BIBLE STUDIES.
By
M. M. KALISCH, PH. D., M.A.
PART 1.
THE PROPHECIES OF BALAAM
(NUMBERS XXII. to XXIV)
OR
THE HEBREW AND THE HEATHEN.
LONGMANS, GREEN
AND CO.
1877
Public Domain
Digitized by Ted
Hildebrandt 2004
PREFACE.
ALMOST
immediately after the completion of the fourth
volume
of his Commentary on the Old Testament, in
1872,
the author was seized with a severe and lingering
illness.
The keen pain he felt at the compulsory interrup-
tion
of his work was solely relieved by the undiminished
interest
with which he was able to follow the widely ram-
ified
literature connected with his favourite studies. At
length,
after weary years of patience and ‘hope deferred,’ a
moderate
measure of strength seemed to return, inadequate
indeed
to a resumption of his principal task in its full ex-
tent,
yet, sufficient, it appeared, to warrant, an attempt at
elucidating
some of those, numerous problems of Biblical
criticism
and religious history, which are still awaiting a
final
solution. Acting, therefore, on the maxim, ‘Est
quadam prodire
tenus, si non datur ultra,’ and stim-
lated
by the desire of contributing his humble share to
the
great intellectual labour of our age, he selected, as a
first
effort after his partial recovery, the interpretation of
that
exquisite episode in the Book of Numbers which
contains
an account of Balaam and his prophecies. This
section),
complete in itself, discloses a deep insight into
the
nature and course of prophetic influence; implies
most
instructive hints for the knowledge of Hebrew
doctrine;
and is one of the choicest, master-pieces of
universal
literature. Love of such a subject could
not
fail
to uphold even a wavering, strength, and to revive an
PREFACE.
often
drooping courage. The author is indebted
to these
pursuits
for many hours of the highest enjoyment, and
he
feels compelled to express his profound for gratitude for
having
been permitted to accomplish even this modest
enterprise.
If strength be granted to him, he anxious,
in
continuation of the same important enquiry, still
further
to elucidate the mutual relation, according to the
Scriptures
and the Jewish writings, between the Hebrew
and
the Heathen, by commenting on the Book of Jonah,
of
which he proposes to treat in a Second Part of these
Bible
Studies.
The author would fain hope that the main
portions of
the
work may be found of some interest not only to
theologians
and Biblical students, but to a wider circle
of
readers, since the possibility of a general diffusion of
critical
or historical results is the only decisive test of
their
value.
In the Translation and the Commentary he
has ad-
hered
to the same principles which guided him in his
previous
volumes, and for the convenience of Hebrew
scholars
he has here also inserted the original Text.
Although he has neglected no available
source of in-
formation,
and has endeavoured to utilise, for the illustra-
tion
of his subject, both the most ancient traditions and
the
most recent discoveries and researches, he is well
aware
how much his effort stands in need of indulgence
but
he believes that he will not appeal in vain to the
forbearance
of those who realise the impediments and
difficulties
under which he has laboured.
M.
KALISCH.
CONTENTS
PAGE
1.—THE PROPHET AND HIS PROPHECIES.—PRELIMINARY
TREATISE 1
1. Summary 1
2. Uncertain
Traditions 3
3. The
Character of Balaam 7
4. Balaam’s
Religion 11
5. The
God of Balak 13
6. Balaam
the Prophet 16
7. Misrepresentations 22
The New Testament and Balaam 22
Josephus and Balaam 23
Philo and Balaam 25
Jewish Tradition and Balaam 27
8. Deterioration 34
9. Conclusions 38
10. The
Orginal Book of Balaam 40
11. The
Date of the Composition 42
12. The
Author 51
13.
Balaam’s Identity 52
14.
15. Analogy
of the Book of Ruth 58
16. Fame
and Character of the Book 61
17. Limits 64
18.
II.--
TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY.—NUMBERS XXII.-
XXIV 73
1 Introduction.
xxii. 73
2. Councils xxii. 2-4 83
3. First
Message xxii. 5-14 96
4. Second
Message. xxii. 15-21 116
5. The
Journey xxii. 22-35 124
viii CONTENTS.
PAGE
6. Arrival
and Reception. xxii. 36-40. 152
7. Preparations.
xxii. 41-xxiii. 6 159
8. Balaam's
First Speech. xxiii. 7-10 171
9. Remonstrances
and New Preparations. xxiii. 11-17 185
10. Balaam's
Second Speech. xxiii. 18-24 191
11. Again
Remonstrances and Preparations. xxiii. 25-xxiv. 211
12. Balaam's
Third Speech. xxiv. 3-9 220
13. Balak’s
Anger and Balaam's Reply. xxiv. 10-14 242
14. Balaam's
Prophecy on
15. SUPPLEMENTS.
xxiv. 18-24 263
16. Prophecy
on
17. Prophecy
on the Amalekites. xxiv. 20 277
18. Prophecy
on the Kenites. xxiv. 21, 22 282
19. Prophecy
on
20. Conclusion.
xxiv. 25 304
III.--APPENDIX.--THE
ORIGINAL FORM OF THE BOOK OF BALAAM 308
HEBREW TEXT.--NUMBERS XXII. TO XXIV.
1. SUMMARY.
The
contents of that portion of the Book of Numbers
which
we propose to examine, may be thus briefly sum-
marised.
On their way from
fortieth
year of their wanderings, the Hebrews had ad-
vanced
to the plains of
Alarmed
by the proximity of such large hosts, which had
just
discomfited powerful opponents in the same districts,
Balak,
the king of
chiefs
of Midian, resolved to summon, from Pethor on
the
and
to request hint to pronounce upon the Israelites
a
curse, by virtue of which he hoped to vanquish them
in
the expected conflict.b When the elders of
Midian,
who were selected as envoys, had arrived at
Pethor
and delivered their errand, Balaam bid them stay,
till
he had ascertained the will of God; and when he learnt,
through
a vision, that God disapproved of the journey
and
the curse, since the Israelites were a blessed nation,
he
declined to accompany the messengers.c On bearing
their
reply, Balak sent a second and still more weighty
embassy,
promising Balaam the highest distinctions
and
rewards, if he yielded to his wishes. But Balaam
declared
to the nobles, that no treasures or honours,
a Num. xxii, 1. b Vers. 2-6. c
Vers. 7-13
2 SUMMARY.
however
splendid, could induce him to act against the
command
of God, whom, therefore, he would again con-
sult.
This time he received permission to proceed to
adhere
to God's suggestions; after which he entered
upon
the journey together with the ambassadors.a
Yet when he had set out, God was
greatly displeased,
and
sent His angel with a drawn sword to oppose him.
The
prophet's ass, but not the prophet himself, beheld
the
Divine apparition. The terrified animal first retreated
from
the road into the field; next pressed, in anguish and
perplexity,
against a vineyard wall in a narrow path;
and
at last, unable to withdraw either to the right or
the
left, fell down on the ground, all this time angrily
beaten
by the vexed rider. 'Then the Lord opened the
mouth
of the ass,' who complained to Balaam of his
harshness,
and reminded him that she had never before
behaved
so strangely. ‘Then the Lord opened the eyes
of
Balaam,’ and the angel, now perceived by the seer,
rebuked
him for his cruel treatment of the faithful beast,
and
declared that he had come to resist the journey, since
he
deemed it pernicious. Balaam, mortified and penitent,
readily
offered to return, but the angel commanded him
to
go with the ambassadors, yet scrupulously to abstain
from
saying anything but what the Lord should prompt.b
On
the frontier of
to
whom he announced at once that he could speak
nothing
of his own mind, but was bound to obey the
voice
of God alone.c Hospitable entertainments followed;
preparations
were made for the prophecies; and then,
standing
on an elevation, from where a part of the
Hebrew
people could be surveyed, Balaam, in the pre-
a xxii. 14-21. b Vers. 22-36. c Vers. 36-38.
UNCERTAIN
TRADITIONS. 3
sence
of Balak and his chiefs, uttered a speech, inspired
by
God, in which he extolled
and
specially elected by the Eternal, exceedingly nume-
rous,
and happy through righteousness.a The annoyed
king
took Balaam to another place where, after due
preliminaries,
the prophet pronounced a second Divine
oracle,
affirming that the blessing once bestowed on
was
irrevocable, since they were a pious people guided
by
the Lord, victorious by their prowess, and inapproach-
able
in their strength.b Balak,
troubled and amazed,
once
more made a determined attempt, but again Balaam
proclaimed
the praises of
tent,
and fertility of their land, the prosperity and splen-
dour
of their empire, and the terrible disasters they in-
flicted
upon their enemies.c In pain and rage, Balak now
commanded
the seer forthwith to flee to his own country.
But
before departing, Balaam spontaneously added a
prophecy
foreshadowing the subjugation of
by
an illustrious king of the Israelites;d and to this he
joined,
moreover, oracles on the future destinies of the
Hebrews
in connection with
Kenites
and the Assyrians.e Then Balaam and Balak
separated,
each returning to his home.f
2. UNCERTAIN TRADITIONS.
IT
is necessary for our purpose to notice the other Biblical
accounts
with respect to Balaam, and, first of all, to
consider
the following passage of Deuteronomy:g 'An
Ammonite
and a Moabite shall not enter into the con-
gregation
of the Lord . . . because they did not meet
a xxii. 39-xxiii. 10. d
Vers. 10-17. f Ver. 25.
b Vers. 11--24. e
Vers. 18-24, g Deut. xxiii. 4-6,
c xxiii. 25--xxiy. 9,
4 UNCERTAIN
TRADITIONS.
you
with bread and with water on the way, when you
came
forth out of
hired
against thee Balaam, the son of Beor, of Pethor in
would
not listen to Balaam, and turned the curse into a
blessing
for thee, because He loves thee.'a Hence the
Deuteronomist
evidently followed a tradition very differ-
ent
from that embodied in the narrative of Numbers.
According
to the former, Balaam, when ‘hired’ to curse
His
merciful love of
their
intended effect, transformed into benedictions; in
correspondence
with which, Nehemiah, quoting and
epitomising
Deuteronomy, records that ‘The Moabite
hired
Balaam against
turned
the curse into a blessing.’b A process so indirect
and
artificial is wholly at variance with the plain sim-
plicity
of the story before us. Here Balaam never
evinced
the least disposition or made the slightest
attempt
to hazard execrations which levelled against
the
elect of God, would have been hardly less than
blasphemous.
Nor did he allow himself to be ‘hired’ in
the
sense in which Balak wished to engage him; but he
submitted
unconditionally to the direction of the Lord,
who
would not permit an alien to call down upon His
people
imprecations, however empty and transitory.
Micah,
living in the eighth century B.C., alludes to the
tradition
concerning Balaam in a context, which leaves
no
doubt as to its spirit and tendency. For among the
a The change from
the plural for regarding, with some critics, the
(vmdq) to the
singular (rbw),
with- second part of verse 5, like
the
out
the introduction of a new sub- following verse, as a fragmentary
jeet,
is indeed strange and incon- addition.
gruous,
but hardly a sufficient reason b Neh. xiii. 2.
UNCERTAIN
TRADITIONS. 5
signal
favours bestowed by God upon His people, as their
deliverance
from Egyptian slavery and their safe guidance
under
leaders like Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, the prophet
mentions
this also: ‘0 my people, remember now, what
Balak,
king of
of
Beor, answered him . . . in order that you may know
the
kindness of the Lord.'a Balaam's ‘answers’
manifestly
did
not satisfy the king; they were blessings and praises
of
the Hebrews; and Micah is, therefore, in harmony
with
Numbers, not with Deuteronomy.
We come to another point, in which
tradition wavered.
The
Book of Joshua, closely connected with Deuteronomy,
states
that Balak actually ‘waged war against Israel.’b
But
the Book of Judges writes distinctly, ‘Did Balak,
the
son of Zippor, king of
did
he fight against them?c And so,
according to Num-
bers
likewise, Balak's sole enterprise against
his
employment of Balaam. For, however eager he might
have
been to expel the dangerous invaders by resolute
combat,d
he desisted from the hopeless struggle when Ba-
laam's
co-operation had proved fallacious. Our account
concludes
with the words, ‘And Balaam rose and went
away
and returned to his place, and Balak also went his
way;’e and soon
afterwards we find the Hebrews and
Moabites
not merely living in peace but in friendship,
a Mic. vi. 5. By
a strange mis- Aaron);' or,
'not with the sword,
conception,
many (as Bishop Butler, but by
imprecations' (Keil), which
Lowth,
and others) understood this 'the
writer calls war' (Rosennmeller);
passage
in Micah (vi. 5-8) as 'a or, 'he
showed a hostile feeling'
dialogue
between Balaam and Balak.' (Biur and others); and it is gra-
b Josh. xxiv. 9, lxrwyb
MHlyv,
tuitous to assume 'small
attacks'
which
cannot mean, 'he intended to (Knobel), of which no mention is
wage
war, the intention being deemed made in
the Old Testament.
equivalent
to the deed' (Kimchi);
c Judg. xi. 25.
or,
' he fought by counsels and stra- d Num. xxii. 6,
11.
tagems'
(Kether Torah of Rabbi e xxiv. 2.5; see
notes in loc.
6 UNCERTAIN
TRADITIONS.
and
readily exchanging their religious views and prac-
tices.a
But the most important fluctuation is
the follow-
ing.
The Book of Joshuab clearly
describes Balaam as a
‘soothsayer’
(MseOq),
and adds, moreover, that he was,
among
other enemies, slain by the Hebrews in their war
against
the Midianites, on whose side he fought. A sub-
sequent
portion of the Book of Numbers not only repeats
this
latter statement, but charges Balaam, besides, with
the
heinous crime of having, by infamous counsels,
enticed
the Israelites to the grossly licentious worship of
Baal-Peor,
and of having thus caused a fearful plague,
which
fell upon the people as a Divine chastisement.c It
was
naturally, and perhaps excusably, supposed that, in
the
section under consideration, Balaam is regarded in the
same
light--namely, as a common magician and a fiendish
tempter;
and starting from this view, theologians and
interpreters,
in ancient and modern times, have drawn a
picture
of Balaam's character which is truly awful.
There
is hardly a vice which they did not think themselves
justified
in attributing to him. They uniformly dis-
covered
that our author represented the foreign seer, above
all,
as swayed by the two master passions of ambition and
avarice
to a degree almost amounting to actual madness.d
But
in delineating his other numerous blemishes, they
differed
very considerably. They variously described
a xxv. 1-4. The
words in the either mean
that the curses pro-
Book
of Joshua, which follow upon nounced
by Balaam were turned
those
above referred to, although pro- into
blessings, or that he indeed pro-
bably
coinciding with the conception nounced
curses, but was also com-
of
Deuteronomy, fvmwl ytybx xlv pelled
to utter blessings.
Mktx jvrb jrbyv Mflbl (Josh. b
xiii. 22.
xxiv.
10), may yet be considered as c xxxi. 8, 16; comp. xxv.
1-9.
forming
a transition to that of Num- d
Freely applying to him the line
bers
with respect to the first discre- of
Sophocles: To> mantiko>n ga>r pa?n
panty
pointed out; for they may fila<rguron ge<noj (
THE CHARACTER OF
BALAAM. 7
him
as proud, insolent, and inflated, and yet cunning
and
hypocritical; as false and ungrateful; mendacious
and
treacherous; wavering, yet obstinate; diabolically
wicked
and mischievous; the primary type of all artful
seducers
of God's people; cruel and passionate; a sordid
trader
in prophecy and a mercenary impostor--the Simon
Magus
of the Old Testament; a sacrilegious trickster
and
blasphemous dissembler; an unhallowed idolater
and
a lying sorcerer; a profane reviler and sanctimonious
scoffer.a Indeed not a few writers have produced veri-
table
masterpieces of exegetical ingenuity.b
Justice, however, requires that,
before expressing a
decisive
opinion, we should at least endeavour to under-
stand
this narrative by itself and apart from other
Biblical
notices. This ‘Book of Balaam’--as we shall
henceforth
briefly call it--is in every way complete. It
is
pervaded by religious and historical conceptions pre-
senting
the most perfect unity. We shall, therefore, try
to
reproduce the figure of Balaam from this portion with
all
possible fidelity.
3. THE CHARACTER OF BALAAM.
THE
key to Balaam's whole conduct lies in the words,
‘I
cannot go against the command of the Lord to do
either
good or bad of my own mind.’c The same signi-
ficant
term 'of my own mind,' is, in the Pentateuch,
employed
on another and no less remarkable occasion.
When
Moses announced the miraculous punishment to
a This florilegium--which is only b As Calvin,
Michaelis, Hengsten-
a
short specimen--has not been com- berg,
Baumgarten, Kurtz, Keil,
piled
at random, but we could quote Reinke,
Lange, Koehler, and others
authorities
of repute for each indivi- who have
influenced the interpreta-
dual
epithet, and shall hereafter have tion
of these chapters.
occasion
to do so to some extent. c yBli.mi, xxiv. 13.
8 THE CHARACTER OF BALAAM.
be
inflicted upon Korah and his associates, he said
‘Hereby
you shall know, that the Lord has sent me to
do
all these works, and that I have not done them of my
own
mind.’a As Moses is the mouthpiece of God's behests
and
His instrument, so is Balaam. The greatest of the
Hebrew
prophets and the heathen seer here introduced
are
equals in this cardinal point, that all they say and do
is
not ordinary human speech and deed, but the expres-
sion
of the Divine will, which, renouncing their own
volition,
they are ready or compelled to obey.b Can a
stronger
proof than this parallel be conceived of the high
position
and dignity which the author assigns to Balaam?
From
this central view everything else is easily surveyed
and
illustrated. Never, under any circumstances, does
Balaam
forget that he has no independent power, but
that
he is the servant of God, whose visions he beholds
and
whose spirit comes upon him, whose direction he seeks
and
whose revelations he utters.c
Balak's messengers arrive, and, in
accordance with
custom,
bring him rewards for his expected services as
an
enchanter. But neither does the royal embassy, con-
sisting
of the chiefs of two nations, flatter his ambition,
nor
do the presents, no doubt considerable, tempt him
into
covetousness. When he hears the king's request, he
represses
both his inclination and his judgment. Not
even
by the slightest allusion are we informed to which
side
that personal disposition was leaning, since it is of
no
consequence or importance whatever. Declining to
return
an answer on his own account, he asks the
messengers
to wait till he has ascertained the Divine
will,
and when God commands him not to go to
a yBil.imi, Num. xvi. 28;
comp. c xxii. 18, 19,
38; xxiii. 3-5, 12,
Jude
11. 15, 16, 26; xxiv. 4,13,16:
which
b See Comm. on
Lev. vol. i. p. 706. passages are
distinct and emphatic.
THE CHARACTER OF
BALAAM. 9
curse
the Hebrews, he simply communicates to the
envoys
this injunction, which to him is final.a
Ere long, he is visited by a second
and still more
brilliant
embassy, empowered to make, in the king's
name,
the most alluring offers: ‘I will honour thee
greatly,
and whatever thou sayest to me that I will do’b
--offers
of a kind which it is almost beyond human
nature
to regard with indifference, and which only the
rarest
force of character can succeed in resisting. But
Balaam
remains unshaken. He may, indeed, for a
moment,
have been agitated by an inward struggle,
which
the author, with the subtlest psychological art,
intimates
by Balaam's hyperbolical declaration, that not
even
the king's ‘house full of gold and silver' could alter
his
resolution. But the temptation is no sooner felt than
it
is warded off, and for ever banished from his heart.
He
protests with greater decision than before, that he
‘cannot
go against the commandment of the Lord to do a
small
or great thing,’c and only after
having received
God's
distinct permission, does he consent to accompany
the
princes to Moab.d
Balak, ready to prove that he had not
spoken empty
words
when he promised to Balaam the highest honours,
goes
out to meet him at the frontier of his kingdom.e
But
undazzled by this distinction, most flattering ac-
cording
to Eastern notions,f the prophet
courageously
and
almost bluntly warns the anxiously expectant king
against
too confident hopes. For, without
speculating
whether
God's repeal of the previous prohibition of the
journey
involved or foreshadowed also a repeal of the
prohibition
of the curse, he tells Balak: ‘Behold, I am
a xxii. 8, 12,
13. b Ver. 17. will soon be apparent; see infra,
c Ver. 18. d Ver. 20. sect. 'Original Form.'
e Ver. 36. In
this survey, we pass f Comp. Gen. xxix. 13; xlvi. 29;
over
xxii. 22-35, for reasons which Exod.
xviii. 7, etc.
10 THE CHARACTER OE BALAAM.
come
to thee; have I now any power at all to say
anything?
the word that God puts in my mouth, that I
shall
speak.'a The next day, after having duly
prepared
himself,
he awaits the Divine inspiration,b and having
obtained
it, he joins Balak, who, surrounded by his
nobles,
was standing at the altar and his sacrifices; and
here
he announces, in enthusiastic speech and without fear
or
hesitation, the direct opposite of what the king, as he
well
knew, expected of him and longed to hear.c He
meets
Balak's indignant remonstrances again merely by
affirming
that he dare not contravene the commands of
God.d A never appeal
for Divine direction results in similar
utterances,
followed by the same reproofs and the same
unflinching
confessions.e A third attempt differs from
the
former transactions only in this point, that Balaam no
more
goes out to secure a special revelation. For he is
now
certain that 'it pleases God to bless
convinced
that he may safely surrender himself to the
impulse
of the moment. Indeed, when he beholds the
vast
camp of the Israelites stretched out before his view,
he
exalts their prosperity and power, their fame and
triumphs,
with a solemnity and fervour he had not even
attained
before; and he concludes with declaring, that if
anyone
should presume to curse
that
the curse would recoil.f The king,
struck by the
pointed
and ominous allusion, listens to those bursts of
prophetic
fire with increasing rage and consternation;
but
Balaam remains calm and unawed. He is now a
hateful
guest in
regardless
of the danger to which he exposes himself, he
not
only, with imperturbable tranquillity, reminds the
a xxii. 38. c Vers. 7-10. e Vers. 15, 16,
25, 26.
b xxiii. 3. d Ver. 12. f xxiv. 1-9.
BALAAM'S
RELIGION. 11
monarch
of his former assurance, that not even all the
golden
treasures of a palace could move him to utter
oracles
‘of his own mind,’a but, rising to new enthusiasm,
he
announces to Balak, unrequested, the future fate of
his
own land, proclaiming that, like many other kingdoms,
it
was doomed to be subdued and crushed by the very
people
which, at that moment, was causing him dread and
horror.b
And then the author concludes his account of
the
seer, simply and quietly, ‘And Balaam rose and went
away
and returned to his place.’c
It would not be easy to find, in the
epic compositions
of
any country, a delineation of character more clear or
more
consistent than that of Balaam in this incomparable
section.
Firm and inexorable like eternal Fate, he regards
himself
solely as an instrument of that Omnipotence,
which
guides the destinies of nations by its unerring
wisdom.
Free from all human passion and almost from
all
human emotion, he is like a mysterious spirit from a
higher
and nobler world, which looks upon the fortunes
of
the children of men with an immovable and sublime
repose.
4. BALAAM'S RELIGION.
To test and to confirm this view, it
will be desirable to
enquire
whether Balaam is, in this portion, portrayed
as
a true Hebrew prophet, or whether and in what re-
spects
he is marked as a heathen.
First, it is important to notice, that
the God of Balaam
is
undoubtedly the God of the Hebrews. He is intro-
duced
with nearly all His Biblical names--Jahveh,
Elohim, El, Shaddai,
Elyon--and
no other deity is men-
a xxiv. 12, 13. c
Ver. 25.--The passage xxiv.
b
Vers. 14-17. 18-24 must here also be excluded.
12 BALAAM’S
RELIGION.
tioned
throughout the entire Book. The most frequent
by
far is the appellation of Jahveh (hvhy), and it is not
a
little
significant that Balaam uses predominantly that
holy
and specifically Hebrew name of Revelation and the
Covenant,
both in the narrative and in prophetic speech;a
a
few times only he employs El and once, respec-
tively,
Elohim (Myhilox<), Shaddai (yDawa), and Elyon (NOyl;f,).c
Wherever
the author relates in his own name, Jahveh
and
Elohim are introduced promiscuously;d
but it would
not
be possible, without resorting to artificial expedients,
to
establish a principle and design in this change or
alternation.
For as Jahveh puts the words into the
seer's
mouth and grants him revelations,e so does Elohim,f
whose
‘spirit comes upon Balaam.’g It
is true that, in
the
account of the first embassy, Elohim
is, with remark-
able
uniformity, used by the author, and Jahveh
by
Balaam;
"but this affords only a new and striking proof
of
the, writer's art and care, who desired to impart to
the
prophet's speech the most solemn emphasis possible,
a xxii. 8, 13, 18, 19; xxiii. 3,
8, xxiv.
1; the latter in xxii. 9, 20;
12,
21, 26; xxiv. 6, 13. xxiii. 4 ; xxiv. 3.
b xxiii. 8,, 19, 23; xxiv. 4, 8,
16, e
xxiii. 5, 16.
24. f xxii. 9, 20, 38; xxiii. 4.
c xxii. 38 ; xxiv. 8, 16; comp. g xxiv. 3.--Particularly instruc.
xxiii.
21. How can we suppress tive
is xxiii. 3-5: Balaam expects,
a
feeling of astonishment at finding, that
hvhy
will meet him (ver. 3), in
that
this very circumstance--the reality
he is met by Myhlx (ver. 4),
constant
use by Balaam of the name and hvhy suggests to him
the pro-
of
Jahveh--has been urged as a con- phecy
(ver. 5). The distinctions
clusive
proof of Balaam's sanctimony that have
been attempted (Heng-
and
arrogance, of his frauds and stenb.
1. c. pp. 409-411; Baur,
selfish
wiles' (Hengstenberg, Authen- Alttestamentliche
Weissagung, etc.,
tie
des Pentateucbs, i. 407, 411; i. 334; Ewald, Jabrbuecher, viii. p.
similarly
Baumyarten, Reinke, Bei- 18; Keil, Commentar zu Numeri, p.
traege,
iv. 227; comp., however, 297, etc.) are not satisfactory or
con-
Staehelin,
Kritische Untersuchun- vincing.
gen,
pp. 36, 37.)
h xxii. 9, 10, 12, 20; and vers. 8,
d The former in
xxiii. 6, 16; 13, 18, 19.
