Numbers 22:12

12 God said to Balaam, "You will not go with them; you will not curse the people, because they [are] blessed."

Numbers 22:12 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 22:12

And God said unto Balaam, thou shalt not go with them
Which is a denial of the first thing Balak requested, "come now, therefore" ( Numbers 22:6 )

thou shall not curse the people;
which was the principal thing desired, and in order to which he was solicited to go with the messengers; but this is absolutely forbidden:

for they are blessed;
by the Lord himself, with an irrevocable blessing, and therefore it would be vain and fruitless, as well as dangerous for him to attempt to curse them, ( Genesis 12:3 ) this may have a special respect to the blessing of Jacob by Isaac, which could not be reversed by the solicitations of Esau, and which descended to Jacob's posterity, the Israelites, ( Genesis 27:33 ) .

Numbers 22:12 In-Context

10 And Balaam said to God, "Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, sent [word] to me,
11 'Look! A people went out from Egypt. Look! They cover {the surface of the land}. Now, go, curse them for me. Perhaps I will be able to attack them and drive them out."
12 God said to Balaam, "You will not go with them; you will not curse the people, because they [are] blessed."
13 Balaam got up in the morning, and he said to the princes of Balak, "Go to your land, because Yahweh refused to allow me to go with you."
14 The princes of Moab got up and went to Balak, and they said, "Balaam refused to come with us."

Footnotes 1

Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.