The Berean Table

Field	Detail
Pericope	Numbers 23:1–30
Theme	The God who cannot lie turns a hired curse into blessing, because His covenant promise to His people, fulfilled in Christ, cannot be revoked.

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Opening Prayer

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Closing Prayer

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Timeline Context

Where the chapter falls in Numbers. Numbers moves in three stages: Israel ordered around the tabernacle at Sinai (1:1–10:10), the journey through the wilderness (10:11 through chapter 21), and the long encampment on the plains of Moab (22:1 to the end). Chapter 23 belongs to the third stage and stands at the center of the Balaam narrative (chapters 22–24). It records the first two of Balaam’s four major oracles (23:7–10; 23:18–24), which are followed by a third and a fourth in chapter 24 (24:3–9; 24:15–24), the last of them closing with several shorter sayings about the nations (24:20–24).

Date and setting. Aaron died in the fortieth year after the exodus (33:38), and Moses’ final addresses are dated to the eleventh month of that year (Deuteronomy 1:3), so the Balaam episode belongs to the last months of the wilderness period. On the early exodus date followed in this library (about 1446 BC, from 1 Kings 6:1), that places these events around 1406 BC; those who hold the later, thirteenth-century date place them correspondingly later. Israel was camped “in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho” (Numbers 22:1), below the heights where Balak led Balaam: Bamoth-baal (22:41), the field of Zophim on the top of Pisgah (23:14), and Peor (23:28).

The political situation. Israel had just defeated Sihon king of the Amorites and Og king of Bashan (21:21–35), and Sihon had earlier taken territory from Moab (21:26). The Moabites were descendants of Lot (Genesis 19:36–37), and the LORD had forbidden Israel to harass them (Deuteronomy 2:9). Israel posed no threat to Moab, but Balak son of Zippor saw a vast people and was filled with dread (22:3). Allied with the elders of Midian (22:4, 7), he sent twice for Balaam son of Beor, a famous diviner from Pethor “near the River” (22:5), which Deuteronomy places in Mesopotamia (Deuteronomy 23:4). Calvin doubted that Balaam came from so far and suggested an eastern region nearer Midian, but the text of Deuteronomy favors the Mesopotamian location.

What comes before and after. Before chapter 23 come Israel’s victories, Balak’s two embassies, God’s permission and warning, and the episode of the donkey and the angel of the LORD (22:22–35). After it come the third and fourth oracles, including the star and scepter out of Jacob (24:17), then Israel’s sin with the Baal of Peor (chapter 25), the census of the new generation (chapter 26), and eventually the war against Midian, in which Balaam, whose counsel had led Israel into sin at Peor, was killed (31:8, 16).

Israel did not know. The whole contest takes place on the heights above the camp. Matthew Henry observes that “neither Moses nor the elders of Israel know any thing of the matter, nor are in a capacity to break the snare” (Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, introduction to Numbers 23). God defends a sleeping people.

Redemptive-historical placement. The promise to Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse” (Genesis 12:3), is here attacked directly by a king who hires a professional curser. God does not merely block the curse; He turns it into blessing. Later Scripture never forgets this: Moses (Deuteronomy 23:4–5), Joshua (Joshua 24:9–10), Nehemiah (Nehemiah 13:2) and Micah (Micah 6:5) all recall it as one of the LORD’s saving acts, and the New Testament names Balaam as a pattern of false teaching (2 Peter 2:15; Jude 11; Revelation 2:14). The chapter stands on the threshold of the land, when the old generation has almost passed away and God declares over the next generation that His blessing stands.

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Historical-Grammatical Study

Genre. Numbers 23 is historical narrative that frames prophetic poetry. The prose (vv. 1–6, 11–17, 25–30) moves the characters from place to place; the poetry (vv. 7–10, 18–24) is set in tight parallel lines. Each oracle is introduced by the formula “Balaam took up his discourse” (vv. 7, 18), using the Hebrew mashal, which Strong’s defines as a pithy maxim, usually of metaphorical nature, and so a simile, parable, or proverb. Keil notes that the term is applied to Balaam’s utterances although “it is never used of the prophecies of the true prophets of Jehovah, but only of certain songs and similes inserted in them” (Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, on Numbers 23:7). In other words, the vocabulary itself sets Balaam apart from Moses and the prophets.

Divination in the ancient Near East. Balaam was a professional seer of a kind well known in the ancient world. Such men watched for omens in natural events, in the flight of birds, or in the organs of sacrificial animals, and they pronounced curses that were believed to carry real power. Balak assumed exactly this: “he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed” (Numbers 22:6). Barnes explains Balaam’s withdrawal in verse 3: “Balaam apparently expected to mark some phenomenon in the sky or in nature, which he would be able, according to the rules of his art, to interpret as a portent” (Barnes, Notes on the Bible, on Numbers 23:3). Balaam normally went “to look for omens” (Numbers 24:1). Israel was forbidden such practices (Leviticus 19:26; Deuteronomy 18:10–14), and Joshua later describes Balaam as one who practiced divination (Joshua 13:22).

The seven altars. The number seven carried associations of completeness from creation onward. Keil explains that the seven altars and victims “are to be explained from the sacredness acquired by this number, through the creation of the world in seven days” (Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, on Numbers 23:1). Calvin is sharper: God had indeed marked the number seven, but men had turned it into a superstition, and Balaam used it to try to draw God to his side. Israel itself was to offer at the one place God chose (Deuteronomy 12:13–14), not multiply altars on the high places of Baal.

Extrabiblical memory of Balaam. In 1967 excavators at Tell Deir ‘Alla in the Jordan Valley found an inscription written in ink on plaster, usually dated to about the eighth century BC, which names Balaam son of Beor as a seer of the gods who receives a night vision. The text is fragmentary and its religion is thoroughly pagan, but it shows that Balaam’s name and reputation were remembered in the region for centuries. It does not prove the details of Numbers, and Scripture does not need it; it simply confirms that the Bible places a known figure in a real setting.

Key Hebrew terms (checked against Strong’s and Brown-Driver-Briggs):

• Bare height (v. 3) — the Hebrew shephi, bareness, a bare hill; a clear vantage point for watching omens.
• Curse (v. 7) — the Hebrew ‘arar, to execrate; Balak’s word.
• Curse (v. 8) — the Hebrew qabab, to utter a curse against; Balaam’s word in his refusal.
• Denounce (vv. 7–8) — the Hebrew za’am, to be indignant, to pronounce wrath.
• Alone (v. 9) — the Hebrew badad, separate, alone.
• Upright (v. 10) — the Hebrew yashar, straight, right, upright; compare the poetic name Jeshurun (Deuteronomy 32:15).
• End (v. 10) — the Hebrew ‘acharit, the last or end, and so the future or posterity.
• Bless (vv. 11, 20) — the Hebrew barak, to bless.
• Lie (v. 19) — the Hebrew kazab, to lie, deceive, or fail.
• Change his mind (v. 19) — the Hebrew nacham, to be sorry, to relent, to repent.
• Revoke (v. 20) — the Hebrew shub, to turn back.
• Misfortune and trouble (v. 21) — the Hebrew ‘aven (nothingness, trouble, wickedness, idol) and ‘amal (toil, sorrow, mischief, perverseness).
• Shout (v. 21) — the Hebrew teru’ah, acclamation of joy, battle cry, or trumpet blast.
• Wild ox (v. 22) — the Hebrew re’em, a wild bull.
• Enchantment and divination (v. 23) — the Hebrew nachash (incantation, augury) and qesem (divination, oracle).
• Lioness (v. 24) — the Hebrew labi’, a lion, especially a lioness.

Grammatical and literary features.

• Rhetorical questions carry the argument. “How can I curse whom God has not cursed?” (v. 8) expects the answer “I cannot.” “Has he said, and will he not do it?” (v. 19) expects the answer “He certainly will.”
• Emphatic doubling. In verse 11 Balak’s complaint doubles the verb for blessing, which Keil explains as expressing “the fact that Balaam had continued to give utterance to nothing but blessings” (Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, on Numbers 23:11). The ESV renders it “you have done nothing but bless them” (v. 11).
• The present participle in verse 22. Keil notes that “brings” presents the exodus as a work still going on until Israel enters Canaan; the ESV’s “God brings them out of Egypt” (v. 22) reflects this.
• A disputed clause in verse 13. The words “You shall see only a fraction of them” (v. 13) may describe the new site (so the ESV) or the first site (so Calvin and Keil), meaning Balak now wanted a fuller view. Numbers 22:41 records that from Bamoth-baal Balaam “saw a fraction of the people” (Numbers 22:41).
• A disputed subject in verse 21. The two nouns ‘aven and ‘amal can denote either sin or the trouble that follows sin, which is why translations and commentators divide (see Section 5).

