Joshua 13:22

Balaam also The mention of these "vassals of Sihon" leads the historian to record also at this point the death of Balaam, which took place at the same time as that of these vassals (Numbers 31:8). He is here called a "soothsayer" (kosem); "the fals divynor" (Wyclif); like (a) the diviners of the Philistines (1 Samuel 6:2), and (b) the necromancers (1 Samuel 28:8-9) whom Saul had "cut off."

The late Professor Blunt has drawn attention to the fact that (a) in the original mission to Balaam, the elders of Midianwere concerned as much as the elders of Moab (Numbers 22:7); that all mention of Midian is then dropped, and "the princes of Balak" and "the servants of Balak" are the titles given to the messengers, and in the prophet's fruitless struggle to curse the people whom God had blessed, Balak and the Moabites engrossed all his attention.

(b) Balaam then disappears, on his way apparently to his own country, Pethor in Mesopotamia (Numbers 24:25), while the historian pursues his narrative through several long Chapter s, which are taken up with entirely different matter.

(c) Then comes an account of an attack made upon the Midianitesin revenge for their having seduced the people of Israel by the wiles of their women, at the close of which we find a notice that "Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword" (Numbers 31:8).

(d) It seems, then, that the Prophet did not after all immediately return to Mesopotamia, but paid a visit to the Midianites, who were equally concerned in bringing him where he was, and there suggested the enticements of the licentious orgies of Baal-Peor, into which Israel fell. But his stay was unseasonably protracted, and Moses coming upon the Midianites slew them and him together.

(e) Here an undesigned coincidence lies (a) in the elders of Moab and the elders of Midiangoing to Balaam; (b) in Midianbeing then mentioned no more, while Balaam having been sent away from Moab, apparently that he might go home, is subsequently found a corpse amongst the slaughtered Midianites. See Blunt's Undesigned Coincidences, pp. 86, 87.