THE GOD OF
BALAK. 13
while
preserving the greatest simplicity in his own
words.a
But we are not left to deduce, from uncertain
inference,
that the God of Balaam is no other than the
God
of
unmistakeably
expressed. Balaam speaks of Jahveh as
‘my
God,’b just as he says with reference to
Jahveh
is ‘his God;’c and that term 'Jahveh my God 'd
is
not 'merely the Hebrew designation of Balaam's
monotheism,'e
but involves and demonstrates the absolute
identity
of Balaam's monotheism and that of Israel.f
5. THE GOD OF BALAK.
A
CLEAR light is thrown upon the subject by considering
it
in conjunction with Balalc's religious notions.
The king sends messengers to the seer
with the gene-
ral
charge to come and curse the Hebrews.9 He does not
specify
the deity in whose name he desires the curse to
a By what perversion of judgment, e vyhAlox< xxiii. 21; comp.
1 Ki.
was
it possible to discover in this xviii. 39, Myhlx
xvh hvhy;
Ps.
circumstance
also 'a silent accusation vii. 2, 4;
xviii,. 7, 29; Hos. ii. 25;
of
hypocrisy against Balaam, who so viii.
2; Zechar. xiii. 9, etc.
boastfully
spoke of his Jehovah (der d yhAlox<
hOAhy;
sich
mit seinem Jehova so breit e Knobel, Numeri erklart, p. 131.
machte),
constantly crying Ku<rie f It is, therefore, not
sufficient to
Ku<rie, although in reality he was say, that 'Balaam's religion was
only
in connection with Elobim.'! probably
such as would be the na-
(Hengstenb. 1. c. pp.409, 411; Lange, tural result of a general acquaint-
Bibelwerk,
ii. 308, 311, 'an ostenta- ante with
God not confirmed by any
tiously
displayed belief in Jehova... covenant'
(Smith, Dictionary of the
...as
if he knew the God of salva- Bible,i.
163): Balaam's acquaintance
tion.'
In the passage xxii. 22-35 with
God was precisely that pos-
also,the
name hvhy
prevails, whether sessed by the
highest minds among
Jahveh
Himself (vers. 28, 31) or, the
Hebrews in the author's time.--
more
frequently, the 'angel of About
the question, how the Meso-
Jahveh'
(vers. 22-27, 31, 32, 34, potamian
Balaam obtained a know-
35),
while Myhlx
occurs but once ledge of Jahveh
as the God of the
(ver.
22). Hebrews,
see notes on xxii. 5-14.
b yhAlox< xxii. 18. g xxii. 5, 6.
14 THE
GOD OF BALAK.
be
pronounced. It is enough for him to know that
Balaam's
blessing and curse are potent and irresistible.
Does
he, in the author's view, mean the God of the
Hebrews
and Him alone? This cannot be assumed; for
if
he had deemed this point essential, he would not have
failed
to insist upon it in his explicit message. He
evidently
knew nothing of Jahveh, or he did not heed Him.
He
had heard of the exodus of the Hebrews from
but
he speaks of their deliverance as of an ordinary
event,
without alluding to Jahveh's assistance or inter-
ventiona--in
striking contrast to Balaam, who repeatedly
attributes
it to the power and mercy of
How
should he indeed expect an efficient execration from
a
soothsayer inspired by a strange god against his own
chosen
people? When Balaam, following the Divine
directions,
announced to the elders of
(hvhy) refuses to
give me leave to go with you;'c in what
form
did the elders bring back this answer to Balak?
They
simply said, 'Balaam refuses to come with us.’d
They
omitted to mention Jahveh, obviously because to
them
and to the king He was an unfamiliar god. If
Balak
had specially desired that the Hebrews should be
cursed
in the name of Jahveh, it would have been of the
utmost
importance to him to learn that it was Jahveh
Himself
who forbade Balaam to journey forth. But the
envoys
and the monarch alike were concerned about
nothing
except the bare fact of Balaam's non-compliance.
The second embassy was despatched with
the same
indefinite
message, no particular god being named.e
However,
when Balaam at last arrived in
to
the king, ‘I will go perhaps the Lord (hvhy) will
a xxii. 5. c
xxii. 13.
b xxiii. 22; xxiv. 8; see notes
on d Ver. 14.
xxii.
5-14. e
xxii, 15-17,
THE GOD OF
BALAK. 15
come
to meet me; and whatsoever He will show me, I
will
tell thee.'a Then was Balak, for the first time, made
clearly
aware that Balaam was in the service of Jahveh,
and
then he might easily have informed himself about
His
nature and His relation to
he
thenceforth heard the same name from Balaam's
mouth,
both in the interviews and the prophetic speeches;b
and
when he, therefore, saw Balaarn the second time re-
turn,
prepared for uttering an oracle, he asked, in anxious
suspense,
‘What has the Lord (hvhy) spoken?’c He had
learnt,
that it was from Jahveh, the God of the terrible
Hebrews,
that he must expect his safety or destruction.
But
he had also learnt, that this Jahveh is the God or
Elohim;d
and, consequently, when he requested Balaam
to
make a new attempt in another place, he added, ‘Per-
haps
it will please Ha-Elohim, that thou mayest curse
me
them from there.'e Yet when, this time also, Balaam
pronounced
a blessing and not a curse, the frenzied king,
dismissing
the prophet from his presence, exclaimed,’—‘I
thought
to honour thee, but, behold, the Lord (hvhy) has
kept
thee back from honour'f thus mingling with
his
rage a derisive sarcasm, taunting Balaam's God as
delighting
to deprive of honours and rewards His most
scrupulous
worshippers; and with those defiant words,
Balak,
the type of blind and worldly paganism, so skil-
fully
placed in juxtaposition to Balaam, for ever discards
that
Jahveh, to whom he had turned for a moment
through
fear and selfishness.g
a xxiii. 3. will be more
fully unfolded in the
b Vers. 8, 12. Commentary.
Even Jewish tradition
e Ver. 17. admits,
that Balak was a more su-
d xxii. 38; comp.
xxiii. 21. perstitious idolater than Balaam;
e xxiii. 27. Midrash Rabb. Num. xx. 7, hyh qlb
f xxiv. 11. Mlfbm
rtvy wHn lfbv Mymsq lfb
g Balak's
disposition and views xmvsk
vyrHx jwmn hyhw.
16
6. BALAAM THE PROPHET.
WE
shall approach still nearer to a right estimate of
Balaam's
character by enquiring how he received
Jahveh's
revelations--whether in the manner of Hebrew
prophecy
or in connection with heathen rites?
When Balaam hears, from the first
ambassadors, the
king's
demand, he desires them to remain till the next
morning,
and promises a reply in accordance with God's
injunction.a
He is, therefore, sure of a Divine communi-
cation.
How is it conveyed? Certainly in the night--as
is
not only clear from the context, but is expressed in dis-
tinct
terms;b and evidently in sleep, for God orders Balaam,
‘Rise
and go with the men,’ after which the author adds,--
'And
Balaam rose in the morning ... and went with the
princes
of Moab.'c He received, therefore, his communi-
cations
in dream visions, and these were deemed by the
Hebrews
one of the legitimate and valued modes of
Divine
revelation.d Again, God speaks to Balaam, and
Balaam
speaks to God;e He ‘shows him’ words,’f puts
words
into his mouth,'g or gives him 'commands;'h in
fact
‘the spirit of God comes upon Balaam;’i phrases
which
we find constantly applied in the Old Testament to
the
true seers of Israel.k Balaam's speech or address is
indeed,
on account of its poetical character, generally
a xxii. 8. h
xxii. 18; xxiv. 13.
b Ver. 20. i
xxiv. 2 ; see notes in loc.
c Vers. 20, 21. k
Comp. Deut. xviii. 18; 2 Sam.
d Num. xii. 6 ; Gen. xx. 3; xxxi. xxiii.
2 ; Isai. li. 16; lix. 21; Jer.
11,
24; xlvi. 2; Job iv. 13-16, i. 9; Ezek, xxxiii. 7, etc. Balaam,
etc.;
see Commentary on Genesis, says Lange (Bibelwerk, ii. 309),
pp.
608, 640. with
a refinement we are unable to
e xxii. 8-12, 19, 20; xxiii. 26. realise, had ‘Verkehr’ with God,
but
f xxiii. not 'Umgang:' the
distinction is
g xxii. 38; xxiii. 5, 12, 16. certainly
not essential.
BALAAM USE
PROPHET. 17
designated
as ‘parable,’a but also as ‘Words of God,’b or
simply
‘utterance’c of Balaam, which is the specific term
for
prophetic communication.d
However, some circumstances are
mentioned which
seem
at least doubtful. We may here briefly pass over
the
fact that the king sent Balaam ‘wages’ or ‘rewards of
divination.’e
Supposing even that Balaam accepted them,
he
deserves no censure. For according to the notions of
those
times, no one ever consulted a seer without offering
him
a present, either in money or provisions, although
the
most trifling gift contented the simplicity of Hebrew
prophets,f
and the assertiong that the ‘men of God’ did
not
receive or take such presents is unfounded, though
in
some cases they may have had special reasons for re-
fusing
them.h--But preparations, apparently considered
indispensable,
are made for the predictions--altars are
erected
and sacrifices offered, at which the king is bound
to
stay.i As these arrangements
proceed from Balaam, we
are
justified in presuming that the sacrifices are presented
to
none else but Jahveh; at the time when this section
was
composed,k altars and sacrifices, not yet restricted to
one
central sanctuary, were lawful at any place;l and
although
prophecies were generally pronounced without
a lwAmA, xxii. 7, 18;
xxiv. 3, i xxiii. 1, 4, 6, 14, 15, 17, 29, 30.
15
; see notes on xxiii. 7-10. k See infra, 'Date.'
b lxe yrem;xi, xxiv. 4, 16. l
See Comm. on Levit. i. 17-19.
c Mflb Mxun; The
‘Moabite Stone’ (line 18) men-
d xxiv. 3, 4, 15,16; comp.jcfyx, tions ' vessels of Jahveh' (hvhy
ylk)
xxiv.
14; see notes in locc. taken from the Hebrews, at
Nebo,
c xxii. 7, MymisAq;, see notes on by Mesha, king of
xxii.
5-14. sented
to his god Chemosh. There
f Comp. 1 Sam. ix. 7, 8; 1 Ki. were, therefore, evidently in his
time
xiii.
7 ; xiv. 3 ; 2 Ki. viii. 8, 9; still
(about B.C. 890) legitimate sanc-
see
Mic. iii. 5. tuaries of God in
the east-Jordanic
g Joseph.
h
2
Ki. v. 15, 16, 26 ; comp. Gen. the very different spirit in the long
xiv.
22, 23. account
of Josh. xxii. 10-34).
18 BALAAM
THE PHOPHET.
such
expedients, various analogies are not wanting,a
music
especially being used as a favourite auxiliary to
prophetic
inspiration.b--The spot from which the oracles
are
delivered is repeatedly altered.c These changes are
indeed
suggested by Balak, who shrinks from new dis-
closures
at a locality which had once proved inauspicious;
but
as traces of similar views were entertained by pious
Hebrews
also,d Balaam's compliance cannot be interpreted
to
his disparagement.--In order to secure the efficacy of
his
utterances, Balaam must actually see at least a part of
those
who formed the subject of his speeches. The king,
therefore,
chooses the places accordingly, and Balaam is
invested
with the Divine spirit only when beholding the
Israelites
in their camps.e But this circumstance also
involves
nothing which would appear strange in a true
Hebrew
prophet, as is proved by the close parallels which
may
be adduced;f and it is certainly not surprising
in
the comparatively early age to which this Book of
Balaam
belongs.
But, lastly, we have to mention a
point which is not
without
difficulty, and must be considered decisive on
the
present enquiry. How are we to understand the
repeated
statement, that Balaam went out 'to meet God,'g
which
seems to have been a current technical term, and
was
intelligible even in the still briefer form 'to meet?’h
Whenever
Balaam thus goes out, he makes it essential to
go
alone; and it would almost seem that his main object
a Comp. 1 Ki. xviii. 23, 24, 30- ‘prophesy with harps, with
psalteries,
33,
etc. and with cymbals' (tOrn.okiB;
MyxiB;n.iha).
b 1 Sam. x. 5 ; 2 Ki. iii. 15,
Eli- c
xxii. 41; xxiii. 13, 27.
sha
requested, 'Bring me a minstrel d
See notes on xxiii. 11-17.
(NGenam;) and it came to
pass, when e xxii 41; xxiii. 13; xxiv. 2.
the
minstrel played, that the hand of f
See notes on xxii. 4 l-xxiii. 6..
the
Lord came upon him'; 1 Chr.
xxv.
1, 3, where the sons of Asaph, g
xxiii. 3, ytxrql hvhy hr,q.Ayi.
Heman,
and Jeduthun, are said to h xxiii. 15, hr,q.Axi.
BALAAM THE PROPHET.
19
in
occupying Balak with his sacrifices was to prevent
the
king from following him.a This might seem sus-
picious.
But in whatever manner the author may have
represented
to himself the process of Divine inspiration,
he
naturally, in connection with it, regarded solitude as
pre-eminently
appropriate, because most favourable to con-
centrated
thought and the undisturbed communion with
the
source of revelation. Love of retirement is a common
and
conspicuous trait in genuine Hebrew prophets. They
like
to dwell in caverns and on summits of mountains.b
They
seek above all the desert which, in its awful
grandeur,
its vastness, and silence, seems particularly
calculated
to elevate and inspire the Eastern mind;c and
Moses
himself received his first Divine manifestation in
the
burning bush of the wilderness.d There is, therefore,
nothing
questionable in the circumstance that Balaam
‘went
to a solitude.’e Now why did Balaam withdraw into
the
lonely desert? If we follow an apparently unequivocal
statement
of the text, he went, the first and second time,
‘to
seek enchantments.’f Here we seem suddenly to be
transferred
from the sphere of a pure religion to the
darkest
paganism; for the nechashim (MywiHAn;), wherever
mentioned
in the Hebrew Scriptures, are supposed to
refer
to obnoxious artifices of fraud and jugglery, and
are
forbidden in the Law among the most detestable of
criminal
practices.g So, then, Balaam
would really be
a xxiii. 3, 15: in the latter pas- b
1 Ki. xix. 9; 2 Ki. i. 9; ii. 16,
sage
the distinction between Balaam 25;
comp. Jer. xv. 17.
and
Balak is expressed in the pro- c 1 Ki. xix. 8; Matth. xi.
7, 9.
noun
yknx
with some emphasis; the d Exod.
iii. 1 sqq.
third
time, when Balaam refrained e xxiii. 3, ypiw, j;l,y.eva see notes in
from
going apart, he did not, as on loc.; comp. hKo, ver. 15.
the
two previous occasions, request f
MywiHAn; txraq;li, xxiv. 1.
Balak
to 'remain by his burnt-offer- g
See Commentary on Levitic. i.
ing'
(comp. xxiii. 29; xxiv. 2), pp. 375, 401.
20 BALAAM
THE PROPHET.
nothing
else but an idolatrous deceiver, and the author
would
have erected a laborious structure with infinite
art,
in order to overthrow it with a single blow? But
some
considerations rise at once to warn us at least
against
rashness in our judgment. In his second speech,
Balaam
himself described it as one of the greatest
glories
of
nor
divination in
superstitious
rites as one of the chief sources of their
prosperity
and happiness. Should he, at that very time, be
himself
guilty of such devices, and thus, double-tongued,
palpably
falsify his own prophecies? Again, we read
that
the third time 'he did not go out as the first and
second
time.' Now, what was his object in going out?
Let
us only recollect that the narrative observes, in the
first
instance, ‘I will go, perhaps the Lord (hvhy) will come
to
meet me;’b and in the second, ‘I will go to meet,’c
after
which ‘the Lord (hvhy) met Balaam.'d It is, there-
fore,
Jahveh, the holy God of Israel, whom he goes out to
seek,
and not ‘enchantments.’ We may, with the utmost
confidence,
balance those repeated statements against
a
single and isolated expression strikingly at variance
with
the tenor and spirit of the entire composition; and
if
we cannot prove that the term nechashim
was, in
earlier
times, employed in a less offensive sense,e we are
justified
and even compelled to consider that word in the
passage
under discussion f as a corruption of the original
text,
whether it crept in accidentally or was ventured by
one
of Balaam's ancient detractors, and to alter it either
into
hvhy
or, what is easier, from the greater similarity
a xxiii. 23, wHana and Ms,q,, d
xxiii. 15, 16.
b hr,q.Ayi, xxiii. 3. e
Comp. notes on xxiii. 25-xxiv.
2;
also on xxii. 5-14.
c hr,q.Axi. f
xxiv. 1.
BALAAM THE
PROPHET. 21
of
the letters, into Myhlx, from whom, no less than
from
hvhy,
Balaam expected revelations.a If it had
been
'enchantments' or ‘auguries,’ for which Balaam
went
out, he would have adhered to them the third time
as
scrupulously as he had done before, because, according
to
heathen conceptions, they were the most important
element
of the procedure; whereas the circumstance that,
previous
to his final and most solemn speech, he abstained
from
going to meet God, is a necessary feature in the
author's
skilful design.b If, on the other hand, Balaam
really
received revelations from Jahveh by virtue of those
enchantments,
no reproach would fall upon Balaam, but
it
would argue so rude a conception of the Deity as no
enlightened
Hebrew entertained at the time when this
remarkable
Book was written.c
We may, therefore, state, as a safe
and well-founded
result,
that the Hebrew author represents Balaam, the
heathen,
in every respect as a true and noble prophet of
Jahveh,
and thus makes him participate in the highest
and
holiest privileges of the elect of the elected people.d
a xxii. 38. Considering the gra- prophecy is not described as simply
phic
completeness of the narrative, human,
and his position to
it
is a gratuitous assumption that in not
hostile. Nor can it even be ad-
xxiii.
3, 4, and 15, 16, 'the inter- mitted,
that ‘the obnoxious traits of
mediate
link of looking out for Balaam's
character are, in these
auguries'
is, for brevity's sake, not chapters,
but slightly touched upon,
mentioned
(Ewald, Jahrb. x. 47). because the author did not wish to
b See supra, p. 10. weaken the force
and impression of
c As regards the view of Balaam's
the prophecies' (Herzog, Real-En-
gradual
development from a heathen cycl. ii.
237): a fair construction of
seer
into a prophet of Jahveh, see the
author's words will never dis-
notes
on xxiii. 25-xxiv. 2. cover the slightest allusion
to an
d It can, therefore, not be
allowed, obnoxious trait. Compare,
on the
that
Balaam is meant to personify other
hand, the admirable remark of
'the
ideal wisdom of the world, or a
living English theologian: 'It is
secular
prophecy and poetry, in their one of
the striking proofs of the
antagonism
to the theocratic people' Divine
universality of the Old Tes-
(Lange, Genes. p.lxxviii.): Balaam's tament, that the veil is, from time
22
7. MISREPRESENTATIONS.
WE
feel a great reluctance to disturb the contemplation
of
so exquisite a production by any expressions of regret.
Yet
it will not be unprofitable to point out the tra-
ditional
and still too common views of Balaam's character
and
life as an instance of the deplorable confusion which
is
possible in Biblical interpretation. It is not, indeed,
our
intention to attempt a complete history of those
misconceptions.
The endless task would be without a
corresponding
advantage. We must be content with
introducing--instar omnium--some ancient specimens
from
these, as from a common parentage, all subsequent
errors
have sprung, which, though infinite in number, bear
all
a striking resemblance--qualem decet esse
sororum.
Continuing in the path of the later
Books of the
Hebrew
Scriptures,a the Jews developed the character
of
Balaam more and more in a spirit of depreciation, and
we
consequently find it, in the New Testament, drawn in
no
attractive colours. Those ‘that cannot cease from sin,
whose
heart is exercised in covetous practices, cursed
children,’
these are the people ‘who follow the way of
Balaam,
the son of Bosor (Beor), who loved the wages of
unrighteousness,b
but was rebuked for his iniquity.'c
The
wicked ‘run greedily after the error of Balaam for
reward,’d
and he is placed on the same level of iniquity
with
Cain, Korah, and Jezebel.e Very remarkable are
the
allusions made to this subject in the Revelation of
to
time, drawn aside, and other cha- a
See supra, p. 6.
racters
than those which belonged b {Oj misqo>n a]diki<aj h]ga<phsen
to
the chosen People appear in the c 2 Pet, ii. 14-16.
distance,
fraught with an instruction d
T^? pla<n^ tou? Balaa>m misqou?
which
. . . far outruns the teaching e]cexu<qhsan.
of
any peculiar age or nation' (Stan- e Jude 11; Rev. ii. 20, which
ley, Jewish Church,
i. 187). reference
will soon be explained.
THE NEW
TESTAMENT AND BALAAM. 23
sect
or class of people is introduced, whose teaching is de-
nounced
as utterly pernicious and fatal to salvation.b It
cannot
be doubted that the term ‘Nicolaitans’ is meant to
be
identical with ‘Balaamites;’ for Nicolans in Greek, as
Balaam
in Hebrew, was understood to signify ‘destroyer
of
the people.’c Whether this term ‘Nicolaitans,’ as is not
improbable,
points, with designed obscurity, to Paul and
his
followers, who by their bold rejection of the cere-
monial
law, had drawn upon themselves the bitter
animosity
of Peter and his party,d or whether the Nico-
laitans
formed some other objectionable community, this
much
is certain, that they were held in deep aversion and
hatred,
which their enemies intended to signify, in the
strongest
and most intelligible manner, by associating
them
with the detested seer Balaam.
Similar is the account of Josephus, which bears the
usual
character of his Biblical paraphrase, being legendary
yet
frigid, minute yet inaccurate, and revealing little of
the
spirit and beauty of the original. Josephus regards
Balaam,
indeed, as a ‘prophet’ (ma<ntij),f
evidently even
a Nikolai*tai<. e Comp. Comm. on Lev. ii. 114;
b
Rev. ii. 6, 14, 15, 20-24. Hengstenb., Geseh. Bileam's, pp. 22-
c See notes on xxii. 2-4. 25; Renan, Saint Paul, pp.
268 sqq.;
d
dietary
and the exclusive marriage pp.
934-938, where Balaam, like
laws
of the Pentateuch seems, by the
Nicolaitans, is described as
his
Christian opponents, to have ‘doctor
vagaium libidinum carna-
been
considered equivalent to Ba- lium;'
Witsii, Miscell. i. 690, 'Ba-
laam's
alleged seduction of the laamitas
et Nicolaitas vel eosdem
Hebrews
to idolatry and incest (su- vel consimiles certe haereticos,' etc.;
pra, p. 6); hence
the two chief Buddeus, Miscell. i. 220, 221, class-
stumbling-blocks'
in the ‘doctrine ing Balaam among the ‘typici pec-
of
Balaam' are described by St. catores,'
etc.; Herzog, Real-Encycl.x.
John
to have been ‘eating the flesh 338-340;
J. R. Oertel, Paulus in der
sacrificed
to idols, and committing Apostelgeschichte,
1868; J. W. Lake,
fornication'
(Rev. ii. 14, fagei?n Paul, the
Disowned Apostle, 1876.
ei]dwlo<quta kai> porneu?sai). f Antiq. IV. vi. 4.
24 JOSEPHUS
AND BALAAM.
as
a prophet of the God of Israel, ‘who had raised him to
great
reputation on account of the truth of his predic-
tions,’a
and his speeches are referred to ‘Divine inspira-
tion.’b
But he is, in the first place, at least inexact,
when
he calls him also ‘the greatest of the prophets
at
that time;’c for he certainly did not mean to rank
him
above Moses. It can, therefore, hardly be doubted
that
he assigned to him some intermediate position
between
the Hebrew prophets and the common heathen
diviners.
This is confirmed by the circumstance that
Balaam's
sympathies are represented as being strongly
on
the side of
messengers,
again and again, that he eagerly desired to
comply
with their request;d and, after his first speech,
he
assures the king himself that it had been his earnest
prayer
that he might not disappoint him in his wishes
by
being compelled to invoke blessings upon his enemies.
He
offers the sacrifices in the hope that ‘he might observe
some
sign of the flight of the Hebrews;’e and then from
him,
and not from Balak, proceeds the proposal of another
attempt
at execrating
‘whether
I can persuade God to permit me to bind these
men
with curses.’f Thus Josephus destroys the wonderful
impartiality
and repose of the original, which attributes
to
the seer absolutely no other will than that of the God
of
'in
his own power,'g but 'is moved to speak by the
Divine
spirit,' which does not allow him to be silent, and
‘puts
into his mouth such speeches as he is not even
conscious
of.h But all this is merely intended to enhance
a Antiq. IV. vi. § 2, e
Ibid. § 4, w[j troph>n i]dei?n sh-
b ]Epiqea<zein. mainome<nhn.
c Antiq. IV. vi. 2, ma<ntij a@ristoj f Ibid. § 5.
tw?n to<te. g ]En
e[aut&?.
d Ibid. §§ 2, 3. h
Ibid. §§ 2, 5.
PHILO AND
BALAAM. 25
the
glorification of
barrier
between Hebrew and non-Hebrew, contrary to
the
spirit of the Book of Balaam. To complete his
misapprehension,
Josephus connects this narrative with
the
iniquitous advice which a different tradition imputes
to
Balaam, and on which he dwells with elaborate fulness
and
many fanciful adornments; and, advancing to the
very
opposite of the Biblical story, he lets Balaam say to
the
king and the princes, 'I must gratify you
even with-
out the will of
God!'a
A conception of clear and noble
outlines
has thus been confused and almost effaced.b
A still more decided step in the same
direction was
made
by Philo, who could touch no subject without en-
larging
and deepening it by imagination and enthusiasm.
