Balaam, after the general custom of the pagan, prefaced his divinations by sacrifice. In the number of the altars regard was probably had to the number of the then known planets. Yet Balaam evidently intended his sacrifice as an offering to the true God.... [ Continue Reading ]
Balaam apparently expected to mark some phenomenon in the sky or in nature, which he would be able, according to the rules of his art, to interpret as a portent. It was for such “auguries” (not as the King James Version “enchantments” Numbers 23:23) that he now departed to watch; contrast Numbers 24... [ Continue Reading ]
GOD MET BALAAM - God served His own purposes through the arts of Balaam, and manifested His will through the agencies employed to seek it, dealing thus with Balaam in an exceptional manner. To God’s own people auguries were forbidden Leviticus 19:26. I HAVE PREPARED SEVEN ALTARS - And therefore Bal... [ Continue Reading ]
ARAM - Or, “highland.” This term denotes the whole elevated region, from the northeastern frontier of Palestine to the Euphrates and the Tigris. The country between these streams was especially designated “Aram-naharaim,” or “Aram of the two rivers:” the Greeks called it Mesopotamia; and here, accor... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR FROM THE TOP OF THE ROCKS ... - The “for” indicates the constraint under which Balaam felt himself. He had been met by God in his own way; from the cliff he had watched for the expected augury; and by the light of this he here interprets, according to the rules of his art, the destiny of Israel.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE FOURTH PART OF ISRAEL - i. e., each one of the four camps, into which the host of Israel was divided (see Numbers 2), seemed to swarm with innumerable multitudes. Possibly Balaam could only see one camp. Balaam bears testimony in this verse to the fulfillment of the promises in Genesis 13:16; Ge... [ Continue Reading ]
Balak seems to hope that the prophet’s words in Numbers 23:10 reflected the impression conveyed by the scene before him at the moment of the augury; and so that the sight of a mere few straggling Israelites in the utmost part of the camp might induce a different estimate of their resources and prosp... [ Continue Reading ]
THE FIELD OF ZOPHIM - Or, “of watchers.” It lay upon the top of Pisgah, north of the former station, and nearer to the Israelite camp; the greater part of which was, however, probably concealed from it by an intervening spur of the hill. Beyond the camp Balaam’s eye would pass on to the bed of the J... [ Continue Reading ]
I HAVE RECEIVED COMMANDMENT TO BLESS - literally, “I have received to bless.” The reason of his blessing lay in the augury which he acknowledged, and in the divine overruling impulse which he could not resist, not in any “commandment” in words.... [ Continue Reading ]
“Iniquity” and “perverseness” are found together again in the Hebrew of Psalms 10:7; Psalms 90:10, and elsewhere; and import wickedness together with that tribulation which is its proper result. THE SHOUT - The word is used (Leviticus 23:24 note) to describe the sound of the silver trumpets. The “s... [ Continue Reading ]
AN UNICORN - A wild bull, the now extinct Aurochs, formidable for its size, strength, speed, and ferocity.... [ Continue Reading ]
ENCHANTMENT ... DIVINATION - More strictly “augury” and “soothsayer’s token,” or the omen that was superstitiously observed. “Soothsayer” is the term applied to Balaam in Joshua 13:22. The verse intimates that the seer was at last, through the overruling of his own auguries, compelled to own what,... [ Continue Reading ]
The position of Peor northward from Pisgah, along the Abarim heights, is approximately determined by the extant notices of Beth-peor. JESHIMON - was the waste, in the great valley below, where stood Beth-jeshimoth, “the house of the wastes.”... [ Continue Reading ]