Covenantal themes. Chapter 23 is saturated with the Abrahamic covenant: blessing and curse (Genesis 12:3), offspring as the dust of the earth (Genesis 13:16; 28:14), and a people belonging to the LORD. It also draws on Jacob’s blessing of Judah (Genesis 49:9) and on the exodus (v. 22), and it announces the kingship of the LORD among His people (v. 21; compare Exodus 15:18). The covenant sanctions of blessing and curse, later set out in Deuteronomy 27–28, are here shown to be in God’s hands alone.

Who was Balaam? Interpreters have long disagreed. Some regard him as a genuine prophet of the LORD who fell through greed; others as a pagan diviner whom God overruled for one occasion. Calvin holds a middle position: Balaam was a degenerate diviner whose arts were corrupt, and yet “this did not prevent him from being sometimes a true prophet by the inspiration of God’s Spirit” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 23:1). He also distinguishes Balaam sharply from the true prophets: “the holy Prophets were in suchwise organs of the Spirit, that they gave forth from the heart the treasures which God had deposited with them… The case of Balaam was different, whose mind was alienated while he delivered the words which were put into his mouth” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 23:4). What is not open is the verdict of the New Testament: Balaam “loved gain from wrongdoing” (2 Peter 2:15), and his teaching led Israel into idolatry and immorality (Revelation 2:14).

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Expanded Outline

Section 1 — Seven Altars and the God Who Meets Balaam (Numbers 23:1–6)

Key Insight

The ritual of a hired seer (vv. 1–2). The chapter opens on the heights of Bamoth-baal, where Balak had brought Balaam and “from there he saw a fraction of the people” (Numbers 22:41). Balaam’s first act is to give orders to a king: “Build for me here seven altars, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams” (v. 1). Though Balaam will report them to God (v. 4), the multiplying of altars on a high place of Baal belonged to the religion of the nations, not to the worship God had appointed for Israel (Deuteronomy 12:13–14). Calvin traces the practice to superstition rather than revelation: “It is plain that Balaam was infected by this fanciful notion, when he endeavours to draw down God by seven altars, and twice seven sacrifices” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 23:1). The goal was to put God under obligation. Matthew Henry gives his verdict bluntly: “O the sottishness of superstition, to imagine that God will be at men’s beck!” (Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Numbers 23:1–12). Sottishness means dull folly.

Looking for omens (v. 3). Balaam tells Balak, “Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps the LORD will come to meet me” (v. 3). The next chapter explains the errand: when Balaam finally saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, “he did not go, as at other times, to look for omens” (Numbers 24:1). So he goes “to a bare height” (v. 3), the Hebrew shephi, an exposed hill with a clear view of sky and field.

God met Balaam (vv. 4–6). The LORD does not come because the altars summoned Him. Balaam presents his offering as a claim on God: “I have arranged the seven altars and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram” (v. 4). Scripture has already judged such worship: “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination; how much more when he brings it with evil intent” (Proverbs 21:27). God meets Balaam for Israel’s sake, not for Balaam’s. Calvin explains the purpose: “as He well knows how to apply corrupt instruments to His use, so by the mouth of this false prophet, He promulgated the covenant, which He had made with Abraham, to foreign and heathen nations” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 23:4). The blessing promised to Abraham (Genesis 12:3) is announced by the very man hired to cancel it.

“And the LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth” (v. 5). Gill is careful about what this did and did not mean: “Not grace into his heart, nor the fear of God within him, but suggested to him what to say” (Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible, on Numbers 23:5). Balaam receives a message without receiving a new heart. He returns and finds Balak “and all the princes of Moab” (v. 6) standing beside the offering, waiting for a curse that will never come.

Christ in the scene. Balaam’s altars display the old human instinct to buy God’s favor. Against it Scripture sets the one sacrifice God Himself provides, by which Christ “has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified” (Hebrews 10:14). And the word God puts in a prophet’s mouth reaches its fullness in the Prophet like Moses, of whom God said, “it is to him you shall listen” (Deuteronomy 18:15). Unlike Balaam, the Son speaks the Father’s words from a heart wholly one with them (John 12:49–50).

Application

Balak and Balaam did everything religion can do: seven altars, fourteen animals, a king standing at attention beside the smoke. None of it moved God one step toward their purpose. That exposes a temptation that lives in every human heart, including the hearts of believers: to treat worship, giving, or spiritual discipline as leverage on God. We may think that a faithful week of prayer obligates Him to grant a particular outcome, or that generosity purchases protection from trouble. The gospel shuts that door. God’s favor is never bought. It is given freely in Christ, who “has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:3).

This truth should reshape how we come to God:

• Come as receivers, not negotiators. Pray and worship because God is worthy and because He has already blessed you in Christ, not to put Him in your debt (Romans 11:35–36).
• Notice the bargaining reflex. When a trial comes, watch whether your heart begins to list its services the way Balaam listed his altars (v. 4).
• Take comfort that God rules even corrupt instruments. A hostile employer, a hostile court, or a hostile culture cannot speak one word beyond God’s permission (Proverbs 21:1).
• Distinguish gifts from grace. Balaam spoke a true word from an unchanged heart. Spiritual ability, knowledge, or eloquence is not proof of salvation; our confidence rests on union with Christ (Matthew 7:21–23).

A warning against misapplication: this passage does not teach that ordinary acts of devotion are worthless or that God is indifferent to how He is worshiped. Balaam’s altars were wrong because they were meant to control God, were set on a high place of Baal, and were offered by a man who “loved gain from wrongdoing” (2 Peter 2:15). God gladly receives the sacrifice of praise offered through Christ (Hebrews 13:15). Nor should anyone conclude that because God can speak through an ungodly man, the character of ministers does not matter; Scripture requires that an overseer be above reproach (1 Timothy 3:2).

Section 2 — The First Oracle: A People God Has Not Cursed (Numbers 23:7–10)

Key Insight

Balaam’s discourse (v. 7). “And Balaam took up his discourse” (v. 7). The Hebrew mashal names a weighty, figurative saying, and each of Balaam’s utterances is introduced this way (vv. 7, 18; Numbers 24:3, 15). He begins by rehearsing his commission: “From Aram Balak has brought me, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains: ‘Come, curse Jacob for me, and come, denounce Israel!’” (v. 7). Balak wanted two things: a curse (Hebrew ‘arar, to execrate) and a denunciation (Hebrew za’am, to pronounce indignation).

The impossible curse (v. 8). “How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce whom the LORD has not denounced?” (v. 8). Here Balaam uses the Hebrew qabab, to utter a curse against. Balak believed that blessing and cursing lay in the seer’s power: “he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed” (Numbers 22:6). Balaam’s first sentence overturns that belief. Keil states it plainly: “The God of Israel does not curse His people, and therefore His servant cannot curse them” (Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, on Numbers 23:8). Blessing and cursing belong to God alone, and He had already said to Abraham, “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse” (Genesis 12:3).

A people dwelling alone (v. 9). From the crags Balaam sees “a people dwelling alone, and not counting itself among the nations!” (v. 9). The Hebrew badad means separately or alone. Israel’s separateness was not ethnic pride but covenant calling: God had made them His “treasured possession among all peoples” (Exodus 19:5). Calvin reads it as dignity, not mere isolation: “this people never forfeited their pre-eminence, since they were distinguished, not so much by wealth and external endowments, as by the adoption of God” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 23:9). Their distinctness was grace before it was duty (Deuteronomy 7:7–8).

The dust of Jacob (v. 10a). “Who can count the dust of Jacob or number the fourth part of Israel?” (v. 10). The words echo God’s promise to Abraham: “I will make your offspring as the dust of the earth” (Genesis 13:16; compare Genesis 28:14). The fourth part probably means one of the camp’s four divisions (Numbers 2), perhaps all Balaam could see (Numbers 22:41). The pagan seer is made a witness that God has kept His word to the patriarchs.

The death of the upright (v. 10b). “Let me die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his!” (v. 10). Upright translates the Hebrew yashar, straight or right. End translates the Hebrew ‘acharit, a word that can reach beyond the moment of death to what follows it. Balaam wants the destination without the road. Henry’s comment has become the classic one: “there are many who desire to die the death of the righteous, but do not endeavour to live the life of the righteous” (Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Numbers 23:1–12). Balaam later gave the advice that led Israel into sin at Peor (Numbers 31:16) and was killed by the sword among Israel’s enemies (Numbers 31:8).

Christ in the oracle. Israel was sinful, yet uncursed. The New Testament shows how: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13). In Him the multitude beyond counting becomes “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation” (Revelation 7:9), and the death Balaam envied becomes the believer’s gain (Philippians 1:21).