He
bestows upon Balaam a variety of appellations
applicable
only to a heathen soothsayer--'diviner by the
flight
of birds,' or 'an observer of birds,' ‘a searcher for
prodigies,'
and ‘a wily magician.’c In all these arts,
Balaam
was a consummate master. He foresaw the most
incredible
events, as heavy rain in the height of summer
and
burning heat in the midst of winter. He predicted
plenty
and famine, inundations and pestilence, and also
foretold
their cessation. But he was dishonest, avaricious,
and
blasphemous. Pretending to have communion with
God,
he mendaciously told the first envoys that it was
the
Lord who forbade him the journey; and as falsely he
assured
the second ambassadors, by whose costly presents
a Xrh> ga<r me kai> para> bou<lhsin tion are called oi]wno<mantij (De Con-
tou? qeou? xari<sasqai u[mi?n, §§ 6, 13. fus. Ling., chap. 31), oi]wnoksko<poj
b
Various
other discrepancies be- and oi]wnoskopi<a (Vit. Mos., loc. cit.,
tween
the account of Josephus and De
Mutat. Nom., chap. 37), terato-
that
of our section will be pointed sko<poj (De Confus. Ling., 1. c.);
out
in the Commentary. sofistei<a mantikh< (De Mut. Nom.,
c Besides ma<ntij and mantei<a (Vit. l. c.; Vit. Mos. i. 50) and magikh<
Mos.
i. 48), Balaam and his avoca- (Ibid.).
26 PHILO AND BALAAM.
he
was allured, that he went with them impelled by Divine
dreams.
For this base deceit and presumption he was
punished
by not being allowed, for some time, to see the
angel
on the road, which ‘was a proof of his obtuseness;
for
he was thus made aware that he was inferior to a brute,
at
a time when he was boasting that he could see, not only
the
whole world, but also the Creator of the world.’ It
is
true that he enquired of the angel whether he was to
return
home, but this was mere hypocrisy, justly calling
forth
the angel's wrath, ‘for there was no need to ask
questions
in a matter so self-evident.’ In delivering his
speeches
before the king of
free
from cunning and artful divination, but this was
not
his merit, ‘for God did not allow holy inspiration to
dwell
in the same abode with magic.’ Balaam ‘was like
the
interpreter of some other being, who prompted his
words,’
and he derived no real benefit from the inspira-
tion
thus exceptionally imparted to him.a Unable to
take
a warning from the first two prophecies which had
been
put by God into his mouth, Balaam, ‘more wicked
than
the king,’ still ‘most eagerly desired in his heart to
curse
the Israelites.’ A third time baffled in his nefarious
intentions,
since God's. invincible power ‘changed his
base
into good coin,’b and violently upbraided by the
king,
he offered him ‘suggestions of his own mind,’
recommending
that he should ensnare the Hebrews by
the
beauty of the Midianite women, and thus adopt the
only
possible means of success; and this scheme is set
forth
with embellishments similar to those devised by
Josephus.c
Therefore, whenever Philo has occasion to
mention
Balaam--and he employs him frequently as a
a De Mut. Nom.,
chap. 37. c
Comp. Philo, De Vit. Mos. i. 48-
b De Confus.
Ling., chap. 31; 53, Opp. ii. 122 sqq.; see also Targ.
comp.
De Mut. Nom. 1. c. Jonath.
on xxiv. 25, and notes in loc.
JEWISH TRADITION
AND BALAAM. 27
convenient
illustration--he alludes to him in no terms of
sympathy
or regard. He calls him ‘the symbol of vain
people;’
a ‘runaway and deserter;’a a ‘child of the earth
and
not an off shoot of heaven;’b a man ‘misled by a mighty
torrent
of falsehood;’c 'an empty mass of contrary and
conflicting
doctrines,’d since the very name Balaam means
emptiness;e
in a word, a creature finally overthrown and
swallowed
up by his ‘insane iniquity,’ because 'he meant
to
stamp the Divinely inspired prophecies with his
deceitful
jugglery.'f
Thus a complex and unreal character
was constructed,
in
which neither the human nor the Divine elements
have
form or distinctness--a chaotic incongruity, half
man,
half demon.
The same features were worked out by
Jewish Tra-
dition with its own
tenacious ingenuity. A glimmer of
the
truth lingered long in isolated sayings of liberal
teachers.
The words of Deuteronomy,g ‘There arose
thenceforth
no prophet in
commented
upon: ‘Not in
arose
one among the other nations of the world, namely
Balaam.’
Nay, several and not unessential points were
enumerated,
in which Balaam's prophetic endowment
was
held to be superior to that of Moses himself, since
the
former, but not the latter, was described as ‘knowing
the
knowledge of the Most High.'.h This remarkable
pre-eminence
of a heathen is explained and justified by
a De Cherub.
chap. 10, ma<taion d Quod Deter. Potior.
Insid.,chap.
lao>n o@nta, and a]stra<teuton kai> 20, Opp. i. 205.
leipota<kthn. e
De Confus. Ling., chap. 31,
b Gh?j
qre<mma, ou]k ou]ranou? bla<- Opp. i. 429, kai> ga>r ma<taioj e[rmh-
sthma.
neu<etai Balaa<m.
c
Quod.
Deus Immutab. chap. 37, f De Mut. Nom.,
chap. 37.
Opp.
i. 299, poll&? t&? th?j a]frosu<- g xxxiv. 10.
nhj xrhsa<menoj r[eu<mati ktl. h xxiv. 16 Nvylf
tfd fdy.
28 JEWISH TRADITION AND BALAAM.
urging
that God desired to deprive the pagan nations of
every
possible excuse, lest they should say: ‘God has kept
us
at a distance from Himself,a and if He had
given us a
prophet
like Moses, we should readily have served Him.’
For
a similar reason, God granted them also great kings
and
sages, though all these, unlike the Hebrew prophets,
kings,
and sages, brought to their peoples no blessings,
but
destruction; on which account, after the time of
Balaam,
the Divine spirit was for ever withdrawn from
the
Gentiles.b And again, Rabbi Abba bar Cahana, a
scholar
of the third Christian century, is reported to have
said:
‘There never were such philosophers in the world
as
Balaam, the son of Beor, and Eunomos, the weaver.’c
The
former proved the depth of his wisdom by the
answer
he gave to ‘all the nations of the earth,’ when
they
came to him enquiring, whether it was possible for
them
to rival the Hebrews, upon which he replied
‘Never,
as long as you hear the lisping of their young
children
in the schools and the houses of prayer.’d
But already in the Mishnah, Balaam, ‘the
wicked,’ is
very
distinctly contrasted with the pious Abraham his
disciples
are described as notorious for the signal vices
of
‘envy, haughtiness, and arrogance;’e and, like their
master,
they inherit hell, and are hurled into the pit of
a vntqHr
htx was a
contemporary and friend of
b Midrash Rabba. Num. Sect. Rabbi
Mair, and lived, therefore,
xiv.
§§ 25, 26; xx. init.; Yalkut about the middle of the second
cen-
Shimeoni, §§ 765, 771; Sifre, last tury, A.C.
Comp. Midr. Rabb.
Sect.
sub fin.,fol. 150, ed. Friedmann; Exod.
xiii., init., and on Ruth i. 8,
Midrash Tauchuma, Sect. Balak
§1, p. 60 Edit. Stett.
etc. d
Midr. Rabb. Genes. lxv. 10, and
c ydrgh
svmynbx.
Neither the Lam.
init., Nypcpcm
tvqvnyth Mx
name
nor the surname of this philo- Mhl
Mylvky Mtx yx Nlvqb.
sopher
is certain, and he has been e hvr
Nyf,
hvbg Hvr, and wpn
variously
identified with Oinomaos hbHr, strangely
deduced, respec-
of
nician
of Apamea, and others. He ‘kv Nxm yk; and xxii, 18.
JEWISH TRADITION
AND BALAAM. 29
destruction.a
This text is, in the Talmud, the Tar-
gumim,
and Midrashim, worked out with the utmost zest
and
relish. Balaam, accordingly, is not only ‘the wicked’
par
excellence,b but he is stamped as the permanent type
both
of human depravity and of the enmity of the im-
pious
against
identified,
or in some manner connected, with many of
the
most hateful personages of the Old Testament. His
very
name is supposed to testify to his pernicious nature;
for
he was truly a ‘devourer’ or ‘destroyer of the people,’c
not
only because 'he devised means to swallow up the
people
of
occasioned
the massacre of twenty-four thousand Hebrews,d
but
because his despicable jugglery, and the evil example
of
his life, drew the people, far and wide, into an abyss
of
moral and spiritual perdition.e His father--so assert
the
Rabbins, with that supreme disregard of chronological
probability,
which makes their treatment of history an
engaging
play of kaleidoscopic combinations--his father
Beor
was the Mesopotamian oppressor of the Israelites,
Cushan
Rishathaim,f who, again, was the same person as
the
Aramean Laban.g Yet Balaam himself was identified
with
Laban,h whom old Jewish writers credit with every
vice
of cunning and fraud.i He was
detestable like Cain
and
Doeg, Ahitophel, Gehazi, and Haman.k He was
among
those counsellors of Pharaoh who advised the
a Mishn. Avoth v. 19; compare d
Num. xxv. 9.
Midr. Rabbah, Num. xx. 4; Yalk, e See notes on xxii. 2-4.
Shim.
§ 765; Bechai, Comment. on f Judg. iii. 7-10.
xxii.
13, etc. g
Talm. Sanhedr. 105x.
b fwrh, passim; comp. Targ. h Targ. Jon, xxii, 5,
Jon. Num, xxiii. 9,
10, 21, xfywr. i See Comm. on Genes., pp.
465,
c Talm. Sanhedr. 105 Mflb= 466; comp. Maimon.
Mf flb.
Targ. Jon. xxii. 5; Aruch ii.
41, etc.
s.
V., lxrWy Mf flbl tvcf Cfyw k
Talm. Sanh. 105a; Midr. Rabb.
and
various other expositions. Num. xx. 1 fin.
30 JEWISH TRADITION AND BALAAM.
murder
of every new-born male child of the Hebrews, in
order
thus to destroy their expected deliverer, and he
stimulated
the Egyptian people to cruel resistance against
the
oppressed strangers.a He was the instructor of those
impious
‘chiefs of sorcery,’ Jannes and Jambres, who in-
cited
the Egyptian king to the same ruthless measure,
who
tried to imitate the miracles of Moses by their secret
arts,b
and who, at the head of forty thousand of the
foreign
rabble,c induced Aaron to make the golden calf.d
These
two disciples accompanied him on his journey to
Moab.e
For his trade was witchcraft and interpretation
of
dreams, and after having once temporarily enjoyed the
gifts
of true prophecy, he immediately returned to that
trade
for ever afterwards.f All the circumstances of his
life
were inquired into. Thus we read in the Talmud,
that
a certain Sadduceeg asked Rabbi Chanina, whether
a Talm. Sanh.
106a; Sot. 11a; to be again Jesus; comp. Levy, Cbal--
Targ. Jon. Exod. ix. 21. daeisches
Woerterbuch, i. 31, 337).
b Targ. Jon. Exod. vii. 11. Whatever
foundation there may be
c Exod. xii. 38. for these conjectures, there is no
d Targ. Jon. Exod. i. 15, ywyr doubt that Jesus and Balaam were,
xywrH, vii. 11; Midr. Tanch., Sect. in Talmudical and Rabbinical writ-
xwt yk, §19, p. 316, Ed. Stettin; ings, often brought into mutual
rela-
comp.
2 Tim. iii. 8; see Comm. on tion,
although some, probably, go
Exod.,
p. 114. It has been conjec- too
far in their surmises (as Geiger,
tured
that Jannes and Jambres co- Jud.
Zeitschr. vi. 34-36, 305, re-
inside
with the two men, xnHvy ferring to Christ
also Mishn. Avoth
xrmmv (in Talm. Menachoth 85a), v. 19; Sanhed. x. 2; Midr. Rabbah,
who
reproached Moses with having Num.
xiv. 25, 26, where, however,
brought
new kinds of enchantment ‘Balaam’
is described as a non-Is-
into
into
enough
in magical superstitions; where
Balaam and Christ are clear.
and
that the first--xnHvy--is no ly distinguished.)
other
than John ( ]Iwa<nnhj, Myn.iya) e
Targ. Jon. Num. xxii. 22.
the
Baptist, and the second Jesus f Talm., Sanhedr, 106a; Midr.
(since
xrmm
means apostate, Talm. Rabb. Num. xx. 2, 9 ; Yallcut Shim.
Horay.
4a), who is also said to have § 765;
Midr. Tanch. Balak, § 4.
introduced
Egyptian arts (Talm. g yqvdc, that is,
probably, a Jew-
Shabb.
104b, where the son of Sat- ish convert
to Christianity (comp.
da--xdFs, or Mary--is
supposed Avoth R. Nath. chap. 5).
JEWISH TRADITION
AND BALAAM. 31
he
knew how old Balaam was at the time of his death.
The
Rabbi replied, there was nothing written on the
subject,
but he believed he was justified in concludinga
that
Balaam reached an age of thirty-three or thirty-four
years,
upon which the Sadducee exclaimed, ‘Thou hast
spoken
rightly, for I have myself seen the chronicle of
Balaam,b
in which it is recorded that Balaam, the lame,
was
thirty-three years old, when he was killed by
Phinehas,
the robber.’c So much is certain, that Jewish
tradition
draws Balaam as disfigured by every conceivable
physical
and moral defect. He was lame on one foot and
blind
on one eye.d He was a pitiless knave, who, without
provocation,
burnt to exterminate millions of souls, and
a
fiendish tempter, who strove to overwhelm a pious
people
by sin and crime; a base hypocrite, who simulated
repentance,
when he was trembling in dastardly fear,e
and
a cunning deceiver, who, under the guise of fervent
blessings,
artfully veiled the bitterest curse and hatred;
an
incarnation of evil, endeavouring, by insincere and
excessive
praise, to hurl the Hebrews into moral ruin,
whereas
Moses, and all the other true prophets, earnestly
dwelt
on their trespasses, and compassionately exhorted
even
the heathen to righteousness; a hollow boaster,
who
promised much and performed little; an impostor,
whose
‘knowledge of the Most High’ chiefly consisted in
being
able to discover the seasons when God is disposed
a With reference
to Ps. lv. 24. has, the robber,' as Pontius Pilate,
b
Mflbd hysqnp (hxFsylp comp, .Perles, in Fran-
c hxFsyl, Talm. Sanhedr.
106b. kel's Monatsschrift,
1872, pp. 266,
This
passage also has been supposed 267),
to
imply a hidden allusion to Jesus, d
Talm. Sanhedr. 10Sa, 106a; the
who,
according to Jewish legends, one
is deduced from ypw (xxiii. 3),
was
lamed by falling from an. eleva- the
other from Nyfh Mtw (xxiv. 3,
tion
(comp. Talm. Sotah l0b), ‘the 15),
in the well-known manner of
chronicle
of Balaam' being taken allegorical
exegesis; see notes in loco.
as
one of the gospels, and ‘Phine- e Comp. xxii. 24.
32 MISREPRESENTATIONS.
to
wrath and judgment; a man puffed up by silly conceit,
though,
with all his pagan wisdom, unable to rebut the
censure
of his ass; insatiable in greed off honour and
riches;
unnaturally immoral even in his sorceries; an
implacable
foe, who betrayed the malignant joy of his
heart
at the expected execration of the Hebrews by the
impatient
eagerness with which he hastened the prepara-
tions
for the journey;a refractory against God, who was
compelled
to force him to his duty, as a man forces an
animal
by bit and bridle; and so reckless in his con-
tumacy,
that he defied Heaven itself and its immutable
decrees.b
Now if we consider this terrible array
of accusations,
which,
as we have observed, have been repeated in
numberless
modifications by patristic and scholastic
writers,
by commentators in the middle ages and even in
our
own time;c and if we enquire after the sources from
which
all these reproaches are derived, we reasonably
expect
that they are founded on reliable authorities. But
we
may well be astonished to find that they are simply
inferred
from the few and scanty allusions in the last two
a Comp. xxii. 21. to
other wicked men, like Pharaoh,
b Comp. Talm. Sanhedr. 105; Be- Laban, Nebuchadnezzar--Mdxk
rach.
7a; Midr. Rabb. Genes. xciii. xbHhb vwGlp lcx
jlvh';
also on
11;
Num. xx, init., 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, xxiv. 3, Balaam is called rb,G, , that
10;
Yalkut Shim. §§ 765-771; is lvgnrt cock, because, lvgnrth
Midrash Tanchacm. Balak, 1-15; tvpvfh
lkm Jxvn, and for other
Targ.
Jonath. Gen. xii. 3, xxvii. 29; similar
reasons ; and on xxiv. 4, Ba-Num. xxii.-xxiv., passim; Ebn Ezra laam's gift of prophecy by no means
on
Num. xxii. 28: as is his wont equalled
that of the patriarchs, and
in
difficult questions, he speaks of a certainly
not that of Moses--thus
‘deep
mystery’ (dvs),
which he contesting the more
liberal view of
cannot
reveal; 'the part cannot earlier
Rabbins; etc.
change
the part, but the destination c
Comp. Calmet, Dictionnaire de
of
the whole changes the destina- la
Bible, vol. I., pp. 718, 719; and
tion
of the part,' etc.; Rashi on xxii. about the fables of the Mohamme-
8;
Bechai on xxiii. 4, 'God came dans, D'Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient.,
to
Balaam in the night--as He did pp. 180, 181.
MISREPRESENTATIONS. 33
Books
of the Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua.a It is
entirely
out of the question to assume the support of
other
and independent traditions. For the original and
primitive
accounts, after having been fluctuating and
even
contradictory at least down to the seventh century,
cannot,
after the lapse of protracted periods, suddenly
have
received trustworthy additions all tending in one
direction.
The more actively the subject occupied and
interested
the popular mind, the more surely it was
liable
to modification and distortion. But what Hebrew
prophet
would have ventured to make such impure lips
pronounce
the most solemn oracles in the name of
Jahveh,
the Holy One? How should the Hebrew reader
have
expected benefit and advantage from the blessings
of
so depraved a heathen?
Even this, however, is not the most
important point to
which
we would advert. How can it be imagined or justi-
fled,
that all those hateful inventions have been considered
and
employed as a natural illustration of this ‘Book of
Balaam,’
to which, in spirit and in every detail, they
are
diametrically opposed? How can it be explained, that
so
many thousands have, from this section, constructed,
in
the person of Balaam, the vilest and meanest caricature
of
human nature? Is it possible to repress a feeling of
deep
pain at finding that the Book which, should be ‘a
lamp
to our foot and a light to our path,' the Book which
should
‘make wise the simple,’ and ‘illumine the eyes,’
has
been doomed to promote the most perplexing con-
fusion
in the minds of even pious men who prize the
truth?
Is there any other work, in connection with
which
such deplorable perversion of judgment, if at all
conceivable,
would be so long and so persistently upheld?
a See supra, pp. 3-7.
34
8. DETERIORATION.
FOR
the progress of our enquiry, it is essential to ascertain
which
of the two divergent views taken in the Hebrew
Scriptures
of Balaam's life and mission is the older one,
and
how the change of tradition arose. We have, indeed,
but
slight materials available for guiding us in this
investigation,
but they are sufficient to lead at least to
an
approximate result.
In the words of Micah, above referred
to,a ‘Remember
now
what Balak king of
Balaam,
the son of Beor, answered him,'c the ‘scheme’ of
King
Balak is placed in clear juxtaposition to the answer
of
Balaam; but as there can be no possible doubt about
Balak's
intention, there can be none about Balaam's reply.
The
latter opposed the heathen king and was on the side
of
brought
about, as the prophet adds, that the Hebrews
‘might
know the kindness of the Lord.’ Balaam, there-
fore,
felt; himself guided by Jahveh, the God of Israel.
He
recognised His power and uttered praises in His name.
Since
Micah is thus in complete accordance with this por-
tion
of the Pentateuch, we are justified in concluding that,
in
his time still, or in the eighth century B.C., the seer
Balaam
was not only held in honour, but was remembered
with
proud gratification as one who had so splendidly
testified
to
In
our ‘Book of Balaam,’ stress is indeed laid on the
fact
of his being a Gentile, but none on his being a
heathen.
From the lips of the stranger,
tion
was to come with greater force and significance;
but
the author of this beautiful narrative knew, with
a Page 5. b CfayA c Micah vi. 5.
DETERIORATION. 35
respect
to religion, no hard line of demarcation between
Israelite
and pagan. He considered both alike capable
of
knowing Jahveh, of receiving His revelations, and of
delivering
His oracles. It is true, the principle of
election
is the leading idea of Hebrew prophecy, the
watchword
of which may be described to be: ‘Jahveh,
the
holy--the God of Israel;
people
of Jahveh.’ But, for many ages, the higher minds
among
the Hebrews were by this abstract idea never
prevented
from breaking through the narrow barriers.
Mindful
of the primeval traditions of a common origin of
mankind,
they were eager to enlarge the kingdom of
God
by including within its pale the noble spirits of all
nations.
Melchizedek, the Canaanite, was priest of the
‘Most
high God.’ Jethro acknowledged the omnipotence
of
the God of
of
them
a more ready obedience than any prophet ever
found
in
great
hostile empires of his time, after having effected
a
political union, would also adopt a common religion,
when
‘the Lord of hosts would bless them, saying,
Blessed
be
My
hands, and
phet
desires to see the time, when all nations shall con-
gregate
together on the mountain of the Lord's house.b
Zephaniah
beholds in his mind that happy future, when
God
will pour out over every people.a pure tongue,
and
His
worshippers beyond the rivers of
gifts
to Jerusalem.c A Psalmist praises in lofty strains
a Isa. xix. 25;
comp. vers. 18- b isa. ii. 2, 3; Mic, iv.
1, 2;
24,
'there shall be an altar to the comp. Isa. lxvi. 23.
Lord
in the
36 DETERIORATION.
the
glorious promises vouchsafed to
abode:
‘I call
and
marked
and numbered by God, have in His city their
home,
their peace and salvation.a The great prophet who
wrote
towards the end of the exile, is inexhaustible in
developing
these magnificent hopes. God does not confine,
he
teaches, His truth and protection to
His
servant, is to be ‘the light of the nations to the end of
the
earth;' for he is appointed as mediator of a universal
covenant
with God, as the deliverer of all those who are
in
the bonds of darkness and error. Even ‘the sons of
the
stranger that join themselves to the Lord' in love
and
obedience, shall be reckoned among His people, and
their
sacrifices on the holy mountain shall be graciously
accepted;
‘for My house,’ says God, ‘shall be called a
house
of prayer for all nations.’b And as the same pro-
phet
clearly says of Cyrus, the Persian, that he invoked
the
name of Jahveh, and traced to Him every success and
triumph,c
so our author represents Balaam, the Aramaean,
as
enjoying a communion with Jahveh more constant
and
more familiar than any Hebrew prophet enjoyed,
with
the exception of Moses alone. Though this beauti-
ful
and enlightened toleration may, in a great measure,
be
attributable to the highmindedness of the author
himself,
it prevailed, as a matter of history, only in those
older
and happier times, when the free and pure spirit of
prophecy,
unfettered by fixed codes of ceremonial laws,
was
still breathing in the land, and when Micah was
a Ps. lxxxvii.
2-6. c
Isa. x1i. 25, 'I have raised him
b Isa. x1ii. 6,
7; xlix. 6; lvi. 1- up and he came.... him who calls
8;
lx. 3; lxvi. 18- 23; comp. Am. upon My name; comp. Ezra i. 2;
ix.
11, 12; Joel iii. 1, 2; Zech. see also Isa. xliv. 28; xlv. 1; xlvi.
viii.
20-23; xiv. 16; Mal. i. 11. 11; xlviii. 14.
DETERIORATION. 37
permitted
to convey the whole sum of human duties in
those
simple words, which may well be regarded as the
most
important of all prophetic utterances: ‘The Lord
hath
shown thee, 0 man, what is good; and what doth
the
Lord require of thee, but to do justice, and to love
mercy,
and to walk humbly with thy God?'a
But that free spirit disappeared too
soon, and Deutero-
nomy
was compiled, which, though still pervaded by
something
like the old prophetic buoyancy and freshness,b
insists
upon the fatal injunction, ‘You shall not add to
the
word which I command you, nor shall you take away
from
it,’c and enforces the severest measures with respect
to
heathen tribes and their extirpation.d Though this
rigour,
in the progress of time, effectually shielded the bulk
of
the people against the powerful allurements of idolatry,
it
proved, for the nobler minds, a check and a restraint,
which,
by inflexibly maintaining a uniform level, could
not
fail gradually to stifle all lofty and original aspira-
tions.
The promulgation of the Book of Deuteronomy
was
the first heavy blow dealt to the work of Hebrew
prophets.
That Book, accordingly, alludes to Balaam in
a
context and a spirit betraying a strong contrast, if not
a
deep-seated enmity, between
culminating
in the harsh command respecting the
Ammonite
and Moabite, ‘Thou shalt not ask their peace
nor
their welfare all thy days for ever.’e The kindred
Book
of Joshua stamps the seer distinctly as a kosem,
or
a
false and fraudulent soothsayer, who, for sordid reward,
pronounces
against
a Mic. vi. 8, see
supra, pp. 4, 5. d Deut. vii. 1-5, 22-26; xx. 16
b Comp. Deut. x.
12, 13; v. 2.6; --18, hmwn lk hyHt xl; xxiii.
vi.
4, 5; xxx. 6, 11-14, 20. 3, 4; xxv. 19; comp. Josh. x.
28,
c Deut. iv. 2,
5-8; xiii. 1; comp. 30-40; xi. 8, 14, 15, etc.
Josh.
i. 7, 8; Prov. xxx. 6. e Deut. xxiii.
4-7.
38 CONCLUSIONS.
imprecations;a
till finally, the latest portions of the Pen-
tateuch
could venture to charge him with the blackest
crimes,
finding a just retribution in the wicked seducer's
ignominious
death.b
9. CONCLUSIONS.
IT
is, therefore, most natural to suppose, that the portion
before
us originated at a comparatively early date; that,
complete
in itself, it was preserved as a small book or
scroll
from generation to generation, till it was ultimately
embodied
in the great national work, the Pentateuch, as
one
of its most precious ornaments. How the last
redactor
of that complex Book could, side by side, incor-
porate
two entirely contradictory versions, and how he
considered
they might be reconciled, these are no easy
questions,
the solution of which has exercised, and is still
exercising,
the zeal and sagacity of hundreds of interpre-
ters
which however, like the efforts of harmonising the
double
accounts of the Creation and the Flood, of Korah's
rebellion
and other events, and of many laws, must,
perhaps,
always remain open problems. It is enough to
know
that the compiler deemed an agreement possible,
and
it will not be without interest, in the exposition of
the
text itself, to search for his probable view. Nor shall
we,
in this place, do more than mention a few devices, by
which
the rest may be estimated. 'It is indeed certain,'
observes
a great critic, ‘that an intrinsic identity of
history
or form is out of the question; but in a higher
sense,
such wavering and contradiction are quite possible
in
a heathen, that is a lower, prophet, who momentarily
may
be filled with a purer spirit, and may, at such a
time,
speak and prophesy beyond the capacity of his
a Josh. xiii. 22;
xxiv. 9, 10. b Num. xxxi.
