But God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them. You are not to curse this people, for they are blessed.”
Parallel translations
- WEB God said to Balaam, “You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people; for they are blessed.”
- KJV And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people: for they are blessed.
- NKJV And God said to Balaam, “You shall not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.”
- NASB But God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them; you shall not curse the people, for they are blessed.”
- NLT But God told Balaam, “Do not go with them. You are not to curse these people, for they have been blessed!”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God flatly forbids Balaam to go or to curse Israel, declaring that they are blessed. This is the decisive word of the chapter.
Overview
God's command is unambiguous: Israel is already blessed, and no curse can stand against them. This grounds the entire narrative in God's irrevocable covenant blessing (Genesis 12:2-3). The verse anticipates the great truth that those whom God blesses no power can curse (Romans 8:31-39).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 17
- Deut 23:5Yet 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.
- Eph 1:3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.
- Rom 11:29For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.
- Num 23:19–20God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?
- Gen 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.
- Deut 33:29Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD? He is the shield that protects you, the sword in which you boast. Your enemies will cower before you, and you shall trample their high places.”
- Rom 4:6–7And David speaks likewise of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
- Mic 6:5My people, remember what Balak king of Moab counseled and what Balaam son of Beor answered. Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal, so that you may acknowledge the righteousness of the LORD.’”
- Num 22:19–20So now, please stay here overnight as the others did, that I may find out what else the LORD has to tell me.”
- Ps 146:5Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God,
- Gen 22:16–18saying, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your only son,
- Num 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!’
- Matt 27:19While Pilate was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent him this message: “Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for I have suffered terribly in a dream today because of Him.”
- Job 33:15–17In a dream, in a vision in the night, when deep sleep falls upon men as they slumber on their beds,
- Ps 144:15Blessed are the people of whom this is so; blessed are the people whose God is the LORD.
- Num 23:13–15Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place where you can see them. You will only see the outskirts of their camp—not all of them. And from there, curse them for me.”
- Num 23:3“Stay here by your burnt offering while I am gone,” Balaam said to Balak. “Perhaps the LORD will meet with me. And whatever He reveals to me, I will tell you.” So Balaam went off to a barren height,
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
In the wilderness Christ is the water from the rock, the bronze serpent lifted up that the dying might look and live (John 3:14), and the star and scepter that Balaam saw rising out of Jacob.
How Numbers 22:12 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.