Numbers 22:7

Balak’s messengers, who were leaders of both the Moab and Midian people-groups, took money with them to pay Balaam in order that he would come and curse the Israelis. They went to Balaam and told him what Balak had said.

Translation for Translators

In The King James Version

And the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the rewards of divination in their hand; and they came unto Balaam, and spake unto him the words of Balak.

In Context

6Because they are very powerful/numerous, we are afraid of them. So please come and curse them for me. Then my army may be able to defeat them and expel them from the land where they are now living. I know that good things will happen to the people whom you bless, and disasters will happen to the people whom you curse.”

8Balaam said, “Stay here tonight. Tomorrow morning I will tell you whatever Yahweh tells me that I should say to you.” So the leaders from Moab stayed there that night.

Read all of Numbers 22

Cross References

Numbers 23:23When people curse [PRS] the descendants of Jacob, they will not be harmed; when people work sorcery on them, it will have no power. So now people will say about the descendants of Jacob, ‘God has done wonderful things for the Israelis!’

1 Samuel 9:7Saul replied to the servant, “If we go talk with him, we should give a gift to him, but what can we give to him? We have no more food in our sacks. Do we have anything else to give to him?”

Isaiah 56:11And they are like greedy dogs; they never get all that they want. They are supposed to lead the people, like good shepherds lead their flocks, but they are ignorant, and they each do whatever they want to do.

Micah 3:11Your leaders make favorable decisions only if they receive bribes. Your priests teach people only if those people pay them well. Your false prophets require people to pay them to tell people what will happen to them in the future. Those prophets say, “Yahweh is telling us what we should say, and we say that we will not experience any disasters.”

1 Timothy 6:9But some people strongly desire to be rich. As a result, they do wrong things to get money, and this will cause them to be caught/trapped [MET] as animals get caught in traps. They foolishly desire many things, and those desires cause them to get hurt. And God will completely reject them!

2 Peter 2:15They have ◄rejected good moral standards/quit doing what everyone knows is right►. They have imitated what the prophet Balaam, the son of Bosor, did long ago. He, acting very unrighteously, wanted the enemies of the Jews to pay him if he asked God ◄ to curse/to do bad thing to► the Jews.

Matthew Henry on Numbers 22:2-15

Balak Sends for Balaam. ( b. c. 1452.) 1 And the children of Israel set forward, and pitched in the plains of Moab on this side Jordan by Jericho. 2 And Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. 3 And Moab was sore afraid of the people, because they were many: and Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel. 4 And Moab said unto the elders of Midian, Now shall this company lick up all that are round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field. And Balak the son of… Read the whole commentary →

This Verse In Other Editions

Study Numbers 22:7