Application

The first oracle gives believers a settled confidence: no one can curse those whom God has blessed in Christ. Many Christians live under a vague dread that someone else’s hostility, words, or schemes might finally undo them. Numbers 23:8 answers that fear at its root. The power to bless and curse belongs to God, and in Christ He has declared His people blessed. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).

The oracle also calls believers to a distinct life. Israel was “a people dwelling alone” (v. 9) because God had set them apart. The church is likewise “a holy nation, a people for his own possession” (1 Peter 2:9), called to live differently in its sexual ethics, its use of money, its speech, and its loyalties (Romans 12:2).

Finally, Balaam’s wish searches every heart. It is possible to admire the end of the righteous while refusing their path:

• Examine your desires. Do you want heaven, or do you want Christ? Heaven without holiness is not the heaven Scripture promises (Hebrews 12:14).
• Do not postpone obedience. Balaam’s wish never became repentance, and he died fighting God’s people (Numbers 31:8).
• Live now as you hope to die. The one who wants to die in the Lord must learn to live in the Lord (Revelation 14:13).
• Take courage in hostility. Slander and opposition cannot reverse God’s verdict over you (Isaiah 54:17).

A warning against misapplication: Israel’s separateness does not license ethnic or cultural pride, nor a withdrawal that refuses to love our neighbors. Israel was set apart so that through Abraham’s offspring “all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3), and Jesus prays not that His people be taken out of the world but that the Father keep them from the evil one (John 17:15). Nor should Balaam’s example make us cynical about everyone who desires heaven late in life; the thief on the cross shows that genuine faith can come at the last hour (Luke 23:42–43).

Section 3 — Balak’s Protest and a Second Height (Numbers 23:11–17)

Key Insight

Balak’s complaint (v. 11). “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have done nothing but bless them” (v. 11). The Hebrew intensifies the verb barak by repeating it, and the ESV captures the force: nothing but blessing. Balak calls Israel “my enemies” (v. 11), although the LORD had forbidden Israel to harass Moab (Deuteronomy 2:9). Fear of Israel’s numbers (Numbers 22:3) had hardened into hostility against a people that had done him no wrong.

Balaam’s answer (v. 12). “Must I not take care to speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?” (v. 12). The words sound conscientious, and they are true; Balaam had said much the same on arrival (Numbers 22:38). But they are the words of a man who had come hoping for Balak’s reward. Henry sees a divine irony: “Thus a confession of God’s overruling power is extorted from a wicked prophet, to the further confusion of a wicked prince” (Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Numbers 23:1–12). The confession was sound; the confessor was not.

A new vantage point (vv. 13–14). Balak concludes that the problem lay in the view. “Please come with me to another place, from which you may see them. You shall see only a fraction of them and shall not see them all. Then curse them for me from there” (v. 13). Interpreters divide over the middle clause. Some take it to mean that Balak wanted Balaam to see less of Israel, so that the multitude would not overawe him. Calvin and Keil read it as a description of the first site, which had shown only “a fraction of the people” (Numbers 22:41), so that Balak now wanted a fuller view. Either way, Calvin diagnoses the spiritual condition of such a man: “because with them nothing is certain or established, they are carried about from one speculation to another, and try now this and now that expedient” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 23:13). So Balak takes Balaam “to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah” (v. 14). Zophim means watchers, and Pisgah is the ridge from which Moses would later view the land before his death (Deuteronomy 34:1). Seven more altars are built, and seven more bulls and rams are offered (v. 14).

The same God, the same word (vv. 15–17). Balaam says, “Stand here beside your burnt offering, while I meet the LORD over there” (v. 15). Again “the LORD met Balaam and put a word in his mouth” (v. 16). A different mountain does not produce a different God. When Balaam returns, Balak asks eagerly, “What has the LORD spoken?” (v. 17). Calvin exposes the hollowness of that eagerness: “Thus do hypocrites profess anxious solicitude in inquiring the will of God, whilst the knowledge of it is intolerable to them” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 23:17). Balak wants a word from the LORD only if it is the word he has already chosen.

Christ and the unmoved Word. No change of place can alter God’s purpose, because that purpose is anchored in His Son: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). The religious leaders who later demanded a sign from heaven (Matthew 16:1–4) repeated Balak’s error. They sought a word from God on their own terms while refusing the Word standing before them, the One to whom all the Scriptures bear witness (John 5:39–40).

Application

Balak’s strategy is familiar: when God’s word is unwelcome, change the setting and ask again. People still do this. They move from church to church until they find a pulpit that approves what they have already decided. They consult one counselor after another until someone blesses the choice Scripture forbids. They reinterpret a plain command in the hope that a new angle will produce a different answer. Numbers 23:13–17 shows the futility of it. The LORD met Balaam on Pisgah exactly as He had on Bamoth-baal, and His word did not move.

This should shape both our thinking and our habits:

• Receive God’s word as settled. “Forever, O LORD, your word is firmly fixed in the heavens” (Psalm 119:89). When Scripture speaks clearly, the question is not whether it can be made to say something else but whether we will obey.
• Ask with a readiness to obey. Balak’s question, “What has the LORD spoken?” (v. 17), was right in form and wrong in heart. Come to Bible study and preaching prepared to be corrected (James 1:21–22).
• Beware of shopping for teachers. Paul warned of people who “will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions” (2 Timothy 4:3).
• Rest in God’s constancy. The same unchanging word that frustrates the rebel comforts the believer, because God’s promises do not shift with our circumstances.

A warning against misapplication: this passage does not forbid seeking counsel, changing churches for good reasons, or studying hard passages from more than one angle. Scripture says “in an abundance of counselors there is safety” (Proverbs 11:14), and the Bereans were commended for examining the Scriptures (Acts 17:11). The error here is seeking a different answer after God has plainly spoken, not humbly seeking to understand what He has said.

Section 4 — God Is Not Man, That He Should Lie (Numbers 23:18–20)

Key Insight

A summons to attention (v. 18). “Rise, Balak, and hear; give ear to me, O son of Zippor” (v. 18). The king who expected to direct the seer must now stand and listen, for what follows is the chapter’s theological center.

God is not man (v. 19). “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?” (v. 19). Two Hebrew verbs carry the contrast. Kazab means to lie, deceive, or fail; nacham means to be sorry, to relent, to change one’s mind. Human beings break their word because they are sinful, limited, and changeable. God is none of these. Henry says it simply: “Men change their minds, and therefore break their words; they lie, because they repent. But God does neither” (Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Numbers 23:13–30). Calvin draws out the pastoral lesson: “men are altogether wrong when they form their estimate of God from their own disposition and habits… For how comes it that we are so prone to waver, except because we weigh God’s promises in our own scale?” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 23:19). Balak assumed God could be persuaded like a man; our unbelief assumes He will prove as unreliable as people who have failed us.

The “repentance” of God. Scripture sometimes says that God regretted or relented (Genesis 6:6; Exodus 32:14; Jonah 3:10), and 1 Samuel 15 uses such language both ways within a single chapter (1 Samuel 15:11, 29). The historic Reformed answer is that these texts are anthropopathic: they describe God’s real response to changing human conduct in terms we can grasp, while His eternal purpose does not change. Keil states the principle: “The unchangeableness of the divine purposes is a necessary consequence of the unchangeableness of the divine nature” (Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, on Numbers 23:19–20). Keil adds that the language of divine repentance expresses the grief of God’s love over His creatures’ ruin. Samuel later echoes Balaam’s very words: “for he is not a man, that he should have regret” (1 Samuel 15:29).

He has blessed (v. 20). “Behold, I received a command to bless: he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it” (v. 20). Revoke renders a causative form of the Hebrew shub, to turn back. The blessing was never Balaam’s to give or to withdraw. Calvin connects the oracle directly to Paul: “he teaches us the same truth as Paul does, that the election of his people is ‘without repentance,’ because it is founded on the gratuitous liberality of God” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 23:19). The ESV of Paul’s verse reads, “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). It rests on God’s free grace, not on His people’s fluctuating performance.

Christ, the Yes of God. God’s immutability is good news because His fixed purpose is a purpose of grace in Christ. “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him” (2 Corinthians 1:20). God confirmed His promise to Abraham with an oath, “so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us” (Hebrews 6:18). That hope is anchored where Jesus has entered as our high priest (Hebrews 6:19–20).

