Numbers 22:1

And the children of Israel set forward,.... From the country of Bashan, where we read of them last, after they had conquered Og the king of it, and also Sihon king of the Amorites, and settled some

And the children of Israel set forward, and pitched in the plains of Moab on this side Jordan by Jericho. The children of Israel set forward . The starting-point was Ije-Abarim 21:10; 33:48), on the Moabitish frontier.

NUMBERS CHAPTER 22 The Israelites pitch in the plains of Moab, . Balak the king sends for Balaam to curse Israel, . He inquires of the Lord, who forbids him to go: he goes not, . Balak sends again: the Lord permits Balaam to go, . An angel stands in the way; which his ass perceives: his eyes are at length opened to see the angel, who rebukes him, . He confesses his fault, and offers to go back; He is commanded to go on, and speak as should be revealed to him, ,35. Balak comes to meet him; receives him; expostulates with him; he declares he has no power but to speak the word which God should put into his mouth, . The plains of Moab still retained their ancient title, though they had been taken away from the Moabites by Sihon, and from him by the Israelites. By Jericho, i.e. over against Jericho; or, near the passage over Jordan to Jericho, or its territories.

Numbers 22:1 And the children of Israel set forward, and pitched in the plains of Moab on this side Jordan [by] Jericho.Ver. 1. In the plains of Moab.] Once of Moab, then of the Amorites, now of the Israelites. Lands and lordships often change masters; Adeo nihil certi est in rebus humanis, &c. In the greatness of the Turkish empire is at this day swallowed up the name and empire of the Saracens, the most glorious empire of the Greeks, the renowned kingdoms of Macedonia, Peloponnesus, Epirus, Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia, Armenia, Cyprus, Syria, Egypt, Judea, Tunis, Algiers, Media, Mesopotamia, with a great part of Hungary, as also of the Persian kingdom, and, besides all those famous Churches spoken of in Scripture, so much in Christendom, as far exceedeth that which is thereof at this day left; yet, no doubt, time shall triumph over this so great a monarchy, when it shall but then live by fame as others now do. It laboureth with nothing more already than with the weightiness of itself. Turk. Hist., Preface.

XXII.(1) In the plains of Moab.—The Arboth Moab extended from Beth Jeshimoth (the house of wastes) to Abel Shittim (the meadow of acacias) (Numbers 33:49), in the upper Arabah, the present Ghor. These plains had belonged to Moab, and, since the victory over the Amorites, were possessed by the Israelites. On this side Jordan.—Better, alongside of the Jordan. It cannot be determined, from the use of the word eher, or me-eber, to which side of the Jordan reference is made. (See Numbers 32:19, where me-eber occurs twice, and is rendered in the Authorised Version on yonder side in the first case, and on this side in the second case. See Deuteronomy 1:1, and Note, and Isaiah 9:1, where Galilee is described by Isaiah as “beyond Jordan.”)

CHAPTER XXII The Israelites pitch in the plains of Moab, 1. Balak, king of Moab, is greatly terrified, 2-4; and sends to Balaam, a diviner, to come and curse them, 5, 6. The elders of Moab take a reward and carry it to Balaam, 7. He inquires of the Lord, and is positively ordered not to go with them, 8-12. He communicates this to the elders of Moab, 13. They return to Balak with this information, 14. He sends some of his princes to Balaam with promises of great honour, 15-17. He consults God, and is permitted! to go, on certain conditions, 18-20. Balaam sets off, is opposed by an angel of the Lord, and the Lord miraculously opens the mouth of his ass to reprove him, 21-30. Balaam sees the angel, and is reproved by him, 31-33. He humbles himself, and offers to go back, 34; but is ordered to proceed, on the same conditions as before, 35. The king of Moab goes out to meet him, 36. His address to him, 37. Balaam's firm answer, 38. Balak sacrifices, and takes Balaam to the high places of Baal, that he may see the whole of the Israelitish camp, 39-41. NOTES ON CHAP. XXII Verse 1. And pitched in the plains of Moab] They had taken no part of the country that at present appertained to the Moabites; they had taken only that part which had formerly belonged to this people, but had been taken from them by Sihon, king of the Amorites. On this side Jordan] On the east side. By Jericho, that is, over against it.

Numbers 22:1. The verse appears to be the continuation of P’s itinerary in Numbers 21:10-11; cf. Numbers 33:48. the steppes of Moab] A term, peculiar to P , which denotes the open plain, immediately to the north of the Dead Sea, about 9 miles from north to south and from 5 to 7 miles broad. The similar plain on the west of Jordan is named ‘the steppes of Jericho’ (Joshua 4:13; Joshua 5:10). on the other side of the Jordan] i.e. on the east. The expression is from the point of view of a writer in Palestine. the Jordan at Jericho] lit. ‘the Jordan of Jericho,’ i.e. that portion of the river which flows by the town. Cf. ‘the waters of Megiddo’ (Judges 5:19). Numbers 22:2-24. The story of Balaam . The narratives of J and E are, to a large extent, so closely interwoven that it is difficult to separate them. But in certain portions the differences between them stand out clearly, and will be indicated in the notes. An approximate analysis is as follows:— E . Numbers 22:2-3 a, Numbers 22:5 a (to ‘River’), Numbers 22:8-10; Numbers 22:12-16; Numbers 22:19-21; Numbers 22:35-41. J . Numbers 22:3 b, Numbers 22:4, Numbers 22:5 b – Numbers 22:7; Numbers 22:11; Numbers 22:17-18; Numbers 22:22-34. The object of this well-known narrative is to illustrate the all-important thought ‘if God be for us who can be against us?’ Jehovah holds Israel under His protection, and therefore provides that they shall receive a blessing and not a curse. Pharaoh’s obstinacy in opposing Jehovah in Egypt is paralleled, at the end of the journeyings, by the obstinacy of Balak, and the result is that the divine curse falls upon Moab (Numbers 24:17) among other foes of Israel. A further interest in the story is the character of Balaam, which, however, has sometimes been allowed such undue prominence as to throw into the shade the real religious import of the narrative. His character has been very variously estimated according as one or another feature in the narrative is emphasized; see e.g. Stanley, Jewish Church, and Lock in J.Th.S. ii. 161–3. This variety of estimate results from the fact that the narrative is not homogeneous. In E , so far as it has been preserved, no blame attaches to his character. It is true that in J (Numbers 22:5 b – Numbers 22:7; Numbers 22:11; Numbers 22:17-18) Balak expects him to do the work of a prophet for money, but this did not necessarily imply avarice; it was a not uncommon feature of early Israelite life; Samuel (1 Samuel 9:8), Ahijah (1 Kings 14:3), Elisha (2 Kings 8:8 f.) and Amos (Amos 7:12) were expected to do the same. [Note: Amos’ reply to Amaziah (Amos 7:14) shews that the great prophets of Israel rose superior to the practice of the earlier ‘sons of the prophets’; he had never been one who would ‘eat bread’ by prophesying.

The plains - Hebrew ערבה ‛ărābâh; the word is the plural of that which is used to denote the whole depressed tract along the Jordan and the Dead Sea, and onward, where it is still called the

1. The plains of Moab are a narrow strip of land, scarcely six miles in breadth, lying along the eastern bank of the Jordan, opposite to the plains of Jericho.