Numbers 24:20-24

Three Appended Oracles. These additional oracles, relating to other peoples than the Moabites, are probably derived from neither E nor J, but have been inserted by an editor from other sources.

Numbers 24:20. On Amalek. This prophecy, predicting the destruction of Amalek, received a fulfilment in the time of Saul, who put them under the ban (1 Samuel 15:7 f.); but some of the Amalekites survived to be slaughtered by David (1 Samuel 30:1), and a remnant existed even in the time of Hezekiah (1 Chronicles 4:43).

Numbers 24:21 f. On the Kenite. These were a wandering people connected by name with Cain or Kain (Genesis 4:1; Genesis 4:22), who generally had their home to the S. of Palestine, mixing with the Amalekites (1 Samuel 15:6) or with Judah (Judges 1:16 *, 1 Samuel 27:10). The oracle predicts their deportation by Asshur, which is the usual designation of the Assyrians, though there was also an Arabian tribe called the Asshurim (Genesis 25:3). When or how the prediction was thought to be fulfilled cannot be determined.

Numbers 24:21. nest: the word in Heb. involves a play upon the name Kain or Kenite.

Numbers 24:22. Render as in the mg., How long (will the Kenites-' fancied security last)?

Numbers 24:23 f. On Asshur. The victorious career of the Kenites-' captors threatened the extermination of all; but the oracle predicts destruction for the conquering power at the hands of the people of Kittim. Kittim properly means Cyprus (from its capital, Kition), which was subject to Assyria in the seventh century B.C.; and it is possible that the writer anticipates that the Cypriots will rebel against, and subdue, Assyria. But the name is also used to denote alike the Mediterranean countries in general (Jeremiah 2:10), and Greece or Rome in particular (1Ma_1:1, Daniel 11:30). If it here stands for either of the two latter peoples, the name Asshur probably means not Assyria (which was brought to an end long before Greece and Rome became world-powers) but Persia (as in Ezra 6:22 and perhaps Isaiah 27:13; cf. Isaiah 11:11 *); and the prophecy may have in view the overthrow of the Persian Empire by the Greeks under Alexander the Great.

Numbers 24:23. Render, Alas, who shall live after God's appointing him (to be an agent of destruction; cf. Isaiah 10:5 f; Isaiah 37:26)?

Numbers 24:24. Eber: (p. 34) lit. the country or people across (the Euphrates), and probably here a synonym for Asshur, whether this means Assyria (on the Tigris) or Persia (still further east).