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.
Come ... curse me this people. Among the pagan an opinion prevailed that prayers for evil, or curses, would be heard by the unseen powers as well as prayers for good, when offered by a prophet or priest, and accompanied by the use of certain rites, (Brucker, 'Hist. Phil.,' tom. 1:, p. 108; 'Heliogab.,' cap. 9:) Many examples are found in the histories of the Greeks and Romans of whole armies being devoted to destruction. Similar instances occur among the natives of India and other pagan countries still. In the Burmese war, magicians were employed to curse the British troops.
For I wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed. It might be that the king of Moab had personal experience of the successful results of Balaam's incantations; or the confidence with which he spoke might have arisen from the high reputation of Balaam's powers. We, of course, cannot suppose for a moment that the magical arts of this man, however eminent his skill, could be possessed of any real efficacy. But among a superstitious people, who believed in their mystic virtues, his presence and professional services would produce a marvelous effect in animating or depressing them; and as the minds of the Israelites must have been open to the prevailing impression, the knowledge of Balaam's anathemas being denounced against them would have exercised so dispiriting and baneful an influence, that it is easy to account for the circumstance of God's overruling the conduct of Balaam being always represented in Scripture as a great deliverance (Deuteronomy 23:5; Joshua 24:10; Nehemiah 13:2; Micah 6:5).