8-16; comp. xxv. 1-18.
CONCLUSIONS. 39
nature,
but who, being in his own mind very far behind
the
Divine spirit, may easily, when those transitory
moments
have passed, yield to very different impulses.’a
That
a man like Ewald should have rested satisfied with
so
equivocal an explanation, is hardly less astonishing
than
the difficulty which the explanation is meant to
remove.
Acumen and truthfulness led Lessing to recog-
nise
in Balaam ‘acts of the strictest honesty, and even of
an
heroic submission to God,’ and yet Balaam's character
was
to him a riddle--'a curious mixture,' in which
‘many
excellent qualities’ were allied with ‘the utmost
baseness
and iniquity.’ Balaam must indeed appear an
inexplicable
mystery to all who fail to separate the two
antagonistic
traditions. Had this been carefully done,
earlier
and recent writers would not, in troubled em-
barrassment,
‘have wondered at the strange inconsistency
and
complexity’ supposed to mark the seer's character;
at
‘the subtle phases of his greatness and of his fall;’ at
‘the
self-deception which persuaded him that the sin
which
he committed might be brought within the rules
of
conscience and revelation;' at ‘a noble course’ degra-
ded
by ‘a worldly ambition never satisfied,’ or at ‘the
combination
of the purest form of religious belief with
a
standard of action immeasurably below it.’b Had the
sources
been examined, we should not find Balaam des-
cribed
‘as a prophet of the true God, and a most detestable
type
of unredeemed wickedness;’c as ‘an extraordinary a
nondescript
between the Divine messenger and a sooth-
sayer
operating with the arts of heathen sorcery;’d nor
a Ewald, Jahrbuecher, viii. 39. c
Michaelis, Anmerk., pp. 51, 52.
b Butter, Sermons, vii..; Newman, d Riehm, Handwoert., i. 190, ‘als
Sermons,
iv.;
vi.;
summarised by
Church,
i. 188. etc.; Lergerke, Kenaan, i. 585, 594.
40 THE ORIGINAL BOOK OF BAALAM
as
any other of those impossible beings, which the fancy
of
able and learned men has so abundantly conceived.a
We have shown that the 'Book of
Balaam' is in com-
plete
accordance with the earlier phases of Hebrew
prophecy.
But we believe it is possible to establish the
date
of the composition with much greater accuracy.
With
this view it will be necessary, first to consider
whether
the three chapters, as we read them in the
traditional
text really represent the form in which
they
were originally written.
10. THE ORIGINAL BOOK OF BALAAM.
AN
attentive and impartial analysis incontestably proves
that
this portion includes several important interpola-
tions,
of which it is for our present purpose sufficient to
point
out the following two:--
1. When Balaam, after the arrival of
the second em-
a Comp. Deyling, Observatt., iii. still
changing and struggling'); etc.
102-117;
Clarke, Comm., p. 714 Correctly, however, two different
(although,
on the whole, judging of and
irreconcilable traditions are ad-
Balaam
with remarkable moderation mitted by De Wette, Kritik der Is-
and
justice, and even defending the raelit.
Geschichte, i. 362; Vater,
evil
counsel he is said to have given Pentat.,
iii. 118-120, 457 ; A. G.
by
supposing that 'he desired to Hoffmann, in Ersch and Gruber's
form
alliances with the Moabites or Encvcl.,
x. 184 ; Gramberg, Reli-
Midianites
through the medium of gions-Ideen,
ii. 349 ; Lergerke, Ken.
matrimonial
connections'); Beard, i. 582; Oort, Disputatio de Pericope
Dict.
of the Bible, i. 123; Smith, Num.
xx. 2-xxiv., p. 124 ; Bun-
Dict.,
i. 162 ; Davidson, Introd. to sen, Bibelwerk, v. 599, 600; Noel-
the
Old Test., i. 331, 332 ; Herzog, deke,
Untersuchungen, pp. 87, 90;
Real-Encycl.,
ii. 237; H. Schultz, Colenso,
Pentat. and Book of Joshua,
1
Alttestam. Theol., ii. 35; Reinke, Parts v., vi.; Fuerst, Gesch. der
Beitraege,
iv. 215, 232; Lange, Bibel- Bibl. Liter., ii. 228, 230; Krenkel, in
werk,
ii. 307-309 ('the dogmatic Schenkel's
Bibel Lex., i. 456; Riehm,
Balaam'
must be taken in connec- l.
c.; etc. But many of these writers
tion
with 'the worldly politician and either
do not attempt at all to fix
tempter
Balaam;' we have before the
mutual relation of the two ver-
us
not 'a settled character, but one sions, or fix it hazardously.
THE ORIGINAL BOOK OF BALAAM. 41
bassy,
consulted God again, he received the answer
‘Rise,
and go with the men.’a Yet when, following this
distinct
direction, he had entered upon the journey, we
read
that ‘God's anger was kindled because he went, and
the
angel of the Lord placed himself in the way to
oppose
him,' for ‘the journey was pernicious in his eyes.’b
No
ingenuity, no dialectic skill, will ever succeed in
harmonising
these two statements. They are simply
antagonistic.
Therefore, the whole passage in which this
contradiction
occursc must be considered as interpolated;
the
more so, as that passage interrupts the thread of the
narrative,
destroys the unity and symmetry of the con-
ception,
and is, in spirit and in form, as a whole and in
its
details, strikingly different from the main portion.d
2. Balaam was called by Balak, that he
might by im-
precatory
utterances assist him in the anticipated struggle
between
tion
of
fall
fitly within the author's plan. But everything elsef
must
be regarded as inappropriate, and would, from this
consideration
alone, be marked as unwarranted addition.
But
other arguments lead to the same conclusion. After
having
finished his oracles on
Balak,
‘Come, I will tell thee what this people is
destined
to do to thy people in later days.’g After this
clear
introduction, we have merely to expect a prophecy
a xxii. 20, see supra, p. 2. in
Schenkel's Bibel-Lexie., i. 457;
b Vers. 22, 32. and
others; comp. also Hoffmann,
c
xxii.
22-35. in
Ersch and Grub. Encycl. x. 184,
d See notes on
xxii. 22-35. who considers that this passage is
Some
modern writers have justly ‘not indeed an interpolation, but
perceived
the incongruous character borrowed
from a different source.'
of
these verses; as Gramberq, l. c., e xxiv. 14-17.
ii.
348; 0ort, l. c., p. 120; Beard, f xxiv. 18-24.
Dict.
of the Bible, i. 123; Krenkel, g
xxiv. 14, jmfl hzh Mfh.
42 THE DATE OF THE COMPOSITION.
on
in
language and rhythm, in tone and tendency, on
and
Amalek, on the Kenites, the Cyprians, and Assyrians.a
Again,
throughout the portions we have before discussed,
the
principle is maintained that the prophet must see
those
on whom he pronounces prophecies;b for the
Moabites
also he beholds in their chief representatives,
the
king and the princes. But that characteristic prin-
ciple
is disregarded, at least with respect to some of the
nations
just mentioned, if not to all. Thus the firm
framework
of the narrative is loosened, and the ad-
mirable
completeness of the picture destroyed.c
Now if we consider the section before
us with the
exclusion
of these two passages,d we may arrive at a
safe
result as to
11. THE DATE OF THE COMPOSITION.
THE
following points seem evident:--
1. All the tribes of
the
land in security and prosperity.e The date of the
Book
is, therefore, neither before Joshua, nor after the
reign
of the kings of
(B.C.
770-740), when the first Assyrian deportations
took
place under Pul or Tiglath-pileser.f
2. The people are constituted as a
monarchy.g The
a Vers. 18-24. in
loc.); the word MywHn, xxiv. 1,
b See supra, p. 18. probably
for Myhlx
or hvhy
(see
c See notes on
xxiv. 18-24. supra, pp. 19-21).
Some
other passages, apparent, in d Viz., xxii. 22-35, and
xxiv.
our
opinion, as interpolations or 18-24; see Appendix.
corruptions,
but without importance e
xxiii. 9, 24; xxiv. 2, 5.
for
establishing the date of the f 2 Ki. xv. 19, 20, 29; 1
Chr.
Book,
will be pointed out in their v. 26.
due
places; as xxii. 3, 4 (see notes g xxiv. 7, 17, lxrWym
Fbw Mqv.
THE DATE OF THE
COMPOSITION. 43
section
belongs, therefore, to a time not anterior to
Samuel.
3. One
king rules the country, and Jacob and
are
identical.a There is no trace of an allusion to the
disruption
of the kingdom, the whole people forming
one
commonwealth, irresistible through their unity. The
piece
can, therefore, have only been written in the time of
the
undivided kingdom, under Saul, David, or Solomon.
4. The Moabites are mentioned as
utterly vanquished
and
humbled.b They were, indeed, defeated by Saul,
but
his success was neither brilliant nor decisive, and is,
in
the Hebrew records, but cursorily stated, together with
other
military advantages.c Moreover, the power of the
Hebrews
and their position among the nations were, in
Saul's
time, not of that eminence upon which these
chapters
dwell so emphatically. There remains, there-
fore,
only the alternative between the reign of David
and
that of Solomon. But
5. This section breathes, on the
whole; a warlike spirit.
The
country is still compelled to remain fully prepared
against
watchful adversaries: ‘Behold, it is a people
that
riseth up as a lioness, and lifteth himself up like a
lion;
he doth not lie: down till he eateth his prey, and
drinketh
the blood of the slain';d or
the
nations, his enemies, and crusheth their bones and
pierceth
with his arrows.'e Such descriptions do not
harmonise
with the peaceful times of king Solomon.
The Book of Balaam was, therefore,
most probably writ-
ten
in the latter part of David's reign (about B.C. 1030),
a xxiv. 5, 7, 17. and
against
b xxiv. 17, bxvm
ytxp CHmv. kings
of Zobab, and against the
c ‘So Saul fought
against all his Philistines,' 1 Sam. xiv. 47, 48.
enemies
on every side, against
and
against the children of Ammon, e
xxiv. 8; comp. 9a, 17.
44 THE DATE OF THE COMPOSITION.
when
it was inspired by those glorious triumphs over
the
Moabites and other rebellious foes, which the last
prophecy
introduces with such peculiar power and pride.a
Although
we possess no details of David's wars against
the
bitterest animosity and left a deep impression behind.b
Of which of David's great
contemporaries would this
exquisite
masterpiece of epic and lyrical composition be
unworthy?
Indeed, in some passages, it recalls the
energetic
sweetness of the Davidic Psalms, while, in others,
it
breathes their heroic force.c However, it would be
vain
to fix, by conjecture, upon a name which men would
have
delighted to hold in immortal honour.
There is nothing in the genuine parts
of the section
which
points to a time later than David. For what does
the
author know of the Hebrews and their history?
They
are a blessed and a pious people, worshipping,
Jahveh,
and protected by His love.d They have come
out
of Egypt.e On their way from this country into
who
consider them as hostile and dread them.f They
have
acquired beautiful and extensive abodes, which
they
enjoy in comfort and abundance, and where they
form
a very populous kingdom.g But they keep apart
from
other nations, since God has assigned to them a
peculiar
position and vocation.h They are divided in
tribes,
all of which are mutually at peace.i Their
monarchy
has already distinguished itself by many feats
of
arms,k and they have thus obtained very considerable
a xxiv. 17, tw
ynb lk rqrqv. e
xxii. 5; xxiii. 22; xxiv. 8.
b 2 Sam. viii 2;
see notes on f xxii. 3-6, 11.
xxiv.
3-9, 15-17. g xxiii. 10; xxiv. 5-7.
c
Comp.
xxiv. 8 and Ps. xviii. h xxiii. 9, Nkwy
ddbl
38-43. i
xxiv. 2, vyFbwl Nkw lxrWy
d See infra, Sect. 14. k
xxiv. 7b, vtklm xWntv.
THE DATE OF THE
COMPOSITION. 45
power,
which they exercise with stern determination and
unbending
energy.a They are particularly illustrious
through
an exalted and far-famed king, who, besides
discomfiting
other contumacious as foes, has humbled and
crushed
the Moabites.b
There is, therefore, in this portion,
no feature which
leads
beyond the rule of David, and which would not
even
accord with the time of Saul, if this king could be
deemed
sufficiently distinguished to be compared to a
star.'
If the words, ‘A people that dwelleth apart, and
is
not reckoned among the nations,’c imply an allusion
to
altered.
For that idea was familiar to the people even
in
the period of the Judges. It was clearly conveyed
in
Gideon's answer, when he refused the offered crown;d
and
it was by Samuel insisted upon even with a certain
vehemence,e
although after the actual establishment of
the
monarchy, it naturally suffered various and essential
modifications.f
Those who fail to separate the later
additions from the
original
Book, are naturally unable to arrive at a well-
established
conclusion. This fundamental neglect alone
could
have misled one of the most keen-sighted and
appreciative
scholars so far as to find in our section ‘a
spirit
bent down by the people's misery,’ and ‘the picture
of
an empire grievously harassed and imperilled by
enemies
near and distant,’ and, for this reason, to place
the
Book in the eighth century.g Where, throughout
the
whole of the Old Testament, is there a spirit so
joyous
and hopeful, so confident and resolute?h It could
a xxiii. 24;
xxiv. 8, 9. f See notes on
xxiii. 7-10; comp.
b xxiv. 17. Comm.
on Exod., p. 330.
c xxiii. 9, bwHty
xl Myvgbv. g
Ewald, Jahrbuecher, viii. 21,
d Judg. viii. 22,
23. 22,
24, 28.
e 1 Sam. viii. 6,
7 ; x. 18, 19. h See infra, Sect. 14.
46 THE DATE OF THE COMPOSITION.
not
escape that scholar's fine literary taste, how materially
the
terse and almost epigrammatic precision of Balaam's
utterances
differs from the flowing fulness of prophetic
speech
in the time of Isaiah; but drawn by that original
error
into the most singular assumptions, he ventures
the
opinion that the author designedly imitated that
older
manner of ‘brief, abrupt, sharply defined words:’
as
if Balaam's prophecies were ‘imitations’ in any sense,
and
not rather among the freest and purest creations ever
produced
by an original mind. Nor is there, in the
authentic
parts of the piece, any indication that Balaam
‘announces
Hezekiah;’a for it would be
strange indeed if the author
had
treated, with copiousness and ardour, the time of
the
early monarchy, which for him would have been in
the
remote past, while alluding to his own age in an
appendix,
and with a few obscure if not incoherent
words,
little worthy of the momentous events of the
Assyrian
period. And yet it is the Assyrian period to
which,
for the untenable reason stated,b most critics
have
assigned
the Book of Balaam, as if that age alone could
have
produced a work of art so perfect in form and matter.c
a Knobel, Numeri, 121, 127. Myhlx
wrd,
which is the explana-
b Comp. xxiv. 22,
24. tion of lx txrb Nybh, is, in the
c So Gramberq, Religions-Id., ii. Chronicler's view, a
priestly and not
348-356
(in the reign of Heze- a
prophetic function; moreover, Uz-
kiah');
Bohlen, Gen., p. cxxxv.; ziah
cannot be the ‘star’ of xxiv.
Lengerke, Kenaan, i. 582
(about
720);
Vaihinger, in Herzog's Real- trod.
to the Old Test., i. 337, 338
Enc.,
ii. 238; Schultz, Alttestam. (in
‘the, first half of the eighth cen-
Theol.,
ii. 3; comp. i. 472, 473; tury,’ when ‘traditional matter had
Hitzig, Gesch. d.
Volkes Isr., i. 226; become
incorporated with the his-
Fuerst, Bib]. Liter.,
ii. 227, 230 (‘in torical groundwork’);
Kuenen, Re-
the
early part of Uzziah's reign,' ligion of
even
naming as the author that but according to Oort, 1. c., pp. 81-
kings
counsellor, Zechariah; comp. 118,
on uncertain conjectures, under
2
Chron. xxvi. 5, where, however, Jeroboam
II.
THE DATE OF THE
COMPOSITION. 47
No less open to objections is the view
which places
the
Book in a time anterior to David; those who try to
uphold
this opinion are compelled not only to disregard
all
intrinsic evidences above pointed out,a but to have
recourse
to the most strained interpretations, contrary
alike
to language and history.b But least of
all is it
possible
to maintain that this section was written in the
age
of Moses. For if so, how shall we understand the
mode
of its composition? Assuming an historical founda-
tion
of the narrative, however slight, that is, assuming
that
a heathen seer, at the express request of a heathen
king,
pronounced some such blessings and prophecies as
we
read in the Book; how did those utterances find
their
way into a national work of the Hebrews? It
has
been seriously asserted that the whole of this ac-
countd was written by
Balaam himself with a view of
setting
forth his claims upon
his
immediate disciples, whom he instructed in magic,
and
that it was by Moses, or the compiler of the Penta-
teuch
embodied in his work just as he had received it.e
Certainly,
unless, as ancient interpreters did not hesitate
to
do, refuge be taken to a direct and literal inspiration,
this
portion, as it now lies before us, cannot possibly have
been
composed without the co-operation of Balaam.
a Pp. 42, 43. 10-17
is placed by Bunsen in the
b F. i., Bunsen, Bibelwerk, v. time
of David, and xxiv. 20-24 in
597-609:
'the kernel of the epic' that of Sennacherib and King Heze-
(xxii.
2-xxiv. 9) was compiled in kiah, we. 701).
Shilo,
in the time of Joshua or a c Comp. Oort, 1. c., pp. 48-81.
little
later, prompted by the first en- d Num.
xxii.-xxiv.
thusiasm
and popular elevation of e So Steudel; see
Hengstenberg,
the
young republic; which conjec- Geschiehte
Bileam's and seine Weis-
ture
the author supports by an im- sagungen, pp. 18, 214; Fabricii
possible
conception of the words Pseudepigraph. Veter. Testament.,
vklm GGxm Mryv (xxiv. 7; see
notes ii. 105; and similarly Justi, Hezel,
in
loc. However, the passage xxiv. and others.
48 THE DATE OF THE ('OMPOSITION.
Omitting,
for the present, the incident on the road,a in
which,
besides the angel, no one was concerned except
Balaam
and his beast, since his servants and the ambas-
sadors
are not noticed in the transaction; there remain
the
questions to be answered: Did Balaam write down
the
speeches after their delivery, since they were not
prepared
by him, but are represented as Divine sugges-
tions
of the moment, almost independent of the prophet's
spontaneity?
Or were they transcribed by some Moabite
or
Midianite present, having retained them in his memory
with
all but miraculous fidelity? Again, in which
language
were they delivered? In the classical Hebrew
in
which we possess them, or in some Mesopotamian or
Aramaic
dialect? And how did one who was not a
Hebrew
attempt and contrive to write in a spirit so
thoroughly
and so distinctively Hebrew?
Some of these questions engaged even
Jewish writers in
early
times, without, however, being by them advanced
towards
an acceptable conclusion. Thus Josephus charac-
teristically
praises Moses for his impartiality and truth-
fulness
in not appropriating to himself this beautiful
composition,
as he might easily have done without fear
of
detection, but setting it down in the name of
enemy,
and thus securing for Balaam eternal fame. But
then
the historian dismisses the matter with the wavering
remark:
‘Let everyone think of these points as he
pleases.’b Philo, likewise touching hardly more than
the
outskirts of the subject, evidently evidently supposes that
Balaam
pronounced his speeches in Hebrew, for he
believes--and
this view has been gravely repeated by
later
writers in a hundred forms-that 'Balaam, without
at all
understanding the words which, he uttered--spoke
a xxii. 22-35. b Josephus, Antiq., IV. vi. 13.
THE DATE OF THE
COMPOSITION. 49
everything
that was put into his mouth;’ for ‘God
throughout
guided his speech and governed his tongue,
so
that his own words were unintelligible to him.’a This
expedient
is still more clearly insisted upon in the
Talmud
and the Midrashim by maintaining that God
directed
Balaam's language 'as a man directs animals by
attaching
an iron bit to the bridle, and forces them to
go
wherever he pleases;’b it has been
repeated by many
modern
writers, who pointedly observe that ‘God con-
trolled
Balaam's articulation of speech not otherwise than
He
managed those of his ass;'c and it has been
eloquently
developed
by high-minded critics and scholars into such
doctrines
as these: ‘The prophet, even if humanly intent
upon
a perversity, is compelled by God to say the very
opposite,
so that God, after His own will, turns the word
in
his mouth;'d or expressed with more subtle
delicacy
‘The
Divine message, irresistibly overpowering Balaam's
baser
spirit, and struggling within him, was delivered in
spite
of his own sordid resistance.'e Leaving this
matter to
the
verdict of reason and common sense, we must further
ask:
Who, in the time of Moses, furnished a copy of
Balaam's
speeches to the Hebrews, from whom, it might
be
supposed, they would have been kept with the most
scrupulous
care, as nothing could so powerfully stimulate
their
courage in the warfare supposed to be imminent?
The
same difficulty applies to the suggestion, that Moses
borrowed
the whole piece from the ‘Annals of the
Moabites.'f How were these documents accessible to
a Philo, Vit. Mos., ii. 49, 51, c With reference
to Ps. xxxii. 9.
Opp.
ii., pp. 123, 125. d
Ewald, Jahrbuecber, viii. 16,
b Talm., Sanhedr. 105b; Midr. ‘so dass Gott ihm wie im Munde
Rabb., hum. xx. 8,
10, vyp Mqyf noch
das Wort umdrehe.'
‘kv
vmqypv,
or svnylk Ntvnw Mdxk e
‘kv
hmhbh ypb;
comp.. also Yalk. f
Shim.,
§ 767; Rashi on Num. xxiii. die
vornehmsten Wahrheiten der Re-
16,
‘kv txzh hmywh xyh hmv, etc. ligion,
iv, 1, pp. 382, sqq., and others.
50 THE DATE OF THE COMPOSITION.
Moses?
and were they written in Hebrew? for no one
will
seriously contend that Balaam's oracles, in which
every
shade of expression is important, are translations.
A
great divine has endeavoured to answer the question,
‘How
did
questions,
‘Was it not heard in
encamped
before Moab? Did not Balaam live in the
eastern
mountain? And did be not perish by the hands
of
Israel?' But all this does not touch the difficulty.
No
Moabite would have communicated those oracles to
the
Hebrews, and these had no intercourse with Balaam.
Yet
even this has been confidently asserted and speciously
supported,
and conjecture has reared the following struc-
ture.
When Balaam, it is urged, found his ambition
and
avarice unsatisfied among the Moabites, he tried
his
chances with the Hebrews, to whose gratitude he
believed
he had acquired a right. He made his way into
their
camp, but was coldly received by Moses, who
thoroughly
understood his impiousness. He gave, how-
ever,
to the elders of the Hebrews, every information
necessary
for the composition of the whole of this section.
Or
combining several anterior hints, some surmise, as
an
alternative, that Balaam, filled with intense hatred
against
the Hebrews, who had caused him to lose signal
honours
and rewards, repaired at once into the camp of
their
enemies, the Midianites, and fell fighting on their
side:
thus his prophecies came into the possession of the
Israelites,
and were, from the foreign tongue in which
they
were written, rendered by Moses into Hebrew. It
is
indeed admitted that these circumstances are nowhere
alluded
to in the Bible, but they are maintained to
possess
‘the highest moral or psychological probability,’
since
Balaam would surely not have allowed an oppor-
a Herder, Geist der Ebraischen Poesie, ii.
184.
THE AUTHOR. 51
tunity,
apparently so promising, to pass without profit to
his
selfishness.a Is it necessary to assail aerial
fabrics,
which
a breath suffices to demolish? It is enough to
point
out, that they rest upon the imaginary foundation
of
Balaam's wicked ambition and avarice. Why should
Moses
have coldly received a man who had spoken of
Israel
with such sincere enthusiasm, had, for their sake,
renounced
rewards and distinctions, and had braved the
fretful
king's vexation and anger? And would not the
Hebrews,
in acknowledgment of his services, have taken
every
care to shield him from injury?
12. THE AUTHOR.
THE
only possible conclusion is, therefore, that the Book
of
Balaam is the production of some gifted Hebrew, who,
availing
himself of popular traditions, employed them as
a
basis for conveying his views regarding Israel's great-
ness
and mission by means of prophecies skilfully inter-
woven
with the story transmitted from earlier ages.
It is not unlikely that these chapters
were composed as
part
of some larger conception. Like many other prophets,
the
author may have devoted himself to historiography,
and
his work may, with the exception of this precious
fragment,
have been lost like the histories of the prophets
Nathan,
Gad, and Isaiah, and the prophecies of Ahijah the
Shilonite
and Iddo the seer,b and many other
books.c
But the author is not the Jahvist, nor
the Elohist, nor
the
‘theocratic’ writer, and certainly not the final com-
piler
or redactor of the Book of Numbers, who blended
a Hengst., Bil.,
217 sqq.; Baum- Can. Cook's Holy Bible, on xxii. 28;
gart., Pentat., ii.
378; Kurtz, Gesch. Koehler, Lehrbuch der Bibl. Gesch.
des
Alt. Bund., ii. 503; Vaihinger des
Alt. Test., i. 326; etc.
in
Herzog's Real-Enc., ii. 237; b 1 Chron. xxix.
29; 2 Chron. ix.
Reinke, Beitraege, iv.
218, 219; 29; xii. 15; xxvi. 22.
Lange, Bibelwerk, ii.
308, 310, 317; c See Comm. on
Gen., p. 85.
