Numbers 22:17-27

17 I will pay you very well, and I will do what you say. Come and put a curse on these people for me."

18 But Balaam answered Balak's servants, "King Balak could give me his palace full of silver and gold, but I cannot disobey the Lord my God in anything, great or small.

19 You stay here tonight as the other men did, and I will find out what more the Lord tells me."

20 That night God came to Balaam and said, "These men have come to ask you to go with them. Go, but only do what I tell you."

21 Balaam got up the next morning and put a saddle on his donkey. Then he went with the Moabite leaders.

22 But God became angry because Balaam went, so the angel of the Lord stood in the road to stop Balaam. Balaam was riding his donkey, and he had two servants with him.

23 When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with a sword in his hand, the donkey left the road and went into the field. Balaam hit the donkey to force her back on the road.

24 Later, the angel of the Lord stood on a narrow path between two vineyards, with walls on both sides.

25 Again the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, and she walked close to one wall, crushing Balaam's foot against it. So he hit her again.

26 The angel of the Lord went ahead again and stood at a narrow place, too narrow to turn left or right.

27 When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she lay down under Balaam. This made him so angry that he hit her with his stick.

Numbers 22:17-27 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.