Numbers 23:8

_HOW SHALL I CURSE, WHOM GOD HATH NOT CURSED? OR HOW SHALL I DEFY, WHOM THE LORD HATH NOT DEFIED?_ How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? A divine blessing has been pronounced over the posterity of Jacob; and, therefore, whatever prodigies can be achieved by my charms, all magical skill, all human power, are utterly impotent to courteract the decree of God....

1-10 With the camps of Israel full in view, Balaam ordered seven altars to be built, and a bullock and a ram to be offered on each. Oh the sottishness of superstition, to imagine that God will be at man's beck! The curse is turned into a blessing, by the overruling power of God, in love to Israel. God designed to serve his own glory by Balaam, and therefore met him. If God put a word into the mouth of Balaam, who would have defied God and Israel, surely he will not be wanting to those who desire to glorify God, and to edify his people; it shall be given what they should speak. He who opened the mouth of the ass, caused the mouth of this wicked man to speak words as contrary to the desire of his heart, as those of the ass were to the powers of the brute. The miracle was as great in the one case as in the other. Balaam pronounces Israel safe. He owns he could do no more than God suffered...

Verse Numbers 23:8. _HOW SHALL I CURSE, WHOM GOD HATH NOT CURSED?_] It was granted on all hands that no _incantations_ nor imprecations could avail, unless God concurred and ratified them. From God's communication to Balaam he saw that God was determined to bless and defend Israel, and therefore all endeavours to injure them must be in vain....

NUMBERS 23:1 BUILD ME HERE SEVEN ALTARS. According to the common opinion of the heathen, it was necessary to propitiate with sacrifices the God with whom they had to do, and if possible to secure his favourable consideration on their side. The number seven was especially connected with the revelation of the tree God, the Creator of the world, and was probably observed here for this reason. The sacrifices were offered no doubt to Jehovah. NUMBERS 23:3 PERADVENTURE THE LORD WILL COME TO MEET me. It might be concluded from Numbers 24:1 that Balaam went only to look for "auguries," _i.e; _for such natural signs in the flight of birds and the like a

HOW SHALL I CURSE WHOM GOD HATH NOT CURSED?.... The sense is, that it was impossible for him to curse those that God did not curse himself, or would not have cursed by others; not but that he had a good will to it, to get Balak's money and honour, but he knew not how to accomplish it; yea, he saw it was in vain to attempt it, it was a thing that could not possibly be done: God does not, nor will he curse his spiritual Israel; they are blessed by him in Christ, and they shall be blessed; nor is it in the power of their enemies to curse them, or do them any harm: the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem, instead of God and the Lord in this and the following clause, use the phase, "the Word of the Lord;'' the essential Word, the Son of God, who is so far from cursing his people, that he has delivered them from the curses of the law, being made a curse for them, that the blessings of the ever...

THE PARABLES OF BALAAM Chapter S 23-24 _ 1. The first parable (Numbers 23:1)_ 2. Balak's surprise and Balaam's answer (Numbers 23:11) 3. At Zophim (Numbers 23:13) 4. The second parable (Numbers 23:18) 5. Balak's request and Balaam's reply (Numbers 23:25) 6. Balaam's third parable (Numbers 24:1) 7. Balak's anger and Balaam's firmness ...

BALAAM'S FIRST ORACLE. Its purport is that the secure independence, the imposing numbers, and the undisturbed prosperity of Israel are proof that the people have not been cursed by God and therefore cannot be cursed by Balaam. The poem, which may have been incorporated, rather than composed, by the author of the narrative, seems to date from a period when Israel was most prosperous (_i.e._ some time during the undivided monarchy; _cf._ on Numbers 24:7; Numbers 24:17). NUMBERS 23:7. ARAM: _ i.e_. Aram-naharaim (Genesis 24:10 *,...

HOW... ? Figure of speech _Erotesis._ App-6. CURSE. revile. Hebrew. _nakab._ GOD. Hebrew. _'El_. the mighty God. See App-4. CURSED. Hebrew. _kabab_. to pierce with words. DEFY... DEFIED. Hebrew. _za'am =_ to be enraged with....

_Balaam's first prophetic message_. This consists of seven short couplets. Balaam declares the uselessness of Balak's action in fetching him for the purpose of cursing (Numbers 23:7 f.); the security of Israel, their separateness from other nations, and their great numbers (Numbers 23:9 a); and he prays that his end may be like theirs (Numbers 23:10 b)....

DISCOURSE: 172 BALAAM’S FIRST ATTEMPT TO CURSE ISRAEL Numbers 23:7. _And he took up his parable, and said, Balak, the king of Moab, hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the East, saying, Come, curse me Jacob; and come, defy Israel. How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy whom the Lord hath not defied? For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous; and let my last end be like his!_ IT is scarcely to be conceived to what a degree superstition will blind the eyes of men. There is nothing so absurd or incredible, which a person under the influence of it is not ready to believe. Who would imagine that persons could be b