for I will promote you to very great honor, and whatever you say to me I will do. Please come therefore, and curse this people for me.’”
Parallel translations
- KJV For I will promote thee unto very great honour, and I will do whatsoever thou sayest unto me: come therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people.
- BSB for I will honor you richly and do whatever you say. So please come and put a curse on this people for me!’”
- NKJV for I will certainly honor you greatly, and I will do whatever you say to me. Therefore please come, curse this people for me.’ ”
- NASB for I will indeed honor you richly, and I will do whatever you tell me. Please come then, curse this people for me.’ ”
- NLT I will pay you very well and do whatever you tell me. Just come and curse these people for me!”
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
Balak promises great honor and to do whatever Balaam asks, if only he will curse Israel. The bribe is now enormous.
Overview
The offer of unlimited reward and honor is designed to overcome Balaam's stated reluctance. It tests whether Balaam values God's word or worldly gain more highly. The lavish bribe sharpens the central question of the narrative: can any price buy a reversal of God's blessing?
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Num 24:11Therefore now flee you to your place! I thought to promote you to great honor; but, behold, Yahweh has kept you back from honor.”
- Num 22:37Balak said to Balaam, “Didn’t I earnestly send to you to call you? Why didn’t you come to me? Am I not able indeed to promote you to honor?”
- Num 22:6Please come now therefore curse me this people; for they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall prevail, that we may strike them, and that I may drive them out of the land; for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.”
- Matt 14:7Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatever she should ask.
- Deut 16:9You shall count for yourselves seven weeks. From the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain you shall begin to count seven weeks.
- Matt 4:8–9Again, the devil took him to an exceedingly high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and their glory.
- Matt 16:26For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his life? Or what will a man give in exchange for his life?
- Num 23:2–3Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bull and a ram.
- Num 23:29–30Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.”
- Esth 5:11Haman recounted to them the glory of his riches, the multitude of his children, all the things in which the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king.
- Esth 7:9Then Harbonah, one of the eunuchs who were with the king said, “Behold, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman has made for Mordecai, who spoke good for the king, is standing at Haman’s house.” The king said, “Hang him on it!”
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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 22:17 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.