52 BALAAM'S
IDENTITY.
and
harmonised the Levitical narrative with the Levitical
legislation.a All the
ordinary criteria fail in the present
instance,
and if mechanically applied, lead inevitably to
erroneous
inferences.b This portion, which is sui generis,
was
by the compiler of the Book found in circulation;
he
saw that it admirably illustrated his own ideas con-
cerning
Israel's election and glorious destiny; and he had
no
difficulty in assigning to it a place in the great work
of
Hebrew antiquities.c For as true
art, free from conven-
tional
restrictions and narrow tendencies, and rising into
the
sphere of a common humanity, finds everywhere a
ready
welcome, and is enjoyed by all pure minds alike,
the
story of Balaam and Balak is not strange or incon-
gruous
even as a part of the specifically national and
priestly
Book of Numbers.
13. BALAAM'S IDENTITY.
We may pause for a moment to refer to
a subject, to
which
some have, perhaps, attached too much importance.
a
Even Knobel (l. c. p. 127) ad- results,
only be an additional proof of
mits
that, though many arguments their
later date. Some (as Schultz,
point
to the Jahvist, the latter can- Alttestamentliche
Theologie, i. 88,
not
be considered as the author, 89), seem disposed to attribute both
since
the piece 'abounds in peculi- accounts indiscriminately to the
arities
both of matter and style.' Elohist--that is, to Ewald's ‘Author
b Thus they have given rise to of the Book of Origins,' the alleged
the
almost paradoxical opinion that foundation
of the present Penta-
the
tradition concerning Balaam, up- teuch
and of the Book of Joshua-
on
which this section is founded, which
is an abandoned view; while
was
the later one, while the more Ewald
himself traces this section to
unfavourable
accounts given in sub- 'the fifth
narrator of the Urgeschich-
sequent
portions of Numbers are of ten,'
the author of Isaac's blessing
earlier
date (so Knobel, 1. c., pp. (Gesch. des Volk. Isr., ii. 219, sqq.;
125-1277,
and many others): we Jahrbuecher, viii. 3, sqq.; see notes
have
tried to prove the contrary on
xxii. 5-14; comp. also Schrader
from
the natural laws of historical in Schonkel's Bibel-Lexic., ii. 455;
development
(see supra, pp. 34-38). Kuenen,
Relig. of Isr, ii. 158, 182-
If,
indeed, the statements in Num. 200; etc,).
xxxi.
8, 16, are from the Elohist, this c See, however,
notes on xxii. 2
would,
according to the most recent -4,
Phil. Rem.
BALAAM'S
IDENTITY. 53
Whether
the Biblical Balaam is an historical personage or
not,
appears to be of very subordinate moment. Apart
from
the literary and historical value of his prophecies,
our
interest centres chiefly in the fact that, inspired by
Israel's
God and pronounced in His name, those speeches
are
put into the mouth of a pagan seer. The identity of
this
favoured man does not concern the essence of the
Book
of Balaam, although we are justified in supposing
that
the author's genius, which is throughout so wonder-
fully
manifest, doubtless chose a fit character for his
oracular
utterances. Unless a free and absolute fiction is
assumed,
such a character could only be considered suit-
able,
if his name and life, familiar to the people through
old
tradition, were in their minds associated with famous
displays
of prophetic oratory going back to remote ages.
That
the seer was a contemporary of the author cannot be
allowed,
as in this case the unhistorical character of the
story
would at once have been betrayed. But this objection
applies
to the hypothesis which has repeatedly been pro-
posed
of late, that Balaam is identical with the well-known
Arabic
fabulist Lokman, of whom the Koran remarks,
that
‘God bestowed wisdom’ on him, and whom it credits
with
the purest form of monotheism;a who is said to
have
written
ten thousand maxims and parables, ‘each of which
is
more precious than the whole world;’ and in reference to
whom
the Arabic adage is still current, ‘Nobody should
presume
to teach anything to Lokman.'b This writer is
considered
to have lived in David's time, and was, there-
fore,
coeval with our author; for all that is related of
another
and much earlier Lokman, an Arabic diviner of
the
tribe of Ad, who is supposed to have reached an age
of
seven times eighty years, and to have been a nephew
a Koran, xxxi. 11, 12, 'Give not b Comp. Freitagii Proverbia, i.
a
partner unto God,' etc. 235,
250,401; ii. 698.
54 BALAAM'S
IDENTITY.
or
cousin of Job, or a great-nephew of Abraham, is
nothing
but idle legend. It cannot be denied that
several
plausible coincidences seem to lend some support
to
the conjecture of Balaam's identity with the younger
Lokman.
The namea signifies in Arabic ‘the
devourer,’
as
Balaam does in Hebrew;b for it is
narrated that the
former
was not more conspicuous for wisdom than
voracity.c Lokman's father
was Baura,d as Balaam's
father
was Beor.e Lokman is by Arabic writers
counted
among
the descendants of Nahor, Abraham's brother,
who
lived in Mesopotamia, as Balaam did; although he
is
more generally described as an Abyssinian slave who,
sold
into Canaan during David's reign, was in personal
intercourse
with this king, adopted the religion of the
Hebrews,
and was buried in Ramlah or Ramah, amidst
seventy
prophets of Israel. In a Hebrew Book of Enoch,f
the
statement is found that, in the language of the Arabs,
Balaam
was called Lokman.g However, all
these analo-
gies
are not conclusive. The basis on which the conjec-
ture
mainly rests, is the assumption that, as the Koran
mentions
‘nearly all’ the persons named in the Penta-
teuch,
it is not likely to have omitted Balaam, and that,
as
Balaam and Lokman have etymologically the same
meaning,
they are really the same person.h It is needless
a
XXXXX be a
corruption of Nmql Comp.
b See p. 29. D'Herbelot, Biblioth. Oriental., pp.
c According to
wabl (Koran, 516-518;
Roediger, Hall. Liter.
516-518
; Roediger, Hall. Liter. Zeit.,
1843, No. 95, pp. 151, sqq.;
p.
385), however, XXXXX means Derenbourg, Fables de Loqman le
‘shrewd
observer and counsellor.' Sage, pp. 5-10, and Journ. Asiat.,
d XXXXX xi.,
1867, pp. 91-94; Wahl, Koran,
e rOfB;. pp.
385, 692; Knobel, Numeri, p.
f jvnH
rps;
comp. Sengelmann, 126
; etc.
Mischle
Sandabar, 1842. h Comp. Derenb., Fables de L., pp.
g
For the word Nynqvl, which oc- 6,
7: Bal. is ‘la sagesse humaine qui
curs
in that Book, is supposed to voudrait
renier larevelation Divine.
BALAAM'S
IDENTITY. 55
to
point out the precarious nature of the inference drawn
from
the silence of the Koran;a and as to the
etymology,
it
is difficult to see an affinity between a great seer and
‘a
voracious eater.’b The same traditions
which make
Lokman
a contemporary of David, represent him also as
a
contemporary of Pythagoras and the teacher of
Empedocles,
and even make him identical with AEsop.c
They
record, moreover, expressly and all but unanimously,
that
he is to be regarded as a sage (hakim), but not as a
prophet
(nabi);d and yet, if any point of
comparison
between
the Hebrew and the Arab is at all to be insisted
upon,
it is the reputation of prophet enjoyed by Balaam
--of
a prophet so eminently endowed with supernatural
gifts,
that the king of Moab could say: ‘I know that he
whom
thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest
is
cursed;’e and that a great Hebrew writer
could
attribute
to him sublime utterances describing events
of
a distant future!
a However,
Mohammedan doctors Lokman--or
Balaam--an Indian,
generally
refer to Balaam that much identifying
the name with the Etrus-
discussed
passage in the Koran (vii. can Lucumo, which is the Sanscrit
174,
175), 'Relate to them also the Lokamana,
the seer.
history
of him to whom we gave c Comp. Maxim.
Planudes, sop.
our
signs, but who departed from d Comp. Beidhawi, Comm. on
them,
wherefore Satan followed and Koran,
1. c.
seduced
him ... he inclined to the e Num. xxii. 6.
earth
and obeyed his own desires: f If we may
estimate Lokman's
he
was like a dog who always puts abilities
from the little collection of
out
his tongue, whether you drive Arabic
fables which bear his name,
him
away or let him alone' (comp. and
which, doubtful in origin and
Sale,
Koran, p. 135). These remarks date,
are indifferent and compara-
would
certainly not apply to Lok- tively
late imitations of AEsop and
man,
but agree fully with the spirit Syntipas,
he little deserves the dis-
of
the laterviews concerning Balaam. tinction,
so eagerly claimed for him,
b About the
probable meaning of of being
considered capable of com-
the
name MfAl;Bi see notes on xxii. 2 posing prophecies like those of Ba-
--4.
Hitzig (Gesch. des Volk. Isr., laam.
It is enough to mention two
i.
226), with his usual delight in curious
suggestions--one very old,
uncommon
combination, considers that Balaam
is the Elihu of the
56
14. ISRAEL AND THE BOOK OF BALAAM.
IT
is true, no other Hebrew prophet ever spoke of Israel
in
terms of such unalloyed approval and enthusiasm.
All
public teachers, from the earliest down to the latest,
inveighed
bitterly against Israel's vices and misdeeds,
their
idolatry and constant rebellion.a Is there among
them
one who calls the Hebrews, without reserve
and
without qualification, a people all of whom are
‘righteous?’b Is there one
who declares, without ming-
ling
with his praise a shade of reproach, ‘God beholdeth
not
iniquity in Jacob?’c The Hebrew
nation is, in this
Book
of Balaam, indeed idealised. It is so beloved by God,
that
it resists all imprecations, which recoil upon those
who
dare to utter them;d while blessings
once pronounced
are
unchangeably beneficent, and bless those also by whom
they
are invoked.e The Hebrews require no arts of sooth-
saying
and magic, since they receive from God Himself
all
needful revelations.f Thus placed under His watch-
ful
protection, they are without an equal upon the earth
and
to be compared to no other nation.g They enjoy
peace
and comfort and abundance.h Undaunted and
unconquerable,i they form a
well-established kingdom,
ruled
by glorious sovereigns, triumphing over mighty
Book
of Job; and the other recently Midianite,
as bas been variously
proposed,
that he is the first king of assumed
to support some pre-con-
Edom,
Bela the son of Beor (Gen. ceived
theory.
xxxvi.
32; so Noeldeke, Unter- a
See notes on xxiii. 7-10, 18-
suehungen,
p. 87, who has ‘not the 24.
slightest
doubt’ as to the correctness b xxiii. 10, MyriwAy;.
of
his conjecture, because Jerome c xxiii. 21.
mentions,
in Moab, two towns Dan- d xxiii. 8; xxiv.
9b.
naba, supposed to correspond
with e xxiii. 19, 20.
hbAhAn;Di, the residence of Bela: but f xxiii. 23.
the
Balaam of our Book is a Meso- g xxiii. 9, 21;
xxiv. 1, 19.
potamian
or Aramaean, and neither h xxiv: 5-7.
an
Edomite, nor a Moabite, nor a j xxiii. 24;
xxiv. 9.
ISRAEL AND THE
1300K OF BALAMIT. 57
foes,
and rising through their fall.a In a word, no
stranger
can
wish for himself a more enviable lot than to share
that
of Israel.b
There are, indeed, in other prophetic
works also, glow-
ing
descriptions of a time when the Hebrews ‘shall not
do
evil nor act perversely,’ and when they shall live in
undisturbed
prosperity and the full knowledge of God
under
a wise and powerful monarch.c But all those
descriptions
refer to a future more or less remote, or
are
presented as ‘Messianic’ hopes, with which faithful
patriots
desired to comfort their contemporaries in times
of
despondency and oppression. The Book of Balaam,
on
the contrary, portrays a happy present. God's love
and
the people's piety, the power of the nation and the
happiness
of individuals, are realities; they are not
objects
of sanguine expectation, but of secure possession;
and
no shadow of grief or lament darkens the joyous
serenity
and brightness in the picture of Israel's privi-
leged
destiny. Not merely does the Hebrew writer, with
peculiar
fitness, put into the foreign seer's mouth only
praises
of the Hebrews, to show that, however grave and
numerous
the failings may be which their own leaders
are
compelled to reprove, they are spotless in the
stranger's
eye; but they are indeed spotless, because
they
are God's chosen people, and deserve their election
by
their virtue and righteousness. Our author is not
singular
in distinguishing between the real and the ideal
Israel.
Another and much later prophet exalts in the
‘servant
of God’ that nobler portion of the people, which
proves
worthy of its great mission.d But drawn in a
time
a xxiv. 7b, 8b,
17. b xxiii.
10. d Isaiah x1i.
8-20 ; xlii. 1-4;
c Comp. Isa. ix.
5, 6, 9; xi. 1- x1ix. 1-4 ;
iii. 13-liii. 12, etc.;
10;
Jer. xxiii. 5, 6; Hos. ii. 20- comp.
Gesenius and Knobel in loc.;
25;
Zech. iii. 8-10; etc. see Comm. on Levit. i. pp.
296, 297.
58 ANALOGY OF THE BOOK OF RUTH.
of
political misfortune, this servant of God, persecuted and
suffering,
bears the guilt of many; whereas in this Book,
the
whole of Israel participates alike in the fear of God
and
in worldly happiness.a How great and
remarkable
must
have been the age which, could produce such a
work!
The proud consciousness of a special mission was
possible
without engendering a baneful exclusiveness.
The
guides and teachers, while cherishing the hope that
a
pure worship of Jahveh was taking root in the people's
hearts,
considered that other nations also knew and
revered
Israel's God. Secure in His grace and direction,
they
were certain that He did not confine His revelation
to
them alone, but readily granted it to the pure and
noble
of all races. And in addition to this freedom and
largeness
of mind, they enjoyed a political existence well-
guarded
and guarded and honoured, and an intellectual culture which
had
almost attained that highest standard which blends
simplicity
and elevation.
15. ANALOGY OF THE BOOK OF RUTH.
CONSIDERABLE
light is thrown upon this story of Balaam
by
an analogous and hardly less remarkable work of the
Old
Testament--the Book of Ruth. In literary excel-
lence,
both may, on the whole, be regarded as equal.
The
Book of Ruth is perhaps as decidedly the most
perfect
idyl of antiquity, as the Book of Balaam is the
most
skilful combination of epic composition and pro-
phecy
ever achieved. Both in the one and the other, the
scene
is partially laid in Moab, and some of the principal
figures
are Moabites. And lastly, both works originated
about
the same time, and, what is more important still,
both
breathe the same spirit. Is this indeed the case, it
a See notes on
xxiii. 7-10 , 18-24.
ANALOGY OF THE BOOK OF RUTH. 59
might
be asked in surprise? Does not the tendency of
both
appear wholly antagonistic in the cardinal point? Are
not,
in this section, Israel and Moab arrayed against each
other
in strong hostility,a whereas the
Book of Ruth ex-
hibits
them in completest harmony? The reply is, how-
ever,
obvious: that circumstance is not the cardinal point;
for
that concerns the two countries merely in their ex-
ternal
and ever changing political relations, which de-
pended
on multifarious accidents in the distribution of
power
and the personal disposition of rulers. The most
prominent
feature is that spirit of liberty and equality
which
pervades the Book of Ruth as it pervades the Book
of
Balaam. The distinction between Hebrew and Gentile
is,
in both, all but effaced. In the one, a pious and affec-
tionate
Moabite woman is delineated with the same im-
partial
love and truth, as, in the other, a highly-gifted and
God-inspired
Mesopotamian prophet. It is the object of
the
Book of Ruth to trace the origin of Israel's most
glorious
king from the devoted Moabitess, of whom the
Hebrew
women in Bethlehem said, that she was better to
her
bereaved Hebrew mother-in-law than seven sons.b
The
author lived at a time when marriages with foreigners
were
not yet considered an abomination,c and when surely
it
would have been impossible to frame or to enforce the
rigorous
command: 'An Ammonite and a Moabite shall
not
enter into the congregation of the Lord, even to their
tenth
generation shall they not enter for ever;'d for King
David
was the third in descent from Ruth.e We are
a xxii. 3, 6,
xxiv. 14--17. through Eglon, the Judge, whom it
b Ruth iv. 15. regards
as the grandson of that king
c See Comment. on
Levit. ii. (Talm. Sanh.
105b), so that, accord-
pp.
354 sqq. ing
to that conception, David would
d Deut. xxiii. 4. still
more fully and more strikingly
e iv. 17, 21, 22.
Jewish tradition represent the union of the Moabite
makes
Balak the ancestor of Ruth and
the Hebrew.
60 ANALOGY OF THE BOOK OF RUTH.
inclined
to conclude that the Book of Ruth was written
before
David's terrible war against the Moabites. These
had
been subdued by Saul,a and appear,
after that time,
to
have long lived with the Hebrews in amicable inter-
course.
Their king certainly was well-disposed towards
David,
who, when compelled to flee before Saul, entrusted
to
him his parents for protection.b Besides Moab,
Beth
lehem
is exclusively the scene of the Book, which neither
mentions
nor alludes to Jerusalem. The descendants of
Ruth
and Boaz, on the other hand, are not enumerated
beyond
David, since the list does not include even his
illustrious
son Solomon. The Book may, therefore, have
been
composed at the period when David was still dwell-
ing
in Hebron as the king of Judah, and yet was already
sufficiently
famous and conspicuous to call forth such a
genealogical
narrative. But even after his
sanguinary
victories
over the Moabites, a work like that would by
no
means have been impossible. Conquered tribes in
those
times recovered their strength with incredible
rapidity,
and political feuds were often forgotten within
the
same generation. Indeed we find among the later
military
chiefs of David, besides other foreigners, also
‘Jithmah
the Moabite.’c
We are thus justified in considering
the Book of Ruth,
like
the Book of Balaam, as a testimony to that lofty
spirit
of toleration. and common brotherhood which, in
the
youthful and vigorous times of David, animated
Israel,
and which, supported and nourished by that
literary
genius and refinement manifest in both works,
might
have led to the fairest fruits of a universal
humanity,
had not, too soon afterwards, national com-
a 1 Sam. xiv. 47. c ybixAOm.;ha
hmAt;yi,
1 Chron. xi. 46;
b 1 Sam. xxii. 3,
4. comp.
Noeldeke, Die Amalek., p. 20.
FAME AND
CHARACTER OF THE BOOK. 61
plications
and calamities tempted and led the minds of
the
people into a different and more solitary path.a
16.
FAME AND CHARACTER OF THE BOOK.
IT
is not surprising to find that the Book of Balaam
soon
attained a great celebrity, and was ever respected
as
a high authority. In the last address of Jacob,
a It is difficult
to understand how single trait
and incident of the story.
the
conjecture could gain ground It
is enough to urge again the fact
that
the Book of Ruth was written that
marriages with foreigners are
at
a very late period, at a time not held to be reproachful, and that
when
the national life of Israel had there
is, in the whole narrative, no
already
ceased,' during the exile, vestige
of an attempt at palliating
or
even in the age of Nehemiah (so such
an alliance in the case of David's
Ewald, Bertheau,
Geiger,
Urschrift, ancestors; in addition to
which we
pp.
49-52, 299, Meier, Schrader, may
point to the markedly archaic
and
others). The principal argument character
of the language (e.g.,
adduced
by the advocates of this MyrifAn;, in ii. 21,
used instead of
view
is derived from the words in tOrfAn;, comp. vers. 8,
22, 23; the
Ruth
iv. 7, lxrWyb Mynpl txzv, anomalous
combination Mh,yTew;
which
they translate, ‘and this was 19),
applying to Naomi and Ruth
formerly
the custom in Israel.' But (see
Grammar, § xxii. 1. 3, 6);
even
if this version should be correct, though
we would lay no stress on
and
if the term Mynpl does here not such forms as yTim;Wa
and
T;d;rayA.
rather
mean ‘already in’ or ‘from 3, 4,
instead of Td;rayA and T;d;rayA, as
olden
times,' so that the custom still they
occur in later compositions also
existed
in the author's age, as seems (comp.
Gram., § xxviii. l.a). Bleek,
to
be confirmed by the addition im- (Einleitung,
p. 354) admits at least
mediately
following, hdvfth txzv that
the Book was written before
lxrWyb, ‘and this is the custom in the legislation of Deuteronomy, and
Israel;'
we might justly object that Noeldeke
(Alttestam. Liter., p. 45)
in
the three or four generations that
it was composed during the
which
elapsed between the time of rule
of the house of David; while
Ruth
and the reign of David, cus- Keil
(Einleitung, p. 437) places it in
toms
may have considerably changed. the reign
of this king or shortly
However,
even if the Book inclu- after
it. [We may here remind the
ded
many other obscure or am- reader
that, in references to our
biguous
phrases besides this one, Hebrew
Grammar, the common or
they
would have no weight whatever Arabic
numbers of sections point to
in
the face of that tone and spirit of the
First Part, the Roman numbers
antiquity
which characterise every to the
Second Part of that work.]
62 FAME AND CHARACTER OF THE BOOK.
written
in the time of the divided kingdom'a some pas-
sages
are imitated, and some almost verbally incorporated;
they
are those which describe the people's strength and
majesty,
and are, in the later production, applied to
Judah,
then the most powerful tribe.b Isaac's blessing,c
composed
in the ninth century, seems altogether to have
been
constructed on the model of these prophecies, with
which
it coincides in the main idea of Israel's inalien-
able
election, shielded by God's blessing for ever, and
touched
by no curse.d In reference to Balaam's speeches,
the
prophet Micah is in full agreement with our author.e
Other
prophets afford proofs how much their views on
human
life and happiness were moulded on utterances of
Balaam.f
It is not improbable that the
important and
significant
words in the Jahvistic records of the Pen-
tateuch,
‘I will bless those that bless thee, and curse
him
that curses thee,'g are borrowed from this section.h
Jeremiah,
in his oracle on Moab, reproduces Balaam's
chief
prediction with respect to the same people.i And
lastly,
considering the force and sublimity of these
prophecies,
‘the star’ which ‘cometh out of Jacob,’
could
not fail to be raised into a Messianic type.k
And, indeed, this Book of Balaam is
invested with an
a See Comm. on
Gen., pp. 722- i Comp. xxiv. 17, and Jer. xlviii.
724. 45,
47; see notes on xxiv. 15-17.
b Comp. Num.
xxiii. 24, xxiv. 9, k xxiv. 17; see notes on xxiv. 14
and
Gen. xlix. 9 ; Num.. xxiv. 17, -17:,
comp. also xxiv. 3, and 2 Sam.
and
Gen. xlix. 10. xxiii. 1, see notes on xxiv. 3-9;
c Gen. xxvii. xxiv.
10-14, and Amos vii. 10-17,
d See notes on
xxii. 5-14. see notes on xxiv. 10-14; xxiv.
e Mic. vi. 5; see
supra„ pp. 4, 34; 18, 19, and Obad. 17-19; xxiv.
comp.
also Mic. vii. 14, and notes 21, and Obad. 3, 4, Jer. xlix. 16.
on
xxiii. 7-10. It would,
therefore, be hardly cor-
f Hab. i. 3, 13;
see notes on rect to
maintain that Balaam--that
xxiii..
18-24. is,
the author of these prophecies--
g Gen. xii. 3. ‘left
no enduring mark on the his-
h xxiv. 9, tory
of the Jewish Church.'
FAME
AND CHARACTER OF THE BOOK. 63
uncommon
originality, which takes a powerful hold upon
all
readers, and for which there is no exact parallel in the
whole
of the Old Testament. The functions of Hebrew
prophets
were sufficiently multifarious, but no seer of
Israel
was ever employed for such an office as Balaam. We
have
instances of prophets being consulted with regard
to
the issue of military expeditions,a and we have many
instances
of pious men interceding for others by prayer,
or
pronouncing blessings and curses, the effects of which
were
considered infallible.b But there is no other
example
of a prophet who, requested to pronounce a
definite
and prescribed speech, is forced, ‘heav'n controlled,’
to
express the very opposite again and again. There is,
in
the whole tenor of the Book, something peculiarly
mysterious,
which may perhaps be best described by the
Greek
term daimo<nion. That singular
impression is
strengthened,
if it is not partly created, by the disposition
and
conduct of Balak. To him the Pharaoh of the
Exodus,
among all the Old Testament characters, bears
the
greatest resemblance. The king of Egypt rises
against
the God of Israel, the king of Moab against
Israel,
God's people. Both employ magicians; the former,
to
prove his own gods of equal power with the God of
the
Hebrews; the latter, to overcome the Hebrews by
any
god the enchanter might choose to invoke. The one
asks,
at the beginning of the struggle, ‘Who is the Lord
whose
voice I should obey to let Israel go?’c and
is
finally annihilated by His power; the other, imagining
that
he can vanquish God's elected people by sorcery, is
fated
to hear, from the lips of his own chosen instrument,
a See 1 Ki. xxii.
5-28; 2 Chron. b See
notes on xxii. 5-14; Comm.
xviii.
5-27; 2 Ki. iii. 11; comp. on Gen., pp. 720-722; on L-vit.
1
Sam. xxiii. 2, 4, 10, 11; xxx. 8; i.
P. 301. i
etc. c
Exod. v. 2.
64 LIMITS.
that
they are invincible through their extraordinary rela-
tion
to that omnipotent God. In either case there are
arrayed,
on the one side, defiance and despair, and on the
other,
an awful power which shatters all resistance. But
while
Pharaoh's contest is accompanied by terrible trials
and
catastrophes, a grand repose is spread over this
Book,
in which even the subjugation of Moab is seen as
an
event of ‘the distant future.’a The one is intended
as
an historical picture, to represent a single though
momentous
episode; the other is designed to shadow
forth,
as it were typically, how God's love constantly
watches
over His people, demolishes the malignant
schemes
of their enemies, and by His immediate inter-
position
even converts contemplated imprecations into
unalterable
blessings. It comprises the whole mission
of
Israel as the author had conceived it, and the whole
career
of Israel as far as he was able to survey it in
his
time. It is not history, but a wonderful amalgama-
tion
of poetical grace and prophetic fire.
17. LIMITS.
BUT
mhde>n a@gan. We would fain preserve calmness of
judgment,
even in the fervour of admiration; lest we
resemble
that Roman historian, who felt that, while
relating
ancient events, ‘somehow his mind became
antique,’b
so that he was inclined to accept reports
simply
because they were olds In our opinion, the
main
charm of the Book of Balaam lies, apart from the
beauty
of form, in that sincere universality, which, not
satisfied
with teaching the unity of all races theoretical-
ly,
as it is taught often enough, makes it a living reality.
a xxiv. 14, 17, Mymyh
tyrHxb, b
Antiquus fit animus.
see
on this term notes in loc. c Liv. xliii. 13.
