Numbers 22

Nu. 22. 1 And the children of Israel journeyed, and pitched in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan at Jericho. 2 And Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites. And Moab was 3 sore afraid of the people, because they were many : and Moab was distressed because of the 4 children of Israel. And Moab said unto the elders of Midian, Now shall this multitude lick up all that is round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field. And Balak the son 5 of Zippor was king of Moab at that time. And he sent messengers unto Balaam the son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the River, to the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying, Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt : behold, they cover the face of the 6 earth, and they abide over against me : come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people ; for they are too mighty for me : peradventure I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land : for I know that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and 7 he whom thou cursest is cursed. And the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the rewards of divination in their hand ; and they came unto Balaam, and spake unto 8 him the words of Balak. And he said unto them, Lodge here this night, and I will bring you word again, as the LORD shall speak unto me : and the princes of Moab abode with Balaam. 9 And God came unto Balaam, and said, What men are these with thee ? And Balaam said unto 10 God, Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, hath sent unto me, saying, Behold, the people 11 that is come out of Egypt, it covereth the face of the earth : now, come curse me them ; per- 12 adventure I shall be able to fight against them, and shall drive them out. And God said unto Balaam, Thou shalt not go with them ; thou shalt not curse the people : for they are blessed. 13 And Balaam rose up in the morning, and said unto the princes of Balak, Get you into your 14 land : for the LORD refuseth to give me leave to go with you. And the princes of Moab rose 15 up, and they went unto Balak, and said, Balaam refuseth to come with us. And Balak sent

16 yet again princes, more, and more honourable than they. And they came to Balaam, and said to him, Thus saith Balak the son of Zippor, Let nothing, I pray thee, hinder thee from coming 17 unto me : for I will promote thee unto very great honour, and whatsoever thou sayest unto 18 me I will do : come therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people. And Balaam answered and said unto the servants of Balak, If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I 19 cannot go beyond the word of the LORD my God, to do less or more. Now therefore, I pray you, tarry ye also here this night, that I may know what the LORD will speak unto me more. 20 And God came unto Balaam at night, and said unto him, If the men be come to call thee, rise 21 up, go with them ; but only the word which I speak unto thee, that shalt thou do. And 22 Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with the princes of Moab. And God’s anger was kindled because he went : and the angel of the LORD placed himself in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants 23 were with him. And the ass saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, with his sword drawn in his hand : and the ass turned aside out of the way, and went into the field : and 24 Balaam smote the ass, to turn her into the way. Then the angel of the LORD stood in a hol- 25 low way between the vineyards, a fence being on this side, and a fence on that side. And the ass saw the angel of the LORD, and she thrust herself unto the wall, and crushed Balaam’s foot 26 against the wall : and he smote her again. And the angel of the LORD went further, and 27 stood in a narrow place, where was no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left. And the ass saw the angel of the LORD, and she lay down under Balaam : and Balaam’s anger was 28 kindled, and he smote the ass with his staff. And the LORD opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three 29 times ? And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me : I would there were a 30 sword in mine hand, for now I had killed thee. And the ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden all thy life long unto this day ? was I ever wont to do 31 so unto thee ? And he said, Nay. Then the LORD opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the LORD standing in the way, with his sword drawn in his hand : and he bowed 32 his head, and fell on his face. And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times ? behold, I am come forth for an adversary, because thy 33 way is perverse before me : and the ass saw me, and turned aside before me these three times : unless she had turned aside from me, surely now I had even slain thee, and saved her alive. 34 And Balaam said unto the angel of the LORD, I have sinned ; for I knew not that thou stoodest 35 in the way against me : now therefore, if it displease thee, I will get me back again. And the angel of the LORD said unto Balaam, Go with the men : but only the word that I shall speak 36 unto thee, that thou shalt speak. So Balaam went with the princes of Balak. And when Balak heard that Balaam was come, he went out to meet him unto the City of Moab, which is 37 on the border of Arnon, which is in the utmost part of the border. And Balak said unto Balaam, Did I not earnestly send unto thee to call thee ? wherefore camest thou not unto me ? 38 am I not able indeed to promote thee to honour ? And Balaam said unto Balak, Lo, I am come unto thee : have I now any power at all to speak any thing ? the word that God putteth 39 in my mouth, that shall I speak. And Balaam went with Balak, and they came unto Kiriath- 40 huzoth. And Balak sacrificed oxen and sheep, and sent to Balaam, and to the princes that 41 were with him. And it came to pass in the morning, that Balak took Balaam, and brought him 42 up into the high places of Baal, and he saw from thence the utmost part of the people. And Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks and 43 seven rams. And Balak did as Balaam had spoken ; and Balak and Balaam offered on every 44 altar a bullock and a ram. And Balaam said unto Balak, Stand by thy burnt offering, and I will go ; peradventure the LORD will come to meet me : and whatsoever he sheweth me I will 45 tell thee. And he went to a bare height. And God met Balaam : and he said unto him, I 46 have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered up a bullock and a ram on every altar. And the LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, Return unto Balak, and thus thou shalt 47 speak. And he returned unto him, and, lo, he stood by his burnt offering, he, and all the 48 princes of Moab. And he took up his parable, and said, 49 From Aram hath Balak brought me, the king of Moab from the mountains of the East : 50 Come, curse me Jacob, and come, defy Israel. 51 How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed ? and how shall I defy, whom the LORD hath not defied ?

