SEV Biblia, Chapter 22:17
porque sin duda te honraré mucho, y haré todo lo que me dijeres; ven, pues ahora, maldíceme a este pueblo.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 17. For I will promote thee unto very great honour , etc.] In his court, by making him some great officer there, perhaps his prime minister; so that as before he laid a bait for his covetousness, sending him large presents, and rewards of divination; here, for his pride and ambition, promising him court preferment; though Aben Ezra interprets it of mammon or riches, of which he could give him an immense sum: “in honouring I will exceedingly honour thee” f339 ; or load thee with wealth and riches; and so Balaam seems to understand it, since in his answer he says, “if Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold”; both civil honour and worldly wealth may be taken into the account, since they are both heavy and weighty things, and very desirable and ensnaring: and I will do whatsoever thou sayest unto me ; give him what money he should ask of him, put him into whatsoever place and office he should desire; and though he was a sovereign prince, would be at his beck and command, and do whatever he should direct him to do in his kingdom, as well as in what concerned the affair of cursing Israel; as we find he afterwards did, with respect to sacrifices and rites relative thereunto: come therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people ; renewing the request made in the first embassy with great importunity, ( Numbers 22:6) but using here a different word for “cursing”; there, as Munster observes, the word signifies to curse lightly; here, to blaspheme and utterly devote to ruin; to which may be added, to curse expressly and by name, to pierce through and through, to deprive of all benefits, and to destroy utterly.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 15-21 - A second embassy was sent to Balaam. It were well for us, if we were a earnest and constant in prosecuting a good work, notwithstandin disappointments. Balak laid a bait, not only for Balaam's covetousness but for his pride and ambition. How earnestly should we beg of God daily to mortify such desires in us! Thus sinners stick at no pains spare no cost, and care not how low they stoop, to gratify their luxury, or their malice. Shall we then be unwilling to do what is right? God forbid! Balaam's convictions charged him to keep to the command of God; nor could any man have spoken better. But many call God theirs, who are not his, not truly because not only his. There is n judging men by their words; God knows the heart. Balaam's corruption at the same time inclined him to go contrary to the command. He seeme to refuse the temptation; but he expressed no abhorrence of it. He ha a strong desire to accept the offer, and hoped that God might give his leave to go. He had already been told what the will of God was. It is certain evidence of the ruling of corruption in the heart, to beg leav to sin. God gave Balaam up to his own heart's lusts. As God sometime denies the prayers of his people in love, so sometimes he grants the desires of the wicked in wrath.
Original Hebrew
כי 3588 כבד 3513 אכבדך 3513 מאד 3966 וכל 3605 אשׁר 834 תאמר 559 אלי 413 אעשׂה 6213 ולכה 1980 נא 4994 קבה 6895 לי את 853 העם 5971 הזה׃ 2088
