How can I curse what God has not cursed? How can I denounce what the LORD has not denounced?
Parallel translations
- WEB How shall I curse whom God has not cursed? How shall I defy whom Yahweh has not defied?
- KJV How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the LORD hath not defied?
- NKJV “Howshall I curse whom God has not cursed? And how shall I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced?
- NASB “How am I to put a curse on him upon whom God has not put a curse? And how am I to curse him whom the Lord has not cursed?
- NLT But how can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I condemn those whom the Lord has not condemned?
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
Balaam asks how he can curse those whom God has not cursed. The very premise of Balak's request is impossible.
Overview
This rhetorical question states the heart of the matter: human cursing is powerless against those God has blessed. It echoes the Abrahamic promise that opposing God's people brings a curse, not blessing, on the opponent (Genesis 12:3). The verse anchors Israel's security in God's sovereign favor, a security ultimately fulfilled for all God's people in Christ (Romans 8:33-34).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- 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!’
- Isa 44:25who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who confounds the wise and turns their knowledge into nonsense,
- Num 23:20I have indeed received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot change it.
- Num 22:12But God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them. You are not to curse this people, for they are blessed.”
- Isa 47:12–13So take your stand with your spells and with your many sorceries, with which you have wearied yourself from your youth. Perhaps you will succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror!
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
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 23:8 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.