9. For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: Lo, it is a people that dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. 10 Who can count the dust of Jacob, or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!

22: 1. With the decisive victories over Sihon and over Og, all who could have barred access to the Land of Promise had been either left behind, or else scattered and defeated. And now the camp of Israel had moved forward to “the other side Jordan from Jericho.” Their tents were pitched in rich meadow-land, watered by many streams which rush down from the neighboring mountains—the Arboth or lowlands of Moab, as the country on this and that side the river was still called, after its more ancient inhabitants. The vast camp lay scattered over a width of several miles, from Abel-Shittim, “the meadow of the acacias,” in the north, to Beth-Jeshimoth, “the house of desolations.” A. E.

The plains. Heb. Araboth; 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 Arabah, to the Elanitie Gulf. Near the mouth of the Jordan this tract is about eleven miles across, a breadth of from four to five miles being on the eastern bank. The space occupied by the Israelitish camp consisted, in the main, of a large and luxuriant oasis upon this bank, slightly raised above the barren flat, sultry because sheltered by the Perasan hills which bear up the fertile plateau above, and watered by the brooks which, descending from those hills, run westward across the plain into the Jordan. It commenced on the south at Beth-Jeshimoth, “house of the wastes,” close to the Dead Sea: thence it covered the sites of the future cities Beth-ram and Beth-haran, and terminated northward at Abel-Shittim, the “acacia meadow.” Espin.

The overthrow of the Amorites opened the way for the march of the Israelites to “the plains of Moab,” where they remained encamped during all the subsequent transactions until they passed the Jordan into the promised land. These plains are formed by a narrow strip of land, scarcely two leagues in breadth, lying along the eastern banks of the Jordan, opposite to the plains of Jericho. The Dead Sea lies to the south of it, Mount Pisgah on the southeast, and the mountains on the east; and toward the north, losing its specific name, this plain continues as “the valley of the Jordan,” even to the Sea of Tiberias. This plain, with that of Jericho on the opposite side, form together, in fact, an expansion of the valley of the Jordan. Kt.

3. And Moab was sore afraid.** The Israelites had entirely routed and ruined Sihon King of the Amorites, and Og King of Bashan, taking possession of their lands; and they had done it with such despatch and in so surprising a manner, that the neighboring nations had reason to suspect there was something supernatural in it. It seems to have been owing to some such apprehension that none of them durst oppose the Hebrews without endeavoring first to engage heaven on their side, which they hoped to do by the help of enchantments. The Midianites and Moabites were both of them full of this persuasion, as we learn from this chapter; and we find from other places of Scripture that the Ammonites joined with them in the design of sending to Balaam (De. 23: 3, 4). Waterland.