Application

Verse 19 is one of the great anchor texts of the Christian life. It should change how we think about God’s promises:

• Measure God by His Word, not by people. Many believers carry wounds from parents, spouses, employers, or churches that broke their promises. Without realizing it, they expect God to do the same. Numbers 23:19 draws the line: God is not man. “God, who never lies” (Titus 1:2) cannot be judged by the failures of those who do.
• Pray on the basis of God’s promises. Because God does what He says, prayer can plead His own words back to Him (Genesis 32:12; Psalm 119:49). Choose one promise, such as “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5), and carry it into the week.
• Face changing circumstances with an unchanging God. Health, jobs, relationships, and nations change. “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed” (Malachi 3:6).
• Let the unchangeable blessing produce holiness, not carelessness. Those who know God keeps His word should keep theirs, speaking truth and honoring their commitments (Ephesians 4:25; Psalm 15:4).
• Rest in the finished blessing. If God has blessed you in Christ, no accuser can revoke it (Romans 8:33–34).

A warning against misapplication: God’s immutability does not make Him cold, distant, or unresponsive, nor does it make prayer pointless; the unchanging God has ordained prayer as a means by which He accomplishes His purposes (James 5:16–18). Nor does verse 19 guarantee whatever a person claims in God’s name. God is bound to what He has actually said, read in its context, not to promises we assemble for ourselves. Balak’s error was trying to change God’s word; the opposite error is inventing words God never spoke.

Section 5 — The King in the Camp and No Enchantment against Jacob (Numbers 23:21–24)

Key Insight

What God does not see (v. 21a). “He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble in Israel” (v. 21). The two Hebrew nouns are ‘aven and ‘amal. Strong’s gives ‘aven a range from nothingness and trouble to wickedness and idolatry, and ‘amal a range from toil and sorrow to mischief and perverseness. The ESV reads the pair as calamity: God sees no disaster ahead for Jacob. Older English versions read the words as sin, and the verse has long been taken in more than one way.

• No ruin permitted. Poole records this reading: “So the sense is, God will not see them wronged or ruined by any of their adversaries” (Poole, Commentary, on Numbers 23:21). The next line supplies the reason: “The LORD their God is with them” (v. 21).
• No sin imputed. Gill, with much of the older Reformed tradition, reads the line as God covering His people’s sin: “Not that there was no sin in them, nor any observed by the Lord; yet not so as to mark it in strict justice, and punish for it; but he forgave it, hid his face from it, and did not impute it to them” (Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible, on Numbers 23:21).
• Seen through adoption. Calvin rejects a merely forensic reading here and says: “God, therefore, is said to have seen no iniquity in them, with reference to His adoption; not that they were worthy of such exalted praise” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 23:21).

The readings meet at their root. Israel was spared calamity only because God did not deal with them according to their sins (compare Jeremiah 50:20). But the doctrine of justification does not rest on one disputed line; it stands on the plain teaching of Romans 4 and 8.

The King in the camp (v. 21b). “The LORD their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them” (v. 21). The Hebrew teru’ah is an acclamation of joy, a battle cry, or a trumpet blast (Numbers 10:5–9). Israel’s shout acclaims the LORD as King, as Moses sang at the sea: “The LORD will reign forever and ever” (Exodus 15:18).

Brought out and strengthened (v. 22). “God brings them out of Egypt and is for them like the horns of the wild ox” (v. 22). The Hebrew re’em is the untamable wild ox, whose horns are its strength (Deuteronomy 33:17). In the ESV the image describes God Himself as Israel’s strength.

No enchantment (v. 23). “For there is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel” (v. 23). Nachash and qesem were Balaam’s trade (Joshua 13:22), both forbidden in Israel (Deuteronomy 18:10–14). Spurgeon’s comment is memorable: “Those whom God blesses, devils cannot curse” (Spurgeon, Faith’s Checkbook, January 26). Instead of omens, Israel will hear what God does: “now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel, ‘What has God wrought!’” (v. 23).

The lioness (v. 24). “Behold, a people! As a lioness it rises up and as a lion it lifts itself” (v. 24). The image adapts Jacob’s blessing on Judah (Genesis 49:9) to the whole nation.

Christ the King and Lion. The shout of a king among God’s people is fulfilled when the King Himself comes to dwell among them as “Immanuel” (Matthew 1:23). The lion of Judah’s blessing is the One of whom heaven says, “behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered” (Revelation 5:5). He triumphed over every hostile power at the cross (Colossians 2:15).

Application

Numbers 23:21–24 gives God’s people three great securities, and each should shape the way we live.

The presence of God. “The LORD their God is with them” (v. 21). The church’s safety has never rested on its size, wealth, or cleverness, but on the presence of its King. Christ promised, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). This should make believers bold in witness and calm in trouble, and it should steady those who feel small or outnumbered, as Israel was beneath the heights of Moab.

Freedom from superstition. “For there is no enchantment against Jacob” (v. 23). Christians should refuse every form of fear built on luck, omens, horoscopes, curses, or “bad energy.” These have no power over those whom God has blessed. Practical steps include:

• Renounce superstitious habits, however harmless they seem, and replace them with prayer (Acts 19:18–19).
• Refuse fear of hostile words. Slander and threats cannot overturn God’s verdict (Isaiah 54:17).
• Speak of what God has done. Let “What has God wrought!” (v. 23) shape family worship and testimony (Psalm 78:4).

Joy in the King. The shout of a king is a shout of glad loyalty. Worship that has lost its joy in Christ’s reign has lost something essential (Psalm 47:1–2, 6–7).

A warning against misapplication: verse 21 does not mean that God is indifferent to His people’s sin or that believers may sin freely. Two chapters later God judges Israel severely at Peor (Numbers 25:1–9), and He still disciplines those He loves (Hebrews 12:6). Nor do these verses promise believers immunity from all hardship, and the lion imagery of verse 24 belongs to Israel’s unique conquest under God’s command; it gives no warrant for violence in the name of Christ, whose kingdom advances by the Word and the Spirit (John 18:36; 2 Corinthians 10:3–5).

Section 6 — Neither Curse nor Bless: On to Peor (Numbers 23:25–30)

Key Insight

Neither curse nor bless (v. 25). “Do not curse them at all, and do not bless them at all” (v. 25). Balak would rather have silence than blessing. Calvin sees in this the restless confusion of unbelief: “Here we may behold as in a mirror how wretchedly unbelievers are driven to and fro, so as to alternate between vain hopes and fears” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 23:25). Balak cannot stop God’s blessing by silencing the speaker, because the blessing never depended on Balaam’s voice. God had blessed, and that was enough (v. 20).

Balaam’s refrain (v. 26). “Did I not tell you, ‘All that the LORD says, that I must do’?” (v. 26). Calvin’s comment is precise: “The mercenary prophet here confesses that he has no more power of himself to be silent than to speak” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 23:26). Balaam’s constraint is real, and it covers only the oracles. When the constraint is lifted, Scripture shows what his heart wanted, for Israel’s later sin came “on Balaam’s advice” (Numbers 31:16).

A third attempt (vv. 27–30). “Come now, I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there” (v. 27). Balak has learned that the obstacle is God, but not that God cannot be moved. The Pulpit Commentary explains his reasoning: “as a heathen, he still thought that this might be done by dint of importunity and renewed sacrifices” (Pulpit Commentary, on Numbers 23:27). So he takes Balaam “to the top of Peor, which overlooks the desert” (v. 28), and the ritual is repeated: seven altars, seven bulls, seven rams (vv. 29–30). The ritual is unchanged because the heart is unchanged.

Peor. The reader should mark this name. Peor was a mountain associated with the worship of Baal of Peor (Numbers 25:3), and it is exactly there that Israel will soon fall into idolatry and sexual immorality with the women of Moab (Numbers 25:1–3). What Balak could not achieve by curses, Balaam would later attempt by counsel (Numbers 31:16; Revelation 2:14). Poole saw the logic of that later strategy in Balaam’s reasoning about God’s refusal to see iniquity in Israel: “as Balaam knew that none but Israel’s God could curse or destroy Israel, so he knew that nothing but their sin could move him so to do” (Poole, Commentary, on Numbers 23:21). The enemy who cannot curse God’s people turns to tempting them.

The scene closes unresolved. Chapter 23 ends with smoke rising from fourteen more animals and the outcome still pending. The suspense serves the theology: the reader already knows from verse 20 that the blessing cannot be revoked, and chapter 24 will confirm it with a third blessing, a fourth oracle, and the prophecy of a star out of Jacob (Numbers 24:17).

Christ and the unbroken blessing. Even Peor could not undo God’s covenant. The old generation died, but the new generation was counted and entered the land (Numbers 26:63–65). In Christ, the accuser’s charges fail, because “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1), and the Lord who prayed for Peter “that your faith may not fail” (Luke 22:32) still intercedes for His people and keeps them (Hebrews 7:25; John 17:15).

