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.
Parallel translations
- WEB 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.’”
- 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 thou to thy place: I thought to promote thee unto great honour; but, lo, the LORD hath kept thee back from honour.
- Num 22:37And Balak said unto Balaam, Did I not earnestly send unto thee to call thee? wherefore camest thou not unto me? am I not able indeed to promote thee to honour?
- Num 22:6Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people; for they are too mighty for me: peradventure I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land: for I wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed.
- Matt 14:7Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask.
- Deut 16:9Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn.
- Matt 4:8–9Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
- Matt 16:26For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
- Num 23:2–3And Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bullock and a ram.
- Num 23:29–30And Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks and seven rams.
- Esth 5:11And Haman told them of the glory of his riches, and the multitude of his children, and all the things wherein the king had promoted him, and how he had advanced him above the princes and servants of the king.
- Esth 7:9And Harbonah, one of the chamberlains, said before the king, Behold also, the gallows fifty cubits high, which Haman had made for Mordecai, who had spoken good for the king, standeth in the house of Haman. Then the king said, Hang him thereon.
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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.