Numbers 23:8

8 How can I curse someone God has not cursed? How can I denounce someone the Lord has not denounced?

Numbers 23:8 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 23:8

How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed?
&c.] 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 everlasting covenant of grace might come upon them; and they are blessed of God in him, and for his sake, with all spiritual blessings:

or how shall I defy whom the Lord hath not defied?
which is the same thing in other words, only this last word is expressive of more contempt and indignation.

Numbers 23:8 In-Context

6 So he returned to Balak, who was standing there by his burnt offering with all the officials of Moab.

7 Balaam proclaimed his poem: Balak brought me from Aram; the king of Moab, from the eastern mountains: "Come, put a curse on Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel!"

8 How can I curse someone God has not cursed? How can I denounce someone the Lord has not denounced?

9 I see them from the top of rocky cliffs, and I watch them from the hills. There is a people living alone; it does not consider itself among the nations.

10 Who has counted the dust of Jacob or numbered the dust clouds of Israel? Let me die the death of the upright; let the end of my [life] be like theirs.