Application

Balak and Balaam were persistent. Three sites, twenty-one altars, forty-two animals: they would not give up. Matthew Henry turns that persistence into a rebuke and an encouragement for God’s people: “Let not us therefore, who have a promise that the vision at the end shall speak and not lie, be discouraged by delays, but continue instant in prayer, and not faint” (Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Numbers 23:13–30). If enemies labor so hard for evil without any promise, believers should labor harder for good with every promise (Galatians 6:9).

The move to Peor also teaches where the real danger lies. Balaam could not curse Israel, but he could help Israel sin. Satan’s most effective attacks on the church are rarely direct assaults from outside; they are enticements from within:

• Guard the places of compromise. Israel fell through festivity, friendship, and desire that drew them into idolatry (Numbers 25:1–2). Ask where your own appetites are being courted.
• Take temptation seriously precisely because you are secure. Security in Christ is not a license but a reason to “Put on the whole armor of God” (Ephesians 6:11).
• Persevere in prayer. Pray for yourself and the church as persistently as enemies plot against it (Luke 18:1; Ephesians 6:18).
• Remember that God finishes His work. Chapter 23 ends mid-scene, but God’s purpose does not (Philippians 1:6).

A warning against misapplication: persevering prayer is not the same as Balak’s repeated sacrifices. We persist because God has invited us to ask and has promised to hear (Luke 18:1–8), not in order to wear down His resistance or change His revealed will. Nor should believers blame every fall on the devil; Scripture holds each person responsible for being “lured and enticed by his own desire” (James 1:14).

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Cross References

Comparative Gospel Study

Not Applicable as Direct Comparison — Numbers is Old Testament historical narrative framing prophetic poetry, not Gospel narrative. However, Numbers 23 anticipates key Gospel themes:

• The curse turned into blessing. Balak hired a curse, and God “turned the curse into a blessing” (Deuteronomy 23:5). The Gospels show the deeper exchange behind every such reversal: Jesus is condemned, crucified, and made a curse on the tree, so that His people receive blessing (Galatians 3:13). The last act of the risen Lord in Luke’s Gospel is fitting: “lifting up his hands he blessed them” (Luke 24:50).
• The word God puts in the mouth. Twice “the LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth” (v. 5; v. 16). God promised a greater Prophet in whose mouth He would put His words (Deuteronomy 18:18), and Jesus says, “I have not spoken on my own authority” (John 12:49). The Gospels also record an unwilling mouth like Balaam’s: Caiaphas “prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation” (John 11:51) without understanding or believing it.
• The God who keeps His word. “Has he said, and will he not do it?” (v. 19). The Gospels open by announcing that God has remembered “his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham” (Luke 1:72–73), and Jesus declares that His words will never pass away (Mark 13:31). The Gospel narratives are the record of God doing what He said.
• A people set apart. Balaam saw “a people dwelling alone” (v. 9). Jesus prays for disciples who are in the world but not of it: “They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world” (John 17:16). The new covenant people are distinct not by ethnicity or territory but by belonging to Christ, and they are sent into the world as salt and light (Matthew 5:13–14).
• The King among His people. “The shout of a king is among them” (v. 21). In the Gospels the King comes in person. Magi from the east ask, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?” (Matthew 2:2), and the crowds shout “Hosanna” as He enters Jerusalem (Matthew 21:9). Matthew does not cite Numbers 24:17 for the magi’s star, though Christian readers have long connected the two; the connection is a reasonable echo rather than a stated fulfillment.
• True words from a false heart. Balaam spoke truth without faith. Jesus warns that on the last day many will say, “did we not prophesy in your name” (Matthew 7:22), and He will declare that He never knew them (Matthew 7:23). Knowledge and gifts do not substitute for a changed heart.

Old Testament Connections

Pentateuch

• Genesis 12:1–3 — The Abrahamic blessing and curse are the foundation of the whole Balaam episode; Balak’s attempt directly tests “I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse” (Genesis 12:3).
• Genesis 13:16; 28:14 — Offspring as the dust of the earth, echoed in “Who can count the dust of Jacob” (v. 10).
• Genesis 49:9 — Judah as a lion and lioness, applied by Balaam to all Israel (v. 24; Numbers 24:9).
• Exodus 15:18; 19:5–6 — The LORD’s kingship celebrated after the exodus, and Israel as His treasured possession and holy nation (v. 9, 21–22).
• Leviticus 19:26; Deuteronomy 18:10–14 — Divination and omen-reading forbidden to Israel; the practices Balaam relied on (vv. 3, 23).
• Numbers 22:1–41; 24:1–25 — The immediate frame: Balak’s embassies, the donkey and the angel, and the third and fourth oracles.
• Numbers 25:1–18; 31:8, 16 — Peor, Balaam’s counsel, and his death.
• Deuteronomy 23:3–5 — Moab and Ammon excluded from the assembly partly because they hired Balaam; God “turned the curse into a blessing for you” (Deuteronomy 23:5).
• Deuteronomy 32:15; 33:26–29 — Jeshurun, the upright one, and Israel dwelling alone in safety under God’s protection.

Historical Books

• Joshua 13:22 — Balaam, “the one who practiced divination” (Joshua 13:22), killed among the Midianites.
• Joshua 24:9–10 — God’s review of Israel’s history: “but I would not listen to Balaam. Indeed, he blessed you” (Joshua 24:10).
• 1 Samuel 15:29 — Samuel echoes Numbers 23:19 when Saul pleads for his rejection to be reversed.
• Nehemiah 13:1–2 — The Balaam episode read aloud centuries later as a reason for Israel’s separation from Moab and Ammon, and a reminder that “our God turned the curse into a blessing” (Nehemiah 13:2).

Wisdom Literature

• Psalm 32:1–2 — The blessedness of the one whose iniquity the LORD does not count; the older reading of Numbers 23:21 was often linked here.
• Psalm 47:1–7 — God’s kingship acclaimed with shouts and trumpets, the language of “the shout of a king” (v. 21).
• Psalm 106:28–31 — Israel’s sin with the Baal of Peor remembered.
• Psalm 121:4 — “Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4), the truth dramatized as Israel sleeps below the heights.
• Proverbs 21:27 — The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination, as Balaam’s altars were.

Major Prophets

• Isaiah 46:10 — “My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose” (Isaiah 46:10), the prophetic form of Numbers 23:19.
• Isaiah 54:17 — No weapon or tongue raised against God’s servants will succeed.
• Jeremiah 50:20 — Iniquity sought in Israel and not found because the LORD pardons, a text often read alongside Numbers 23:21.
• Isaiah 47:12–15 — The enchantments and sorceries of Babylon exposed as powerless, as Balaam’s were.

Minor Prophets

• Hosea 11:9 — “for I am God and not a man” (Hosea 11:9), grounding God’s refusal to destroy Ephraim in His difference from man.
• Micah 6:5 — Israel told to “remember what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him” (Micah 6:5) so that they may know the LORD’s righteous acts.
• Zephaniah 3:15–17 — The King of Israel, the LORD, in the midst of His people, rejoicing over them.
• Malachi 3:6 — “For I the LORD do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed” (Malachi 3:6).

New Testament Fulfillment

Gospels and Acts

• Matthew 1:23 — Immanuel, God with us, the fulfillment of “The LORD their God is with them” (v. 21).
• Matthew 2:1–2 — Magi from the east seeking the newborn King; often associated with Balaam’s star oracle (Numbers 24:17), though Matthew does not cite it.
• Matthew 7:21–23 — Prophesying in Christ’s name without knowing Him, the Balaam pattern.
• Luke 24:50–51 — The risen Christ blessing His disciples as He ascends.
• John 11:49–52 — Caiaphas prophesying without faith, a New Testament parallel to Balaam’s constrained speech.
• Acts 13:6–12; 19:18–20 — Sorcery confronted and renounced before the word of the Lord.

Paul’s Epistles

• Romans 4:5–8 — Justification as God not counting sin, the doctrine the older commentators found illustrated in Numbers 23:21.
• Romans 8:31–39 — “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31), with no charge against God’s elect and no separation from God’s love.
• Romans 11:29 — “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29), the New Testament echo of “he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it” (v. 20).
• 1 Corinthians 10:6–12 — Israel’s sin (including the sexual immorality that followed Peor) written as a warning.
• 2 Corinthians 1:20 — All God’s promises find their Yes in Christ.
• Galatians 3:8–14 — The gospel preached beforehand to Abraham, and Christ becoming a curse “so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles” (Galatians 3:14).
• Ephesians 1:3 — Every spiritual blessing in Christ.
• Colossians 2:15 — Christ triumphing over the rulers and authorities.

