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Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people; for they are too mighty for me: peradventure I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land: for I wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed.
And the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the rewards of divination in their hand; and they came unto Balaam, and spake unto him the words of Balak.
And he said unto them, Lodge here this night, and I will bring you word again, as the LORD shall speak unto me: and the princes of Moab abode with Balaam.

New Defender's Study Bible Notes

22:6 curse me this people. It is remarkable that a text of curses actually written by “Balaam son of Beor” has been found in Jordan, about twenty-five miles north of the area where Balaam was brought to curse Israel. It was preserved written in ink on fragments of plaster from a building wall, probably destroyed in the earthquake at the time of Uzziah (Amos 1:1). The text has the title Warnings from the Book of Balaam, a Seer of the Gods, and is written in Aramaic.


22:6 too mighty for me. The king of Moab had previously lost some of his kingdom to Sihon and the Amorites, yet the Amorites had been decimated by the Israelites (Numbers 21:24-26), and so had their sister kingdom of Bashan. No wonder Balak was fearful, deciding he would need supernatural help to survive.


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