🔢WEB · Numbers 22:11
What does Numbers 22:11 mean?
"‘Behold, the people that has come out of Egypt covers the surface of the earth. Now, come curse me them. Perhaps I shall be able to fight against them, and shall drive them out.’”"
— Numbers 22:11 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
He said to them, “Lodge here this night, and I will bring you word again, as Yahweh shall speak to me.” The princes of Moab stayed with Balaam.
God came to Balaam, and said, “Who are these men with you?”
Balaam said to God, “Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has said to me,
‘Behold, the people that has come out of Egypt covers the surface of the earth. Now, come curse me them. Perhaps I shall be able to fight against them, and shall drive them out.’”
God said to Balaam, “You shall not go with them. You shall not curse the people; for they are blessed.”
Balaam rose up in the morning, and said to the princes of Balak, “Go to your land; for Yahweh refuses to permit me to go with you.”
The princes of Moab rose up, and they went to Balak, and said, “Balaam refuses to come with us.”
Explanation
Numbers 22:11 records Balaam repeating to God the request that King Balak of Moab had sent to him through messengers. In plain language, Balak's message was this: a vast people has come out of Egypt and now fills the land, and Balak wants Balaam to pronounce a curse on them so that Balak might be able to defeat them in battle and drive them away from his territory. Balaam is essentially reciting back to God, almost word for word, the appeal that had been made to him, as part of his prayerful inquiry about whether he should go with Balak's messengers.
The context is important for understanding the verse. Israel, having left Egypt under Moses' leadership, was now making its way toward the Promised Land, camped on the plains of Moab. Their military successes against other peoples in the region (recorded earlier in Numbers 21) had struck fear into Balak and the Moabites. Balaam was a non-Israelite prophet or diviner, apparently known and respected beyond Israel's borders, whose words were believed to carry real spiritual power — power that could bless or curse depending on what he pronounced. Balak's plan was not primarily military but spiritual: he wanted to
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