General Epistles and Revelation

• Hebrews 6:13–20 — God’s oath and promise as “two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie” (Hebrews 6:18).
• James 1:17 — The Father of lights, “with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17).
• 1 Peter 2:9 — The church as a chosen race and holy nation.
• 2 Peter 2:15–16 — The way of Balaam, who loved gain from wrongdoing and was rebuked by a donkey.
• Jude 11 — Balaam’s error, pursued for the sake of gain.
• Revelation 2:14 — The teaching of Balaam in the church at Pergamum.
• Revelation 5:5; 7:9; 12:10; 22:3 — The Lion of Judah who has conquered, the innumerable multitude from every nation, the accuser thrown down, and a world where nothing is accursed.

Redemptive-Historical Context

Creation. Blessing is the first word God speaks over humanity: “And God blessed them” (Genesis 1:28). Blessing is God’s gift of life, fruitfulness, and fellowship with Himself. No creature can grant it, and no creature can cancel it without God’s permission.

Fall. Sin brought the curse. God said to Adam, “cursed is the ground because of you” (Genesis 3:17), and the serpent and the ground came under God’s sentence (Genesis 3:14–19). From that point the question of Scripture is how a cursed race can be blessed again. Pagan religion answered by trying to manipulate the powers through ritual, divination, and spoken curses. Balaam is a master of that world.

Redemption. God’s answer began with Abraham. He promised to bless Abraham, to make his offspring as the dust of the earth, and to bless all families of the earth through him (Genesis 12:1–3; 13:16). Numbers 23 shows that promise under direct attack at the edge of the promised land. A king of Moab hires the most famous curser of his age, surrounds him with altars, and tries three different mountains. God does not merely block the curse; He fills the curser’s mouth with blessing, repeats and enlarges it, and declares it irrevocable (vv. 8, 19–20). The episode becomes part of Israel’s creed of remembered mercies (Deuteronomy 23:5; Joshua 24:9–10; Nehemiah 13:2; Micah 6:5).

The chapter also shows how this blessing will finally be secured. Israel was not sinless, yet God refused to curse them. The Law itself would reveal that sin deserves the curse (Deuteronomy 27:26), so God’s blessing on a sinful people required a way for the curse to be borne. That way is Christ: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13), “so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles” (Galatians 3:14). The King whose shout was heard in Israel’s camp (v. 21) is the Son who came as Immanuel (Matthew 1:23), and the lion image of Judah (v. 24; Genesis 49:9) meets its fulfillment in “the Lion of the tribe of Judah” (Revelation 5:5).

The pattern established. Numbers 23 establishes lasting patterns for God’s dealings with His people. God defends them when they do not even know they are threatened. He turns the schemes of enemies against themselves. He uses even ungodly instruments without approving them. And when enemies cannot curse, they tempt, so that the gravest danger to God’s people is their own unfaithfulness (Numbers 25; 31:16).

Already and not yet. Believers already possess the irrevocable blessing. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1), and “the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down” (Revelation 12:10). Yet the church still lives on the plains of Moab, so to speak, beneath hostile heights. False teachers still follow “the way of Balaam” (2 Peter 2:15), and the teaching of Balaam still tempts churches toward compromise (Revelation 2:14). The blessing is secure, but watchfulness is still required.

Consummation. The story ends where the curse is gone entirely: “No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it” (Revelation 22:3). Then the innumerable multitude from every nation (Revelation 7:9), the true dust of Jacob, will stand before the King, and every enemy’s scheme will have served only to make it said forever, “What has God wrought!” (v. 23).

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Systematic Theology Connection

The Immutability and Faithfulness of God

Numbers 23:19 is one of Scripture’s clearest statements of God’s immutability: “God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind” (v. 19). The verse ties God’s truthfulness to His unchangeable nature. Human beings lie and relent because they lack knowledge, power, or integrity. God lacks none of these, so His word and His purpose stand.

The Westminster Confession describes God as “immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty” (WCF 2.1) and as “working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will, for his own glory” (WCF 2.1). The Shorter Catechism answers that “God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth” (WSC 4). The final phrase matters for this chapter: God is unchangeable in His truth. What He has said, He will do.

The passage demonstrates the doctrine in action. Balak assumes God can be persuaded by more sacrifices and better views. Three times God answers with the same word. The texts that speak of God relenting (Genesis 6:6; Jonah 3:10) are rightly read as describing God’s fitting responses in history according to His unchanging purpose, as Keil and Henry both explain, and as 1 Samuel 15:11 and 15:29 show side by side.

Practical implications follow:

• Assurance. Believers can rest their full weight on God’s promises (Hebrews 6:17–18).
• Worship. God’s constancy is a reason for praise (Psalm 102:25–27).
• Humility. We may not measure God by human instability (Numbers 23:19; Hosea 11:9).
• Integrity. Those who trust a truthful God should become truthful people (Ephesians 4:25).

Immutability is not coldness. The same God who does not change is the God who is “abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin” (WCF 2.1). His unchanging character is precisely what makes His mercy dependable. In Christ, who is “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8), this faithfulness has a human face.

The Sovereignty of God in Providence

Numbers 23 is a vivid display of God’s providence over the wicked. A pagan king and a greedy seer plan evil, build altars, and choose the sites, yet every word spoken serves God’s purpose. “The LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth” (v. 5), and Balaam must confess, “Must I not take care to speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?” (v. 12).

The Westminster Confession teaches that God “doth uphold, direct, dispose, and govern all creatures, actions, and things, from the greatest even to the least, by his most wise and holy providence” (WCF 5.1). It adds that His providence extends to sin itself, “and that not by a bare permission, but such as hath joined with it a most wise and powerful bounding, and otherwise ordering, and governing of them, in a manifold dispensation, to his own holy ends” (WCF 5.4), while “the sinfulness thereof proceedeth only from the creature, and not from God” (WCF 5.4). Balaam and Balak are fully responsible for their malice; God bounds and orders it for Israel’s good.

The Confession also states that providence, “after a most special manner, it taketh care of his church, and disposeth all things to the good thereof” (WCF 5.7). Numbers 23 illustrates this precisely: Israel sleeps below while God defends them above. Moses later interprets the event in these terms: God “turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loved you” (Deuteronomy 23:5).

R. C. Sproul often argued that if a single molecule in the universe lay outside God’s control, none of God’s promises could be guaranteed. Numbers 23 makes the same point at the level of human speech: not even a hired curser can say one syllable beyond God’s permission.

Practical implications:

• Peace under hostility. Enemies may plan, but God rules their plans (Proverbs 21:1; Isaiah 46:10).
• No fatalism. Providence works through means, including prayer and faithful action (WCF 5.3).
• Hope in the cross. The supreme example of God ordering wicked acts for good is the crucifixion (Acts 2:23; 4:27–28).

The Covenant of Grace

Balaam’s oracles are rooted in the Abrahamic covenant, an administration of the one covenant of grace. The blessing and curse formula (Genesis 12:3), the countless offspring (Genesis 13:16), and the people set apart all come from God’s promise to the patriarchs. Calvin says that by Balaam’s mouth God “promulgated the covenant, which He had made with Abraham, to foreign and heathen nations” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 23:4).

The Westminster Confession describes the covenant of grace as the second covenant, “wherein he freely offereth unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ” (WCF 7.3). Under the law it was administered “by promises, prophecies, sacrifices, circumcision, the paschal lamb, and other types and ordinances delivered to the people of the Jews, all foresignifying Christ to come” (WCF 7.5). It insists that “There are not therefore two covenants of grace, differing in substance, but one and the same, under various dispensations” (WCF 7.6).

Numbers 23 shows several marks of this covenant:

• Its source is grace. Israel was blessed not because of its merit (Deuteronomy 7:7–8) but because God set His love on it.
• Its promises are sure. God’s covenant word cannot be revoked (vv. 19–20).
• Its blessing reaches the nations. Balaam, a Gentile, is compelled to announce it, and Paul teaches that “the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham” (Galatians 3:8).
• Its mediator is Christ. The blessing can rest on sinners only because Christ bore the curse (Galatians 3:13–14).

Practical implications: believers today stand under the same covenant blessing promised to Abraham, now fully revealed in Christ (Galatians 3:29). The covenant gives the church a sure identity, a secure future, and a mission to the nations. It also calls for covenant faithfulness, since the old generation’s unbelief and the sin at Peor show that belonging outwardly to the covenant people is not the same as trusting its Lord (Hebrews 3:16–19).

Justification by Faith

Numbers 23:21 has a long history in Reformed preaching as an illustration of justification. The ESV reads, “He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble in Israel” (v. 21), and the Hebrew nouns can mean either sin or its consequences. Gill, Poole, and Spurgeon applied the older rendering to God’s refusal to count His people’s sin against them, while Calvin preferred to read it in terms of God’s adoption of Israel. Whichever reading is preferred, the passage presents a sinful people whom God will not curse, and Scripture elsewhere explains the ground of that verdict.

