Numbers 24:3-9

Balaam's Third Oracle. This varies the tenor of the two previous utterances by dwelling upon the fertility of Israel's soil, and the eminence of its ruler. It was probably constructed, like the preceding oracle, in distichs, but in two places this arrangement has been disturbed. The reference to a king in Israel points to the poem having been written in the time of the monarchy.

Numbers 24:3 f. The seer is represented as receiving the Divine revelations in a trance or dream, the closed eye of Numbers 24:3 being the eye of the body, and the open eyes of Numbers 24:4 being the eyes of the mind. But the rendering was closed in Numbers 24:3 is doubtful. Balaam. saith: better, Utterance of Balaam, etc. (and so in the next two lines). The word rendered utterance is almost exclusively used of communications from Yahweh through His prophets, and has an impressiveness which the RV inadequately expresses. Falling down: i.e. (seemingly) in sleep: cf. Numbers 22:19. In Numbers 24:4 one line of a distich is lacking; comparison with the similar Numbers 24:16 suggests that after the first line there should be inserted, And knoweth the knowledge of the Most High.

Numbers 24:6. Render, As valleys which spread themselves out. The rows of Israel's tents appear like diverging valleys. The third and fourth lines should probably be rearranged and emended thus, As cedar trees which Yahweh hath planted (cf. Psalms 104:16), As terebinths beside the waters. Cedars do not grow near water, and lign aloes were to the Hebrews foreign trees, coming from Arabia, India, or China, the wood of which was imported for its fragrant odour (Psalms 45:8; Proverbs 7:17, Ca. Numbers 4:14).

Numbers 24:7. Israel's water-supply is abundant, and his soil well irrigated (Genesis 49:25): with the second line cf. Ecclesiastes 11:1. The comparison with Agag (a king of Amalek) suggests that the poem was composed in the time of Saul or David (cf. 1 Samuel 15:8); but the fact that the Amalekites were never so powerful a nation as to make their ruler an appropriate standard of comparison (though cf. Numbers 24:20) throws doubt upon the correctness of the text.

Numbers 24:3. In this verse, which should seemingly consist of three distichs, one distich is incomplete. The last line (with its mention of arrows) is out of harmony with the adjoining comparison to a fierce animal, and should be corrected to And smite their loins (Deuteronomy 33:11) in sunder, or And smite their oppressors in sunder.

Numbers 24:9. Cf. Genesis 49:9.