Numbers 22:17

17 For I will greatly honour thee, and will do for thee whatsoever thou shalt say; come then, curse me this people.

Numbers 22:17 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 22:17

For I will promote thee unto very great honour
In his court, by making him some great officer there, perhaps his prime minister; so that as before he laid a bait for his covetousness, sending him large presents, and rewards of divination; here, for his pride and ambition, promising him court preferment; though Aben Ezra interprets it of mammon or riches, of which he could give him an immense sum: "in honouring I will exceedingly honour thee" F6; or load thee with wealth and riches; and so Balaam seems to understand it, since in his answer he says, "if Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold"; both civil honour and worldly wealth may be taken into the account, since they are both heavy and weighty things, and very desirable and ensnaring:

and I will do whatsoever thou sayest unto me;
give him what money he should ask of him, put him into whatsoever place and office he should desire; and though he was a sovereign prince, would be at his beck and command, and do whatever he should direct him to do in his kingdom, as well as in what concerned the affair of cursing Israel; as we find he afterwards did, with respect to sacrifices and rites relative thereunto:

come therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people;
renewing the request made in the first embassy with great importunity, ( Numbers 22:6 ) but using here a different word for "cursing"; there, as Munster observes, the word signifies to curse lightly; here, to blaspheme and utterly devote to ruin; to which may be added, to curse expressly and by name, to pierce through and through, to deprive of all benefits, and to destroy utterly.


FOOTNOTES:

F6 (dam Kdbka dbk) "honorando honorabo te valde", Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator.

Numbers 22:17 In-Context

15 And Balac yet again sent more princes and more honourable than they.
16 And they came to Balaam, and they say to him, Thus says Balac the son of Sepphor: I beseech thee, delay not to come to me.
17 For I will greatly honour thee, and will do for thee whatsoever thou shalt say; come then, curse me this people.
18 And Balaam answered and said to the princes of Balac, If Balac would give me his house full of silver and gold, I shall not be able to go beyond the word of the Lord God, to make it little or great in my mind.
19 And now do ye also tarry here this night, and I shall know what the Lord will yet say to me.

The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.