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		Always Being Ready     Hukkat/Balak   (Num 19:1 - 25:9)

B'Midbar/Numbers 23:20   Behold! To bless I have taken; and He has blessed and I cannot make it turn back.

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Making a theatrical pause as he starts his second oracle, Bil'am addresses King Balak of Moab: "Listen up now, Balak; pay attention to what I say!" He then counts slowly to ten, to twelve, no, to fifteen under his breath and then delivers two critical verses that underpin all four of the oracles he will end up speaking. He has already spoken once to bless Israel, much to his sponsor's disgust. Hired by Balak to curse Israel, to weaken them by sorcery so that the Moabites could defeat them, Bil'am now realises - despite his earnest desire to earn his fee - that The Name ...

HaShem: literally, Hebrew for 'The Name' - an allusion used to avoid pronouncing the Tetragrammaton, the so-called 'ineffable' name of G–d
HaShem has already spoken and blessed His people: he can do nothing about it. After the first location and set of seven bulls and rams on seven altars produced the first blessing, Balak took Bil'am to a second position, to see if an alternative view of Israel would make a difference. Another seven bulls and rams on a new set of seven altars and Bil'am receives a second word from HaShem.

What are these two critical verses and what do they say? The first, verse 19, is a dramatic statement of HaShem's character and constancy: "G-d is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent; has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" (B'Midbar 23:19, NASB). Using the name אֵל, Eyl, a shortened form of אֱלֹהִים, Elohim, since Balak will not know the tetragrammaton covenant name of the Almighty, Bil'am's words rebuke the Moabite king for his presumption in thinking that HaShem can be manipulated or controlled as if He were just a man; He always speaks truth and always fulfils His words. The second is our text, verse 20, where Bil'am declares his complete inability to change or alter that in any way; he has been assigned a mission - to voice HaShem's blessing - and can do no more or less than that.

Our text starts with the interjection הִנֵּה, usually translated 'behold' or 'look', to gain the attention of his hearer. בָרֵךְ is the Pi'el infinitive of the root ברך, to bless and is here used as the purpose of the following verb. לָקָחִתִּי is the Qal 1cs affix form of the root לקח, to take, but seems at first glance to be wrong, with a strange translation, "I have taken to bless". Several commentators re-point the consonants to לֻקָּחְתִּי, a form not used elsewhere in Tanakh, that would be the Pu'al 1cs affix, "I have been taken", which would allow the phrase to be rendered as "I have been taken to bless", for the purpose of blessing. Similarly, other commentators suggest the meaning of the root can be read as "I have received". Both of these ideas cast Bil'am in a passive role - woodenly following a script over which he has no control - but the What Is ...

The Masoretic Text: The traditional Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible, defining not just the text but also the books and order of the Jewish canon; generated in the 8^th-9^th centuries by a group of Jewish scholars known as the Masoretes, by adding vowel and cantilation markings to the extant consonantal text stable since 2^nd Temple times; also known as the Ben Asher text after Aaron ben Moshe ben Asher who devised in the early 900s CE the marking scheme that is still used today
Masoretic Text pointing makes him an actor with agency: he has agreed to act as HaShem's mouth, he has willingly taken on the mission of bringing HaShem's words to the Moabite king. Who Is ...

The Rashbam: Rabbi Samuel ben Asher (1085-1174 CE), a grandson of Rashi; lived in Northern France; worked from the plain meaning of the Hebrew text even when this contradicted established rabbinic interpretaton
Rashbam, for example, rewords Bil'am first phrase as "I have accepted that I am to bless them today". Who Is ...

Rashi: Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (1040-1105 CE), French rabbi who wrote commentaries on the Torah, the Prophets and the Talmud, lived in Troyes where he founded a yeshiva in 1067; focuses on the plain meaning (p'shat) of the text, although sometimes quite cryptic in his brevity
Rashi proposes, "I received from HaShem a command to bless them".

Looking at the second phrase in the verse, וּבֵרֵךְ is the Pi'el 3ms affix form of the root ברך, with a vav conjunction, "and He has blessed". The Who Is ...

Sforno: Rabbi Ovadiah Sforno (1470-1550 CE), Italian rabbi, philosopher and physician; born in Cesena, he went to Rome to study medicine; left in 1525 and after some years of travel, settled in Bologna where he founded a yeshiva which he conducted until his death
Sforno comments, "He has already blessed"; this is not a future statement or aspiration to bless Israel, HaShem has already done it. The final two words, וְלֹא אֲשִׁיבֶנָּה, are a conjunction and the negative particle, "and not" and the Hifil 1cs prefix form of the root שׁוב, to turn or return, with a nunnated 3fs object pronoun referring to HaShem's word of blessing: "I cannot make it turn back". We can see the prophets using שׁוב in the same way. Isaiah says, "Also henceforth I am He; there is none who can deliver from My hand; I work, and who can ישִׁיבֶנָּה turn it back?" (Isaiah 43:13, ESV>); similarly, Amos uses it multiple times in the judgement formula that starts his writings: "Thus said the L-RD: For three transgressions of Damascus, for four, לֹא אֲשִׁיבֶנּוּ I will not revoke it" (Amos 1:3,6, etc., NJPS).

Who Is ...

Abraham Ibn Ezra: (1089-1167 CE), born in Tudela, Spain; died in the South of France after wandering all around the shores of the Mediterranean and England; a philosopher, astronomer, doctor, poet and linguist; wrote a Hebrew grammar and a commentary on the Bible
Ibn Ezra comments on the affix/prefix sequence, "He has blessed and I will not reverse it." Rabbi Who Is ...

