Numbers 23:20

Num 23:20 Behold, I have received [commandment] to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it.

Ver. 20. Behold, I have, &c.] A bad man may bless by command from God, and he say Amen to it. The precious stone Lyncuris may issue out of the body of the lynx, an unclean and spotted beast.

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.

Num_23:20

He hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it.

Immutable benedictions

I. Blessings are decreed for the people of God. The difficulty of believing in the glorious truth of the supreme blessedness of the children of God is so common that there must be some reasons for it.

1. One reason is that the largest blessings belong to the future. For the present, Christians have to endure the trials of a wilderness pilgrimage. We need faith to expect the good things of the unseen future.

2. A deeper reason is that the best blessings are spiritual. To the carnal mind they appear wearisome in the extreme, just as the exquisite tones of the finest melody do to a man who has no ear for music. Here also men need faith to believe that the highest blessings are necessarily at present above their appreciation.

II. The attempt to reverse these blessings results in the increase of them. The evil intention results unwittingly in a beneficent action. Consider some of the applications of this principle of Providence.

1. The captivity. Nebuchadnezzar, who aimed at destroying the Jewish nation, was indirectly its great benefactor in fulfilling the Divine prophecies of necessary chastisement and forcing the people to a painful discipline, which effectually and for ever purged them of their old besetting sin of idolatry.

2. The temptation of Christ. The tempter sought to overthrow the Son of God and Saviour of the world. But the result of the forty days trial in the wilderness was that Christ came forth fitted to be our great high priest by means of the very endurance of that temptation.

3. The death of Christ. His enemies hoped to overthrow His cause by means of this. But it was overruled to secure His triumph and to accomplish the great end of His mission.

4. The persecution of the Church. The Christians, scattered by the persecution that followed the death of Stephen, fled from Jerusalem only to spread the gospel in all directions, and so to increase their own numbers and to magnify the name of their God.

5. The troubles of life generally. The sufferer is described as being delivered unto Satan. The motive of Satan must be purely malignant. Yet the suffering he inflicts is expressly designed for the good of the sufferer--that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus (1Co_5:5).

III. The blessings of which the people of god cannot be robbed by their most violent foes may be lost by their own sin, (W. F. Adeney, M. A.)

The curses of man turned into blessings by God

The principle embodied here is this: that when God hath determined to bless His people, His purposes will be executed even by those whose intent it is only to reverse them. Tills is the solution of all the apparent mysteries and incongruities in the present state of things: and it will apply--

I. To the Church of Christ at large--and, next, to every individual among the people of God. To this Church--that is, this army of the living God, though separated in different divisions, we look, in the interpretation of Gods promises, as Balaam looked upon Jacob in his goodly tents, and Israel in his outstretched tabernacle. To these we refer the benediction of the royal psalmist, They shall prosper that love Thee; and to these we apply what may be termed the reversed invocation of the text -a curse becoming a blessing--Behold, I have received commandment to bless; and He hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it. But it is not less needful, though it be less pleasing, to observe how, as in the case of Israel, the most severe and searching probation came upon them--not amidst the perils and privations of the wilderness, but amid the abundance and prosperity of the promised land. So the Church, when the fires of persecution had been extinguished, was, and still continues to be, in danger far more imminent. We must beware, lest those prevail who would openly assault her bulwarks, and attempt her battlements in vain. As to the end, indeed, all is safe, and all is sure; God has determined to bless, and earth and hell cannot reverse it (Isa_2:2; Hab_2:14; Php_2:10-11). But it is not the less needful to beware lest, in the meantime, corruption be introduced amongst us from an unsuspected quarter, by intermixture with the enemies of God, while, amidst the rising mists of error, our candlestick burns dimly, if even, through apostasy, it be not removed out of its place. Intercourse with the irreligious and unbelieving, whatever be the pretext, is plainly to be suspected and to be shunned. The blessing of God upon a good cause may be forfeited, and will be nullified, by alliance with wicked men. What else can the crew expect, if they allow themselves to be piloted by traitors, but that they shall strike on a rock suddenly, and go down into the depths of destruction?

