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.
Parallel translations
- 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.
- BSB 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.
- 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 23:29Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.”
- Deut 4:49and all the Arabah beyond the Jordan eastward, even to the sea of the Arabah, under the slopes of Pisgah.
- Isa 46:6Some pour out gold from the bag, and weigh silver in the balance. They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god. They fall down — yes, they worship.
- Hos 12:11If Gilead is wicked, surely they are worthless. In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls. Indeed, their altars are like heaps in the furrows of the field.
- Isa 1:10–11Hear Yahweh’s word, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah!
- Num 23:1–2Balaam said to Balak, “Build here seven altars for me, and prepare here seven bulls and seven rams for me.”
- Deut 34:1Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, that is over against Jericho. Yahweh showed him all the land of Gilead, to Dan,
- Num 21:20and from Bamoth to the valley that is in the field of Moab, to the top of Pisgah, which looks down on the desert.
- Deut 3:27Go up to the top of Pisgah, and lift up your eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and see with your eyes; for you shall not go over 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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