Numbers 22:13-23

13 The next morning Balaam got up and said to Balak’s officials, “Go back to your own country, for the LORD has refused to let me go with you.”
14 So the Moabite officials returned to Balak and said, “Balaam refused to come with us.”
15 Then Balak sent other officials, more numerous and more distinguished than the first.
16 They came to Balaam and said: “This is what Balak son of Zippor says: Do not let anything keep you from coming to me,
17 because I will reward you handsomely and do whatever you say. Come and put a curse on these people for me.”
18 But Balaam answered them, “Even if Balak gave me all the silver and gold in his palace, I could not do anything great or small to go beyond the command of the LORD my God.
19 Now spend the night here so that I can find out what else the LORD will tell me.”
20 That night God came to Balaam and said, “Since these men have come to summon you, go with them, but do only what I tell you.”

Balaam’s Donkey

21 Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey and went with the Moabite officials.
22 But God was very angry when he went, and the angel of the LORD stood in the road to oppose him. Balaam 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 road with a drawn sword in his hand, it turned off the road into a field. Balaam beat it to get it back on the road.

Cross References 10

  • 1. ver 37; Numbers 24:11
  • 2. S ver 6
  • 3. ver 38; Numbers 23:12,26; Numbers 24:13; 1 Kings 22:14; 2 Chronicles 18:13; Jeremiah 42:4
  • 4. ver 8
  • 5. S Genesis 20:3
  • 6. ver 35,38; Nu 23:5,12,16,26; Numbers 24:13; 2 Chronicles 18:13
  • 7. S Exodus 4:14
  • 8. S Genesis 16:7; Exodus 23:20; Jdg 13:3,6,13
  • 9. Joshua 5:13
  • 10. ver 25,27
Scripture quoted by permission.  Quotations designated (NIV) are from THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®.  NIV®.  Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica.  All rights reserved worldwide.