Numbers 23:8
Good News Translation
How can I curse what God has not cursed, Or speak of doom when the LORD has not?

New Revised Standard Version
How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce those whom the LORD has not denounced?

Contemporary English Version
But I can't go against God! He did not curse or condemn Israel. *

New American Bible
How can I lay a curse on the one whom God has not cursed? How denounce the one whom the LORD has not denounced?

Douay-Rheims Bible
How shall I curse him, whom God hath not cursed? By what means should I detest him, whom the Lord detesteth not?

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

How shall I curse him, whom God hath not cursed? By what means should I detest him, whom the Lord detesteth not?

Numbers 23:20,23 I was brought to bless, the blessing I am not able to hinder. . . .

Isaiah 44:25 That make void the tokens of diviners, and make the soothsayers mad. That turn the wise backward, and that make their knowledge foolish.

Isaiah 47:12,13 Stand now with thy enchanters, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, in which thou hast laboured from thy youth, if so be it may profit thee any thing, or if thou mayst become stronger. . . .

Context
Balaam's First Oracle
7And taking up his parable, he said: Balac king of the Moabites hath brought me from Aram, from the mountains of the east: Come, said he, and curse Jacob: make haste and detest Israel. 8How shall I curse him, whom God hath not cursed? By what means should I detest him, whom the Lord detesteth not?9I shall see him from the tops of the rocks, and shall consider him from the hills. This people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.…
Cross References
Numbers 22:6
Come therefore, and curse this people, because it is mightier than I: if by any means I may beat them and drive them out of my land: for I know that he whom thou shalt bless is blessed, and he whom thou shalt curse is cursed.

Numbers 22:12
And God said to Balaam: Thou shalt not go with them, nor shalt thou curse the people: because it is blessed.

Numbers 23:7
And taking up his parable, he said: Balac king of the Moabites hath brought me from Aram, from the mountains of the east: Come, said he, and curse Jacob: make haste and detest Israel.

Proverbs 26:2
As a bird flying to other places, and a sparrow going here or there: so a curse uttered without cause shall come upon a man.

Numbers 23:7
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