For Teaching

Numbers 22: What the Passage Says

152 claims across 41 verses, in the order the chapter makes them.

Not a sermon outline. What Numbers 22 says, and what its hard words meant. The reading of it is yours.

The Chapter in a Sentence

Israel camps in the plains of Moab, and Balak, king of Moab, is afraid of how many they are, so he sends leaders with payment to ask Balaam to curse them. God first tells Balaam not to go, then tells him to go with the second group on the condition that he say only what God tells him. On the road the angel of the LORD blocks his way, and Balaam's donkey sees the angel and turns aside three times before she speaks to Balaam about the beatings he gave her. Balaam reaches Balak, says again that he can speak only the word God puts in his mouth, and Balak takes him up to a height where he can see part of the Israelite camp.

Claim by Claim

22:1
- The children of Israel journeyed on.
- The children of Israel camped in the plains of Moab.
- The plains of Moab where they camped were across the Jordan from Jericho.
22:2
- Balak was the son of Zippor.
- Balak saw everything Israel had done to the Amorites.
22:3
- Moab was very afraid of the people.
- Moab's fear was because the people were numerous.
- Moab was filled with dread because of the children of Israel.
22:4
- Moab spoke to the elders of Midian.
- Moab said this assembly would now lick up everything around them.
- Moab compared the assembly's licking up to an ox licking up the vegetation of the field.
- Balak son of Zippor was king of Moab at that time.
22:5
- Balak sent messengers to Balaam son of Beor.
- Balaam was at Pethor.
- Pethor is by the River.
- Pethor is in the land of the people of Balaam's kin.
- The messengers were sent to summon Balaam.
- Balak's message said a people had come out of Egypt.
- Balak's message said that people covered the surface of the land.
- Balak's message said that people were settled opposite him.
22:6
- Balak asked Balaam to come.
- Balak asked Balaam to curse this people for him.
- Balak said the people were too mighty for him.
- Balak said that perhaps he would then be able to strike them.
- Balak said that perhaps he could then drive them out of the land.
- Balak said he knew that whomever Balaam blesses is blessed.
- Balak said he knew that whomever Balaam curses is cursed.
22:7
- The elders of Moab and the elders of Midian went.
- They carried divination fees in their hand.
- They came to Balaam.
- They spoke Balak's words to Balaam.
22:8
- Balaam told them to lodge there that night.
- Balaam said he would bring them back word.
- Balaam said his word would be according to what the LORD would speak to him.
- The princes of Moab stayed with Balaam.
22:9
- God came to Balaam.
- God asked who the men with Balaam were.
22:10
- Balaam answered God.
- Balaam said Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, had sent to him.
22:11
- Balaam reported Balak's message that a people had come out of Egypt.
- Balaam reported the message that this people covered the surface of the land.
- Balaam reported Balak's request that he come and curse them for him.
- Balaam reported Balak's words that perhaps he would then be able to fight against them.
- Balaam reported Balak's words that he would drive them out.
22:12
- God said to Balaam.
- God forbade Balaam to go with them.
- God forbade Balaam to curse the people.
- God said the people are blessed.
22:13
- Balaam rose in the morning.
- Balaam spoke to Balak's princes.
- Balaam told them to go to their land.
- Balaam said the LORD had refused to let him go with them.
22:14
- The princes of Moab rose up.
- The princes of Moab went to Balak.
- They told Balak that Balaam refused to come with them.
22:15
- Balak again sent princes.
- The princes he sent were more numerous and more honorable than the first ones.
22:16
- They came to Balaam.
- They spoke to Balaam.
- They quoted Balak son of Zippor as saying that Balaam should let nothing hinder him from coming to him.
22:17
- Balak said he would honor Balaam very greatly.
- Balak said he would do whatever Balaam told him.
- Balak asked Balaam to come and curse this people for him.
22:18
- Balaam answered the servants of Balak.
- Balaam said that even if Balak gave him his house full of silver and gold, he could not go beyond the mouth of the LORD his God.
