Numbers 23:18-24

Balaam's Second Oracle. This goes beyond the preceding in frustrating the hopes of Balak, for it declares that God has not only not cursed Israel, but has positively blessed it, and describes Israel's freedom from adversity and its formidable strength.

Numbers 23:19. Cf. 1 Samuel 15:29

Numbers 23:20. he hath blessed, etc.: read (LXX), I must bless and I must not reverse it.

Numbers 23:21. He hath not beheld, etc.: read (Syr.), I have not beheld calamity in Jacob, nor have I seen trouble in Israel. the shout of a king: i.e. the shouting in honour of a king (a title of Yahweh, 1 Samuel 8:7), whose symbol, the Ark, was welcomed with shouts, 1 Samuel 4:5). The parallelism favours the interpretation of king here as a Divine, not a human, ruler (as in Numbers 24:7), and for shout the LXX has glory (cf. Zechariah 2:5).

Numbers 23:22. the wild ox: an extinct species (bos primigenius), of great size and fierceness (cf. Deuteronomy 33:17).

Numbers 23:23. enchantment: better, divining. God's favour towards Israel was due to the absence in it of the practice of observing omens which was so common in other nations. Now shall it, etc.: read At the due season (LXX) it is wont to be told to Israel and to Judah what God will do, i.e. Israel, instead of seeking to discover the future by divination, receives revelations from the Almighty (cf. Amos 3:7). But the translation is precarious; and as the whole verse interrupts the sequence of Numbers 23:22 and Numbers 23:24 (both of which compare Israel's strength to that of the strongest animals), it is perhaps intrusive.