So Balak took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, where he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
Parallel translations
- WEB He took him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.
- KJV 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.
- NKJV So he brought him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
- NASB So he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
- NLT So Balak took Balaam to the plateau of Zophim on Pisgah Peak. He built seven altars there and offered a young bull and a ram on each altar.
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 takes Balaam to the top of Pisgah and again builds seven altars with offerings. He repeats the costly ritual at a new site.
Overview
The renewed sacrifices show Balak's dogged confidence in ritual manipulation. Pisgah's heights, later associated with Moses' view of the land (Deuteronomy 34:1), here serve a failed attempt at cursing. The repetition only sets up another divine blessing.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Num 23:29Then Balaam said, “Build for me seven altars here, and prepare for me seven bulls and seven rams.”
- Deut 4:49including all the Arabah on the east side of the Jordan and as far as the Sea of the Arabah, below the slopes of Pisgah.
- Isa 46:6They pour out their bags of gold and weigh out silver on scales; they hire a goldsmith to fashion it into a god, so they can bow down and worship.
- Hos 12:11Is there iniquity in Gilead? They will surely come to nothing. Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal? Indeed, their altars will be heaps of stones in the furrows of the field.
- Isa 1:10–11Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
- Num 23:1–2Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me seven altars here, and prepare for me seven bulls and seven rams.”
- Deut 34:1Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which faces Jericho. And the LORD showed him the whole land—from Gilead as far as Dan,
- Num 21:20and from Bamoth to the valley in Moab where the top of Pisgah overlooks the wasteland.
- Deut 3:27Go to the top of Pisgah and look to the west and north and south and east. See the land with your own eyes, for you will not cross this Jordan.
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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 23:14 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
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