Now therefore, flee to your place. I said I would greatly honor you, but in fact, the Lord has kept you back from honor.”
Parallel translations
- WEB Therefore now flee you to your place! I thought to promote you to great honor; but, behold, Yahweh has kept you back from honor.”
- KJV Therefore now flee thou to thy place: I thought to promote thee unto great honour; but, lo, the LORD hath kept thee back from honour.
- BSB Therefore, flee at once to your home! I said I would richly reward you, but instead the LORD has denied your reward.”
- NASB So flee to your place now. I said I would honor you greatly, but behold, the Lord has held you back from honor.”
- NLT Now get out of here! Go back home! I promised to reward you richly, but the Lord has kept you from your reward.”
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 dismisses Balaam, telling him to flee home, and blames the LORD for denying Balaam the honor and reward he was promised. He turns on the prophet in bitterness.
Overview
Balak withdraws the rich rewards he had dangled before Balaam, mockingly noting that the LORD has kept Balaam from honor. The exchange reveals that earthly reward was indeed Balaam's motive, though God overruled it. The episode warns against valuing human reward over obedience to God, a tension the New Testament recalls in describing Balaam's love of gain.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Num 22:17for 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.’”
- 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?”
- 1 Pet 5:2–3Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not under compulsion, but voluntarily, not for dishonest gain, but willingly;
- Phil 3:8Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse, that I may gain Christ
- Heb 11:24–26By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter,
- Acts 8:20But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money!
- Matt 19:28–30Jesus said to them, “Most certainly I tell you that you who have followed me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on the throne of his glory, you also will sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
- 2 Jn 1:8Watch yourselves, that we don’t lose the things which we have accomplished, but that we receive a full reward.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 24:11 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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