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Text -- Numbers 23:1-10 (NET)
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Strongs On/Off
Context
Balaam Blesses Israel
23:1 Balaam said to Balak , “Build me seven altars here , and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams .”
23:2 So Balak did just as Balaam had said . Balak and Balaam then offered on each altar a bull and a ram .
23:3 Balaam said to Balak , “Station yourself by your burnt offering , and I will go off ; perhaps the Lord will come to meet me, and whatever he reveals to me I will tell you.” Then he went to a deserted height .
23:4 Then God met Balaam , who said to him, “I have prepared seven altars , and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram .”
23:5 Then the Lord put a message in Balaam’s mouth and said , “Return to Balak , and speak what I tell you.”
23:6 So he returned to him, and he was still standing by his burnt offering , he and all the princes of Moab .
23:7 Then Balaam uttered his oracle , saying , “Balak , the king of Moab , brought me from Aram , out of the mountains of the east , saying, ‘Come , pronounce a curse on Jacob for me; come , denounce Israel .’
23:8 How can I curse one whom God has not cursed , or how can I denounce one whom the Lord has not denounced ?
23:9 For from the top of the rocks I see them; from the hills I watch them. Indeed , a nation that lives alone , and it will not be reckoned among the nations .
23:10 Who can count the dust of Jacob , Or number the fourth part of Israel ? Let me die the death of the upright , and let the end of my life be like theirs .”
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Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics
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expand allCommentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes
NET Notes: Num 23:1 The first part of Balaam’s activity ends in disaster for Balak – he blesses Israel. The chapter falls into four units: the first prophecy ...
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NET Notes: Num 23:2 The Hebrew text has “on the altar,” but since there were seven of each animal and seven altars, the implication is that this means on each...
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NET Notes: Num 23:3 He went up to a bald spot, to a barren height. The statement underscores the general belief that such tops were the closest things to the gods. On suc...
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NET Notes: Num 23:4 The relative pronoun is added here in place of the conjunction to clarify that Balaam is speaking to God and not vice versa.
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NET Notes: Num 23:6 The Hebrew text draws the vividness of the scene with the deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) – Balaam returned...
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NET Notes: Num 23:7 The opening lines seem to be a formula for the seer to identify himself and the occasion for the oracle. The tension is laid out early; Balaam knows t...
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NET Notes: Num 23:9 The verb could also be taken as a reflexive – Israel does not consider itself as among the nations, meaning, they consider themselves to be uniq...
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