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?
We have here the conclusion of this vain attempt to curse Israel, and the total abandonment of it. 1. Balak made the worst of it. He broke out into a rage against Balaam (Num 24:10), expressed both in words and gesture the highest degree of vexation at the disappointment; he smote his hands together, for indignation, to see all his measures thus broken, and his project baffled.
Commenting on Numbers 24:10-14
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...
Num 24:12-14 But Balaam reminds him, on the other hand, of the declaration which he made to the messengers at the very outset (Num 22:18), that he could not on any account speak in opposition to the command of Jehovah, and then adds, “And now, behold, I go to my people.
Commenting on Numbers 24:12-14