The Westminster Confession teaches that God justifies sinners “by pardoning their sins, and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous; not for anything wrought in them, or done by them, but for Christ’s sake alone” (WCF 11.1). The Shorter Catechism defines it: “Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone” (WSC 33). The Confession adds that “The justification of believers under the old testament was, in all these respects, one and the same with the justification of believers under the new testament” (WCF 11.6).

The chapter illustrates the doctrine in three ways:

• God does not deal with His people according to their sins. Israel had grumbled, rebelled, and worshiped a golden calf, yet God refused to curse them (compare Jeremiah 50:20; Psalm 32:2).
• No accusation can stand. “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies” (Romans 8:33).
• The ground is outside the sinner. The curse falls on Christ (Galatians 3:13; 2 Corinthians 5:21).

Justification does not make sin harmless. The Confession warns that justified believers “may, by their sins, fall under God’s fatherly displeasure” (WCF 11.5), as Israel did at Peor. Practically, believers should rest in God’s verdict, confess sin as children rather than as defendants, and resist every accusation that tries to reopen a case God has closed (Romans 8:1; 1 John 1:9).

The Perseverance of the Saints

Numbers 23:20 declares, “he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it” (v. 20). The blessing of God on His chosen people cannot be reversed by any outside power. That principle, fully revealed in the New Testament, underlies the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints.

The Westminster Confession teaches that those whom God has accepted in Christ, effectually called and sanctified, “can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved” (WCF 17.1). The ground is not the believer’s strength but “the immutability of the decree of election, flowing from the free and unchangeable love of God the Father” (WCF 17.2), together with Christ’s merit and intercession and the abiding Spirit. Calvin draws exactly this line from Numbers 23:19, saying Balaam teaches the same truth as Paul, that election is without repentance because “it is founded on the gratuitous liberality of God” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 23:19).

The chapter illustrates perseverance in several ways:

• God’s blessing is irrevocable (v. 20; Romans 11:29).
• Enemies cannot curse God’s people (v. 8; John 10:28).
• God’s past redemption guarantees future care. Calvin notes that “because God has once redeemed this people, He will not forsake the work which He has begun” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 23:22); compare Philippians 1:6.

The Confession also warns that believers “may, through the temptations of Satan and of the world, the prevalency of corruption remaining in them, and the neglect of the means of their preservation, fall into grievous sins” (WCF 17.3). Peor, which follows immediately, is the proof. Perseverance does not mean that believers never fall; it means that God does not let them go.

Practical implications: believers can face temptation and trial with confidence, not because they are strong but because God keeps them (1 Peter 1:5). That confidence should produce watchfulness, not carelessness (1 Corinthians 10:12–13), and it should turn fallen believers back to Christ rather than into despair (Luke 22:32).

The Worship of God

Balaam’s seven altars on a high place of Baal show what worship becomes when it is shaped by human invention and aimed at controlling God. The regulative principle of worship taught by the Reformed churches addresses this directly.

The Westminster Confession states that “the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshiped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture” (WCF 21.1). Balaam’s altars were his own device, drawn, as Calvin says, from superstition about the number seven, and placed where Baal was honored. Israel, by contrast, was to worship at the place God chose (Deuteronomy 12:13–14).

The Confession also explains why even outwardly correct acts can displease God: works done by unregenerate men, “because they proceed not from an heart purified by faith; nor are done in a right manner, according to the Word; nor to a right end, the glory of God, they are therefore sinful” (WCF 16.7). Balaam’s bulls and rams were the right kind of animals, but they were offered with the wrong heart, in the wrong manner, and for the wrong end. Henry notes that “his sacrifice was an abomination, being brought with such a wicked mind” (Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, on Numbers 23:1–12), citing Proverbs 21:27.

The chapter teaches three lessons about worship:

• Worship is not leverage. God is not moved by quantity or expense (Micah 6:6–8).
• Worship must be according to God’s Word, not human imagination (Deuteronomy 12:32; Colossians 2:23).
• Worship requires a Mediator. Sinners approach God only through Christ, whose one sacrifice perfects His people (Hebrews 10:14; WCF 21.2).

Practical implications: churches should examine their worship by Scripture rather than by effectiveness or appeal, and individual believers should examine their motives in prayer and giving, lest devotion become an attempt to purchase God’s favor.

The Nature of the Church

Balaam saw “a people dwelling alone, and not counting itself among the nations!” (v. 9). Israel’s separateness was a gift of God’s choosing and a calling to holiness. The New Testament applies the same identity to the church: “you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession” (1 Peter 2:9).

The Westminster Confession describes the invisible church as consisting “of the whole number of the elect, that have been, are, or shall be gathered into one, under Christ the Head thereof” (WCF 25.1). The visible church, it says, is “not confined to one nation, as before under the law” (WCF 25.2). Keil makes a similar application of Israel’s separation, saying that “This rule applies to the Israel of the New Testament as well as the Israel of the Old, to the congregation or Church of God of all ages” (Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, on Numbers 23:8). The rule he means is that God’s people keep their strength only while they maintain their inward separation from the world’s worship.

Numbers 23 also shows the church’s mixed condition. Balaam saw a people God called upright (v. 10), yet the same people fell at Peor (Numbers 25). The Confession is realistic: “The purest churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error” (WCF 25.5). It is equally confident: “Nevertheless, there shall be always a church on earth, to worship God according to his will” (WCF 25.5). Calvin notes that Israel was called holy “not on account of their own righteousness, but in accordance with God’s good pleasure” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 23:10).

Practical implications:

• The church’s distinctness comes from grace, not from its own achievement (Deuteronomy 7:7–8).
• Holiness is its calling. Separation from the world’s idolatry protects the church from Peor-like compromise (2 Corinthians 6:14–7:1).
• Its security rests on Christ’s promise, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).
• Its mission is to bless the nations, as Abraham’s offspring were meant to do (Genesis 12:3; Matthew 28:19–20).

The Kingship of Christ

“The LORD their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them” (v. 21). Numbers 23 presents the LORD as Israel’s King, present in the camp and acclaimed by His people. The following chapter speaks of a king exalted and of a star and scepter rising from Israel (Numbers 24:7, 17). Together these texts point forward to the messianic King.

The Shorter Catechism explains that “Christ executeth the office of a king, in subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies” (WSC 26). The Larger Catechism adds that He does so by “preserving and supporting them under all their temptations and sufferings, restraining and overcoming all their enemies, and powerfully ordering all things for his own glory, and their good” (WLC 45). Every element appears in Numbers 23 in shadow form: God defends His people, restrains the curser, overrules the enemy king, and orders everything for Israel’s good.

Spurgeon preached the verse as the church’s great security, calling God’s presence “the grand safeguard of the Church of God” (Spurgeon, The Best War Cry, Sermon No. 1709). The New Testament shows that presence fulfilled in Christ: He is Immanuel (Matthew 1:23), the King who entered Jerusalem to the crowd’s acclamation (Matthew 21:9), the Lion of Judah who has conquered (Revelation 5:5), and the Lord who promised, “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

Practical implications:

• Loyalty. The shout of a king is a shout of allegiance; Christians owe Christ undivided loyalty (Luke 6:46).
• Courage. Christ restrains and conquers all His and our enemies (1 Corinthians 15:25).
• Joy. The church’s worship should be glad acclamation of its reigning King (Psalm 47:6–7).
• Spiritual warfare. Christ’s kingdom advances by the Word and Spirit, not by the sword (John 18:36).

Assurance of Salvation

Balaam’s cry, “Let me die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his!” (v. 10), is one of Scripture’s most striking examples of false hope. He admired the righteous man’s end and spoke true words about God, yet never turned from his love of gain (Numbers 31:8).

The Westminster Confession addresses precisely this danger: “hypocrites and other unregenerate men may vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions of being in the favor of God, and estate of salvation” (WCF 18.1). It also teaches that some who are not elect “may have some common operations of the Spirit, yet they never truly come unto Christ” (WCF 10.4). Balaam fits that description. Calvin says of his wish that “as hypocrites are wont to do, he did but conceive an evanescent wish” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 23:10).

But the Confession does not leave believers in doubt. It teaches that “such as truly believe in the Lord Jesus, and love him in sincerity, endeavoring to walk in all good conscience before him, may, in this life, be certainly assured that they are in the state of grace” (WCF 18.1). This assurance is “an infallible assurance of faith founded upon the divine truth of the promises of salvation” (WCF 18.2), together with the evidence of grace and the witness of the Spirit.

