“I Will Bless Those Who Bless Israel” Isn’t in the Bible

The Real Story Behind the Verse Ted Cruz Couldn’t Cite

Last week, Tucker Carlson aired a long-form, must-see interview with Senator Ted Cruz. In it, Cruz—a sitting U.S. Senator who has received nearly $2 million in donations from AIPAC—couldn’t explain why AIPAC doesn’t have to register as a foreign lobby. He couldn’t name the population of Iran. And he couldn’t cite where in the Bible it says, "Those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse Israel will be cursed." A verse he uses as the reason he supports Israel politically.

But he quoted it anyway. Confidently. As if that settled everything.

I knew I heard the verse many times, and having read the Bible through several times, I felt like it was in there, but also couldn't place it. So I went looking. And things got interesting.

Turns out, that verse doesn’t even exist. Not like that, anyway.

There is no verse in the Bible that says, word-for-word, "Those who bless Israel will be blessed, and those who curse Israel will be cursed." Nor is there any verse, as Cruz claims, that uses “nation of Israel” in this context.

What we do have are two verses that come close. One is in Genesis 12:3, where God speaks to Abraham:

"I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."

This is a personal promise to Abraham, the beginning of a covenant that would shape the story of Israel and, ultimately, the Church. It is expansive, theological, cosmic in its scope. The other is in Numbers 24:9, uttered not by an Israelite prophet but by a pagan seer named Balaam to a people who at the time were a nomadic and stateless covenant community:

"Blessed is he who blesses you, and cursed is he who curses you."

Interestingly, only a few modern translations (like the NLT) insert the word "Israel" into that verse. The Hebrew text simply says "you," referring to Israel, but not naming it outright. So when Cruz (and many others) quote this as if it's a timeless and explicit command to bless the modern political state of Israel, they're actually quoting Balaam.

Let that sink in.

Balaam. A Moabite diviner. A prophet for hire. The man whose donkey had more spiritual discernment than he did.

The Whole Balaam Story

The story of Balaam spans Numbers 22 to 24, and it’s a strange one. Balak, king of Moab, sees Israel encamped nearby and fears their strength. So he sends for Balaam, a well-known pagan seer from Mesopotamia, to curse them. Balaam initially resists, claiming he can only say what God allows, but when a larger paycheck is offered, he agrees to go.

God permits Balaam to travel, but the journey is interrupted by a divine encounter: Balaam's donkey sees an angel blocking the road and refuses to move. After being beaten, the donkey miraculously speaks, revealing the danger to Balaam, who is then confronted by the angel himself.

What follows is a series of prophetic speeches. Balak sets up altars, expecting a curse, but Balaam blesses Israel each time. His final oracle includes that oft-quoted line:

"Blessed is he who blesses you, and cursed is he who curses you."

This is poetic repetition. It mirrors Genesis 12:3 and carries covenantal weight. But it is also spoken by a foreign prophet in a political context, hired to manipulate divine favor through ritual and payment. And notice this detail: Numbers 24:1 says, "Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, so he did not resort to divination as before."

That’s right. He had been using omens and divination. But in this moment, for reasons not fully explained, he doesn’t. And God speaks through him.

But the story doesn't end with blessings. Not long after Balaam's poetic proclamations, Israel falls into idolatry and sexual immorality with Moabite women. At first glance, it seems abrupt, almost unrelated. But then Numbers 31:16 fills in the backstory: Balaam was behind it. When he couldn't bring a curse from the outside, he offered counsel on how to make Israel implode from the inside. If divine favor couldn't be reversed, it could be undermined.

Balaam taught Balak that seduction would succeed where sorcery failed.

The seduction worked. The people who had just been exalted in divine poetry now found themselves entangled in spiritual compromise. Balaam didn’t swing a sword; he planted an idea. And that was enough. It made trusting Balaam easy. After all, he had blessed them. He had stood on a high place and declared their favor in front of their enemies. Who questions the prophet who proclaims your greatness? Who second-guesses the seer who says what you want to hear?

There is something seductive about that kind of blessing. It soothes. It reassures. It creates an illusion of inviolability, even when your downfall is near.

There’s something haunting about that. The same man who blessed Israel also engineered their demise. And maybe part of why it worked is because the blessing itself made them feel safe. Untouchable. As if divine favor could be claimed, no matter their choices.

Maybe it still works that way.

Eventually, Balaam is killed in battle (Numbers 31:8), a prophet who couldn't curse but still managed to corrupt. His legacy becomes a cautionary tale, not just about false prophets but about the danger of believing that blessing means invincibility.

A Cautionary Legacy

In the New Testament, Balaam becomes shorthand for corrupt religion:

• 2 Peter 2:15: "They have followed the way of Balaam, who loved the wages of wickedness."

• Jude 11: Warns against those who run greedily in Balaam’s error for profit.

• Revelation 2:14: Jesus rebukes the church in Pergamum for holding to the teaching of Balaam, who caused the Israelites to stumble.

Balaam was not an insider. He was a religious contractor, a mercenary of the sacred. And yet, it is his words that are so often quoted as divine mandate.

What Are We Really Quoting?

I find it both ironic and sobering that a blessing spoken by a man who later orchestrated Israel’s downfall is now used as a theological basis for uncritical political allegiance.

I understand the desire to defend Israel— ancient and modern. I understand the spiritual and cultural debts we owe to the Jewish people. But when we quote Balaam, we must remember who he was and what he became. His blessing was real, but so was his seduction.

This should give us pause.

Moreover, this phrasing only appears in two verses, both in the Torah. But it never appears again in the prophets or Psalms. One would think that if this verse were received as some sort of universal proclamation to which all nations must adhere, it would have appeared somewhere else in the Bible. But it doesn’t.

Maybe the lesson isn’t just about blessing Israel. Maybe it’s about being wary of voices that flatter for favor, of alliances that compromise integrity, and of the seductive pull of political religion.

The God of Abraham is not for hire. And neither is the truth.