Numbers · 30 verses

Numbers 23

Every verse links to the people and places named in it, and to the passages readers connect it with.

The chapter

What happens here

Atlas's own reading, written from this chapter and nothing else, and published only once a person has approved it. Each scene names the verses it covers; the names inside it link to the people and places they name.

Balak asks for a curse, receives a blessing, forbids both, and then takes Balaam to Peor for another attempt—a remarkably persistent arrangement of altars and disappointment.

Seven altars, and a blessing insteadvv. 1–12

Balaam begins with seven altars, seven bulls, and seven rams, though the chapter gives no reason for the number. Balak stays beside the burnt offering while Balaam goes to a barren height, where God meets him and the LORD puts a message in his mouth. The oracle sees Israel dwelling apart and asks how anyone can curse those whom God has not cursed. Balak hears a blessing where he ordered a curse; Balaam can only answer that he must speak what the LORD puts in his mouth.

A second view, and a second blessingvv. 13–26

Balak changes the vantage point, taking Balaam to the field of Zophim, atop Pisgah, where the same sevenfold apparatus appears again. The second oracle is firmer still: God does not change His mind, Israel has received a command to be blessed, and no spell or divination will prevail. Balak, by now, asks for neither curse nor blessing at all. Balaam replies that whatever the LORD says, he must do.

Peor, naturallyvv. 27–30

Balak proposes a third place, on the off chance that the LORD may prefer cursing Israel from there. He takes Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the wasteland. Balaam asks for seven altars, seven bulls, and seven rams once more, and Balak obliges. The chapter ends with the offerings prepared, just before the next oracle.

The text

Read it

Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Names the Hebrew and Greek put in the verse link to the person, place or people they name; the address beside each verse is a link to that verse, which is what a reader copies and shares.

Num 23:1Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me seven altars here, and prepare for me seven bulls and seven rams.”
Num 23:2So Balak did as Balaam had instructed, and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
Num 23:3“Stay here by your burnt offering while I am gone,” Balaam said to Balak. “Perhaps the LORD will meet with me. And whatever He reveals to me, I will tell you.” So Balaam went off to a barren height,
Num 23:4and God met with him. “I have set up seven altars,” Balaam said, “and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram.”
Num 23:5Then the LORD put a message in Balaam’s mouth, saying, “Return to Balak and give him this message.”
Num 23:6So he returned to Balak, who was standing there beside his burnt offering, with all the princes of Moab.
Num 23:7And Balaam lifted up an oracle, saying: “Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the mountains of the east. ‘Come,’ he said, ‘put a curse on Jacob for me; come and denounce Israel!’
Num 23:8How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the LORD has not denounced?
Num 23:9For I see them from atop the rocky cliffs, and I watch them from the hills. Behold, a people dwelling apart, not reckoning themselves among the nations.
Num 23:10Who can count the dust of Jacob or number even a fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous; let my end be like theirs!”
Num 23:11Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you here to curse my enemies, and behold, you have only blessed them!”
Num 23:12But Balaam replied, “Should I not speak exactly what the LORD puts in my mouth?”
Num 23:13Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place where you can see them. You will only see the outskirts of their camp—not all of them. And from there, curse them for me.”
Num 23:14So Balak took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, where he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
Num 23:15Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your burnt offering while I meet the LORD over there.”
Num 23:16And the LORD met with Balaam and put a message in his mouth, saying, “Return to Balak and speak what I tell you.”
Num 23:17So he returned to Balak, who was standing there by his burnt offering with the princes of Moab. “What did the LORD say?” Balak asked.
Num 23:18Then Balaam lifted up an oracle, saying: “Arise, O Balak, and listen; give ear to me, O son of Zippor.
Num 23:19 God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?
Num 23:20I have indeed received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot change it.
Num 23:21He considers no disaster for Jacob; He sees no trouble for Israel. The LORD their God is with them, and the shout of the King is among them.
Num 23:22 God brought them out of Egypt with strength like a wild ox.
Num 23:23For there is no spell against Jacob and no divination against Israel. It will now be said of Jacob and Israel, ‘What great things God has done!’
Num 23:24Behold, the people rise like a lioness; they rouse themselves like a lion, not resting until they devour their prey and drink the blood of the slain.”
Num 23:25Now Balak said to Balaam, “Then neither curse them at all nor bless them at all!”
Num 23:26But Balaam replied, “Did I not tell you that whatever the LORD says, I must do?”
Num 23:27“Please come,” said Balak, “I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God that you curse them for me from there.”
Num 23:28And Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the wasteland.
Num 23:29Then Balaam said, “Build for me seven altars here, and prepare for me seven bulls and seven rams.”
Num 23:30So Balak did as Balaam had instructed, and he offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

01 — Also here

Who else the chapter reaches

Names written in the English are linked in the text above. These are the ones that are not: an entity the Hebrew or Greek names under a spelling the translation does not use, or one reached only by an assertion about a verse of this chapter.

Named in the Hebrew or Greek somewhere in this chapter, under a form the English renders differently — the registry's Ludim against the translation's Ludites — so there is no word in the sentence to hang the link on.

Reached by an assertion Atlas extracted from a verse of this chapter rather than by a name written in it — a pronoun, a title, or a participant the sentence carries without naming. This layer is model-read and measured at 88.6–90.3% precision, and it is kept separate from the names above for that reason.

02 — Read alongside

Where this is echoed

Readers' own connections, from OpenBible's crowd-voted cross-references — agreement about relevance, and not scholarly confidence. 285 passages were voted onto 28 verses of this chapter; the 16 shown lead on votes, and each is listed at the verse it was voted onto most strongly.

19 1 Samuel 15:29Moreover, the Glory of Israel does not lie or change His mind, for He is not a man, that He should change His mind.”
19 James 1:17Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, with whom there is no change or shifting shadow.
19 Malachi 3:6“Because I, the LORD, do not change, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.
19 Hebrews 6:18Thus by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be strongly encouraged.
19 Titus 1:2in the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.
19 Luke 21:33Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.
19 Romans 11:29For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.
19 Habakkuk 2:3For the vision awaits an appointed time; it testifies of the end and does not lie. Though it lingers, wait for it, since it will surely come and will not delay.
19 Psalms 89:35Once and for all I have sworn by My holiness—I will not lie to David—
19 Hosea 11:9I will not execute the full fury of My anger; I will not destroy Ephraim again. For I am God and not man—the Holy One among you—and I will not come in wrath.
19 Micah 7:20You will show faithfulness to Jacob and loving devotion to Abraham, as You swore to our fathers from the days of old.
19 1 Chronicles 17:17And as if this was a small thing in Your eyes, O God, You have spoken about the future of the house of Your servant and have regarded me as a man of great distinction, O LORD God.
23 Luke 10:18–19So He told them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.
21 Psalms 23:4Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
21 Matthew 1:23“Behold, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel” (which means, “God with us”).
20 John 10:27–29My sheep listen to My voice; I know them, and they follow Me.

Onward

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