‘If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I can’t go beyond Yahweh’s word, to do either good or bad from my own mind. I will say what Yahweh says’?
Parallel Translations
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‘If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I can’t go beyond Yahweh’s word, to do either good or bad from my own mind. I will say what Yahweh says’?
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If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the LORD, to do either good or bad of mine own mind; but what the LORD saith, that will I speak?
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If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the word of the LORD, to do either good or bad of mine own mind; what the LORD speaketh, that will I speak?
Cross-references (3)
Passages linked to Numbers 24:13 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Numbers 16:28 Moses said, “Hereby you shall know that Yahweh has sent me to do all these works; for they are not from my own mind.
- Numbers 22:18 Balaam answered the servants of Balak, “If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I can’t go beyond the word of Yahweh my God, to do less or more.
- Numbers 22:20 God came to Balaam at night, and said to him, “If the men have come to call you, rise up, go with them; but only the word which I speak to you, that you shall do.”
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (3 sources)
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Num 24:13 If Balak would give me his house…
Num 24:13 If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the LORD, to do [either] good or bad of mine own mind; [but] what the LORD saith, that will I speak?
Ver. 13. I cannot go beyond.] Here was coloured covetousness, or "a cloak of covetousness." {1Th 2:5} {See Trapp on "1Th 2:5"} God lets out the tedder to wicked men for a time, and then calls them back with shame enough to their task; lets them have the ball on the foot till they come almost to the goal, and then defeats them of their great hopes; as he did this sinful couple. Balak had not his will, nor Balaam his wages; God fooled them both, pulling the morsel out of their mouths, that they had well-nigh devoured.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain If Balak would give me his house full of…
If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold,.... Which are the very words he said to the princes of Moab, Num 22:18,
I cannot go beyond the commandment of the Lord, to do either good or bad; for though here it is the "commandment", and there the "word" of the Lord, yet it is the same word in both places in the original text: indeed, here he omits the relation to the Lord he there claims, saying "my God"; and instead of "little or great", here it is "good or bad", but the sense is the same: and he adds, for explanation sake:
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of mine own mind: or out of my heart, which was disposed well enough to serve Balak, but was laid under a restraint by the Lord:
but what the Lord said, that will I speak; and he had not only said this to the messengers, but to the king himself, and therefore he thought, that as he had openly and honestly told him this at first, he had no reason to be so angry with him; see Num 22:38.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (13) I cannot go beyond the commandment of the…
(13) I cannot go beyond the commandment of the Lord.—Hebrew, the mouth of the Lord: the same expression which is used in Num_22:18, where the Authorised Version has “the word of the Lord.”
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.