because they didn’t meet you with bread and with water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.
World English Bible
This verse is examined in more than one Scripture Analysis section. Each lens is shown on its own terms, in the section's own words; GEBible reaches no verdict of its own.
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because they didn’t meet you with bread and with water on the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you.
World English Bible
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Numbers 23-24 tells the story straight: Balaam was hired to curse Israel, but each time he opened his mouth God forced blessings out instead. Balak fumes that he hired Balaam to curse and got blessings three times.
Critical scholarship: Leans toward a genuine contradiction.
The proposed answers and sources for each reading are on the question page.
The laws of the Torah, each cited and shown as a primary source.
Each section sets the viewpoints side by side; you weigh the evidence. Here, "critical scholarship" means academic study, not a value judgment. How this is built →
Within each section, grouped by shared field or question type — not a cross-section comparison.
This citation refers to this GEBible page — the verse and the analysis gathered here. To cite the underlying scholarship, cite those sources directly.
"Deuteronomy 23:4 — Scripture Analysis" GEBible, https://gebible.app/analysis/verse/deuteronomy/23/4?version=WEB (retrieved 27 August 2026).