Joshua 13:22

Balaam also, the son of Beor the soothsayer, did the children of Israel slay with the sword,.... At the same time that the princes of Midian were slain, and which is also observed, [See comments on Numbers 31:8].

Balaam also the son of Beor, the soothsayer, did the children of Israel slay with the sword among them that were slain by them.

The soothsayer; so he was in truth, though a prophet in title and profession. See .

Joshua 13:22 Balaam also the son of Beor, the soothsayer, did the children of Israel slay with the sword among them that were slain by them.Ver. 22. Balaam also the son of Beor.] The spellman of Satan: though by his words he might seem a friend to Israel, yet was he worthily cut off by them for his wicked counsel. So shall all such perish as "turn aside, like Balaam, unto their crooked ways: but peace shall be upon Israel." See Judges 1:11.

OF THE BY MOSES ON THE EAST OF JORDAN (Joshua 13:15-33). (15) Reuben.—See also Numbers 32:33-42 and Deuteronomy 3:16, &c.

22. Balaam also] The mention of these “vassals of Sihon” leads the historian to record also at this point the death of Balaam, which took place at the same time as that of these vassals (Numbers 31:8). He is here called a “soothsayer” (kosem); “the fals divynor” (Wyclif); like (a) the diviners of the Philistines (1 Samuel 6:2), and (b) the necromancers (1 Samuel 28:8-9) whom Saul had “cut off.” The late Professor Blunt has drawn attention to the fact that (a) in the original mission to Balaam, the elders of Midian were concerned as much as the elders of Moab (Numbers 22:7); that all mention of Midian is then dropped, and “the princes of Balak” and “the servants of Balak” are the titles given to the messengers, and in the prophet’s fruitless struggle to curse the people whom God had blessed, Balak and the Moabites engrossed all his attention. (b) Balaam then disappears, on his way apparently to his own country, Pethor in Mesopotamia (Numbers 24:25), while the historian pursues his narrative through several long chapters, which are taken up with entirely different matter. (c) Then comes an account of an attack made upon the Midianites in revenge for their having seduced the people of Israel by the wiles of their women, at the close of which we find a notice that “Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword” (Numbers 31:8). (d) It seems, then, that the Prophet did not after all immediately return to Mesopotamia, but paid a visit to the Midianites, who were equally concerned in bringing him where he was, and there suggested the enticements of the licentious orgies of Baal-Peor, into which Israel fell. But his stay was unseasonably protracted, and Moses coming upon the Midianites slew them and him together. (e) Here an undesigned coincidence lies (a) in the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian going to Balaam; (b) in Midian being then mentioned no more, while Balaam having been sent away from Moab, apparently that he might go home, is subsequently found a corpse amongst the slaughtered Midianites. See Blunt’s Undesigned Coincidences, pp. 86, 87.

22. Balaam… the soothsayer — A Syrian prophet and diviner whom Balak hired to curse Israel, but whose curses were supernaturally turned to blessings in his mouth. His history and oracles are detailed in Numbers 22-24.