- Balaam said he could not do anything small or great beyond that word.
- Balaam called the LORD his God.
22:19
- Balaam asked them also to stay there that night.
- Balaam said this was so he could know what more the LORD would say to him.
22:20
- God came to Balaam at night.
- God said to Balaam that if the men had come to summon him, he should rise and go with them.
- God said Balaam must do only the word God would speak to him.
22:21
- Balaam rose in the morning.
- Balaam saddled his donkey.
- Balaam went with the princes of Moab.
22:22
- God's anger was kindled because Balaam was going.
- The angel of the LORD stationed himself in the road as an adversary to Balaam.
- Balaam was riding on his donkey.
- Balaam's two servants were with him.
22:23
- The donkey saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road.
- The angel's sword was drawn in his hand.
- The donkey turned aside out of the road.
- The donkey went into a field.
- Balaam struck the donkey to turn her back to the road.
22:24
- The angel of the LORD stood in a narrow path among the vineyards.
- There was a wall on one side and a wall on the other side.
22:25
- The donkey saw the angel of the LORD.
- The donkey pressed herself against the wall.
- The donkey pressed Balaam's foot against the wall.
- Balaam struck her again.
22:26
- The angel of the LORD went on further.
- The angel stood in a narrow place.
- In that place there was no way to turn to the right or the left.
22:27
- The donkey saw the angel of the LORD.
- The donkey lay down under Balaam.
- Balaam's anger was kindled.
- Balaam struck the donkey with a staff.
22:28
- The LORD opened the mouth of the donkey.
- The donkey spoke to Balaam.
- The donkey asked what she had done to him.
- The donkey said he had struck her these three times.
22:29
- Balaam answered the donkey.
- Balaam said she had made a fool of him.
- Balaam said he wished there were a sword in his hand.
- Balaam said that with a sword he would kill her now.
22:30
- The donkey spoke to Balaam.
- The donkey asked whether she was not his donkey.
- The donkey said he had ridden her all his life until this day.
- The donkey asked whether she had ever been in the habit of doing this to him.
- Balaam said no.
22:31
- The LORD uncovered Balaam's eyes.
- Balaam saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road.
- The angel's sword was drawn in his hand.
- Balaam bowed down.
- Balaam fell on his face.
22:32
- The angel of the LORD spoke to Balaam.
- The angel asked why Balaam had struck his donkey these three times.
- The angel said he had come out as an adversary.
- The angel said the reason was that Balaam's way was reckless before him.
22:33
- The angel said the donkey saw him.
- The angel said the donkey turned aside before him these three times.
- The angel said that if she had not turned aside from him, he would surely have killed Balaam by now.
- The angel said he would have let the donkey live.
22:34
- Balaam spoke to the angel of the LORD.
- Balaam said he had sinned.
- Balaam said he had not known that the angel was standing in the road to meet him.
- Balaam said that if it was evil in the angel's eyes, he would turn back.
22:35
- The angel of the LORD spoke to Balaam.
- The angel told Balaam to go with the men.
- The angel said Balaam must speak only the word the angel would speak to him.
- Balaam went with the princes of Balak.
22:36
- Balak heard that Balaam had come.
- Balak went out to meet Balaam at a city of Moab.
- That city is on the border of the Arnon.
- That city is at the edge of the territory.
22:37
- Balak spoke to Balaam.
- Balak asked whether he had not urgently sent to summon him.
- Balak asked why Balaam had not come to him.
- Balak asked whether he was truly unable to honor Balaam.
22:38
- Balaam spoke to Balak.
- Balaam said he had come to him.
- Balaam asked whether he had any power at all to say anything.
- Balaam said he would speak the word that God put in his mouth.
22:39
- Balaam went with Balak.
- They came to Kirjath-huzoth.
22:40
- Balak sacrificed cattle and sheep.
- Balak sent portions to Balaam.
- Balak sent portions to the princes who were with Balaam.
22:41
- It happened in the morning.
- Balak took Balaam.
- Balak brought Balaam up to the high places of Baal.
- From there Balaam saw the outermost part of the people.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

