Numbers 24 - Introduction
_A.M. 2552. B.C. 1452._ Balaam, inspired by God, blesses Israel again, Numbers 24:1. Answers Balak's reproof, Numbers 24:10. Utters several prophecies, Numbers 24:14. Goes home, Numbers 24:25.... [ Continue Reading ]
_A.M. 2552. B.C. 1452._ Balaam, inspired by God, blesses Israel again, Numbers 24:1. Answers Balak's reproof, Numbers 24:10. Utters several prophecies, Numbers 24:14. Goes home, Numbers 24:25.... [ Continue Reading ]
_He went not as at other times_ At former times; _to seek for enchantments_ The word נחשׁ, from which נחשׁים, _necashim_, here rendered _enchantments_, is derived, signifies to _augur, conjecture, search, make trial, find out: 1 Kings 20:33_, it is translated, to _observe diligently; Genesis 30:27_,... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Spirit of God came upon him_ And is it likely that the Spirit of God would have come upon a sorcerer or enchanter? A prophetic influence from God came upon him, whereby he was enabled to foresee future events, and inspired to utter the following words: _The man whose eyes are open_ Some, confou... [ Continue Reading ]
_The vision of the Almighty_ So called properly, because he was awake when the following things were revealed to him. _Falling into a trance_ In the Hebrew it is only _falling_, namely, fainting and falling to the ground, as the prophets sometimes used to do. Our translators supply the words, _into... [ Continue Reading ]
_How goodly are thy tents_, &c. Having seen them pitched in the plains of Moab, (Numbers 24:2,) he thus breaks forth into admiration of their beautiful order, as they lay ranged under their several standards. _As the valleys_ Which often from a small beginning are spread forth far and wide. _As gard... [ Continue Reading ]
_He shall pour the water_ That is, God will abundantly water the valleys, gardens, and tress, which represent the Israelites; he will wonderfully bless his people, not only with outward blessings, of which a chief one in those parts was plenty of water, but also with higher gifts and graces, with hi... [ Continue Reading ]
_He shall eat up the nations_, &c. The expressions in these verses are intended to signify the victories which the Israelites should gain over their enemies, and particularly the Canaanites, and the secure and quiet possession they should have of the land afterward, all which was fulfilled especiall... [ Continue Reading ]
_He took up his parable_ A weighty and solemn speech, delivered in figurative and majestic language, is often termed a parable in Scripture. Such are these prophecies of Balaam; we cannot peruse them without being struck, not only with their beauty, but with their uncommon force and energy.... [ Continue Reading ]
_I shall see him_, &c. “Rather,” says Bishop Newton, from whose exposition of the prophecies of Balaam many of the following explanatory observations are extracted, _“I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not nigh;_ the future tense in Hebrew being often used for the present. He saw with the eye... [ Continue Reading ]
_Edom shall be a possession_ “This was also fulfilled by David; for _throughout all Edom put he garrisons, and all they of Edom became David's servants, 2 Samuel 8:14_. David himself, in two of his Psalms, (Psalms 60:8; and Psalms 108:9;) hath mentioned together his conquest of Moab and Edom, as the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Out of Jacob_ Out of his loins. _He that shall have dominion_ David, and especially Christ. _Shall destroy him that remaineth of the city_ Not only defeat them in the field, but destroy them even in their strongest cities. “We see,” Bishop Newton further observes, “how exactly this prophecy hath be... [ Continue Reading ]
_He looked upon Amalek_ From the top of Pisgah, which was exceeding high, and gave him the prospect of part of all these kingdoms, he turned his eyes from the Moabites more to the south and west, and looked on their neighbours the Amalekites. _Amalek was the first of the nations_ Hebrew, _the beginn... [ Continue Reading ]
_He looked on the Kenites_ Commentators are much at a loss to say, with any certainty, who these Kenites were. The most probable account of them, Bishop Newton thinks, is as follows: “Jethro, the father- in-law of Moses, is called the priest of Midian, Exodus 3:1; and Judges 1:16, _the Kenite._ We m... [ Continue Reading ]
_Alas, who shall live_ How calamitous and miserable will the state of the world be, when the Assyrian, and after him the Chaldean, shall overrun and overturn all these parts of the world! Who will be able to keep his heart from fainting under such grievous pressures? Nay, how few will escape the des... [ Continue Reading ]
_From the coast of Chittim_ A place or people, so called from Chittim, the son of Javan, (Genesis 10:4,) whose posterity were very numerous, and were first seated in the lesser Asia, and from thence sent forth colonies into the islands of the Ægean sea, and into Cyprus; afterward into Macedonia and... [ Continue Reading ]
_Balaam went to his place_ To Mesopotamia; though afterward he returned to the Midianites, and gave them that wicked counsel which was put in practice, chap. 25. And it appears, from Numbers 31:8, that he was slain among the Midianites.... [ Continue Reading ]