Numbers 22:14-24

14 So the Moabite nobles left, came back to Balak, and said, "Balaam wouldn't come with us."
15 Balak sent another group of nobles, higher ranking and more distinguished.
16 They came to Balaam and said, "Balak son of Zippor says, 'Please, don't refuse to come to me.
17 I will honor and reward you lavishly - anything you tell me to do, I'll do; I'll pay anything - only come and curse this people.'"
18 Balaam answered Balak's servants: "Even if Balak gave me his house stuffed with silver and gold, I wouldn't be able to defy the orders of my God to do anything, whether big or little.
19 But come along and stay with me tonight as the others did; I'll see what God will say to me this time."
20 God came to Balaam that night and said, "Since these men have come all this way to see you, go ahead and go with them. But make sure you do absolutely nothing other than what I tell you."
21 Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went off with the noblemen from Moab.
22 As he was going, though, God's anger flared. The angel of God stood in the road to block his way. Balaam was riding his donkey, accompanied by his two servants.
23 When the donkey saw the angel blocking the road and brandishing a sword, she veered off the road into the ditch. Balaam beat the donkey and got her back on the road.
24 But as they were going through a vineyard, with a fence on either side,

Numbers 22:14-24 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.

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.