“Put a curse on this people”
So please come now and put a curse on this people, because they are too mighty for me… for I know that those you bless are blessed, and those you curse are cursed. (Numbers 22:6 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A superstitious king asking a magician to jinx his enemies.
The cultural key
The scene rests on a belief that pervaded the ancient world: that words of blessing and cursing, spoken by the right person with the right rituals, carried real power to bind, harm, or empower; they did not merely express a wish but were thought to unleash a force. Kings therefore hired renowned seers and diviners to curse their enemies before battle, believing a potent curse could weaken an army as surely as a weapon. Balak, king of Moab, terrified by Israel, does exactly this: he sends for Balaam, an internationally famous prophet-for-hire, precisely because 'those you curse are cursed', Balaam's word was reputed to work. The irony that drives the whole story is that the LORD commandeers this pagan curse-machine and forces Balaam, again and again, to pronounce blessing on Israel instead, proving that no hired curse can touch a people God has blessed. A modern reader sees silly superstition; the first hearers understood a real and feared power being turned on its head.
Recovered meaning
Balak hires the seer Balaam because the ancient world believed a professional's spoken curse had real power to defeat an enemy. The story's irony is that God seizes the pagan curse-for-hire and turns it into blessing on Israel.