Numbers 22:13-23

13 So Balaam arose in the morning and said to Balak's leaders, "Go back to your land, for the LORD has refused to let me go with you."

14 The leaders of Moab arose and went to Balak and said, "Balaam refused to come with us."

15 Then Balak again * sent leaders, more numerous and more distinguished than the former.

16 They came to Balaam and said to him, "Thus says Balak the son of Zippor, 'Let nothing, I beg you, hinder you from coming to me;

17 for I will indeed honor you richly, and I will do whatever * you say to me. ¹Please come then, curse this people for me.' "

18 Balaam replied to the servants of Balak, "²Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not do anything, either small or great, contrary to the command of the LORD my God.

19 "Now please, you also stay here tonight, and I will find out what else the LORD will speak to me."

20 God came to Balaam at night and said to him, "If the men have come to call you, rise up and go with them; but ³only the word which I speak to you shall you do."

21 ⁴So Balaam arose in the morning, and saddled his donkey and went with the leaders of Moab.

The Angel and Balaam

22 But God was angry * because he was going, ⁵and the angel of the LORD took his stand in the way as an adversary against him. Now he was riding on his donkey and his two servants were with him.

23 When the donkey saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way with his drawn sword in his hand, the donkey turned off from the way and went into the field; but Balaam struck the donkey to turn her back into the way.

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Numbers 22:13-23 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO NUMBERS 22

The children of Israel being come into the plains of Moab, put the king of Moab into a panic, who expressed his fears to the elders of Midian, Nu 22:1-4 and sent for Balaam the soothsayer to curse the people of Israel, but he, upon consulting the Lord refused to come, Nu 22:5-14, on which the king of Moab sent to him a second time, making large promises of preferment to him, and who at this time got leave from the Lord to go with the messengers, Nu 22:15-21, but was met with in the way by an angel of the Lord, who would have slain him had it not been for his ass, of which a very wonderful revelation is given, Nu 22:22-35, and the chapter is closed with the interview between Balak king of Moab and Balaam, and an account of what passed between them, and what was done by them, Nu 22:36-41.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 5

1. Numbers 22:6
2. Numbers 22:38; Numbers 24:13; 1 Kings 22:14; 2 Chronicles 18:13
3. Numbers 22:35; Numbers 23:5, 12, 16, 26; Numbers 24:13
4. 2 Peter 2:15
5. Exodus 23:20

Footnotes 2

[a]. Lit "these"
[b]. Lit "mouth"