Bible Strands
Numbers 22:12
But God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them. You are not to curse this people, for they are blessed.”
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God addresses Balaam directly, refusing his request to travel with Balak's envoys to curse Israel. This is the immediate response to the summons recorded in verse 11.
The words — The verse contains two instances of לֹא (lō', "not"), one governing the jussive verb תֵלֵךְ (tēlēkh, "you will go") and the other governing the curse command. The double prohibition is structural: the first blocks the journey, the second blocks the act itself, so even if Balaam went, the curse is foreclosed.
The thread — Deuteronomy 23:5 confirms the outcome: "the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you." Romans 11:29 states the principle behind it: "God's gifts and His call are irrevocable."
Why it lands — The blessing on Israel is presented as God's fixed decree, not a conditional reward or a negotiable asset. A reader is asked to hold that some of God's commitments are not subject to human agency, including the agency of a prophet.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them; thou shalt not curse the people: for they are blessed.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 23:5 Yet the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam, and the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loves you.
- Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms.
- Romans 11:29 For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.
- Genesis 12:2 I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
- Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?
- Deuteronomy 33:29 Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD? He is the shield that protects you, the sword in which you boast. Your enemies will cower before you, and you shall trample their high places.”
- Romans 4:6 And David speaks likewise of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
- Genesis 22:16 saying, “By Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, that because you have done this and have not withheld your only son,
- Numbers 22:19 So now, please stay here overnight as the others did, that I may find out what else the LORD has to tell me.”
- Numbers 23:23 For there is no spell against Jacob and no divination against Israel. It will now be said of Jacob and Israel, ‘What great things God has done!’