Numbers 23

Chap. XXIII. Ver. 1—13. Balaam’s first _prophecy.—The close of the preceding chapter informs us, that Balak no sooner heard of Balaam’s approach, than he began to offer sacrifices to his gods in honour of his arrival. The next day, he takes him up into the high places of Baal, where he might see the whole extent of the camp of Israel. Here the prophet requires seven altars, (probably of turf,) and on each altar a bullock and a ram was offered; and as they were offered by Balaam with a view to propitiate the true God, there can be little doubt that they were offered to the God of Israel, because he says, “Peradventure Jehovah will come to meet me.” He offered seven bullocks and seven rams, (that number in Hebrew signifying sufficiency, or perfection,) upon as many altars, and then retired alone into a lonely cliff of the rock,

where the Lord met with him, (probably in human form,) and put a word into his mouth, which he was charged to deliver to the king. He, therefore, returned to Balak, and delivered it in the usually eloquent and poetical strain of the Jewish prophets. He predicts the vast increase of the nation, in fulfilment of the original promise to Abraham, that his seed should be as the dust and as the sand; and, at the same time, that the people should “dwell alone from other nations;” a prediction which has been fulfilled in the most remarkable manner; for never have they been mingled, so as to coalesce either with any nation which they have conquered, or by which they have been subdued. But the prophet’s concluding words respecting himself are not less worthy of observation: “Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!”

In this verse, it has been generally thought that, under the reproaches of a guilty conscience, the wicked prophet referred to his own unhappy case. We have here, as Bishop Butler remarks, the astonishing sight of ‘a wicked prophet, 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 the world, he might be in the condition of a righteous man!’ “O let me die his death!” the prophet cries: “Then live his life,”

the sacred word replies. Ver. 14—30. Balaam’s second prophecy.—The wickedness of Balaam is only to be equalled by the folly and weakness of his employer, Balak, who takes the prophet from one high place to another, under the forlorn hope, (for he could scarcely expect it,) that one aspect of the camp might be more favourable to his wishes than another. Perhaps the prophet, also, was anxious to convince his employer of his disposition to oblige him, if it were possible; but he reasons with him on the impossibility of his reversing the decrees of heaven, or cursing those whom the Almighty had resolved to bless. He was willing, indeed, to move from place to place, wherever the monarch should require, to offer sacrifices and seek enchantments; but, as a prophet, he could not, and, for his life, he dare not, utter a word that was not put into his mouth by the Spirit of God.

“Behold, (said he) I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel.” These last words require our particular attention, as they have been quoted very perversely, to prove, that the Lord, like a weak and fond parent, sees no evil in the conduct of his own people, however wicked it may be; a sentiment as opposite to Ver. 22. The strength of a unicorn.—The “unicorn,” most probably denotes the rhinoceros, so called from the horn on its nose. In size he is only exceeded by the elephant; and in strength and power, inferior to none. He is at least twelve feet in length, from the snout to the tail; six or seven feet in height; and the circumference of the body is nearly equal to his length.

He is particularly distinguished from all other animals by the remarkable and offensive weapon he carries on his nose; which is very hard horn, solid throughout, directed forward, and sometimes four feet in length. There are also some with two horns; a smaller one being placed above the other. He is perfectly indocile and untractable; though neither ferocious nor carnivorous. He neither disturbs the less, nor fears the greatest beast of the forest. He principally feeds upon large succulent plants, prickly shrubs, and branches; is fond of wallowing in the mire, and delighting in marshy places.—Bagster. “A remarkable animal has been discovered in Southern Africa by Campbell, of the London Missionary Society.

The Hottentots who shot the creature never having seen nor heard of an animal with a horn of so great a length, cut off its head, and brought it bleeding on the back of an ox to Campbell. He would gladly have transported the whole of it with him to Europe, but its great weight, and the distance of the spot (the city of Mashow) from Cape Town, about 1200 miles, determined him to reduce it, by cutting off the under-jaw. (The rest is to be seen at the Missionary Museum, Austin Friars, London.) The head measured, from the ears to the nose, three feet; the length of the horn, which is nearly black, is also three feet, projecting from the forehead, about ten inches above the nose. There is a small horny projection, of a conical shape, measuring about eight inches, immediately behind the great horn, apparently designed for keeping fast, or steady, whatever is penetrated by the great horn.

This projection is scarcely observed at a little distance. The animal is not carnivorous, but chiefly feeds on grass and bushes. It is well known in the kingdom of Mashow, the natives of which make from the great horn handles for their battle-axes. It appears to be a species of rhinoceros; but judging from the size of its head, it must have been much larger than the common rhinoceros of Southern Africa, which has

Notes on the verses

Chap. XXIII. Ver. 1. Seven altars, &c.—Seven was a favourite number among the Hebrews. See Cruden’s Concord. The heathens had also a notion, that “unequal numbers please the gods.” See Orient. Cust. No. 736. Ver. 3. And he went to a high place.—Margin, “Went solitary”—To “a cliff of the rock,” or “solitary place,” says Ainsworth. The Chaldee expounds it as our margin, “He went alone.” Ver. 7. Parable.—The word mashal, which as a verb is to rule, have authority, and also to compare, as a noun signifies whatever is expressed in parabolic or figurative language. All these oracular speeches of Balaam are in hemistic metre in the original. They are highly dignified and sublime; and may be considered as immediate poetic productions of the Spirit of God.

(Numbers 24:2).—Bagster. Ver. 9. People shall dwell alone.—(They shall ever be a distinct nation. This prophecy has been literally fulfilled through a period of 3300 years to the present day. For, notwithstanding their captivities and dispersion through every country on the face of the globe, they still dwell alone and are not reckoned among the nations: they have been preserved from being confounded with their conquerors and oppressors in foreign lands, in a manner absolutely unprecedented in the annals of the world.—Bagster. Ver. 10. Who can count the dust of Jacob?—This evidently refers to the promise made to Abraham, (Genesis 13:16).—And number the fourth part of Israel.—This refers to the camp being square, and divided into four parts.

(See the Plate.)—Let my latter end be like his!—The original term here rendered “latter end,” it must be admitted, sometimes signifies posterity, as in (Daniel 11:4). (Amos 5:2), &c. But it also signifies the end of any thing, as opposed to its beginning, as in (Deuteronomy 11:12). (Proverbs 19:20). And the nature of the Hebrew parallelisms, as well as the sense of the context, seems to require that sense here. So Dr. Boothroyd. Ver. 11. Blessed them altogether.—The Hebrew reads, (according to a common idiom,) “Blessing thou hast blessed,” i.e. altogether and entirely blessed; without the admixture of a single curse, or any abatement in the. Ver. 6. Lign-aloes.—[Ahalim, “lign-aloe trees.” This tree, which grows in the East Indies, is described as being eight or ten feet in height with a stem the thickness of a man’s thigh.

At the top grows a large tuft of jagged and thick leaves, thick and indented, broad at the bottom, but growing narrower towards the point, and about four feet in length. The blossoms are red intermingled with yellow, and double like cloves; from which comes a red and white fruit, of the size of a pea, oblong and triangular, with three apartments filled with seed. The tree has a very beautiful appearance; and a forest of them is said to bear a resemblance to a numerous encampment. Under the bark there are three sorts of wood: the first, black, solid, and weighty; the second, tawny, of a light spongy texture, and filled with a fragrant and agreeable resin; the third, which is the heart, of a fine, strong aromatic smell, used for perfume, and esteemed in the East, as more precious than Ver.

7. He shall pour water out of his buckets.—The late editor of Calmet renders this, “Water shall flow from his dripping places;” i.e. from his leaves and branches, which “drink water of the rain of heaven.” (Deuteronomy 11:11). Dr. Boothroyd and Geddes, renders this couplet, “Water shall flow from the horn of Jacob, / And his seed become as many waters.”; This is, doubtless, very elegant, but query?—Higher than Agag.—This was a very common name of the kings of Amalek, at least of the then era. 17. A star shall arise out of Jacob.—“A star in the Egyptian hieroglyphics end God. Thus God, in the prophet Amos, reproving the Israelites for their idolatry on their first coming out of Egypt, says, Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wilderness forty years, O house of Israel?

but ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun, your images; the star of your God which ye made to yourselves.” ((Amos 5:25-26).) The star of your God, is a noble figurative expression to signify the image of your God; for a star being employed in the hieroglyphics to signify God, it is used here with great elegance, to signify the material image of a God: the words, the star of your God, being only a repetition of the preceding, Chiun, your image, and not (as some critics suppose) the same with your God-star. Hence we conclude, that the metaphor here used by Balaam of a star, was of that abstruse, mysterious kind, and so to be understood; and consequently, that it related only to Christ, the eternal Son of God.

—Warburton’s Divine Legation. And shall smite the corners of Moab.—Margin, “Or, shall smite through the princes of Moab.” “The corners, the sides, or quarters of, (says Ainsworth,) meaning a conquest of the whole country,” which are held by David, as we read (2 Samuel 8:2, 14).—And destroy.—The Hebrew, Karkah, is the reduplicate of karah, which means to join together, as the frame of a house, (Nehemiah 2:8).; as bricks or stones in a wall, (Leviticus 14:37).; as houses in a city, or walled town, (Deuteronomy 2:36). But upon what principle the Rabbins and Ainsworth make the reduplicate form in sense the reverse of the simple, is not clear, though it may possibly be right. Parkhurst tenders it confound. Perhaps as karah means to join together the materials of a wall in building, so karkah may be to pull them down in a confused manner, like a heap of rubbish.

It is certain the ancients had a kind of battering ram, with a claw, to pull down walls. See as, Frag. No. 221. Ver. 18. For his enemies.—The word for (though not in italics) is wanting in the original; we therefore, in this instance, prefer the rendering of the late Levi, “being his enemies.” Ver. 20. The first of the nations.—The margin adds, “that warred against Israel,” which was certainly the fact, ((Exodus 17:8).;) however, these words are not in the text, but are taken from the Chaldee paraphrase: but first, by way of eminence, accords better with the other member of this verse, which predicts Amalek’s utter destruction, which was finally accomplished in the days of Hezekiah. See (1 Chronicles 4:41-43). Ver. 21. The Kenites.—Jethro, the priest of Midian, is called a Kenite, ((Judges 1:16).) from which Dr. Dodd infers, that they were a tribe, or colony, of Midianites. The name has affinity to the Hebrew Ken, which signifies a nest; in allusion to which it is said, he should “put (or place) his nest in (a cavity of) a rock, where the eagle, the king of birds, delights to dwell.” Ver. 22. Until Asshur shall carry, &c.—Margin, “Or, How long (shall it be ere) Asshur carry,” &c. In this marginal reading, the words in the parenthesis are supplied, and perhaps unnecessarily, as the textual reading seems clearer than the margin. Ver. 24. From the coast of Chittim.—Which has been explained both of Greece and eras. The Chaldee explains it of the Romans, and the old Latin version reads “from Italy.” On the whole of these prophecies, see Bp.

Newton on the Prophecies, Dissert. V.