Numbers 23:5

5 Then the LORD ¹put a word in Balaam's mouth and said, "Return to Balak, and you shall speak thus."

Numbers 23:5 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 23:5

And the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth
&c.] Not grace into his heart, nor the fear of God within him, but suggested to him what to say; impressed it strongly on him, that he could not forget it, and with such power and weight, that he was obliged to deliver it:

and said, return unto Balak, and thus shalt thou speak;
that is, unto him, and what is expressed in ( Numbers 22:7-10 ) .

Numbers 23:5 In-Context

3 Then Balaam said to Balak, "Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps the LORD will come to meet me, and whatever He shows me I will tell you." So he went to a bare hill.

4 Now God met Balaam, and he said to Him, "I have set up the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.

5 Then the LORD put a word in Balaam's mouth and said, "Return to Balak, and you shall speak thus."

6 So he returned to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, he and all the leaders of Moab.

7 He took up his discourse and said, "From Aram Balak has brought me, Moab's king from the mountains of the East, 'Come curse Jacob for me, And come, denounce Israel!'

Cross References

• 1. Numbers 22:20; Deuteronomy 18:18; Jeremiah 1:9