Numbers 22:30 Explained in Context

Selected verse

Verse 30. And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto thee? And he said, Nay.

King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions

Role in This Section

Numbers 22:30 within “The Donkey Sees the Angel Balaam Cannot See,” advances the oracle through this image, blessing, curse reversal, or commission; in lightly modernized wording, the clause reads: the ass said to Balaam, Am not I your ass, upon which you have ridden ever since I was your to this day? was I ever wont to do so to you? And he said, Nay.

Read It With

Numbers 22:22–35

Read Numbers 22:30 with 22:22–35. It within “The Donkey Sees the Angel Balaam Cannot See,” advances the oracle through this image, blessing, curse reversal, or commission; in lightly modernized wording, the clause reads: the ass said to Balaam, Am not I your ass, upon which you have ridden ever since I was your to this day? was I ever wont to do so to you? And he said, Nay. The complete unit establishes this contextual meaning: Divine anger meets Balaam's journey; the donkey sees a sword-bearing angel three times and avoids him while Balaam strikes her, God opens the donkey's mouth, Balaam threatens violence, his eyes are opened, he confesses, and the angel repeats the speech limit.

Continue in Context

Read the complete section for the connected explanation and how it should shape life. This verse is a doorway into that passage, not a saying that stands alone.

Read Numbers 22:22–35 — The Donkey Sees the Angel Balaam Cannot See

Sources used for this context pointer

How certain is this explanation? strong

These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.

Biblical text

King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006

eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society

USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.

Supports: Exact reader-facing KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.

Exact location: Numbers 22:22–35, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus

Open source ↗

hebrew text and morphology

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Numbers

Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project

Open Scriptures, release 2.2, 2021

Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, numbers, speeches, poems, legal clauses, older-English controls, and translation limits.

Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Num.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 22:22–35

Open source ↗

Open the complete thought-unit research record