Numbers 23:8

8 How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I damn whom God has not damned?

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 He went back and found him stationed beside his Whole-Burnt-Offering and with him all the nobles of Moab.
7 Then Balaam spoke his message-oracle: Balak led me here from Aram, the king of Moab all the way from the eastern mountains. "Go, curse Jacob for me; go, damn Israel."
8 How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I damn whom God has not damned?
9 From rock pinnacles I see them, from hilltops I survey them: Look! a people camping off by themselves, thinking themselves outsiders among nations.
10 But who could ever count the dust of Jacob or take a census of cloud-of-dust Israel? I want to die like these right-living people! I want an end just like theirs!
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.