LIMITS. 65
But
what is the intrinsic character of
the religious notions
pervading
this section? How far do they stand the test
of
philosophic examination? In a word, how far have
they
permanent and absolute truth? We shall try to
answer
these questions plainly and impartially.
The Hebrew mind, however richly
endowed, had its
limits.
Hebrew literature, however remarkable, is not,
free
from grave deficiencies. The Hebrew mind was
wanting
in that ‘dry light’ of reason, which, undimmed
by
fancy or enthusiasm, penetrates into the depth and
nature
of things with sober discernment. The
Hebrews,
therefore,
never advanced beyond the first rudiments in
any
science. They did not even produce a truly prag-
matic
history patiently tracing effect to cause. Unable
to
emancipate themselves from the charmed circle of
theocratic
conceptions, they knew no other standard of
historical
probability than the mechanical principle of
retribution.a
The work which approaches nearest to
philosophical
speculation--the Book of Job--concludes
with
the negative result that man can fathom nothing;b
and
the work which displays the greatest independence
of
thought--the Book of Ecclesiastes--moves in a scep-
ticism
so empty and incoherent that a later time deemed
it
necessary to supplement its teaching by some positive
ideas,
though these again remain within the old and
narrow
boundaries.c The prophetic writings, which ex-
hibit
the Hebrew intellect in its brightest glory, reveal
no
less prominently its shades and failings. They are
indeed
unequalled for ardour and sublimity, noble aspira-
tion
and single-minded patriotism. But all these beautiful `
a See Comm. on
Levit. ii. pp. 609, evil, that is understanding;' Job
610. xxviii.
28.
b ‘Behold, the
fear of the Lord, c Eccles. xi. 9b; xii.
7,13, 14, have
that
is wisdom, and to depart from been proved to be such additions.
66 LIMITS.
qualities
are blended with an alloy of self-illusion which,
in
a great measure, neutralises their value. The prophets
did
not hesitate to come forward as workers of miracles.a
Instead
of offering their counsels and exhortations on
their
own authority, they represented them--not figura-
tively
but literally--as the direct emanations of God,
with
whom they believed they had personal communion.
They,
consequently, described visions, to which it is im-
possible
to attribute any reality.b They had too much
earnestness
to introduce merely as an artistic creation
what
to them appeared objective truth, and they were not
sufficiently
prepared to appreciate the eternal reality of
poetic
truth. In their grandest vaticinations they indeed
applied
the teleological law, which, with far-reaching
sagacity,
connects means and end, and beholds in each
epoch
of history an organic link in the great chain of
human
development. They composed, therefore, predic-
tions
reflecting their ideal of the ultimate happiness of
their
own people and of mankind. But these prophecies
were,
for the most, part, no more than soaring hopes and
anticipations,
magnificent and incomparable if presented
as
poetical pictures, but questionable and misleading when
set
forth as Divine utterances and, severed from the safe
ground
of experience and reflection, involving a reversion
a 2 Ki. ii.
19--22; iii. 17; iv. effects
of one moment of visionary
32--35,
42-44; v. 10; vi. 6; etc. enthusiasm remained at work for
b See Comm. on
Lev. i. pp. 439, years, the result is practically the
455.
Not even the cautious theory of same
as if that state of transport
a
recent critic (Kuenen, Relig. of
Isr., had been permanently continued
or
i.
pp. 203-207), who grants that ‘the constantly
renewed. The visions,
conviction
of being interpreters of however,
are distinct from sym-
Jahveh
forced itself upon the pro- bolical
acts, some of which were
phets
in a moment of ecstasy,' but actually carried out (as Jer. six. 1
supposes
that their ecstasy was, as -13, etc.), while others were meant
a
rule, confined to that one occasion and
understood as fictitious (as Hos.
of
installation, can materially alter i. 2-9; Jer. xiii. 1-7; xxv. 15-
the
view above taken for if the 29; Ezek. iv. v., etc.
LIMITS 67
of
the order of nature. The hazy halo in which they are
enveloped
is rendered more perplexing and dangerous by
their
very grandeur and elevation; and if we survey the
history
of the last three thousand years, as far as it was
influenced
by prophetic and Messianic writings, we are,
in
candour and truthfulness, compelled to admit that the
dim
indistinctness, which speaks as with a higher sanction,
has
cast many a gloomy shadow on the path of mankind
--steep
and rugged at best--and has, perhaps more than
any
other obstacle, contributed to delay that universal
peace,
goodwill, and brotherhood, which formed the noblest
hopes
of those noble minds.
Applying these tests to the Book of
Balaam, we shall
find
that, as it is distinguished by all the admirable
characteristics
of prophetic literature, so it shares nearly
all
its doubtful features. The narrative professes to be
simple
history, and yet is charged throughout with
superhuman
elements; and it describes, with infinite
skill,
the time of David, and yet takes every possible
care
to make the reader believe that it is describing the
time
of Moses. The author is evidently a man of the
most
earnest piety, and. yet he does not scruple to make
Balaam
utter words which he contends were put into the
seer's
mouth by God. Balaam has constant intercourse
with
God as with a familiar, though superior, Being; for
‘God
comes to Balaam’ in dreams, and Balaam ‘goes to
meet
God’ by day in solitude; God asks Balaam, in
distinct
words, special questions, and Balaam receives
from
God directions in terms equally explicit.a It is
difficult
to see how a pure conception of the spiritual
nature
of the Deity can thus be maintained. And,
lastly,
a prophet who, in the time of Moses, was able to
a xxii. 9-12, 20; xxiii. 3,
4, 15, 16; xxiv. 1.
68 ISRAEL AND MOAB.
predict
a king to be born four centuries later, might as well
be
considered capable of predicting a teacher to be born
after
fourteen or fifteen centuries; and hence the 'star'
that
was to come out of Jacob, and the ‘sceptre that
was
to rise out of Israel in the distant future,a were
interpreted
in the Messianic sense, and applied to one
who
surely did not ‘smite the sides of Moab,’ nor
‘destroy
all the children of tumult.’ We need not, in
this
place, point out the strange devices which were
rendered
necessary to bring those terms of actual warfare
and
bloodshed into harmony with the most peaceful life
and
career;b yet they are only a very small portion of
the
injury that has been wrought by the studied ob-
scurity
and deceptive form of these and other prophecies.
The highest boon of mankind is the
calm balance of
reason--the
holy Swfrosu<nh--and no performance,
how-
ever
skilful, no genius, however dazzling, can counter-
balance
the fatal mischief which may be inflicted by
straying
from that Divine light.
18. ISRAEL AND MOAB.
IN
conclusion we shall briefly sketch the relations
between
Israel and Moab down to David's time.
When the Hebrews, entering upon their
expedition of
conquest,
advanced from the desert northward and west-
ward,
they doubtless intended to settle exclusively in
Canaan
proper, in the west of the Jordan.c They
desired
to -pass through the territory of the Amorites
‘on
the royal road,’ in order to reach that point of the
river
where they meant to cross it. King Sihon's un-
a xxiv. 17. Kai> ga>r ou]d ] e]pe<pusto (Ba<lakoj) gh?n
b See notes on
xxiv. 15-17. a@llhn
polupragmonei?n tou>j [Ebrai-
c
Comp.
Joseph. Antiq. IV. vi. 2 ouj,
a]phgoreuko<toj tou? qeou? k.t.l.
ISRAEL AND MOAB. 69
friendly
refusal forced them to resistance; in the war
that
ensued they were victorious, and obtained large
districts,
to which, ere long, the land of the king of
Bashan
was added; and then all these provinces, abound-
ing
in excellent pastures, were assigned to the cattle-
breeding
breeding tribes of Reuben and Gad as their permanent
abodes,a
although it is very probable that, in the east of
the
Jordan as well as in the west, the heathen popula-
tion
was never expelled completely or from every part of
the
country.b But the Hebrews neither made any acquisi-
tion
in the territory of the Moabites, nor in that of the
Ammonites
and Edomites. On this point tradition was
unwavering
and uniform,c although it fluctuated in
some
subordinate details.d However, the proximity of
the
Israelites was by the Moabite king regarded with
such
terror,e that he requested a strange seer to curse
them.f
A hostile encounter was avoided,g and the con-
tact
between the two nations seems to have been most
fatal
to the Hebrews themselves who, too easily tempted
into
the licentious habits and degrading worship of the
Moabites
thenceforth tenaciously clung to the iniquities
of
Baal-Peor and Chemosh.h
Not long after the occupation of
Canaan, the Hebrews--
or
at least the southern and trans-Jordanic tribes--were
a Num. xxi.
21-35; xxxii. 1- and
Judg. xi. 17, 18: according to
35;
Deut. ii. 26-37; iii. 1-20; the
first passage, the Moabites al-
Josh.
xiii. 7-31. lowed the Hebrews to pass through
b Comp. Hitzig,
Die Inschrift des their land, and readily sold them
Mescha,
p. 6. Gesenins (Commentar provisions;
according to the last
uber
den Jesaia, i. 503) calls the dis- two,
they denied them both the one
tribution
of the east-Jordanic coun- and the
other.
try
among the Hebrew tribes, ‘to e Comp. Exod. xv. 15; Num.
xxii.
some
extent, a dominion in partiburs 3, 4;
Dent. ii. 25.
infidelium.' f
Nun. xxii. 5, 6, etc.
c Judg. xi. 15, 18; Dent. ii. 15, 9 g See supra, p. 5.
19,
37; comp. 2 Chron. xx. 10. h Num. xxv. 1, 2; Judg. x.
6; 1
d Comp. Dent. ii.
29 with xxiii. 5 Ki. xi. 5, 8.
70 ISRAEL
AND MOAB.
attacked
by Eglon, king of Moab, in conjunction with the
Ammonites
and the Amalekites. Overcome and made
tributary,
they bore the yoke for eighteen years, but
were
then delivered by the stratagem and valour of
Ehud.a
Almost during the entire period of the
Judges,
the
intercourse between Israel and Moab seems to have
been
both active and amicable, and frequently resulted in
matrimonial
alliances, as is sufficiently evident from the
Book
of Ruth. At the end of that period, however, the
Moabites
seem to have incurred the enmity of the
Hebrews
for we learn that Saul attacked and defeated
them.b
Nevertheless the king of Moab, not long after-
wards,
accorded to David's parents a secure asylum,
since
he favoured David either as the descendant of
a
Moabitess or as the rival of his adversary Saul.c But
this
friendship was not of long duration. David, when
king
of Israel, found it necessary or advisable--the
historical
records are silent as to the cause--to under-
take
against the Moabites a military expedition, after
the
successful termination of which he treated them
with
excessive rigour, and imposed upon their country a
heavy
tribute.d It is at this time that the Book of
Balaam
was probably composed.e Up to that epoch
nothing
had happened to call forth a feeling of excep-
tional
bitterness between the two nations. The Book,
accordingly,
although introducing Israel and Moab as
foes,
is free from that virulent hatred which suggested
the
repulsive legend of the origin of the Moabitish race,
found
in the Jahvistic narrative of Genesis;f and it is
a Judg. iii.
11-30; comp. 1 Sam. d 2 Sam. viii. 2,12; comp.
xxiii.
xii.
9. 20;
2 Ki. iii. 4; Isai. xvi. 1; 1 Chr.
b 1 Sam. xiv. 47. xviii. 2.
c 1 Sam. xxii. 3,
4, ybx xn-xcy e See supra, p. 43.
’kv
Mktx ymxv f Gen. xix. 37;
comp. ix. 22.
ISRAEL AND MOAB. 71
equally
free from that national aversion which is re-
vealed
in the injunctions of Deuteronomy, that not even
in
the tenth generation should Moabites be admitted in-
to
the Hebrew community.a
It is beyond our present purpose to
pursue the history
of
the Moabites further, and to show how, after having
endured
their dependence for more than a century, they
rose
against the increased oppression and new encroach-
ments
of Israel's kings Omri and Ahab, and at the
death
of the latter monarch (B.C. 897), revolted under
their
own ruler Mesha--to whom the inscription on
the
‘Moabite Stone’ probably refersb--and how, though
not
only maintaining their liberty against the united
efforts
of the Kings Jehoram and Jehoshaphat by a
remarkable
expedient, but wresting from the Israelites
many
towns,c they were again reduced to subjection
by
Jeroboam II. (about B.C. 800), who restored the
old
boundaries of the kingdom; till, in the confusion of
the
Assyrian period, they completely re-established their
freedom,
as they were left unmolested by the eastern
conquerors.d
Indeed the mutual animosity between Israel
a Deut. xxiii.
4-7. state
of tyranny, cannot, however,
b
We
say probably; for the differ- have
lasted ‘forty years,’ since the
ences
between the account of the period
from the beginning of Omri's
Inscription
and that of the Bible are reign to
the death of Ahab comprised
so
great and striking, and the har- hardly
more than thirty years
monising
explanations that have (B. C. 928-897); if the reading be
been
attempted are so little convin- correct,
‘forty’ mast be taken as a
sing,
that a decided and final opinion round
number, for 'many,' as is not
can
hardly yet be pronounced. The unusual
in Eastern literature (see
oppression
and encroachments of Comm.
on Gen. p. 185).
Omri
and his son are inferred from c
Moabite Inscription, lines 8-
the
Inscription, lines 4-6 yrmf 20.
Nmy bxm tx vnfyv lxrWy jlm d 2 Ki. i. 1; iii. 4-27; xiv. 25;
Mg rmxyv hnb hplhyv. . . . Nbr comp.
2 Chr. xx. 1-30; see Comm.
yrmf wryv . . . . bxm
tx vnfx xh on Lev. i. pp. 393, 394 comp. also
vkv hb bwyv xbdhm tx. This Gesen. Comm. uber den Jesa. 1. c.
72 ISRAEL
AND MOAB.
and
Moab, which was exhibited in attack, insinuation,
and
invective, outlasted even the existence of the
dom
of Judah.a Is it necessary to recall the severe
menaces
and judgments incessantly pronounced against
Moab
by the prophets from the ninth down to the sixth
century,
by Amos and Isaiah, Zephaniah and Jeremiah,
Ezekiel
and other seers in the time of the exile,b and
to
prove that the subjection of Israel's enemies was never
considered
complete unless it included the humiliation
of
Moab?c When the Hebrew tribes in the east of the
Jordan
were led away by Assyrian conquerors, the terri-
tory
which they had inhabited between the rivers Arnon
and
Jabbok was eagerly seized by the exulting Moabites;d
and
yet we find, after the return of the Jews from exile,
that
the two nations not only renewed their intercourse,
but,
more frequently than ever, concluded matrimonial
alliances
which such earnest reformers as Ezra and
Nehemiah
found it necessary to check by the severest
and
most peremptory measures.e Such were the diffi-
culties
of the attempt to separate the Hebrews, by
distinctions
of religion and law, front the neighbouring
tribes,
to which they were closely akin in race and
language.f
a See 2 Ki. xiii.
20; xxiv. 2; d
Isai. xv., xvi.; comp. Jerem.
Isai.
xvi. 6; xxv. 11; Zephan. ii. xlix. 1-5.
8,
10; Jerem. xlviii. 29, 30; Ps. e Ezra ix. 1 sqq.; x. 1
sqq.; Neh.
lxxxiii.,
7, etc. Comp. 2 Ki. xii. 21, xiii.
1-3, 23. Comp. Comm. on Ge-
and
2 Chr. xxiv. 26 (see Geiger, Ur- nes.
pp. 424, 425; see also infra,
schrift,
pp. 18, 49). See, however, notes on xxiv. 15-17.
Jer.
xxvii. 3. f
Indeed, the Moabite dialect bore
b Amos ii. 1-3;
Isai. xv., xvi.; even a greater resemblance to Hebrew
Zephan.
ii. 8-11; Jerem. ix. 26; than the Phoenician, as is proved
xxv.
21 ; xlviii. ; Ezek. xxv. 8-11; by King Mesha's Inscription, which,
Isai.
xi. 14; xxv. 10-12; comp. moreover, reveals many striking and
Ps.
lx. 10. Dan. xi. 41. surprising analogies of
thought and
c Comp. Ps. Ix.
6; lxxxiii. 7; conception common to the Moabites
Isai.
xi. 14; xxv. 6-12. and the early Hebrews.
II.--TRANSLATION AND COMMENTARY.
NUMBERS XXII.-XXI V.
1. INTRODUCTION. XXII. 1.
1.
And the children of
camped
in the plains of
of
the
Let us suppose that the Hebrews,
continuing the course
of
their circuitous wanderings, had, in the fortieth year
after
their departure from
region
of
chain
of Seir, at last determined resolutely to advance
to
their final goal of
this
district, where Aaron died, they were not separated
by
many stations front the highland of Mount Nebo,
where
Moses found his grave, and whence they hoped to
reach
the southern parts of the Promised Land without
difficulty.
Although the navies of many of their resting
places
have disappeared, not a few have been preserved,
which
enable us to follow the track of the advancing
people,
in this last section of their journeys, with some
accuracy.
Travelling from a point opposite Mount
Nebi Harun,
the
Biblical Hor, northward, so as always
to leave
to
the west the ridges of Seir, and consequently also
the
wonderful remains of Wady Musa, or
once
renowned city of rocky caverns and tombs,a we
a Comp. Commentary on
Genesis, pp. 478-481.
73
74 NUMBERS
XXII. 1
reach,
in six or seven hours, the principal town of the
district
of Esh-Sheia--Shobek-which is situated on a hill
presenting
an extensive prospect, and doubly valued as
a
place of encampment on account of the abundant
springs
that rise at its base. Moving on in the same
direction,
and keeping by the old Roman road regularly
paved
with black stones and still in tolerable preserva-
tion,
while in the east the pilgrims' way to
derb el-hadj) is visible, we
come, in another seven hours,
to
the ruins of Ghurundel, conspicuous
by three volcanic
peaks,
and then, in about three hours more, to the village
of
Buseira, the Bozrah of the Bible, once an important
Edomite
settlement, now hardly comprising fifty wretched
huts.
After not much more than two hours, we reach, in
a
neighbourhood well watered and exceedingly fertile, the
large
hamlet of Tufile, probably the Hebrew
Tophel, so
eminent
in early times that it was employed as a geo-
graphical
landmark,a and even at present distinguished
as
the residence of the chief of the district. Travelling
from
Tufile for four or five hours
northward, past several
villages
and rocky heights, we come to the deep bed of
the
Wady Siddiyeh or Gerahi, where begins the district
of
Kerak, or the territory of ancient Moab; and another
journey
of rather more than seven hours in the same
direction
leads us, through regions rich in springs and
marked
by picturesque variety, to the capital Kerak itself.
This
is the celebrated Kir-Moabb
or Kir-Hareseth of the
Bible,c
both in earlier and in later ages the chief centre
of
the caravan traffic between
and,
therefore, at all times an eagerly contested strong-
hold,
as it was especially in the wars of the Crusaders,
who
occupied and fiercely defended it as the key of that
country,
till Saladdin brought it into his power after
terrible
sieges and assaults (A.c. 1188). From Kerak,
the
a Comp. Deut. i.
1. c 2 Ki. iii. 25; Isai. xvi.
7 ; also
b Isai. av. 1. Kir-heres, Isa. xvi. 11; xlviii. 31, 36.
INTRODUCTION. 75
northern
path continues through a more open plain dotted
by
many ruins of old villages and towns, and after a four
hours'
stage, carries us to Rabba, the
ancient Rabbath
Areopolis.
Always pursuing the Roman road, the mile-
stones
of which are, for the greatest part, still extant, and
proceeding
through a fertile country for about two hours
northward,
we behold, on our left hand, the isolated
summit
of Djebel Shihan and the
which
name it is easy to recognise that of the Amorite
king
Sihon, and in two hours more, passing through a
highly
luxuriant vegetation, we reach the rugged and most
precipitous
ravines of the Wady Mojib, the Biblical river
Arnon,
where the present district of El-Belka commences,
and
beyond which, up to the Wady Zerka, the ancient
river
Jabbok, the early abodes of the Moabites had ex-
tended,
before these districts were occupied by the Amorites.
Advancing,
for about one hour, in the north of Wady
Mojib,
on a rough and difficult road, we arrive into a
plain
covered by piles of ruins which bear the name of
Arair, the Scriptural
Aroer, and then, in scarcely half
an
hour, we approach the northern extremity of the plain
at
Dhibhan, the Hebrew Dibon, which was successively
inhabited
by Gadites and Reubenites, and which, of
late,
has again become famous by the discovery, within its
old
precincts, of king Mesha's ‘Moabite Stone,’ on which
distinct
mention is made of a considerable number of
familiar
Biblical towns.a
Throughout the entire distance which
we have just
traversed
from
place
which, in the completest Biblical account, is also
introduced
as an encamping station of the Hebrews, the
interval
between Hor and Dibon being filled up by the
a See the
numerous interpreta- D. M. G., xxiv., 1870, pp. 212 sqq.,
tions
of the Inscription by Gannean, 433 sqq.; xxv., 1871, pp. 149 sqq.,
De
Vogue, Ginsburg, Noldeke, 463
sqq., etc.; Colenso, Lectures on
Hitzig,
etc.; comp. also Zeitschr. d. the
Pentateuch, pp. 349-363, etc.
76 NUMBERS XXII.. 1.
navies
of Zalmonah, Punon, Oboth, and Ije-Abarim,
which
is described as lying in ‘the desert that is in the
east
of
near
the Arnon.a Although these resting-places cannot
be
identical with the Edomite or Moabite localities noticed
in
this sketch, as the Hebrews did not touch the territory
of
Edom and
in
a line parallel with, though more easterly than, those
well
authenticated localities.b
A few additional stages within the
mountain range of
Abarim,
which we have reached, will bring us to the
point
where the scene of Balaam's prophecies is laid. If,
travelling
from Dhiban in a north-westerly
direction, we
cross
first the Roman road and then the small river Hei-
dan, a tributary of
the Arnon, we come, in rather more
than
two hc.urs, to very considerable heaps of ruins, called
by
the natives Kureiyat, and
corresponding to the ancient
Kirjathaim, or Kirjath-huzoth,c and next,
after about
an
hour's journey, we reach the ruins of Attarus,
the old
Ataroth,
where the country, on the western side, can be
surveyed
beyond the Dead Sea as far as
rusalem,
and
been
the next station of the Hebrews specified in the
Biblical
list, viz., Almon-Diblathaim; and
hence passing
northward,
partially through very grand and surprisingly
wild
scenery, over Wady Zerka Main and its
deep valley,
where
the flora is almost tropical, and, leaving the far-
famed
hot mineral springs of Calirrhoe to
the left, and
the
vast tracts of ruins at Main and Madiyabeh, the
Hebrew
Baal Meon and Medebah, to the right, a longer
a Comp. Num.
xxxiii. 37-45. several
times encamped west of
b As the Hebrews
marched from
Hor
first southward down to the of
stations given for those long routes
Gulf
of Akabah and then only, after is
surprising. On conjectural iden-
having
reached the eastern side of tifications
see Palmer, The Desert
the
mountain, proceeded northward of
the Exodus, ii., ch. 11.
(Num.
xxi. 4), they must have c Num. xxii. 39, tvcH
tyrq.
INTRODUCTION. 77
march
brought the Israelites to the ‘mountains
of Abarim
before Nebo,' a commanding
peak in the ridges of Mount
Pisgah,
in ‘the wilderness of Kedemoth.a From hence
they
desired to proceed at once to the
turning
to the north-west, and to cross that river near
its
influx into the
they
required the permission of the Amorite king Sihon,
who,
not long before, had come into possession of these
provinces,
and who resided in Heshbon (the present Hes-
ban),
only a little distance from Pisgah. Sihon, however,
rejecting
and resenting their request, marched against
them
with his whole army. The Hebrews, without break-
ing
up their encampments before Nebo, went out to meet
him,
routed his troops, and conquered the land between
the
rivers Arnon and Jabbok. Never losing sight of the
main
end of the people's wanderings, and anxious not to
leave
in their rear powerful enemies who might check
their
progress unawares, Moses sent from Nebo military
detachments
to the northern and north-western parts of
the
country for exploration and conquest, and particularly
despatched
a large force to oppose Og, the formidable
king
of
fate
of the other Amorite ruler. After having successfully
carried
out the task entrusted to them, the armed bands
returned
to the principal encampment in Nebo. Hence
the
entire host and all
ward
to ‘the plains of
that
depressed tract of landb which, partly well-watered
and
luxuriant in vegetation, extends along both sides of
the
miles
broad; and thus pitched their tents from Beth-
jesimoth,
near the
so
that the chief or central part of the camp might well
be
described to have been ‘opposite
a Comp. Deut. ii.
26. 10-13, 18-31; xxxiii. 37-49; Deut.
b Arabah El-kora, i. 4; ii. 2, 3, 8,
9, 13, 18, 19, 24, 26,
c Comp. Num. xx.
22-29; xxi. 4, 30-36; iii. 27,
29; xxxiv. 1.
78 NUMBERS
XXII. 1.
PHILOLOGICAL REMARKS.
CHAPTER XXII. 1.
REGARDING
the events in this light, we are able to explain
several
difficulties. We can understand the statement that
'
Deut.
iii. 29), while they were actually carrying on war even
with
distant tribes; and we can account for the fact that the list
of
stations in Chap. xxxiii., immediately after ‘the moun-
tains
of Abarim before Nebo,' records the encampment 'in
the
plains of
the
people, and probably a part of the army, remained
behind
in Nebo, no general stage between this place and the
the
compiler of the Book of Numbers seems to have viewed
the
matter, or else he could not have incorporated, side by
side
with the narrative of Chap. xxi., the list of Chap.
xxxiii.,
in which the absence of any station within the
whole
distance between Nebo and Edrei would be the more
surprising,
as the Hebrews did not even reach Edrei by the
direct
or shortest but by a tortuous route, as they first
advanced
northward to Jazer and then 'turned (vnpyv) and
went
up by the way of
iii.
