Numbers 22:18-28

18 And Balaam answered and said to the princes of Balac, If Balac would give me his house full of silver and gold, I shall not be able to go beyond the word of the Lord God, to make it little or great in my mind.

19 And now do ye also tarry here this night, and I shall know what the Lord will yet say to me.

20 And God came to Balaam by night, and said to him, If these men are come to call thee, rise and follow them; nevertheless the word which I shall speak to thee, it shalt thou do.

21 And Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab.

22 And God was very angry because he went; and the angel of the Lord rose up to withstand him. Now he had mounted his ass, and his two servants were with him.

23 And when the ass saw the angel of God standing opposite in the way, and his sword drawn in his hand, then the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field; and smote the ass with his staff to direct her in the way.

24 And the angel of the Lord stood in the avenues of the vines, a fence on this side and a fence on that.

25 And when the ass saw the angel of God, she thrust herself against the wall, and crushed Balaam's foot against the wall, and he smote her again.

26 And the angel of the Lord went farther, and came and stood in a narrow place where it was impossible to turn to the right or the left.

27 And when the ass saw the angel of God, she lay down under Balaam; and Balaam was angry, and struck the ass with his staff.

28 And God opened the mouth of the ass, and she says to Balaam, What have I done to thee, that thou hast smitten me this third time?

Numbers 22:18-28 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. sat down.