The death of the upright is truly blessed: “The souls of believers are at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into glory” (WSC 37). The Heidelberg Catechism frames the comfort of every believer in the same terms: “That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong unto my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ” (Heidelberg Catechism, Q. 1).

Practical implications:

• Examine yourself without morbid introspection (2 Corinthians 13:5).
• Rest assurance on Christ and His promises, not on religious knowledge or gifts (Matthew 7:21–23).
• Seek the fruit that accompanies faith (2 Peter 1:10–11).
• Face death with hope, for “to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).

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Reformed Theology

Reformed theology reads Numbers 23 within the covenant of grace and the unity of redemption. The chapter belongs to the history of God’s promise to Abraham, which moves toward its fulfillment in Christ. The Westminster Confession’s insistence that the covenant was administered under the law “by promises, prophecies, sacrifices… all foresignifying Christ to come” (WCF 7.5) frames the way Reformed interpreters handle Balaam’s oracles: they are genuine prophecies given by God, through an unworthy instrument, about His covenant people and their coming King.

God’s sovereign grace. Calvin’s exposition presses repeatedly on God’s freedom. God meets Balaam not in approval but because “He well knows how to apply corrupt instruments to His use” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 23:4). Israel is called upright and holy not for its own righteousness but, as Calvin says, “because He had sanctified them” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 23:21), and “because it had pleased God to choose that people, He rather manifested His love towards Himself and His own grace, than towards their life and conduct” (Calvin, Harmony of the Law, on Numbers 23:21). This is the Reformed emphasis on unconditional election applied to Israel’s history.

The unchangeable God. Numbers 23:19 is a standard proof text for divine immutability in the Reformed tradition. Calvin links it to Romans 11:29, Keil grounds the unchangeableness of God’s purposes in the unchangeableness of His nature, and the Confession describes God as working “according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will” (WCF 2.1). The anthropopathic reading of divine repentance, shared by Calvin, Henry, and Keil, reflects the Reformed commitment to interpreting Scripture by Scripture (WCF 1.9).

Israel and the church. Reformed interpreters see real continuity between Israel and the church as one people of God under different administrations (WCF 7.6). Keil says that the principle of Israel’s separation “applies to the Israel of the New Testament as well as the Israel of the Old” (Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, on Numbers 23:8). Gill regularly moves from Israel in the wilderness to “the spiritual Israel of God” (Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible, on Numbers 23:21), and Spurgeon applies the verses directly to the church. This does not deny Israel’s historical particularity; it recognizes that Abraham’s promises are fulfilled in Christ and in all who are His (Galatians 3:29).

Typology and the King. The shout of a king (v. 21) and the lion of Judah (v. 24) belong to a line of kingly promise that culminates in the Messiah. Geerhardus Vos taught that God’s revelation unfolds progressively alongside His redemptive acts, so that earlier revelation contains in seed form what later revelation makes plain; Balaam’s oracles, especially when read with Numbers 24:17, are an instance of that growth. Meredith Kline’s work on covenant sanctions of blessing and curse helps explain why Balak’s attempt is so significant: he is trying to seize control of a covenant sanction that belongs to God alone.

Worship and revelation. The contrast between Balaam’s omen-seeking and God’s direct word supports the Reformed doctrines of the sufficiency of Scripture and the regulative principle. Keil notes that Israel “was not directed, like other nations, to the uncertain and deceitful instrumentality of augury and divination, but enjoyed in all its concerns the immediate revelation of its God” (Keil and Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, on Numbers 23:23). God has now spoken fully in His Son (Hebrews 1:2), and the church needs no other oracle (WCF 1.6).

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Dispensational Theology

Dispensational theology reads Numbers 23 with a literal-grammatical hermeneutic and a sharp distinction between God’s program for national Israel and His program for the church. On this reading, the oracles are first and foremost promises about the physical descendants of Jacob and their national future.

The Abrahamic covenant as unconditional. Dispensational writers such as J. Dwight Pentecost and John Walvoord have emphasized that the Abrahamic covenant is unconditional and eternal, including its promises of land, seed, and blessing to the nation of Israel. Numbers 23 fits this emphasis closely. Balaam cannot curse “whom God has not cursed” (v. 8), and he declares, “he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it” (v. 20). For dispensationalists, these words guarantee that God’s national promises to Israel will be fulfilled literally, whatever Israel’s present condition. The same writers commonly treat Genesis 12:3 as a continuing principle in God’s dealings with the Jewish people, reinforced by Balaam’s later oracle: “Blessed are those who bless you, and cursed are those who curse you” (Numbers 24:9).

A people dwelling alone. Dispensational interpreters often read “a people dwelling alone, and not counting itself among the nations!” (v. 9) as a prophecy of Israel’s enduring national distinctiveness. Israel’s preservation as a distinct people through centuries of dispersion is frequently cited as evidence that God has not finished with the nation. This reading keeps “Israel” in the oracles referring to ethnic Israel rather than to the church.

The Israel–church distinction. Charles Ryrie identified a consistent distinction between Israel and the church as essential to dispensationalism, grounded in consistently literal interpretation. From that standpoint, New Testament applications of Balaam’s oracles to the church, such as those of older Reformed commentators, are illustrations rather than fulfillments. The church shares in spiritual blessings through Christ, but the specific national promises of Numbers 23 remain Israel’s.

Kingdom and Messiah. “The shout of a king is among them” (v. 21), read with the star and scepter of Numbers 24:17, is taken by many dispensationalists as pointing to the Messiah’s future reign over a restored Israel in the millennial kingdom. The lion imagery (v. 24) is read as Israel’s national triumph, partly realized in the conquest and fully realized when Messiah reigns. Classic dispensationalists expect a literal, earthly kingdom centered in Israel, following the church age.

Progressive dispensationalism. Craig Blaising and Darrell Bock represent a development that sees more continuity between the covenants and describes fulfillment as progressive, with some kingdom blessings inaugurated in Christ’s first coming and others awaiting His return. Progressive dispensationalists would agree that the church now shares in Abrahamic blessing through Christ (Galatians 3:14), while maintaining a distinct future for national Israel.

Balaam in the New Testament. C. I. Scofield’s notes distinguished the New Testament’s three references to Balaam: the way of Balaam (2 Peter 2:15), the error of Balaam (Jude 11), and the teaching of Balaam (Revelation 2:14). Dispensational teachers often use them to describe apostasy in the church age.

Points of agreement and difference. Reformed and dispensational readers agree on the immutability of God, the certainty of His promises, the historical reality of the Balaam episode, and the Christological hope of Numbers 24:17. They differ on whether the promises of Numbers 23 find their primary fulfillment in Christ and His one people drawn from Israel and the nations (the Reformed view), or whether they also require a future national fulfillment for ethnic Israel distinct from the church (the dispensational view). Neither question should be turned into an argument about modern political policy.

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Bibliography

Commentaries and Expositions

• Barnes, Albert. Notes on the Bible (Numbers).
• Calvin, John. Commentaries on the Four Last Books of Moses, Arranged in the Form of a Harmony (cited as Harmony of the Law), Numbers 22–24 and Deuteronomy 23.
• Gill, John. Exposition of the Entire Bible (Numbers).
• Henry, Matthew. Commentary on the Whole Bible (Complete), Numbers 23.
• Henry, Matthew. Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible, Numbers 23.
• Keil, Carl Friedrich, and Franz Delitzsch. Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: The Pentateuch (Numbers).
• Poole, Matthew. Commentary on the Holy Bible (Numbers).
• The Pulpit Commentary (Numbers).

Sermons and Devotional Works

• Spurgeon, Charles H. The End of the Righteous Desired. Sermon No. 746, on Numbers 23:10.
• Spurgeon, Charles H. The Best War Cry. Sermon No. 1709, on Numbers 23:21.
• Spurgeon, Charles H. God’s Non-Remembrance of Sin. Sermon No. 1685.
• Spurgeon, Charles H. Faith’s Checkbook (January 26; September 26).

Confessional Standards

• The Westminster Confession of Faith (American revision).
• The Westminster Larger Catechism.
• The Westminster Shorter Catechism.
• The Heidelberg Catechism.

Reformed Theology

• Kline, Meredith G. Treaty of the Great King.
• Sproul, R. C. Chosen by God.
• Vos, Geerhardus. Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments.

Dispensational Theology

• Blaising, Craig A., and Darrell L. Bock. Progressive Dispensationalism.
• Pentecost, J. Dwight. Things to Come.
• Ryrie, Charles C. Dispensationalism Today.
• The Scofield Reference Bible. Edited by C. I. Scofield.
• Walvoord, John F. The Millennial Kingdom.

Reference Works

• Brown, Francis, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs. A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament.
• Strong, James. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance: Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary.
• The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Crossway.