1, Npnv). But it is a very different question, which we
cannot
here discuss, whether that list and this narrative are
really
in harmony, or whether, if both imply different ver-
sions,
the author of the list considered the conquest of the
north-eastern
part of
Mosaic
times, and, for this reason, is silent about this dis-
trict.
The uncertain dimness of those early traditions is
strikingly
manifest in the conflicting accounts given of the
Hebrew
journeys even in the comparatively small distance
between
Hor and Beth-jesimoth near the
which
research will hardly ever succeed in harmonising,
even
if we could hope to identify all stations (comp. Num.
xxi.
10-13, 18-20; xxxii.i. 41-49; Deut. ii. 3, 8, 13, 14, 18,
19,
24). For the illustration of this narrative it is sufficient
to
follow, in the main, the completest and most careful list
in
Num. xxxiii.--There are several clear instances of partial
INTRODUCTION. 79
and
separate campaigns analogous to those above conjec-
tured.
A selected force was sent by Moses against the
Midianites,
and after having executed their sanguinary com-
mission,
returned with the booty and the prisoners ‘into the
camp,
to the plains of
son
of Manasseh, went to
sessed
the Amorite who was in it' (xxxii. 39); which terms
evidently
involve an independent expedition of a part of
one
tribe (comp. Deut. iii. 15). Nor is it unlikely that the
conquests
in the north-eastern tracts were made under the
leadership
of Jair, another Manassite, to whose kinsmen
those
provinces were then assigned (xxxii. 41; Deut. iii. 4);
for
it is not clear from the narrative (xxi. 32-35) whether
Moses
accompanied the expedition or not (comp. ver. 32,
‘And
Moses sent men‘).
With regard to the term NDer;yal;
rb,feme,
we may here add a
few
remarks to those made in another place (Comment. on
Genes.
p. 776). Though rb,fe, in connection with a river,
originally
means merely its bank (for the primary sense of
the
word is side or surface, comp. Exod. xxxii. 15), and
though,
therefore, if one of the banks is specially meant,
rb,fe must be furnished with some
distinctive qualification,
such
as hmAyA
westward or hHArAz;mi eastward, unless the connection
excludes
all doubt (as in Josh. ix. 1; 1 Sam. xxxi. 7); it is
yet
certain that the phrase NDer;ya.ha rb,fe, in the course
of time,
became,
among the Hebrews, a fixed geographical term,
meaning
the other side or the east of the
considered
the land west of that river as
as
their country kat ] e]coxh<n, so much so
that the two tribes and
a
half, which took up their abodes in the east, deemed it
necessary
to mark, in the most solemn manner, their connec-
tion
with the other or western tribes (comp. Num. xxxii. 16-
32;
Josh. xxii. 9-34). Except, therefore, in the few pas-
sages
where the context proves that the author is clearly
conscious
of speaking from the east-Jordanic point of view
(as
in Deut. iii. 20, 25), the words Ndryh rbf, if left
without
any
qualification, must undoubtedly be understood to refer
to
the eastern territory (Deut. iii. 8; Josh, ii. 10; vii. 7; ix.
80 NUMBERS
XXII. l.
10;
xiv. 3; xvii. 5; xxii. 4; xxiv. 8; Judg. v. 17; vii. 25;
x.
8; xi. 18; 1 Sam. xxxi. 7; 1 Chron. xii. 37; comp. also
Myh rbf in 2 Chron. xx. 2, the eastern
side of the
and
so familiar did this usage become to the Hebrews, that
we
find those words occasionally employed with respect to the
east-Jordanic
land, even under the exceptional condition
alluded
to, viz., where the speakers distinctly imply that
they
are in the east of the
where
the men of Reuben and Gad say in
pass
over armed into the
of
our inheritance shall be Ndryl rbfm' that is, in the east of the
Jordan; Num. xxxv. 10,
14, where Moses says in the plains
of
the Jordan). At what
period this usage established itself,
cannot
easily be determined; it is constant in the Books
of
Judges and Samuel; it was certainly common at
the
time when the people had developed their earliest
traditions
with some degree of consistency, and when
they
believed they had a double right to call themselves
people
of the other side' (Myrib;fi ), because Abraham, the
founder
of their race, had emigrated from the other side
of
the
had
conquered
the
tribes
by the Assyrians, in the eighth century,
the
Hebrews, of course, a land 'on the other side of the
torians
from continuing to add, in political and geographical
records,
explicit designations of east and west, and such terms
we
find subjoined even in the latest Books, not only in Deutero-
nomy
and Joshua, but also in the Chronicles (comp. 1 Chron.
vi.
63, for the east Ndryh Hrzml vHry Ndryl rbfm; 1 Chron.
xxvi.
30, for the west hbrfm Ndryl rbfm). So much remains
certain
that, in the age of Moses, no Hebrew
could employ the
expression
Ndryh rbf, without some precise qualification, for the
land
east of the
elsewhere
(for the words Ndryh rbf are an explanation of
INTRODUCTION. 81
bxvm tvbrfb, and not
conversely); it could be so used only at
a
time when it might be supposed to be, in itself, intelligible
to
the reader (comp. the general phrase Ndry lf bxvm
tvbrfb
vHry, Num. xxxv. 1). Analogous to Ndryh
rbf
is the term
rhAn.;ha rb,fe or xrAhEna
rbafE,
which is either the land west or east of
the
potamia
and
xxiv.
3; 2 Sam. x. 16 ; 1 Ki. xiv. 15; Isa. vii. 20; Ezra iv.
10,
il, 20; v. 3, 6; vi. 6, 8, 13; Neh. ii. 7; 1 Chron. xix. 16).
The designation 'plains of
either
to a very early or to a very late period. For according
to
Numbers and Deuteronomy, the Moabites had, before the
arrival
of the Hebrews in those countries, been deprived by
the
Amorites of all lands north of the Arnon (Num. xxi 13,
26;
Deut. iii. 8; Judg. xi. 18, etc.); with what right, there-
fore,
could the tracts along the
called
'plains of
fact
that this territory is, in some passages of Deuteronomy
even
distinctly called 'the
5;
xxviii. 69; xxxii. 49; xxxiv. 5), and in Numbers (xxi.
20)
‘Field of Moab’ (bxvm hdW; comp. Gen. xxxvi., 35;
1
Chron. i. 46; Ruth i. 6 ; iv. 3). Now the same districts,
up
to the Jabbok, were soon afterwards conquered by the
Hebrews,
but were, after the deportation of the east-Jordanic
tribes,
re-occupied by the Moabites (see supra, p. 69), and
could
then again justly be called 'the plains of
‘the
these
appellations lingered in the popular language even
after
they had ceased to be strictly applicable; but, con-
sidering
the date and character of the different Books of the
Pentateuch,
we are inclined to consider the suggested view
as
more probable. This may also explain the singular fact
that
the situation of a place of encampment to the east of
the
river:
at the time of the composition of Deuteronomy and
Numbers
the land east of the
the
Hebrews, if it had not, in a great measure, ceased to
interest
them.--The combination OHrey; NDer;ya found almost ex-
clusively
in the latest portions of Numbers (xxvi. 3, 63;
82 NUMBERS
XXII.
xxxi.
12; xxxiii. 48, 50; xxxiv. 15; xxxv. 1; xxxvi. 13;
and
besides only in Josh. xiii. 32; xvi. 1; xx. 8; 1 Chron.
vi.
63), implies a pregnant use of the construct state--the
‘Jordan
of Jericho’ being not that bank of the
where
The
novel conjecture that the Jordan of Jericho' denotes
that
part of the river which is near the
this
lake, seen from the east, having the appearance of the
crescent
of the moon (HareyA)--can only be upheld by a forced
disarrangement
of many geographical statements of the
Bible
(so L. Noack, Von Eden nach
241,
‘der Jordan sein Mond;’ comp. ibid., Erlauterungen,
pp.
254, sqq.).--The two forms OHrey; and OHyriy;, for the town
of
although,
apparently, the same authors did not use them
promiscuously,
but always the one or the other form. For we
find
OHrey;
constantly both in Deuteronomy and in Numbers,
and
in the Books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles; and
OHyriy; as constantly in Joshua, and
generally likewise in the
Books
of Kings (written hHyriy; in l Ki. xvi. 34; comp., how-
ever,
2 Ki. xxv. 5, OHrey;; and thus also 2 Sam. x. 5; Jer.
xxxix.
5; lii. 8). But, on the whole, it may he observed
that
OHrey; the later form and may, by the revisers of the
Pentateuch,
have been adopted, in the few instances of Deutero-
nomy
(xxxii. 49; xxxiv. 1, 3), for the sake of uniformity. On
no
account is it possible to found, on the relative use of OHrey;
and
OHyriy;, argument in favour of the Mosaic authorship of the
Pentateuch
(as has been endeavoured by Hengstenberg, Bileam,
pp.
256, 257).--The time spent by the Hebrews in their
journeys
from
have
been very long; for in the beginning of the fifth
month
they were in Hor (xxxiii. 38), and in the beginning
of
the eleventh month, in the same year, Moses is said to
have
delivered or begun his exhortations (Deut. i. 3), and
within
these six months fall all the wars in the eastern
districts,
the sojourn before Nebo, and the encampment
opposite
be
seen that the distance from the east of
plains
of
83
2. COUNCILS. xxii. 2-4.
2. And Balak, the son of Zippor, saw
all that
was
very much afraid of the people, because
they
were many, and
children
of
elders
of Midian, Now will this host devour all
that
is round about us, as the ox devours the
grass
of the field. And Balak, the son of Zip-
por,
was king of
The Hebrews had no more hostile
intentions against
the
shown
against that of
were
inhabited by tribes closely kindred to themselves.
But
it seems that the Moabites attached no faith to the
invaders'
friendly assurances, and perhaps even refused
to
sell to them provisions.a They had indeed every reason
for
desiring a peaceful arrangement, since but shortly
before,
during the preceding reign, they had been materi-
ally
weakened by Sihon, king of the Amorites, who had
taken
from them their most populous and most fertile
provinces.b
For some time they might have fostered
the
hope, that the strange immigrants would be crushed
by
the same powerful monarch, to whom the presence
of
such large hosts of armed men could also not be
indifferent.
What must have been their consternation,
when
they saw that these warlike foreigners, as if
urged
on and supported by some hidden power, not only
vanquished
that very king Sihon, their own formidable
conqueror,
and wrested from him a large part of his terri-
tory,
but rapidly subdued other and hardly less powerful
princes.
No wonder, then, that they ‘dreaded,’ nay,
a See supra p. 69. b xxi. 26-30. c
xxi. 21-2.5, 33-3.5.
84 NUMBERS
xxii. 2-4.
‘loathed’a
such enemies, and that they abhorred them like
devastating
swarms of locusts ‘covering the face of the
land,’
or like herds of hungry oxen devouring every green
blade
within wide areas.b In this distress they seem first
to
have endeavoured to secure allies. They certainly
took
counsel with the elders of the neighbouring Midian-
ites.
But when these could afford no effectual help, the
king
of
cient
material resistance, knew no other expedient than
to
take refuge to spiritual powers and to attempt by
supernatural
agencies what he despaired of achieving by
human
means. For he feared the Israelites simply 'be-
cause
they were numerous' or ‘mightier’ than himself,c
and
had in recent campaigns shown undaunted valour.
It
did not enter into his considerations, that they might
stand
under the protection of an all-powerful Deity. He
relied
on miraculous intercession for himself in a manner
which
proved the perverseness of his notions regarding the
Divine
conduct of human affairs; and he was certainly
incapable
of understanding the destinies of
guiding
The casual allusion to ‘the elders of
Midian'e may be
considered
as the sad germ, out of which nearly all the
confusing
misconceptions of this narrative have grown.
For
it caused readers from the oldest times to associate
Balaam's
prophecies with the Midianite war, and with
the
infamous share he is alleged to have borne in its
origin;f
and it thus materially helped to destroy that un-
mingled
enjoyment which all should derive from so
perfect
a work. Josephus, in his elaborate paraphrase,
strangely
places the Moabites almost entirely in the
background.g
The Chaldee translation of Jonathan thus
expands
the allusion: ‘The people of
a rgyv
and
Cryv,
ver. 2. e In vers. 4, 7.
b Comp. 2 Iii. iii. 4. f
Num. xxxi. 8, 16; Josh. xiii.
c Vers. 2, 6. 21,
22.
d See supra, pp. 13-15. g Jos. Ant. IV. vi. 2-13.
COUNCILS. 85
had
been one and the kingdom one up to that day . . .
and
Balak, the son of Zippor, the Midianite, was the king
of
among
them, to have alternately kings from the one
people
and from the other.' And it is a favourite as-
sumption
of many modern interpreters, that Balaam was
recommended
to Balak by the Midianites, who are sup-
posed
to have heard of the soothsayer's skill on their
extensive
caravan journeys;a while others assert that
Balaam
himself was a Midianite; and is represented as
such
in the second or diverging account.b But supposing
even
that Balaam's fame reached
Midianite
traders, does it necessarily follow that there
existed
between Balaam and the Midianites a close and
permanent
connection? Though a portion of the latter
people
spread, no doubt, eastward as far as the
they
can, on no account, be called inhabitants of '
Balaam's
native country, which the writer clearly dis-
tinguishes
from
natural
than that the Moabites were considered to have
sought
the advice and assistance of an adjoining and
friendly
tribe? There is certainly no reason to feel sur-
prise
at finding Midian associated with Moab in schemes
of
attack against the Hebrews. For on the one hand,
one
chief branch of the Midianites dwelt in the im-
mediate
vicinity of the Moabite territory, spreading
eastward
and northward--the other and less warlike
portion,
with which Moses came into contact after his
flight
from
Akabah
and far into the
other
hand, there prevailed, between them and the
Israelites,
an ancient enmity, although both nations
traced
their origin to the common ancestry of Abraham.
Nor
did the Midianites, from a feeling of gratitude, relax
a Comp. Gen. xxxvii. 28; Isai. b Ewald, Geschichte, ii. 220.
lx.
6. c
xxii. 5; xxiii. 7.
86 NUMBERS
XXII..2-4.
their
animosity when they regained complete independence
through
the victory of the Hebrews over king Sihon, by
whom
they had been subdued.a At the time of the
exodus,
they are said to have shared the hostile feelings
of
the Egyptians against
them
and their moral degeneracy the causes of a fearful
calamity
which befell the Hebrews, which, however, did
not
remain without terrible consequences for themselves.c
But
the mutual hatred reached the highest pitch through
the
cruel and wanton oppression, which the Midianites,
in
the period of the Judges, exercised against
seven
years, till they were, by Gideon's heroism and
shrewdness,
so effectually crushed, that, from that time,
they
cease to appear in history as a separate people,
although
their caravan trade may long have survived.d
We
cannot wonder that deeds so glorious and so remark-
able
in their results, deeply impressed themselves upon
the
popular mind, and were preserved among the nation's
proudest
memories. A Psalmist, who probably wrote in
the
reign of king Jehoshaphat (about B.C. 900), could
frame
no stronger prayer against
‘Do
to them, 0 God, as Thou didst to Midian;'e and
Isaiah
still speaks of ‘the day of Midian’ and ‘the
slaughter
of Midian' with an emphatic brevity which
proves
how generally even then, after an interval of so
many
centuries, the remembrance of those victories was
cherished.f
It must, therefore, have been fresh and
vivid
in David's time, the date of this narrative; and
hence
it is natural to see the Midianites, who seem to
have
been accustomed to join other tribes for attack or
defence,g
participating in the plans of Balak, who, be-
sides,
may have easily persuaded them that, from the
nearness
of their abodes, their interests also were
a Gen. xxv. 2; 1
Chr. i. 32; Josh. d Judg. vi-viii.; comp. Isai. Ix. 6.
xiii.
21. e Ps. 1xxxiii. 10.
b Habak. iii. 7. f
Isai. ix. 4; x. 26.
e Num. xx 6 sqq.;
xxxi. 2 sqq. g Judg. vi. 3, 33.
COUNCILS. 81
threatened
by the Hebrews--'Now will this host devour
all
that is round about us.'a The commonwealth of
Midian
appears to have been a patriarchal organisation,
headed
by ‘kings’ or ‘chiefs,’b of whom at one time two,
at
another five, are mentioned,c and who were assisted
in
the government by ‘princes’ and ‘elders.’d With some
of
the latter Balak took counsel, and they then accorn-
panied
the Moabite elders as messengers to Balaam.e
PHILOLOGICAL
REMARKS.--Among the many proofs of the
isolation
of the 'Book of Balaam' within the Book of Num-
bers,
are the place it occupies and the manner in which it is
introduced.
According to the preceding accounts, the Israelites
had
not only crossed the river Arnon, then the boundary of
increasing
the distance in five or six northward journeys.
How,
therefore, should it occur to the king of
juncture,
to take measures of precaution? If operations
were
at all necessary, they should have been devised when
the
Hebrews, on passing the Wady el-Asha,
had reached the
eastern
confines of the
have
inferred from their latest movements and actions that
it
was not their intention to retrace their steps southward,
but
to press in a westerly direction, and to cross the
with
the least possible delay (supra, p.
68). Some such con-
siderations
appear to have suggested themselves to later
readers,
or to the final reviser of these chapters. For a care-
ful
examination shows that the narrative originally ran thus
‘When
Balak, the son of Zippor, saw all that
to
the Amorites, he sent messengers to Balaam, the son of
Beor,
to Pethor, which is by the river
In
order to connect this general statement, consistent in
itself,
with the tenor of the Book of Numbers, it was later
a Ver. 4. Comp.
Comm. on Gen. c Judg. viii. 6; Num. xxxi. 8;
p.
475; on Exod. p. 33; Nodldeke, Josh. xiii. 21.
Die
Amalekiter, pp. 7-10. d Myrw and Mynqz; Judg. vii. 25.
b Myklm
or MyxyWn. e
Vers. 4, 7; comp. Ps. lxxxiii. 12.
88 MBERS
XXII. 2-4.
demed
advisable to insert the third and fourth, verses
which
specially refer to the people of
alliance
with the Midianites, and particularly dwell on the
terror
inspired by the Hebrew hosts. But it cannot escape
our
attention that those verses are indeed an interpolation.
For,
first, vers. 2 and 5 fit admirably together; next, Moab
is
mentioned in vers. 3 and 4 only, whereas the narrative
everywhere
else speaks of Balak; and lastly, an author of such
ability
ould not write thus incoherently: 'And Balak, the
son
of Zippor, saw all that
(ver.
1), and then, And Balak, the son of Zippor, was king
of
thoughtlessly
destroy that historical probability so admirably
maintained
througout the section; for how could a contem-
porary
of Balak, writing in the fortieth year of the Hebrew
wanderings--the
very year in which the related incident is
recorded
to have happened--say, 'And Balak was king of
Balak
died within the few months that intervened between
Balaam's
prophecies and Moses' death? The following
justification
has indeed been proposed: The author had
first
spoken of Balaam, the son of Zippor (ver. 1), and then
of
stood
to the other; with respect to his contemporaries, whom
the
author had in his mind when beginning the account, an
explicit
remark setting forth that relation was unnecessary;
but
he added it afterwards, because he remembered that
he
was writing for posterity also' (Hengstenberg, Gesch.
Bileams,
p. 34). However, it is difficult to see why a
writer
who proves himself able to grasp and to combine the
events
of centuries, could not make so obvious a reflection
from
the outset, and say simply, 'And Balak, the son of
Zippor,
who was king of
even
this form would have involved a forgetful disregard of
the
age of Moses, and have betrayed the hand of a later
compiler.
A recent scholar joins vers. 2 to 5 in one period, in
order
to maintain Balak throughout as the subject ('When
Balak
saw all that
Moabites
were afraid ... and that the Moabites said to the
COUNCILS. 89
elders
of Midian,... Balak ... being king of
time,
he sent messengers,' etc.; so Luzzatto), a most involved
construction
opposed to the simple parataxis of Hebrew,
and
yet not removing the chief difficulties. A more critical
explanation
has been attempted by the remark, 'As the
older
source introduces Balak only in ver. 4, the second verse
is
probably a statement of the Jehovist, added for the pur-
pose
of connecting this narrative with the preceding account
of
the wars' (Knobel, Numeri, p. 128). But if ver. 2 did
not
originally form part of the composition, there was
hardly
any reason why it should have been added, as the
tale
is complete and intelligible without it. Besides, accord-
ing
to the present state of Pentateuch criticism, the relation
between
the ‘older source’ and ‘the Jehovist’ is almost
the
reverse of what it was considered to be at the time when
that
conjecture was proposed (in 1861). And lastly, none
of
the main documents or writers of the Pentateuch concern
us
in the consideration of this section (see supra, pp. 51, 52;
comp.
also Nachmanides, Bechai, and Abarbanel in loc., who felt
the
manifest irregularity of style, without being able to account
for
it satisfactorily). The suggestion made in the Midrash
and
elsewhere, 'that Balak was not the hereditary king, and
that
a change of dynasty had taken place' (Canon
Cook, Holy
Bible,
in loc.), could hardly tend to lessen the incongruity,
even
if it rested on a stronger support than the expression
‘former
king of
in
the verbs of the third verse the gradation evidently in-
tended
by the author, we must render bxvm CqAyAva, not and
a
horror of the children of
doubt
the primary meaning of Cvq--Gen. xlvii. 46; Num.
xxi.
5--as of the kindred root Fvq) and moral
aversion,
which
may show itself either in fear (Isa. vii. 11) or hatred
(1
Ki. xi. 25), contempt (Prov. iii. 11) or anger (Lev. xx.
23,
comp. Greek kotei?n), being in some languages correlative
notions
(comp. Fnq
Chald. to loathe, Syr. to be afraid; Arab.
XXX in both meanings; Sept. prosw<xqise; Vulg., quite indis-
tinctly,
et impetum ejus ferre non possent). That loathing
90 NUMBERS
XXII. 2-4.
or
horror on the part of the Moabites was caused by
irresistible
progress and power, which had for them something
extraordinary
and incomprehensible, and which they were
therefore
anxious to oppose and to break by supernatural
forces.
The case is similar with the Egyptians who ‘loathed’
or
‘had a horror of the children of
because
it was to them an unaccountable fact that ‘the more
they
afflicted the Hebrews, the more these multiplied and
grew.'
Only in this passage and in ours, Cvq is followed by
ynpm, this verb being everywhere else
construed with B;; it
must,
therefore, here and in Exodus, be taken absolutely, so
that
ynpm
means 'on account of,' as is clear from Gen. xxvii. 46,
where
both particles occur together, tH tvnb yneP;mi yyHb; ytcq,
‘I
loathe my life on account of the daughters of Heth' (comp.
Fvq in the various figurative meanings of
despising, hating,
or
being angry, in Ezek. vi. 9; xvi. 47; xx. 43; xxxvi. 31;
Ps.
xcv. 10; cxix. 158).--The graphic simile, peculiarly ap-
propriate
in connection with pastoral nations, ‘now will this
host
devour all that is round about us, as the ox devours the
grass
of the field,' is on Assyrian inscriptions varied by the
metaphor,
‘with the main body of my servants I threshed
the
enemy's country like a threshing ox' (Monolith Inscrip-
tion
of Shalmaneser II., col. ii. § 52; comp. Records of the
Past,
iii. 94); and it has not unnaturally tempted many to
allegorical
interpretations (e.g., Origen, In
Num. Homil. xii.,
Quia
vitulus ore abrumpit herbam de campo et lingua tan-
quam
falce quaecunque invenerit secat, ita et populus hic ore
et
labiis pugnat et arma habet in verbis ac precibus,' etc.).
It seems desirable here to take a
comprehensive view of the
proper
nouns occurring in these and the following verses.
First,
they are all of Shemitie etymology, as might be ex-
pected,
since Balak was a Moabite and Balaam an Aramaean
(xxii.
5; xxiii. 7; Dent. xxiii. 5); and this circumstance
should
facilitate the enquiry by following intelligible prin-
ciples.
A few illustrations will suffice. Nearly all authorities
in
ancient and modern times have interpreted the name MfAl;Bi
as
‘devourer,’ or ‘destroyer of the people’ (for Mf flb see
supra, p. 29), and
have taken both the person and the name
as
historical. How is this to be understood? Who gave to
COUNCILS. 91
the
celebrated seer that odious name? His parents? Or his
countrymen,
by whom he was so highly honoured? Surely
not.
Therefore, none else but his personal or national ene-
mies.
But, if so, MfAl;Bi is not a real or strictly
historical name.
The
case is similar with qlABA. The most obvious meaning of
the
root would lead to the sense 'the empty' or 'idle one'
(comp.
Isa. xxiv. 1; Nab. ii. 11); can this be the name by
which
the king of
temporaries?
It seems that the matter may be thus explained.
If
the names are indeed in any way historical (and it is on
this
supposition only that the subject deserves minute investi-
gation),
they had doubtless, when first bestowed, an import
involving
something characteristic or conspicuous, and cer-
tainly
not anything abusive or disgraceful (comp. Comm. on
Genes.
p. 540). By slight modifications, to which both the
Oriental
mind and the Oriental languages are eminently
adapted,
the original name might afterwards be so changed by
adversaries
and opponents, that it was little altered in sound,
but
very materially in meaning. Strictly adhering to this
consideration,
we shall at least be guarded against grave
mistakes
in the explanation of proper nouns, even should we
not
always arrive at safe and positive results. If qlABA is in-
deed
referable to the root qlb, in the sense of making empty
or
laying waste, the original name was probably qleBo, the devas-
tator,
the great conqueror, which an Eastern ruler would na-
turally
bear with particular pride; and as no vowels and, of
course,
no quiescent letters as matres lectionis were written,
qleBo was without difficulty converted
into qlABA,
which would be
interpreted
either as ‘the man of idle endeavours, who vainly
hoped
to crush
Mflb as ma<taioj, and the
former, besides, as a@nouj, Opp. ii.
423,
see supra, p. 27), or, since
emptiness and poverty were
deemed
analogous notions and xtvqvlb is in Syriac poverty, as
the
impoverished king, because he received from his prede-
cessor
the land greatly diminished in extent and power
(xxi.
