Numbers 23:1

Numbers 23:1

1 Then Balaam said to Balak, ^a“Build seven altars for me here, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.”

2 And Balak did just as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam ^aoffered a bull and a ram on each altar.

3 Then Balaam said to Balak, ^a“Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps the Lord will come ^bto meet me, and whatever He shows me I will tell you.” So he went to a desolate height.

4 ^aAnd God met Balaam, and he said to Him, “I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.”

5 Then the Lord ^aput a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.”

6 So he returned to him, and there he was, standing by his burnt offering, he and all the princes of Moab.

Commentaries:

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

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Numbers 23:2 >>

BALAK'S SACRIFICES. (Num. 23:1-30)

Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here seven altars—Balak, being a heathen, would naturally suppose these altars were erected in honor of Baal, the patron deity of his country. It is evident, from Numbers 23:4 that they were prepared for the worship of the true God; although in choosing the high places of Baal as their site and rearing a number of altars (II Kings 18:22; Isaiah 17:8; Jeremiah 11:13; Hosea 8:11; Hosea 10:1), instead of one only, as God had appointed, Balaam blended his own superstitions with the divine worship. The heathen, both in ancient and modern times, attached a mysterious virtue to the number seven; and Balaam, in ordering the preparation of so many altars, designed to mystify and delude the king.

**Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Numbers 23:1:**

Job 42:8
Revelation 1:4

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Numbers 23:2 >>

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