4. Midian.** It is manifest from Scripture that there were two regions called Midian. The inhabitants of the one were at first of the Cushite race, and their situation was upon the Red Sea; they were the people to whom Moses betook himself when he fled from Egypt, and among whom he resided forty years. The other Midian was to the north, on the river Arnon, and in the vicinity of Moab. The natives were of the family of Abraham by Keturah, and bordered on the upper part of Edom; being allied to the Edomites, as well as to the children of Moab, by the ties of consanguinity. Their situation may be known from the correspondence which they kept up with the Israelites when the latter were encamped in the plains of Moab, near the rivers Jordan and Arnon. Bryant.

5. The exact situation of Pethor is uncertain. Balaam came “from the mountains of the east”—i.e., from Aram or from Mesopotamia; and Pethor therefore cannot be placed very far down the river. No better centre could be found for influencing alike the Arabian tribes on the east and the Aramaic tribes on the west bank of the great river. Espin.

King Balak does not venture to attack the Israelites, but he has recourse to a genuine heathen means of defence. He hires, for a great sum, a celebrated soothsayer to curse Israel. The person and the history of this man are in every point of view remarkable, and full of strange inconsistencies. Gurl.—When all helps fail Moab, the magician is sought to. It is a sign of a desperate cause, to make Satan either our counsellor or our refuge. Why did they not send to Balaam to bless themselves, rather than to curse Israel? It had been more easy to be defended from the hurt of their enemies, than to have their enemies laid open to be hurt by them. Bp. H.

Few characters stand forth from the page of Holy Scripture with such sombre magnificence as that of the prophet Balaam. A Gentile yet a Seer, an enchanter yet enlightened with some knowledge of the true God, a bad man yet with the fires of genius burning in his soul, the son of Beor had won throughout the colossal kingdoms of the East, and even among the desert tribes of Arabia, a reputation so powerful that the first notice of him tells us how Balak, King of Moab, sends for him far away to the shores of the great river to curse Israel, whose tents lay beneath the heights of Pisgah. The king thinks that where arms are unavailing maledictions may prevail. He thinks that nothing will withstand the might of enchantments. “For,” he says, “I wot that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed.” Farrar.

According to the view which Hengstenberg has thoroughly established, the knowledge of Jehovah possessed by Balaam is to be traced to the events of his own day—namely, to the fame of the God of Israel, which had spread in the time of Moses over all the heathen nations round about, and to the overpowering effect produced upon all these nations, according to the express testimony of the Sacred Scriptures, by the mighty deeds which God did in the midst of his people. K.

In Mesopotamia, Balaam’s own residence and Abraham’s native land, the knowledge of the true God does not seem to have been wholly lost; and he must have heard enough of what occurred in the wilderness and in Egypt to regard Jehovah at least as a mighty, perhaps as the supreme Deity. But with this knowledge there was also combined the most pagan superstition—almost in the same way, perhaps, as we find in Laban the Syrian a mixture of true religion and idolatry. Hence also he is not called a prophet in Scripture, but a soothsayer, and as such he was accustomed to practise his sorceries on a large scale, and had, throughout a wide extent of country, a reputation proportionate to the greatness of his abilities and the skill with which he maintained the deception. That at least on one occasion the Spirit of God was indeed present with him is attested not merely by himself, but by Moses (ch. 24 : 2), in the most express terms. Do not be surprised that God could make use of such a deceiver or fanatic

—choose whichever name you please—to make him the herald of the coming salvation. Van O. —Inspiration, though rarely, was really bestowed on wicked men. King Saul was among the prophets; Balaam was inspired; so was Caiaphas; so were those who prophesied in the name of Christ, to whom Christ will say: “I never knew you, depart from me ye that work iniquity.” Here we find the distinction between the gifts and the graces of the Spirit. Inspiration, like the foresight of prophecy, like the power to work miracles, was a gift that might or might not be associated with saving grace. E. P. H.

Concerning Balaam; his residence, his previous and subsequent history, and his personal character, we have (outside of Nu. 22-24) three references in the Old Testament and the same number in the New. The Old Testament passages describe him as a soothsayer, practising divination for reward. The New Testament writers go to the bottom of his character, and represent him as “loving the wages of unrighteousness; rebuked for his iniquity, the dumb ass, speaking with man’s voice, forbade the madness of the prophet” (2 Pet. 2 : 15, 16). They speak of “going after the error of Balaam for reward” (Jude 11), and of him as one who “taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication” (Rev. 2 : 14). Further, we are told (Nu. 31 : 8 and Josh. 13 : 22) that he was found among the Midianites—enemies of God’s people, and slain with the sword. H. C.

7,8. Balaam was being tempted, and he knew it, to commit a deadly wrong; but unhappily the temptation came to him with uncontrollable force, for it appealed to his besetting sin. That sin was the love of gold. The keynote to the whole history is given in the quiet words that “the elders of Midian departed with the rewards of divination in their hand.”

Now there would have been for Balaam, had he chosen to adopt it, “with the temptation also the way to escape.” It lay in the instant dismissal of the messengers, with the answer that what Balak wished could never be granted. But when Balaam gazed on those “rewards of divination” he felt morally unable to do this. Conscience said “I ought,” but inclination refused to say “I will.” He parleyed and dallied with the temptation; and to dally with temptation is to be lost. He put off the right decision; he lost the opportunity for the firm refusal. He blunted his moral sense by hesitating as to the decision of duty. He affected to need a direct

Divine interposition to tell him how to act. He must (forsooth) have a vision from God, and longs to persuade himself that he may, after all, earn the promised guerdon and may go. “Lodge here this night; and I will bring you word again as the Lord shall speak unto me” Farrar.

9. I should wonder to hear God speak with a false prophet, if I did not know it hath been no rare thing with him (as with men) to bestow words, even where he will not bestow favor. Pharaoh, Abimelech, Nebuchadnezzar, receive visions from God; neither can I think this strange, when I hear God speaking to Satan in a question no less familiar than this of Balaam, “Whence comest thou, Satan?” Not the sound of the voice of God, but the matter which he speaks, argues love; he may speak to an enemy; he speaks peace to none but his own. God heard all the consultation and message of these Moabites; these messengers could not have moved their foot or their tongue but in him; and yet he, who asked Adam where he was, asks Balaam, “What men are these?” God loves to take occasion of proceeding with us from ourselves, rather than from his own immediate prescience. Hence it is, that we lay open our wants and confess our sins to him that knows both better than our own hearts, because he will deal with us from our own mouths.

13. He insinuates his own forwardness, and casts the blame of the prohibition upon God, and, which is worse, delivers but half his answer; he says, indeed, “God refuses to give me leave to go;” he says not, as it was, “He charges me not to curse them, for they are blessed.” So did Balaam deny, as one that wished to be sent for again. Bp. H.—He does, in effect, desire them to give his humble service to Balak, and let him know that he would have been very glad to gratify him, but that he must not go without leave from God, which he has not yet obtained, and therefore for the present he must be excused. Those are a fair mark for Satan’s temptation that speak diminishingly of Divine prohibitions as if they amounted to no more than the denial of a permission, and as if to go against God’s law were only to go without his leave. H.

19. “That I may know what the Lord will say unto me more?” What “more?” Did Balaam fashion to himself a god after his own heart, and imagine that he also was to be moved from his declared purpose by the gifts and promises of Balak? Could he mean to insult God by his importunities? Did he hope to extort from him, out of regard to his own worldliness, permission to bring a curse upon an entire nation, which had been so long and so notoriously the object of his covenant care? Even such was what Peter well calls “the madness of the prophet.” Kit.

20. Again Balaam wavers, dallies with the sin, renews his vain pretence of uncertainty, thinks that even God may be moved to allow his acceptance of these splendid proffers; dwells in longing anticipation on the thought of a house full of silver and gold. And then insulted conscience leaves him. God suffers him to go; lets him eat of the fruit of his own way and be fed with his own devices. He has tried hard to persuade himself, and as it were to persuade God, that in the course to which he is tempted there is no harm; he is suffered to believe that there is no harm. God answered him according to his idols; he is cursed with the gratification of his own desire; he may start on the open road of guilt. He wishes to face both ways; to go a certain length with each. And God suffers him to try the experiment. As the temptation had been renewed because it had been but half resisted, so now the temptation is suffered to prevail in order that it may be its own avenger. Sin, in Balaam’s case as in so many cases, was made the penalty of sin. He was scourged by his own pleasant vices. His sin was punished by further temptations and opportunities of sin. The tempting opportunity is allowed to meet the susceptible disposition. By that terrible irony which we so often see in the Divine judgment God gives the penal permission to go astray. Farrar.

The alternations of Balaam’s own mind were the alternations of a mind with which God was expostulating; the horrible mazes and inconsistencies of a spirit which contradicts itself, and strives to disobey the God whom yet it feels and acknowledges. “With the froward”—oh, how true!—“thou wilt show thyself froward.” God speaks once, and if that voice be not heard, but is wilfully silenced, the second time it utters a terrible permission. Experience will tell us how God has sent us to reap the fruit of our own wilfulness. F. W. R.

21. Now he makes himself sure of success. His corrupt heart tells him that, as God had relented in his license to go, so he might perhaps in his license to curse; and he saw how this curse might bless him with abundance of wealth; he rose up early, therefore, and saddled his ass. Bp. H.

22-31. By the first decided and satisfactory refusal God willed to repress his avarice, and to give a helping hand to his better feelings. But when the greater honors and gifts excite Balaam’s avarice, sin obtains the upper hand, and so God can be no more glorified by his obedience; and thus he will, as Avenger of his disobedience, be sanctified in him, and yet in such a manner that, step by step, he gives him room for repentance, while he holds him as it were by a chain, and does not suffer him to give more than he pleases. This is especially the object in view in the incident of the ass. On this depends its deep significance. Balaam is confident in his gift of soothsaying, as though it was his own property. Possessed of this, he thinks he cannot miss the reward, when suddenly, by this event, his true relation to the gift is made known. The seer who boasts that the eyes of his mind are open (ch. 24:4, 16) becomes blind. In his stead the beast receives the higher vision; and thus is declared to him that it is God’s free grace to which he owes the gift of second sight, and that his beast is more capable of perceiving things out of the higher world than an impure man, whom sinful desire has blinded. Nay, the punishment goes beyond this; the prophet who can no longer see anything becomes also dumb, and the ass prophesies in his stead. This is clearly the meaning of the history, whether we consider it as an event which really and outwardly happened, or as a vision represented by God before the mind of the prophet, by which the conduct of the ass was explained. An argument in favor of the opinion that it was not a mere vision but an actual event seems to be this—that the transaction is related just like the rest of the history, but more particularly, because God designed to show Balaam how he could take away a gift from the prophet and transfer it to his beast; but this a vision, however significant, would not have told him; nay, when afterward he understood it to be a vision, that very impression must have been destroyed. What the ass says is merely the expression of her animal feeling, only uttered in human language; but it is not the expression of any thought, since an animal is incapable of this. What the ass therefore says is of less moment in the history than the fact that she really has spoken. Gerl.

25. Even the dumb animal on which he rides is conscious of the white gleam of the Avenger’s raiment; but the prophet at first sees him not, and will not see him; will persuade himself that what he sees is only the sunlight streaming on the hot gorge through the vines. The eyes which will not see are blinded; the ears that will not hear are made deaf; the heart which will not understand is made hard and gross; the iron sinew is stiffened in the neck which will not bend. It is thus that men stumble on toward the drawn sword of retribution. It is thus that, as Augustine says, God scatters penal darkness over forbidden lusts. Farrar.

27. Balaam the third time smote his ass, though she had now done him the best piece of service that ever she did him, saving him from the sword of the angel, and by her falling down teaching him to do likewise. H.

28. An adequate cause is assigned for this wonderful effect, for it is said expressly that “the Lord opened the mouth of the ass;” and no one who believes a God can doubt of his having power to do this, and much more. The miracle was by no means needless or superfluous; it was very proper to convince Balaam that the mouth and tongue were under God’s direction; and that the same Divine power which caused the dumb ass to speak contrary to its nature could make him in like manner utter blessings contrary to his inclination. Bp. Newton.—That no man may marvel to see Balaam have visions from God and utter prophecies from him, his very ass hath his eyes opened to see the angel, which his master could not, and his mouth opened to speak more reasonably than his master. There is no beast deserves so much wonder as this of Balaam, whose common-sense is advanced above the reason of his rider; so as for the time the prophet is brutish, and the beast prophetical. To hear a voice come from that mouth, which was used only to bray, it was strange and uncouth; but to hear a beast whose nature is noted for incapacity to outreason his master, a professed prophet, is in the very height of miracles; yet can no heart stick at these that considers the dispensation of the Almighty in both. Bp. H.

31. When the dumb ass falls under his impotent anger, and he is rebuked and horrified by the unnatural voice, Balaam becomes tremblingly aware that a spirit is before him. He can discern now the waving of his garment, the flashing of his sword; he cannot mistake them now for the hot sunshine and the flickering vines. “Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam.” God dispelled for a moment the penal blindness. It is as when a man is wandering with some evil purpose at the dead of night, and suddenly a flash of lightning splits the gloom, and shows him the pitfalls and precipices on every side. “There is,” it has been said, “a tendency in acts of extreme wickedness suddenly to reveal the moral law within the heart in terrible and unsupportable majesty; and the interior of conscience is lighted up with all the fierce glare and microscopic clearness of an unnatural illumination; the guilty act operates with the power of a spiritual light within the dark chamber of the soul, and creates a more vivid scene than ever the natural mid-day sun would do.” Farrar.

32. The angel of God takes notice of the cruelty of Balaam to his beast; his first words to the unmerciful prophet are an expostulation for this wrong. We little think it, but God shall call us to an account for the unkind and cruel usage of his poor mute creatures. He hath made us lords, not tyrants; owners, not tormentors; he that hath given us leave to kill them for our use, hath not given us leave to abuse them at our pleasure. Bp. H.

Thy way is perverse before me. Thy intentions and purposes are not sincere and honest before me; for thou designest to serve Balak, and so to gain thy covetous and ambitious ends rather than to serve me. Wells.—That which was displeasing to God was his going with a malicious design against Israel, and a secret hope that, notwithstanding the proviso with which his permission was clogged, he might prevail to curse them, and so gratify Balak and get preferment under him.

34. It does not appear that he is sensible of this wickedness of his heart or willing to own it, but if he finds he cannot go forward he will be content (since there is no remedy) to go back. Here is no sign that his heart is turned, but if his hands are tied he cannot help it. Thus many leave their sins only because their sins have left them. There seems to be a reformation of the life, but what will that avail if there be no renovation of the heart? H.

35. Balaam was now to be compelled to further the designs of God, though even now his position was not altogether a hopeless one. He was obliged to submit, it is true, to further the designs of God; but he might still have done this of his own free will. He was obliged to do what would bring him nothing but anger and scorn from the Moabites, instead of gold and renown; but he might still have done it in such a manner that it would bring him honor and favor from G-d. Bless he must; but everything depended upon whether he did this with willingness and cheerful obedience, or with reluctance and of constraint. K.

23:1. In each case before Balaam inquired of God he directed Balak to prepare seven altars and to offer upon each one bullock and one ram. The object in this seems to have been to propitiate the Lord and secure his favorable consideration. It is remarkable that Balaam, coming from the region of the Euphrates, should have these ideas as to the sacrifice of clean animals. The fact seems to show that the idea of animal sacrifices was revealed to the race in its infancy, and that it prevailed extensively over the eastern world. H. C.

5. God did meet Balaam, not in auguries, but by putting “a word in Balaam’s mouth.” As the man shared not in it otherwise than by being the outward instrument of its communication, this “word” was to him only “a parable,” and is designated as such in Scripture. Never before so clearly as in presence of the powers of heathenism, assembled to contend against Israel, did Jehovah show forth his almighty power, alike in making use of an instrument almost passive in his hand, and in disclosing his eternal purpose. A. E.—Who shall prescribe God what instruments to use? He knows how to employ, not only saints and angels, but wicked men, beasts, devils, to his own glory; he that put words into the mouth of the ass puts words into the mouth of Balaam; the words do but pass from him; they are not polluted, because they are not his. Bp. H.

7. The predictions of Balaam are wonderful, whether we consider the matter or the style; as if the same Divine Spirit that inspired his thoughts had also raised his language. They are, indeed, as the word “parable” implies, a weighty and solemn speech, delivered in figurative and majestic language. We cannot peruse them without being struck with the beauty of them, and perceiving their uncommon force and energy, though we read them only in a translation. Bp. Newton.

Balaam’s oracles are expressed in the purest style of Hebrew poetry—such as few can read without a sense of its beauty and majesty. If read with a present sense of the moral status of this prince of diviners—of the conflict in his soul between the love of riches and honor on the one hand and some regard to the high behests of the Almighty on the other, we cannot well suppress a feeling of sadness that one so gifted by nature and so favored of God with prophetic revelations should, despite of all, have yet succumbed to the dominion of the baser impulses of his soul. H. C.

7-10. First, as to the form of this parable; each thought is embodied in two sentences, with rapid, almost abrupt, transitions from one thought to the other. Secondly, the outward and inward separation of Israel (the former as symbol of the latter) is singled out as the grand characteristic of God’s people—a primary truth this of the Old Testament, and, in its spiritual application, of the New Testament also. But even in its liberality it has proved true in the history of Israel of old, and still applies to them, showing us that Israel’s history is not yet finished; that God has not forgotten his people, and that a purpose of mercy yet awaits them, in accordance with his former dealings. Such a people Balaam could not curse. A. E.

The Israelites needed strong encouragement for the conflicts in which they were soon to engage. So God, in his wisdom and goodness, adopted a method of revealing his purposes which cheered the hearts of his people, while it brought confusion on their adversaries. It was to their enemies, the world powers, before whom they were ready to quail, that the predictions of Israel’s irresistible career were now primarily addressed, and by a prophet of their own whose identity of interest with themselves could not be suspected, and whose oracle therefore announced, only with greater certainty, the disappearance of their glory and their complete subjugation to the kingdom of God. D. M.

9. The people shall dwell alone. They shall ever be preserved as a distinct nation. This prophecy has been literally fulfilled through a period of thirty-three hundred years to the present day! This is truly astonishing! A. C. —How could Balaam, on a distant view only of a people whom he had never seen or known before, have discovered the genius and manners not only of the people then living, but of their posterity to the latest generations? What renders it the more extraordinary is the singularity of the character, that they should differ from all the people in the world, and should dwell by themselves among the nations without mixing and incorporating with any. The time, too, when this was affirmed increases the wonder; it being before the people were well known in the world, before their religion and government were established, and even before they had obtained a settlement anywhere. That the character was fully verified in the event not only all history testifies, but we have ocular demonstration at this day. The Jews in their religion and laws, their rites and ceremonies, their manners and customs, were so totally different from all other nations that they had little intercourse or communion with them. Other nations, the conquerors and the conquered, have often associated and united as one body under the same laws; but the Jews in their captivities have commonly been more bigoted to their own religion and more tenacious of their own rites and customs than at other times. And even now, while they are dispersed among all nations, they yet live distinct and separate from all; trading only with others, but eating, marrying, and conversing chiefly among themselves. Bp. Newton.

10. Let me die the death of the righteous. He goes upon the supposition of the soul’s immortality, and a different state on the other side death, to which this is a noble testimony, and an evidence of its being anciently known and believed. For how could the death of the righteous be more desirable than the death of the wicked upon any other account than as it involved happiness in another world, since in the manner and circumstances of dying we see all things come alike to all? He pronounces the righteous truly blessed, not only while they live, but when they die; which makes their death not only more desirable than the death of others, but even more desirable than life itself. H. —Balaam could wish at this time to have his dying portion with the righteous; yet that wish had no abiding influence upon his conduct. The present—the gains and honors of the world, were still the subjects of his thoughts, and to win them the great object of his solicitude. Therefore his “end” was far from that. In the tents of Midian, where he lingered, or to which he returned to claim the rewards of unrighteousness, his sun went down in blood, leaving a name that has become a byword in the world. It is a fearful thought that a man may have “his eyes open” so wide as Balaam’s were, and see as distinctly as he “the vision of the Almighty,” and yet perish in practical unbelief; for that belief avails only for condemnation, which is not operative upon the heart, and allows a man still to have his portion with the world. Kit.

The object now before us is the most astonishing in the world! A very wicked man, under a deep sense of God and religion, persisting still in his wickedness, and preferring the wages of unrighteousness, even when he had before him a lively view of death, and that approaching period of his days which should deprive him of all the advantages for which he was prostituting himself; and likewise a prospect, whether certain or uncertain, of a future state of retribution! All this joined with an explicit wish that when he was to leave this world he might be in the condition of a righteous man! What inconsistency, what perplexity is here! With what different views of things, with what contradictory principles of action, must such a mind be torn and distracted! It was not an unthinking carelessness; no, he acted upon the cool motives of interest. Neither was he totally callous to impressions of religion, what we call abandoned; for he absolutely refused to curse Israel. When Reason resumes her place, he owns and feels and is actually under the influence of the Divine authority while he is carrying on his views to the grave, the end of all temporal greatness; under this sense of things, with the better character and more desirable state present full before him, voluntarily to choose the worse! How can such a character be explained? And yet, strange as it may appear, it is not altogether an uncommon one! Nay, with some small alterations and put a little lower, it is applicable to a considerable part of the world. For if the reasonable choice be seen and acknowledged, and yet men make the unreasonable one, is not this the same inconsistency which appeared unaccountable? Men’s strong attachments to this present world, their hopes, fears, and pursuits, are beyond all proportion to the known value of the things they respect. They try to make a composition with the Almighty. Those of his commands they will obey; but as to the others, they will make all atonements in their power. Indulgences before, or atonements afterward, are all the same; and they add faint hopes and half resolves of making a change at one time or other. Bp. Butler.

For the death of the righteous, beforehand we must die daily to ourselves, and hide our life with Christ in the bosom of God. Lord, teach us this death, in order that we may be capable of the other! Disrobe us of ourselves, and clothe us with thyself! Make us poor in order that we may be rich! Be our only treasure! Be our only light in the days of happiness, so that thou mayest also be our light in days of mourning, and at the hour of final departure! Vinet.

BALAAM’S SECOND AND THIRD PROPHETIC BLESSINGS UPON ISRAEL. HIS GREAT PROPHECY OF THE STAR AND SCEPTRE. DESTINY OF EXISTING NATIONS. VISTA OF THE GREAT FUTURE.