Bible Strands
Numbers 23:8
How can I curse those whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the LORD has not denounced?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Balaam addresses Balak while positioned on a high place, directly responding to the king’s prior demand to curse Jacob and denounce Israel.
The words — The Hebrew אֶקֹּב ('e.Ko) translates literally as "I will curse" and אֶזְעֹם ('ez.'Om) as "I will denounce," both combined with the negative particle לֹא (lo') to form rhetorical questions emphasizing inability.
The thread — This motif of unbreakable divine protection for Israel reappears in Numbers 23:23, which declares no spell exists against Jacob, and in Numbers 23:20, where Balaam notes he cannot alter a command to bless.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to acknowledge that human attempts to invoke judgment are ineffective when God has already fixed the standing of the people in question.
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
How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed? or how shall I defy, whom the Lord hath not defied?
Cross-references
- 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!’
- Isaiah 44:25 who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who confounds the wise and turns their knowledge into nonsense,
- Numbers 23:20 I have indeed received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot change it.
- Numbers 22:12 But God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them. You are not to curse this people, for they are blessed.”
- Isaiah 47:12 So take your stand with your spells and with your many sorceries, with which you have wearied yourself from your youth. Perhaps you will succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror!