🔢WEB · Numbers 22:14
What does Numbers 22:14 mean?
"The princes of Moab rose up, and they went to Balak, and said, “Balaam refuses to come with us.”"
— Numbers 22:14 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
‘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.”
Balak again sent princes, more, and more honorable than they.
They came to Balaam, and said to him, “Thus says Balak the son of Zippor, ‘Please let nothing hinder you from coming to me,
for I will promote you to very great honor, and whatever you say to me I will do. Please come therefore, and curse this people for me.’”
Explanation
Numbers 22:14 records a simple narrative moment: the officials whom King Balak of Moab had sent to hire the prophet Balaam return home empty-handed. They report plainly that Balaam has declined the invitation to come and curse Israel. It is a transitional verse, moving the story from Balaam's private encounter with God to Balak's next move, but it carries real weight in the larger account of Balaam and Balak.
The context is the wilderness period of Israel's journey toward the Promised Land, traditionally recorded by Moses. Israel's growing numbers and recent military victories over neighboring peoples had alarmed Balak, king of Moab. Fearing Israel as a nation "too mighty" for his people, Balak sent for Balaam, a prophet-diviner from
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