Numbers 23:1-10

E.—THE FIRST BLESSING OF BALLAM

Numbers 22:41 to Numbers 23:10

Numbers 22:41 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Balak took Balaam, and brought him up into the high places of Baal, that thence he might see the utmost part of the people.

Numbers 23:1 And Balaam said unto Balak, Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven oxen and seven rams. 2And Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bullock and a ram. 3And 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 tell thee. And he went to an high place1 4And God met Balaam: and he said unto him, I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered upon every altar a bullock and a ram. 5And the Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, Return unto Balak, and thus thou shalt speak. 6And he returned unto him, and, lo, he stood by his burnt sacrifice, he, and all the princes of Moab. 7And he took up his parable, and said,

Balak the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram,Out of the mountains of the East, saying,

Come curse me, Jacob,And come, defy Israel.

8     How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed?

Or 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, the people shall dwell alone,And shall not be reckoned among the nations.

10     Who can count the dust of Jacob,

And the number of the fourth part of Israel?Let me2 die the death of the righteous,

And let my last end be like his!

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

[Numbers 22:41. Heb. Bamoth-Baal—a definite locality.—A. G.]

[Numbers 23:3. שֵׁפִּי—a bare, bleak height—from שָׁפָּה, to scrape, to make bare, Job 33:21.—A. G.]

[Numbers 23:7. מָשַׁל—“a simile, then a proverb, because the proverb consists of comparisons and figures.” Keil. Hirsch, however, says that “the word always denotes a sentence or saying in which there is a progress from the individual and concrete to the universal or general,” and that it is so used here.—A. G.]

[Numbers 23:7. Defy. Better: be angry against, threaten.—A. G.]

[Numbers 23:10. Or: who can number the fourth part=or perhaps the progeny. Bible Commentary, Hirsch.—A. G.]

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. Balak is politic and cunning. He leads Balaam to a mountain summit, from whence he could see only the ends of the Israelitish camp. A small part of the camp the must see, so that from his mountain height as from heaven he might hurl down the lightnings of his curse upon the people; but only a small part, lest he should be too deeply impressed, and thus his readiness to curse might be restrained.

[A comparison, however, of Numbers 22:41 with Numbers 23:13 seem to show that in the former case the words the ends, or the utmost of the people, refer not to a small part of the camp, but to its extreme limits. He overlooked the whole people, even to its ends or utmost bounds. Balak had strong confidence that his wish would be secured. It was essential in his view that the people should be seen by the prophet, if the curse was to take effect. He led him therefore to a position so that the whole camp lay stretched out before him. But when the prophet blesses instead of curses Israel, then apparently thinking that his mind had been overawed by the prospect; that he could not so readily curse, a people so numerous and powerful, he leads him away to a point from which he says “thou shalt see only the utmost part of them, and shalt not see them all.” Thus the two passages are perfectly consistent, and the order of steps as the scene unfolds is natural.—A. G.]

2. Balaam also on his part is a prudent schemer. Balak must build him seven altars, and offer upon them a grand sacrifice: seven bullocks and seven rams, the largest and most costly sacrifice, in the doubled seven. In connection with this pompous pretence of piety the sacrifice bears a most equivocal character. It is offered upon the high places of Baal, and still, as it appears, to Jehovah, from whom he inquires. But for which of the two were the bullocks intended, and for which the rams? Build me here seven altars—says Balaam—Stand by thy burnt-offering.—There is, in fact, a vile union between heathenism and monotheism—between yea and nay. Then Balaam goes up alone to a bare place, or a bald mountain peak, that he may see as much as possible of Israel, and that he may observe a sign, and thereby secure a vision. He appeals to Elohim, calling to witness his sacrifice. But it is Jehovah who puts the word in his mouth; it proceeds from God as the God of Israel. [Balaam went up to meet auguries (Numbers 24:1): I will go—peradventure Jehovah will meet me. “He hoped to receive or discover in the phenomena of nature a revelation from Jehovah.” Keil. Hence he went as the heathen augurs were wont to do, to the mountain summit, where his view above and around him would be unobstructed. God met Balaam, not “through the agencies employed to seek Him, dealing in this case in an exceptional manner,” Bible Com., not through any appearance or sign which Balaam was to clothe in words, but put a word in his mouth: thus thou shalt speak. He had a distinct message from which he could not vary.—A. G.]

3. Balaam’s first saying is richer in its form than in its contents. He speaks at first of the great expectations with which his coming is awaited. A king has sent for him, has brought him here in honor. From a remote land, from the far distant mountains of Mesopotamia, he has come to the mountain of Moab. And for this purpose, that he should curse a people whom he knew not only as Jacob, but as Israel (his words are fitly chosen: Curse, doom to wrath). He might well have said: How shall I curse him whom Jehovah blesseth? but he says somewhat less: whom God hath not cursed, whom God hath not threatened. He intimates that he sees not only a part of Israel, as Balak wished, but sees it in its whole significance and nature, as if he looked down upon it from every rocky peak and summit. The positive blessing includes three things: the isolation of Israel from the heathen, its countless number, and his own recognition of the righteous in it, with whom he wished to die. But in all the three respects the spirit of the typical word expresses much more than was present to the consciousness of Balaam, to wit, the election of God’s people, its blessed and immeasurable extension, and the salvation in life and in death prepared for the righteous. [Shall dwell alone—not isolation, freedom from tumults, and thus security—but the inward separation in character and in their relation to God, upon which the outward isolation depended, and of which it was the symbol. They dwelt alone only while they clave to God—counted not themselves among the nations. The whole Israelitish history is a striking comment upon the text. As the description applies to the N. T. Israel, so the rule likewise.

Who can count the dust?—A reference to the promise, Genesis 13:15, which was already so largely fulfilled, that even the fourth part, alluding, as Keil thinks, to the fourfold arrangement of the camp, could not be numbered.—יְשָׁרִים, a term applied to Israel as the called of God who is just and right, and as expressive of the end of their calling—or destination. It is not so much descriptive of their actual character as of the idea of the people, which was partly realized in the natural Israel, but is to be actually and fully realized in the spiritual. It is always the product of the gracious dealings of God with His people.

Let my last end be like his.—Balaam could not curse the righteous people. His better impulses find expression in the wish that he might share with them at least in their death. The Hebrew word refers not so much to the dying as to that which follows death, the futurity, the last estate. (See Psalms 37:37-38.) While it is true that their ideas of a future state were as yet vague and indefinite, it is not true, as Keil says, “that the Israelites did not then possess a certain hope of a blessed life beyond the grave.” It is difficult to fix just the amount of light they enjoyed, but it is well nigh impossible to read the utterances of the word in regard to their death without feeling that the light shone for them and upon them. And he who walked with God, and died in the consciousness of the divine grace and love, could never have supposed that the light would go out in darkness, or that there was no blessed life beyond the grave.—A. G.]

For the location of Bamoth-Baal see Numbers 21:19-20. It appears here as the most remote point from which the camp of Israel could be seen. For the ancient custom of inaugurating religious questions, undertakings, execrations or blessings with sacrifices, see Knobel, p. 137; Keil, Clark’s Translation, pp. 176, 177. The sign for which Balaam went out alone was the view of Israel which should form a sign and a vision for him.

Footnotes:

[1]Marg. on he went solitary.

[2]Marg. my soul or my life.