unto another place; peradventure it will please God that thou mayest curse me them from thence. |
28 And Balak brought Balaam unto the top of Peor, that looketh toward Jeshimon. |
29 And Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks and seven rams. |
30 And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar. |
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Human attempts to come to terms with God have never ceased. Nor, for that matter, attempts to come to terms with those pagan gods whom people often, if they did not create them themselves, at least imagined in their own image and likeness. So it was with Balak - at first he wanted only one thing: the defeat of the people of God in the war that lay ahead for him with them. Balaam's God was needed by him only as a force that could be set against the people and their incomprehensible God. For Balak there exists only force, natural and supernatural, and both kinds are equally suitable for achieving the goal he has set. For Balak, Balaam is only a specialist in managing supernatural power, nothing more.
He may have guessed that a prophet and prophecy are something more than such management, but judging by the story, this something more did not interest him. Balaam, however, turned out to be a real prophet, even though a pagan one. Real because he refused to follow anyone or anything except the voice that he heard and that led him. Such were real prophets - judging by what we know about them today, they did not always understand whom exactly they served, but they knew one thing firmly: their life presupposed a path and service.
One must not betray the experience that opens to you in the depths of your own heart; one must not fail to listen to the voice that sounds there, and one must not betray one's own path - otherwise catastrophe is inevitable, the collapse of one's whole life. Balaam follows these rules - not always consistently, but always sincerely, and what God needs from a person first of all is sincerity, faithfulness to oneself, and faithfulness to one's own path. Balak, however, wants Balaam simply to solve the task set before him - otherwise why invite him at all? This is where they clashed: Balaam refuses to act as Balak demands, despite both promises and threats.
He even refuses the compromise Balak offers: neither to bless the people nor to curse them. Balak was, in the end, even ready for that option - since the maximum had failed - but Balaam cannot betray himself. In all likelihood, he knew nothing about YHWH, at least at first, when Balak invited him to come. But he knew that one must not betray oneself and the One who speaks in the heart, whoever He may be. This faithfulness to himself and to his path allowed Balaam to hear the God whom he had not known before.
Readings for 15 December 2025
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