Numbers 22:13-23

13 So Balaam rose up in the morning and said unto the princes of Balak, Go back to your land; for the LORD refuses to give me leave to go with you.
14 And the princes of Moab rose up, and they went unto Balak and said, Balaam refused to come with us.
15 And Balak sent yet again princes, more and more honourable than those.
16 And they came to Balaam and said to him, Thus saith Balak, the son of Zippor, Let nothing, I pray thee, hinder thee from coming unto me;
17 for I will without a doubt honour thee greatly, and I will do whatever thou sayest unto me; come therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people.
18 And Balaam answered and said unto the slaves of Balak, If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the LORD my God, to do anything small or great.
19 Now therefore, I pray you, tarry ye also here this night that I may know what the LORD will say unto me again.
20 And God came unto Balaam at night and said unto him, If the men come to call thee, rise up, and go with them; but yet the word which I shall say unto thee, that shalt thou do.
21 So Balaam rose up in the morning and saddled his female ass and went with the princes of Moab.
22 And God’s anger was kindled because he went, and the angel of the LORD stood in the way as an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him.
23 And the ass saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way with his sword drawn in his hand; and the ass turned aside out of the way and went into the field. Then Balaam smote the ass to turn her into the way.

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.

The Jubilee Bible (from the Scriptures of the Reformation), edited by Russell M. Stendal, Copyright © 2000, 2001, 2010