Chapter 23

Numbers

1 note in this chapter

19 God: further contradictions (c): Numbers 23:19

1And Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me here seven altars, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.” 2Balak did as Balaam had said. And Balak and Balaam offered on each altar a bull and a ram. 3And Balaam said to Balak, “Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps the LORD will come to meet me, and whatever he shows me I will tell you.” And he went to a bare height, 4and God met Balaam. And Balaam said to him, “I have arranged the seven altars and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.” 5And the LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” 6And he returned to him, and behold, he and all the princes of Moab were standing beside his burnt offering.

7And Balaam took up his discourse and said,“From Aram Balak has brought me,the king of Moab from the eastern mountains:‘Come, curse Jacob for me,and come, denounce Israel!’8How can I curse whom God has not cursed?How can I denounce whom the LORD has not denounced?9For from the top of the crags I see him,from the hills I behold him;behold, a people dwelling alone,and not counting itself among the nations!10Who can count the dust of Jacobor number the fourth part of Israel?Let me die the death of the upright,and let my end be like his!”

11And Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have done nothing but bless them.” 12And he answered and said, “Must I not take care to speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?”

13And Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place, from which you may see them. You shall see only a fraction of them and shall not see them all. Then curse them for me from there.” 14And he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 15Balaam said to Balak, “Stand here beside your burnt offering, while I meet the LORD over there.” 16And the LORD met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus shall you speak.” 17And he came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the LORD spoken?”

18And Balaam took up his discourse and said,“Rise, Balak, and hear;give ear to me, O son of Zippor:19God is not man, that he should lie,or a son of man, that he should change his mind.Has he said, and will he not do it?Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?✦

19God: further contradictions (c): Numbers 23:19

Critical Commentary

Numbers 23:19 says God is not a man that he should change his mind. Yet 1 Samuel 15:35 says the LORD regretted that he had made Saul king, and Exodus 32:14 says he relented from the disaster he had spoken of. The argument treats these as a direct clash about whether God ever changes course.

God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
Numbers 23:19

And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the LORD regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel.
1 Samuel 15:35

And the LORD relented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
Exodus 32:14

Source: see Credits and references (no. 14, p. 10).

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20Behold, I received a command to bless:he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.21He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob,nor has he seen trouble in Israel.The LORD their God is with them,and the shout of a king is among them.22God brings them out of Egyptand is for them like the horns of the wild ox.23For there is no enchantment against Jacob,no divination against Israel;now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel,‘What has God wrought!’24Behold, a people! As a lioness it rises upand as a lion it lifts itself;it does not lie down until it has devoured the preyand drunk the blood of the slain.”

25And Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all, and do not bless them at all.” 26But Balaam answered Balak, “Did I not tell you, ‘All that the LORD says, that I must do’?” 27And Balak said to Balaam, “Come now, I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.” 28So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the desert. 29And Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me here seven altars and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.” 30And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

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