22:1: Moab was a small kingdom east of the Dead Sea. The "plains of Moab" are the flat land on the east bank of the Jordan, just north of the Dead Sea, opposite the city of Jericho. The King James "on this side Jordan" translates a Hebrew phrase meaning "the far side of the Jordan", the east bank, described from the standpoint of someone living west of the river.
22:2: The Amorites were the people whose two kings, Sihon and Og, Israel had just defeated in the territory immediately north of Moab (the previous chapter). Balak is watching an army that has already destroyed his neighbors settle on his border.
22:3: In 1611 English "sore" as a description of fear meant severely or intensely, not painful. "Sore afraid" is terrified.
22:4: The Midianites were a loose group of herding and trading clans who ranged over the desert regions east and south of Moab. "Elders" are the senior heads of families who acted for a group that had no single king.
22:5: Balaam is a professional seer, a man paid to obtain and deliver messages from the gods, and to pronounce blessings and curses. Such specialists were known throughout the ancient Near East, and a fragmentary inscription found in Jordan mentions a "Balaam son of Beor" as a visionary. Pethor lay on the upper Euphrates, several hundred miles north-east of Moab; in Hebrew "the River" without further description regularly means the Euphrates. Balak is summoning an expert from a great distance.
22:6: In the ancient world a curse spoken by a qualified person was not a wish but an act: the words were thought to be effective in themselves once uttered, and hiring a specialist to curse an enemy before fighting them was a recognized military precaution.
22:7: Divination is the professional practice of learning the will of the gods or the shape of the future through omens, signs and ritual technique. The "rewards" or "fees" are the standard payment such a practitioner was given for his services, brought in advance.
22:8: Where the King James prints LORD in small capitals, the Hebrew has the personal name of Israel's God (the four letters usually written YHWH), as distinct from the ordinary word "God" used in the previous verses. Balaam, a foreigner, uses that name throughout.
22:13: "Refuseth to give me leave" means will not give me permission.
22:15: "More honourable" means higher ranking. Balak upgrades the delegation, sending more men and more important ones, which was itself part of the offer: the size and status of an embassy signaled how much the sender was willing to pay.
22:17: "Honour" here is not simply respect: Balak is offering rank and payment, the material rewards a king could bestow. Balaam's reply in the next verse treats it as an offer of money.
22:18: "His house full of silver and gold" is a set phrase for the largest imaginable payment. Coined money did not yet exist; silver and gold were weighed out by the piece.
22:19: "Tarry" in the King James means stay or wait.
22:20: Note how carefully the permission is worded. It is conditional ("if the men come to call thee") and it is immediately fenced in by a restriction on what Balaam may say. He is allowed to travel, not to do the job he was hired for.
22:21: A donkey was the ordinary riding animal of a person of standing in this period, not a humble or comic mount. Balaam travels with two attendants, as a man of his rank would.
22:22: The Hebrew word translated "angel" simply means "messenger", a figure sent from God, who in this story speaks both about God and as God. The King James "for an adversary" translates the ordinary Hebrew noun *satan*, meaning an opponent or one who blocks the way; here it is a common noun describing what the messenger does, not a name.
22:24: Vineyards were enclosed by dry stone walls, leaving sunken lanes between them barely wide enough for a loaded animal. There is no room to step aside.
22:27: A traveler's staff was a stout walking stick, taller than a cane and heavy enough to hurt.
22:30: "Was I ever wont to do so unto thee?" means "was it ever my habit to do this to you?" In 1611 English "wont" meant accustomed. The donkey is pointing to years of reliable behavior as evidence that something unusual is happening now.
22:31: Bowing the head and dropping face down flat on the ground was the standard gesture of submission before a king or a divine being. It is the physical equivalent of surrender, and doing it in a narrow dirt lane in front of an armed figure is not a small gesture.
22:32: The Hebrew word behind "perverse" is rare and its sense is uncertain; it has been understood as "reckless, headlong" and as "contrary, twisted". The translations differ because the word itself is unclear.
22:36: The Arnon is a river running through a deep gorge into the Dead Sea. It formed the northern boundary of Moab, so Balak travels to the farthest edge of his own territory to meet Balaam.
22:39: Kiriath-huzoth means something like "town of streets". Its location is unknown.
22:40: The animals are killed as an offering, and the meat is then shared out as a formal meal. Eating together from a sacrifice bound host and guest to each other and marked the start of a joint undertaking.
22:41: A "high place" was an open-air shrine, usually on a hilltop or raised platform, used for sacrifice. Baal, meaning "lord" or "master", was the title of the Canaanite storm god; the Hebrew here is also a place name, Bamoth-baal, "the high places of Baal". Balak brings Balaam where he can see the Israelites because a curse was thought to require the one cursing to have his target in sight.

Read Numbers 22