Hirsch: Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888 CE), German rabbi, author and educator; staunch opponent of the Reform movement in Germany and one of the fathers of Orthodox Judaism
Hirsch summarises: "I have received the mission to bless ... my mouth only expresses what He has already done; I can do nothing to alter that." That is the truth that underlies all of Bil'am's words; it doesn't matter how many altars Balak builds, how many bulls and sheep are offered or the number of venues in which he tries to get Bil'am to curse Israel; it simply isn't going to happen! HaShem will not allow a curse to be spoken over Israel in His name, because it isn't the truth. As the Who Is ...

Ramban: Rabbi Moshe ben Nachman Girondi or Nachmanides (born in Gerona, 1194; died in Israel 1270), Spanish rabbi, author and physician; defended Judaism in the Christian debates in Barcelona before making aliyah
Ramban explains, "[Israel's] confidence in G-d is not false confidence and their hope in Him will not disappoint them. No, their blessings will stand for all time." Can we hear an echo of a blessing incident in the past? Although acknowledging that the wording is different, so it cannot be an exact echo, Stephen Sherwood asks, "Is this an echo of Yitz'khak's words to Esau that the blessing given to Ya'akov cannot be withdrawn, "Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed - Behold, I have made him lord over you, and all his brothers I have given to him for servants, and with grain and wine I have sustained him. What then can I do for you, my son?" (B'resheet 27:33,37, ESV)?¹

Stepping back from the text a little, Dennis Cole writes that "G-d's blessing is so powerful and irrevocable that even the most renowned divination expert of the day could not counter its effectiveness. Only G-d could rescind His blessing upon Israel, and He would not because such an act would violate His character."FootNoteRef2) We must be drawn to Rav Sha'ul's letter to the Romans where he has been teaching them that HaShem has not finished with Israel. He is in covenant relationship with His ancient people and very explicitly lays down the conditions under which that covenant can be set aside: "If the heavens above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth below can be explored, then I will cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the L-RD" (Jeremiah 31:37, ESV). Otherwise, the covenant is as fast and secure as the order of creation: only if creation is set aside and fails will the covenant with Israel fail. That is why, Sha'ul says, "For the gifts and the calling of G-d are irrevocable" (Romans 11:29, ESV). irrevocable: adjective, not able to be changed, reversed or recovered; final (Oxford Dictionary of English). No matter what Israel does - and this doesn't give a free pass to every individual Jew to do whatever they want without consequences and responsibility - Israel as a nation will always exist before HaShem; He will never surrender!

Yeshua spoke to the disciples about the importance of blessing. While it seems natural to bless your friends and family, Yeshua says that we must go further: "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you" (Luke 6:27-28, ESV). Calling down the Father's blessing upon one's enemies is what the children of G-d do, because that is what He does: "For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust" (Matthew 5:45, ESV). Rav Sha'ul echoes that - "Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them" (Romans 12:14, ESV) - and emphasises the difference between blessing and cursing. However human it may be and however badly we are treated, we are to bless and not to curse. Sha'ul put this into practice at the sharp end of his own ministry: "When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure" (1 Corinthians 4:12, ESV). This was part of his walk as an ambassador for the kingdom of G-d: whether hungry or thirsty, doing hard manual work, being spoken ill of, or without a roof over his head, he and his team would pray for and actively seek G-d's blessing for those around them, including those who stood against or opposed them.

We, then, must always be ready to bless others, by our words and actions being a blessing to them. We may not understand the situations in which we find ourselves; we may not see the motives of all the actors around us; we are simply called to bless. How do we do this? Firstly, by prayer: we pray for Yeshua to speak to them and bless them, to offer them His personal invitation to become one of His followers; we pray for the Spirit to work in their hearts - not to relieve us, but to open a conversation with Him - and we ask the Father to bless them with life and sustenance, granting them favour and showing them His grace that they may become aware of His existence and respond to Him. Secondly, by our words: we speak pleasantly to them, answering their questions and verbally speaking out blessing into their lives. Of course, in a modern age, we must be aware of boundaries for appropriate behaviour, so that we do not sin or cause them to sin; we cannot lie, to them or about them. When words fail you, try using the Aharonic blessing by which the priests were to place HaShem's name on His people: "The L-RD bless you and protect you! The L-RD deal kindly and graciously with you! The L-RD bestow His favor upon you and grant you peace!" (B'Midbar 6:24-26, NJPS).

As we bless, always being ready to speak words of blessing, "Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweet to the palate and a cure for the body" (Proverbs 16:24, NJPS), we share the kingdom of G-d even with those who don't think they want to hear, increasing the knowledge of G-d and hastening the time when "the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the L-RD as the waters cover the sea" (Habakkuk 2:14).

1. - Stephen Sherwood, Berit Olam: Studies in Hebrew Narrative and Poetry - Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2002), page 179.

2. - R. Dennis Cole, Numbers The New American Commentary, (Nashville, TN: B&H Publishing Group, 2000), page 411.

Further Study: Proverbs 11:24-25; Ephesians 1:3-4; 1 Peter 3:9

Application: How can you find a word of blessing to share today in response to the love that G-d has given us through Yeshua, His Son? Ask Him to nudge you and give you an opportunity to speak out His words of blessing in an unexpected encounter or context today.

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© Jonathan Allen, 2026

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