13 So Balaam rose in the morning and said to the princes of Balak, “Go back to your land, for the Lord has refused to give me permission to go with you.”
14 And the princes of Moab rose and went to Balak, and said, “Balaam refuses to come with us.”
15 Then Balak again sent princes, more numerous and more1 honorable than they.
16 And they came to Balaam and said to him, “Thus says Balak the son of Zippor: ‘Please let nothing hinder you from coming to me;
17 for I will certainly ahonor you greatly, and I will do whatever you say to me. bTherefore please come, curse this people for me.’ ”
18 Then Balaam answered and said to the servants of Balak, a“Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, bI could not go beyond the word of the Lord my God, to do less or more.
19 Now therefore, please, you also astay here tonight, that I may know what more the Lord will say to me.”
Balak upped the offered price, as well as the honor he would bestow. Perhaps he sent his son, possibly his firstborn—the heir to the throne. It would have been quite honorable for Balaam to have entertained the next king of Moab in his home.
