And now, please come, curse this people for me, for it is mightier than I; perhaps I will be able to strike it and drive it from the land; for I know that whom you bless is blessed, and whom you curse is cursed.
Midrash Tanchuma Balak 4 (via Rashi) — “nakkeh-bo” as reducing their number; Balak’s knowledge from Sichon’s war.
English: “We may smite them” — I and my people may smite them. Another reading: a Mishnaic expression, “he deducts from the price” — to reduce them a little. “For I know” — through the war of Sichon, for you assisted him to smite Moav.
Lexical and historical midrash on Balak’s request.
Balak does not claim total destruction at once — he seeks even a partial reduction; his confidence in Bilam rests on prior collaboration against Moav.