II. I proceed, however, to the second, and more practical part of the subject--the application of the principle embodied in the text to each individual believer. Rightly understood, and closely applied, it is to him a covert from all the storms of life, a shield against the fiery arrows of the wicked one, a very present help in time of trouble. God hath blessed, man cannot reverse it: and, however the world may plot, and however it may appear to the servant of the Most High, there is One who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will. The devices of man may appear to be successful, but it is His counsel only that shall abide. It is very important, however, to keep in mind that, while Scripture develops the purposes of Gods will, it does not profess to reveal the processes of Gods work. It states a definite and determined end, but it makes no specific mention of the means. The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me, declares the Psalmist, but how, and by whom, God only knows. He that hath begun a good work in you, says the apostle, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ; but who can say whether the work will proceed in sunshine or in clouds? Perhaps the latter; not improbably the latter. It is enough for us to know that God is working out a blessing: we must not be cast down, though it come through the channel of a calamity, and with the aspect of a curse. The richest stream of benefit and glory that ever flowed forth to a lost and polluted world was thus opened. How did Christ redeem us from the curse of the law but by being made a curse for us? Many sought to quench Gods light by lifting up the Redeemer on the Cross, and they thus imparted to it instrumentally a power which in the end shall draw all men unto Him. (T. Dale, M. A.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

23:20-21 Since the Lord would follow through on his promises to bless his people (bringing them no misfortune or trouble), Balaam was in no position to reverse God’s intentions. Though God punished the Hebrews for acts of disobedience, his advocacy of Israel’s cause was evident from the time he delivered them from Egypt.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

20. And if he blesseth, then I cannot reverse it] It is not necessary to read, with LXX. , ‘and I will bless.’

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Behold, I have received commandment to bless,.... The people of Israel, to pronounce a blessing upon them, to declare them a happy people:

and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it; God has blessed them, has determined to bless them, has promised to bless them, has blessed them in the victories he has given them, and will complete the blessing of them, by bringing them into the land he has given them: so the blessings which God has designed for his spiritual Israel, and bestows upon them, are irreversible; they are blessings indeed, spiritual ones, and are for ever; he blesses them with himself, as their covenant; God, their portion here and hereafter, with Christ his Son, and all things with him, with righteousness, peace, and pardon, with his Spirit and the grace thereof, with sonship, heirship, and eternal life.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

I have received commandment to bless - literally, “I have received to bless.” The reason of his blessing lay in the augury which he acknowledged, and in the divine overruling impulse which he could not resist, not in any “commandment” in words.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

To bless, not by my own intention, or by that of Balac, but by God, who hath only suffered me to proceed on my journey, on condition that I would declare his will, chap. xxii. 35. (Haydock) --- Hebrew, "Behold, I have received an order to bless;" or, with the Septuagint, "I have been chosen to pronounce a blessing; I will bless, and will not revoke, or leave off." (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Or, I have received a blessing, to wit, a sentence of blessing, which God hath put into my mind and mouth, and which I cannot forbear to utter. Heb. I have received to bless. The infinitive put for the noun, as is frequent.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

I have received commandment to bless. The word "commandment "is not wanted here. Balaam had received, not instructions, but an inward revelation of the Divine will which he could not contravene.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

הנה ברך לקחתי BEHOLD, I HAVE RECEIVED COMMANDMENT TO BLESS — You ask me derisively, (v. 17) “What hath the Lord spoken”? I will tell you: I have received an order from Him to bless them.

וברך ולא אשיבנה AND HE HAS BLESSED AND I CANNOT REVERSE IT — “He” has blessed them, and “I” cannot reverse this blessing.

וברך — This is equivalent to וּבִרֵּךְ. This is the rule of the letter ר, as in (Psalms 74:18): “the enemy blasphemeth”, חֵרֵף like חִרֵּף; and similarly (Psalms 10:3): [ובצע בֵּרֵךְ [נאץ ה׳ (where בֵּרֵךְ is for בִּרֵּךְ), which means, He who praises and blesses the robber (בצע) and says, ‘Do not be afraid, for you will not be punished; peace will be unto you’, he angers (נאץ) God thereby (but see Rashi on this verse where another translation is given). — One cannot say that ברך is a noun, for if it were, it would be voweled in both syllables with Short Patach (our Segol), and its accent would be on the first syllable (בֶּרָךְ) because it is a verb in the Piel conjugation, it is voweled with Short Kametz (our Tzéré) on both syllables, and its accent is on the last syllable.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.