Numbers 23:8

8 How shall I curse him, whom God hath not cursed? By what means should I detest him, whom the Lord detesteth not?

Numbers 23:8 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 23:8

How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed?
&c.] The sense is, that it was impossible for him to curse those that God did not curse himself, or would not have cursed by others; not but that he had a good will to it, to get Balak's money and honour, but he knew not how to accomplish it; yea, he saw it was in vain to attempt it, it was a thing that could not possibly be done: God does not, nor will he curse his spiritual Israel; they are blessed by him in Christ, and they shall be blessed; nor is it in the power of their enemies to curse them, or do them any harm: the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem, instead of God and the Lord in this and the following clause, use the phase,

``the Word of the Lord;''

the essential Word, the Son of God, who is so far from cursing his people, that he has delivered them from the curses of the law, being made a curse for them, that the blessings of the everlasting covenant of grace might come upon them; and they are blessed of God in him, and for his sake, with all spiritual blessings:

or how shall I defy whom the Lord hath not defied?
which is the same thing in other words, only this last word is expressive of more contempt and indignation.

Numbers 23:8 In-Context

6 Returning he found Balac standing by his burnt offering, with all the princes of the Moabites:
7 And taking up his parable, he said: Balac king of the Moabites hath brought me from Aram, from the mountains of the east: Come, said he, and curse Jacob: make haste and detest Israel.
8 How shall I curse him, whom God hath not cursed? By what means should I detest him, whom the Lord detesteth not?
9 I shall see him from the tops of the rocks, and shall consider him from the hills. This people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.
10 Who can count the dust of Jacob, and know the number of the stock of Israel? Let my soul die the death of the just, and my last end be like to them.
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