Numbers 23:11

11 Balak said to Balaam, "What have you done to me? I brought you here to curse my enemies, but you have only blessed them!"

Numbers 23:11 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 23:11

And Balak said unto Balaam, what hast thou done unto me?
&c.] Or "for me" ^F6; nothing at all, to answer his purpose, or his end in sending for him;

I took thee to curse mine enemies:
so he calls the Israelites, though they had never done him any wrong; nor committed any acts of hostility against him, nor showed any intention to commit any; nay, were forbidden by the Lord their God to contend in battle with him and his people;

and, behold, thou hast blessed them altogether;
or, "in blessing blessed" ^F7, done nothing but bless them, and that with many blessings, or pronounced them blessed, and prophesied of their blessedness, for their number, their safety, and of their happiness, not only in life, but at and after death.

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FOOTNOTES:

F6 (yl) "pro me".
F7 (Krb tkrb) "benedixisti benedicendo", Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator.

Numbers 23:11 In-Context

9 I see them from the top of the mountains; I see them from the hills. I see a people who live alone, who think they are different from other nations.

10 No one can number the many people of Jacob, and no one can count a fourth of Israel. Let me die like good men, and let me end up like them!"

11 Balak said to Balaam, "What have you done to me? I brought you here to curse my enemies, but you have only blessed them!"

12 But Balaam answered, "I must say what the Lord tells me to say."

13 Then Balak said to him, "Come with me to another place, where you can also see the people. But you can only see part of them, not all of them. Curse them for me from there."