26).--Similarly MfAl;Bi, if from the first so vocalised,
means,
no doubt, properly destruction or destroyer (from flb,
with
the afformative M-A, as in many other proper Dames-
MnAvx, MTAf;Ga, MpAUH, MrAm;fa, etc., or with N-A , as NnAOx, NrAm;zi, NtAyze, NrAm;Ha,
92 NUMBERS
XXII. 2-4.
etc.--),
a name which the father might fitly have given to his
son
whom he hoped and wished to be able, by his execrations,
to
terrify and to destroy his enemies and the foes of his friends
and
employers (comp. xxii. 6); though we are rather inclined
to
consider that proper noun to have originally been vocalised
MfAl;Ba (so Sept., balaa<m; Joseph., ba<lamoj; Saad., XXXX ) and
to
be a contraction for MfA-lfaBa lord of the people (the f being
elided
as in -lBe
for lfaBa,
whence the Syr. has MfAl;Be; comp tUr,
Chald.
tUfr;);
but in either case the Hebrews might easily
understand
that name in a sense which was certainly attri-
buted
to it at a very early date, as corruption or perdition of
the
people (MfA flaB,, Talm. Sarah. 105a, etc., see supra, p. 29);
though
the elision of f at the end of the word is question-
able,
and is only supported by such apparent analogies as
Mlwvry for Mlw
wvyr
(comp. Engl. transcribe for trans-scribe,
etc.).--Not
much different in meaning is the name of Balaam's
father
rOfB;,
which, in the intention of those who first gave
it,
no doubt also signified destroyer (rfb) in the sense
above
indicated,
as Beor was probably likewise an enchanter and
diviner,
whereas that word readily suggested to the Hebrews
the
similar meaning of the people's debaser or destroyer, if not,
at
the same time, that of voracious brute ( ryfioB;, Exod.
xxii.
4; Num. xx. 4, etc.), or of the abominable idol ryofP;, to
whom
the soothsayer's family might well have been deemed
devoted.
A conclusive analogy is near at hand. The Greek
proper
noun Nicolaus (Niko<laoj), and its
synonyms, as Nico-
demur,
Andronicus, and others, are by no means vitupera-
tive
but unquestionably honourable in import, denoting
great
heroes and successful warriors; and yet the New
Testament,
as we have shown (p. 23), renders the name
Balaam
by Nikolaos, and assigns to the latter, as it does to
the
former, the worst significations of depraver and spiritual
ravager
of the people. Thus, both in Greek and in Hebrew,
etymologies,
elastic enough in any case, were conveniently
employed
for turning a meaning into its very opposite. In
the
second Epistle of Peter (ii. 15), rOfB; is rendered Boso<r
this
is perhaps merely a copyist's error, instead of bew<r or
Buw<r; or it may have arisen out of
the difficulty of accurately
COUNCILS. 93
representing
the Hebrew letter f, for which there is no
proper
equivalent in Greek (comp. Heb. Gram. ii. pp. 54,
55),
and which, therefore, as the strongest aspirate, was, in
that
instance, represented by the sibilant s (comp. e[pta< and
septem, a!lj
and sal, etc.); if it is not a
peculiarity of the
Galilean
dialect, by the use of which Peter the Galilean was
markedly
distinguished (Matt. xxvi. 73; Mark xiv. 70), and
in
which, to the great displeasure of southern purists, the f
was
pronounced more softly, almost like N (comp. Talm.
Eruv.
53; Buxt, Lexic. Talm., pp. 434-436), though some
consider
it to be a Chaldaism, because they suppose that the
Apostle
was then a resident at
tunity,
however trivial, be neglected for casting discredit on
Balaam,
a very learned divine of the seventeenth century,
with
the approval of many later writers, threw out the sur-
mise,
that the Apostle designedly used the form Boso<r, in
order
to recall the sound of rWABA flesh, 'thus elegantly inti-
mating
that Balaam, the false prophet, by inciting men to
carnal
pleasures, was justly called the son of flesh' (Vitringa,
Obss.
Sacr., IV. ix. 31, p. 937).--It is hardly likely that boso<r
is
intended for rOtP; so that balaa>m o[ Boso<r would mean
'Balaam,
a native of Pethor,' as Grotius and others believe.-
It
is remarkable that the first king of
son
of rOfB;’
(Gen. xxxvi. 32; 1 Chron. i. 43); this coincidence,
if
it does not prove that these two names were, at that time,
great
favourites in families proud of 'producing manslayers,
whether
in the bodily or spiritual sphere' (Hengstenb., Bileam,
p.
22), teaches, at least, that MfAl;Bi was meant as
identical with
flaB,, and that it was not taken as a
compound of MfA, neither
as
equivalent to MfA flaB, (see supra); nor much less to Mf hlb
(Aruch,
sub voc.), denoting one ' who confounded ( lblbw )
who
has no community whatever with the pious people of
of
followers' (Talm. Sanh. 105a, etc.); nor to MfA lBa 'non-
populus,
peregrines'
(Gesenius, Thesaurus, p. 210 ;
compare
Aruch,
1.c , rHx Mfl jlhv vmfmv vmvqmm xcyw Mf xlb);
which,
irrespective of the vowel in the first syllable, would
be
almost unintelligible as elliptical expressions. More-
94 NUMBERS
xxii. 2--4.
over,
the town MfAl;Bi, in the eastern
(1
Chron. vi. 55), bore also the name MfAl;b;yi, (Josh. xvii.
11;
Judges
i. 27; 2 Kings ix. 27), from which it is evident that
MfAl;Bi was traced to flb, not to lb or lfb; this being one
of
many
instances of double proper nouns, one containing the
past,
the other the future of the verb (comp. hyAnAB; and hyAnAB;yi,
UhyAl;daG; and UhyAl;Dag;yi, etc.).--One
additional remark we would,
in
this place, make on Hebrew proper nouns. Some names
were
so generally current and so familiar that it would have
been
impossible to alter their form without causing material
confusion.
In such cases, endeavours were made, etymologi-
cally
or otherwise, to interpret the word in the desired sense.
To
this category belongs the name bxAOm, which means
properly
seed
of the father' (for Om is a poetical term for water, Job
ix.
30, which is used for seed, Isa. xlviii. 1), that is, simply
the
descendants of some great ancestor, who was kat ]
e]coxh<n
called
'father;' but Hebrew historians of later times, ex-
plaining
bxAmo
by bxAme
(e]k tou? patro<j), attributed to that name,
literally,
the sense of 'offspring of the father,' and embodied
this
view in a detailed story (Gen. xix. 32, 34; comp. Comm.
on
Gen. p. 426).--Jewish authorities elucidate qlABA by xBA and
qlA, or lxrWy
lw Nmd qvll xb
‘he came to lap (or suck) the
blood
of the Israelites;' and the very same sense is attributed
to
the name qlemAfE contended to be equivalent to MfA and qlA and
to
mean lxrWy lw vmd qlw (see Baal Hatturim in loc.). This
one
instance out of very many will illustrate that wonderful
flexibility
of etymological explanation, to which we have
above
referred; and we will only add that Patristic writers,
asserting
Balaam to mean 'vain people,' and Balak' devourer,'
consider
the one as the type of the Jewish scribes and Phari-
sees,
and the other as the emblem of the implacable enemies of
the
spiritual
It
seems natural to understand rOtP; (comp. Dent.
xxiii. 5),
Balaam's
home, as the town of ' interpretation of dreams'
(rtaPA, Gen. xl. 8,
16; xli. 8, etc.; Sam. Vers., hrvwp; Syr.,
xrvwp), in which art the seer, like
perhaps some of his fellow-
citizens,
may have been a great adept (comp. xxii. 8-12, 19,
20;
Talm. Sanh. 106a; Yalkut, Balak, § 771; Targ. Jon., etc.);
but
this opinion has, of course, no claim to certainty; for the
COUNCILS. 95
primary
meaning of rtp is to
open or to divide, which may
be
very multifariously applied to a town (e.g., Gesen., Thes.,
p.
1141, after Midr. Tanchuma, 'fortasse id quod Chald.
xrAOtPA. mensa,' etc.). Some ancient versions (as Samar., Syr.,
Vulg.) take rOtP; not as a town,
but as interpreter or sooth-
sayer',
(see supra; Abu Said XXXX ), against the
context and
against
Deut. 1.c.--rOPci is undoubtedly bird, like the
feminine
hrAPoci the Midianite wife of Moses
(Exod. ii. 21, etc.; comp.
the
Midianite chief brefo, Raven, Judg. vii. 25, etc.).--The
Targum
of Jonathan thus paraphrases the fifth verse: ‘And
Balak
sent messengers to Laban the Aramaean, that is
Balaam,
the son of Beor, who was eager to destroy the
people
(xm.Afa tya faOlb;mil;), the house of
insane
from the vastness of his knowledge, and had no com-
passion
with
Padan,
that is Pethor (rOtP;), meaning interpreter of dreams
(
xy.Amal;H, rytiPA) and it was built in
where
the people of his country worshipped him.' This
specimen
sufficiently exemplifies both the bias and the con-
fusion
of traditional explanation throughout this section
(see
supra, pp. 29,30).--As regards the position of Pethor (Sept.
faqoura<), we must be
content with the statement of the text,
that
the town was situated on the
than
this we do not even learn from the Monolith Inscription
of
Shalmaneser II. (B.C. 858-823), and from the remarkable
black
Obelisk of the same king, both which monuments men-
tion,
in the immediate vicinity of the
river
Irgamri or Saguri, which has not been identified, a town
which
the men of the Hittites' (i. e. the Syrians) 'have
called
the city of Pi-it-ru or Pethor,' although from the
latter
record the town appears to have been in the highlands
of
Black
Obel., face C., lines 38-40, ' at my return into the low-
lands,'
etc.; see Schrader, Keilinschriften
and das A.T., p. 65;
Records
of the Past, iii. 99 ; v. 31) Everything else is un-
certain
tradition or conjecture; but the identity of that town
is,
for the main object of our narrative, of little importance-
whether
Pethor is traceable to Iaqou?sai, a place south of
96 NUMBERS
XXIL. 5-14.
Circesium
(Zosimus iii. 4; Knob.), or to Rehoboth Ir (Gen.
x.
11; xxxvi. 37), or, after the Oscian petora
(four), means
a
town built in the form of an oblong (Hitzig,
Sprache ... der
Assyrier,
p. 11). It seems, however, probable that Pethor was
one
of the cities or districts which, according to an old Baby-
lonian
custom similar to the appointment of priestly and leviti-
cal
towns among the Hebrews, were set apart for the various
classes
of philosophers, astronomers, and soothsayers, and
which
formed the principal centres of their work and reputa-
tion
(comp. Strabo, XVI. i. 6, p. 739: Plin. Nat. Hist. vi. 26
or
30, Hipparenum, Chaldaeorum doctrina et hoc sicut
est,
qua in urbe excellit haruspicum disciplina).
3. FIRST MESSAGE. XXIL.
5-14.
5.
And he sent messengers to Balaam, the
son
of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the river
(
people,
to call him, saying, Behold, there is a
a
people come out from Egypt; behold, they cover
the
face of the earth, and they abide over against
me.
6. Come now, therefore, I pray thee,
curse
me
this people, for they are too mighty for me;
perhaps
I shall prevail, that we may smite them,
and
that I may drive them out of the land: for
I
know that he whom thou blessest is blessed,
and
he whom thou cursest is cursed. 7. And
the
elders of
departed
with the rewards of divination in their
hand;
and they came to Balaam, and spoke to
him
the words of Balak. 8. And he said to
them,
Stay here this night, and I will bring you
word,
as the Lord shall speak to me. And the
princes
of
FIRST MESSAGE. 97
God
came to Balaam, and said, Who are these
men
that are with thee? 10. And Balaam said
to
God, Balak, the son of Zippor, king of
has
sent to me, saying, 11. Behold, the
people
that
is come out of
the
earth; come now, curse me them; per-
haps
I shall then be able to fight against them,
and
drive them out. 12. And God said to
Balaam,
Thou shalt not go with them, thou
shalt
not curse the people; for they are blessed.
13.
And Balaam rose in the morning, and said
to
the princes of Balak, Go to your country, for
the
Lord refuses to give me leave to go with
you.
14. And the princes of
they
went to Balak, and said, Balaam refuses to
come
with us.
The result of
tions
was that, under the critical circumstances, nothing
better
could be undertaken than to send a legation to the
famous
diviner Balaam and to claim his powerful aid,
since
even both nations united felt diffident in opposing
the
large and victorious armies of the Hebrews. In
order
to invest the embassy with a national character
and
dignity, they dispatched, as official representatives,
the
elders of both communities. Their utter helplessness
and
perplexity are admirably conveyed in Balak's un-
certain
and wavering message. He vaguely speaks of
‘a
people that is come out of
fancies
does not concern Balaam. He engages and pays
a
soothsayer, and therefore thinks he may dispose of his
services
at pleasure. To him the enchanter's will and
art
alone have reality. Those against whom that art is
a xcAyA
Mfa,
ver. 5.
98 NUMBERS
XXII. 5-14
to
be employed, have no share in his considerations. It
is
enough that he desires to have them cursed; whether
they
deserve to be cursed or not, appears to him in-
different.
It would have been impossible to pourtray
more
aptly paganism and its obtuse blindness. How
infinitely
superior to such a state of mind is even the
rigid
doctrine of retribution, which caused the Hebrews
to
see so deep and intrinsic a connection between man's
deeds
and his fate, that they were certain that the
Canaanites
though destined to destruction could not be
exterminated
until the measure of their sins was full.a
Balak
might well have assumed that so well-informed a
man
as Balaam had heard of the Hebrews and their long
wanderings
in the desert, if not of their memorable
deliverance
from foreign bondage. That Balaam was
really
acquainted with these events, is clear from his own
words.
For in repeating to God the commission he had
received
he said ‘Behold the people that is come out of
hordes
dangerous to himself; but to Balaam they were
the
one renowned people of Jahveh, who had singled
them
out for His special protection and had hitherto led
them
so miraculously.c By the
slightest modifications,
the
author's skill fixed the strongest contrasts.--Almost
incoherently,
the king further sends word to the seer that
the
Hebrews were filling the whole land; that they were
encamped
in his close proximity; Balaam was to come
and
curse the swarming multitudes; ‘perhaps,’ he con-
tinues,
‘I shall prevail that we may smite them, and that
I
may drive them out of the land; for I know that he
whom
thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest
is
cursed.’d Hesitation and assurance, despondency and
reckless
courage, struggle in his uneasy and foreboding
mind.
He is conscious of taking refuge in an uncommon
a Gen. xv. 16,
and Comm. in loc. c Comp. xxiii. 22; xxiv. 8; see
b xcey.oha
MfAhA,
ver. 11. supra,
p. 14.
d Ver. 6.
FIRST MESSAGE. 99
and
desperate device, and his words cling to hopes in
which
his heart scarcely believes. But the soothsayer
must
come to
nounced
the curse in his Mesopotamian home; he must
behold
those whom he attempts to annihilate by the
power
of his incantations; and Balak is eager to hear
himself
those welcome words which are to inspire him
and
his people with new strength. Does Balaain attach
the
same weight to his personal presence? Does he also
believe
that the eye, whether it be the good or the evil
eye,
must be fixed upon those who are effectually to be
blessed
or cursed? This the narrative leaves in uncer-
tainty,
because it represents Balaam in perfect and
almost
passive repose. But so much is undoubted, that
all
arrangements and directions referring to that point
do
not proceed from him, but from the king of
who,
in his restless anxiety, is unwilling to neglect any
form
or ceremony deemed desirable by the most scrupu-
lous
belief of his nation and his time.
Is it necessary to accumulate proofs
of the faith of the
ancient
world in the real power of blessings and curses?
The
whole Bible, all classical and non-classical literature,
proclaim
it. Extraordinary men, such as prophets, and
ordinary
men in uncommon moments, such as the ap-
proach
of death, were supposed to be seized by the
divine
spirit, and so far uplifted beyond the usual measure
of
human power and intelligence, that, consciously or
unconsciously,
they reveal the decrees of
nay,
are able to direct and change them, and, by the,
force
of their holy zeal and fervour, to transform the
word
into an unerring deed. When little children, fail-
ing
to honour the prophet in the ‘bald head,’ mocked
Elisha,
'he cursed them in the name of the Lord,' and
forthwith
two bears came out of the wood and tore
forty-two
of the children;a and when Theseus believed
a 2 Ki. ii. 23, 24.
100 NUMBERS
XXII 5-14.
he
had reason for well-founded suspicion against his son,
and
wrathfully cursed him in the name of domestic
honour
and purity, the curse was fulfilled even upon the
innocent
youth, and no prayer and no repentance of the
agonised
father were able to avert or undo it.a Such an
ardent
conviction of the participation of human enthu-
siasm
in the counsels of heaven, is well compatible even
with
a high degree of truly religious feeling; but of such
a
depth of conviction Balak was wholly incapable. He
believed
he could ‘hire’ a prophet and bid him speak,
not
as his god suggested, but as he, the terror-stricken
king,
desired. Therefore, he did not omit to send to
Balaam
‘rewards of divination,’b probably rich and ample
wages,
as he considered that the more liberally he paid,
the
more powerful was the curse he could command.c
It may be allowable to dwell one
moment longer on
this
point. How superficially the effect of cursing was
viewed
by the Hebrews, even in later times, is indeed
sufficiently
clear from their belief in 'day-cursers,' en-
dowed
with the gift of blotting out, or devoting to eternal
oblivion,
certain days or seasons of disaster and mourning;
but
it is most strikingly apparent from the remarkable
ritual
of the ‘Offering of Jealousy:’ the curse was written
on
a scroll, which was then dipped in the ‘bitter water;’
this
water, bodily saturated, as it were, with the words of
the
curse, was drunk by the suspected woman, and it was
firmly
expected that if she was guilty, the water ‘would
make
her womb to swell and her thigh to rot.’e Can it,
therefore,
be surprising that heathen nations hardly set
bounds
to the possible effects of spells and charms?
a Compare Hor. Od. IV. vii. 25, Lev.
i. pp. 282-289; ii. p. 596; comp.
Infernis
neque enim tenebris Diana Gen. ix.
25-27; xxvii. 4, 12, 27-29,
pudicum
Liberat Hippolytum, etc. 39, 40; xlviii. 9, 15, 16, 20; xlix.
b MymisAq;, ver. 7. 2-27;
Num. vi. 24-27; Deut. xi.
c See infra. 29;
xxvii. 12-26; xxxiii. 1-25;
d Mvy
yrrx,
Job iii. 8. Josh. vi. 26 and 1 Ki. xvi. 34;
e
Num.
v. 11-29, and Comm. on Matth. xxi. 19.
FIRST MESSAGE. 101
Plato
speaks of certain itinerant priests and prophetsa
frequenting
the houses of the rich, and persuading them
that
they possess a power granted by the gods of
expiating
by incantationsb all sins and crimes committed
by
any living person or by his forefathers, and of blasting
any
foe, whether he was guilty or not, by blandishments
and
magic ties.c When Alcibiades, after profaning the
Eleusinian
mysteries, had been condemned in his absence
and
punished with the confiscation of his property, the
people
ordered him, besides, 'to be execrated by all priests
and
priestesses,' which occasion was rendered still more
memorable
by the priestess Theano, who refused to com-
ply
with the command, contending that she was ‘a
priestess
of blessings, not of curses.’d
In the Roman twelve tables penalties
are enacted
against
any one ‘who shall have enchanted the harvest,’
or
‘shall have used evil incantations’ generally;e for
‘there
was no one who did not dread being spell-bound
by
means of malignant imprecations.'f The Romans
preserved
some old and secret forms of execration, the
awful
power of which was believed to destroy not only
those
against whom, but even those by whom they were
pronounced,
and which, therefore, were only employed
in
the most uncommon emergencies. Such an occasion
was
the contemplated departure of M. Crassus to
(B.C.
55), with the intention of waging war against the
Parthians;
the tribunes of the people strongly dis-
approved
of the plan, and when Crassus still insisted
upon
its execution, they ‘uttered against him public
imprecations,’
using fearful and terrible spells and menaces
--after
which the historians record, without surprise and
a ]Agu<rtai and me<nteij. Lysias, Adv. Andocid. 51; Xen.
b ]Ep&dai?j. Mem.
II. vi. 10.
c ]Epagwgai?j kai> katade<smoij; e
Qui fruges encantassit; qui
Plat. Republ. ii. 7,
p. 364. malum
carmen incantassit.
d Eu]xw?n, ou] katarw?n i[e<reian ge- f Defigi quidem
diris precationi-
gone<neai Plut. Alcib. c. 22; comp. bus nemo non metuit.
102 NUMBERS
XXII. 5-14.
as
a natural result, that Crassus perished in
his
son and nearly the whole of his army. Indeed it
was
firmly believed, as Pliny attests, that ‘words can
change’
the destinies of great empires. But their
remarkable
efficacy was considered to appear in various
other
ways. Imprecations pronounced during a sacrifice
‘have
caused the victim's liver or heart suddenly to
vanish
or to be doubled.’ By the incantations of Vestal
virgins
the flight of runaway slaves, who had not passed
beyond
the precincts of the town, was supposed to be
arrested.
Spells were held to control and rule the very
elements
and all nature, to induce rain and to repel it, to
draw
down the moon and the stars from the skies and to
direct
the winds, to check the movements of serpents
and
to make them burst asunder, to avert hail-showers
and
to conjure up thunderstorms. This is reported to
have
been achieved by Lars Porsena and other Etruscans,
but
by no one more frequently and successfully than by
King
Numa; while Tullus Hostilius, imitating him, but
not
performing the ceremonies in due form, was killed
by
the lightning. From that belief Jupiter bore the
standing
epithet of Elicius.a But it is right to add, on
the
authority of Pliny, that ‘the wisest persons’ rejected
all
such beliefs; that every one was permitted to look
upon
these matters in whatever light he pleased; and,
what
is of greater importance, that 'it was an accepted
maxim
in the doctrines of divination, that neither curses
nor
any other auspices had the least effect upon those
who,
before entering upon an enterprise, declared that
they
paid no attention to them.’b
a
dus. formula
there preserved contains
b Comp. Plin. Natur. list. II. 53 prayers, rather than curses); Plut.
or
54; xxviii. 2 or 3-5; Tacit. Ann. Crass.
c. 16; Appian,
xiv.
30, Druidaeque circum, preces 18; Seneca, Nat. Quaest. iv. 7; Virg.
diras
sublatis ad caelum manibus Ecl.
viii. 69-71, Carmina vel ecelo
fundentes,
etc.; Macrob. iii. 9 (al- possunt
deducere Lunam... Frigidus
FIRST MESSAGE. 103
The ambassadors arrive in Pethor and
deliver their
message
to Balaam. Do we see him share or drawn
into
the eagerness and unrest of the troubled monarch?
From
the moment that the narrative reaches Balaam, it
seems
to breathe a more serene tranquillity and a higher
purity.
In the first place, never again is any mention
made
of ‘wages of divination.’ Gold and worldly
honours
are of no account in the eyes of the prophet,
who
serves his god alone. And who is this god? Is he
one
of the many idols of Balak? He is the one and sole
God
of the Hebrews, Jahveh the Unchangeable, the
Eternal.
It is vain to ask how Balaam gained the
knowledge
of this God. The strange answers which
this
question has called forth ought alone to have sufficed
to
show the impropriety of the question. In order to
attain,
it is asserted, greater proficiency in soothsaying,
which
he practised as a trade or profession for the grati-
fication
of his chief passions of ambition and avarice, he
carefully
enquired into the traditions and the history of
other
nations besides his own. In this manner he heard
some
faint echoes of the convictions left from ‘the primi-
tive
age of monotheism;’ he also heard some distinct
whispers
of the patriarchal revelations that lingered in
sojourn
with Laban; and, what was of the greatest
moment
to him, he listened to the reports of the recent
miracles
of
the
lands of the Euphrates and the
in
pratis cantando rumpitur anguis; coelo
deripit ; xvii. 4, 77, 78; Prop.
Ovid, Metam. vii.
201-209,
concutio
cantu freta, nubila pello... fallacia
Lunae, etc.; Tibull.
ventos
abigoque vocoque, Vipereas 17-22,
Cantus vicinis fruges tradu-
rumpo
verbis et carmine fauces, etc.; cit ab
agris, Cantus et iratae detinet
Fast.
iii. 327, 328, Eliciunt caelo te, anguis
iter, etc.; Val. Flace. Argon.
Juppiter,
unde minores Nunc quo- viii. 351,
352, Fallor, an hos nobis
quo
to celebrant Eliciumque vocant; magico
nunc carmine ventos Ipsa
Hor. Epod. v. 45,
Quae sidera ex- movet,
diraque levat maria ardua
cantata
voce Thessala Lunamque lingua?
etc.
104 NUMBERS
XXII. 5-14.
early
times, closely joined by commercial intercourse.
Thus,
for his own interest and advantage, and ‘in the
hope
that he might by these means be able to par-
ticipate
in the new powers granted to the human race,’
he
was induced to devote himself to the service of
Jaliveh,
'to call Him his god and to prophesy in His
name,'
without, however, fully comprehending or honestly
following
Him--similar to the Jewish exorcists, who, in
later
times, drove out demons in Christ's name without
believing
in him;a and similar especially to Simon the
sorcerer,
‘Balaam's New Testament anti-type,’ who, dis-
satisfied
with the previous emoluments of his art, and
attracted
by the signs and miracles of his time, from
which
he hoped to derive greater profit, believed and
was
baptised, though his heart had no share in his faith.b
With
what semblance of historical accuracy does preju-
dice
often clothe the most unhistorical fancies! Balaam
knows
and worships Jahveh, simply because the high-
minded
minded author of this wonderful narrative attributes to
him
that knowledge and worship. Balaam is a prophet
of
the true God because the historian is a prophet of the
true
God, and considers Hebrew and Gentile worthy of
the
same privilege. It is only in the light of free and con-
summate
art that this portion can be duly appreciated.
It
has the highest probability--not that of fact and
history,
but of poetry; it does not reveal to us the
Mesopotamian
Balaam, but, what is of much deeper
interest
to us, one of the greatest seers of
fresh
and vigorous time of David. Instances are quoted
from
patristic writers, ascribing to certain Magi and
Chaldeans
‘the knowledge of God and His angels;’c but
they
form no parallels to our narrative. It is one thing
to
regard pagans capable of single glimpses and isolated
a Mark ix. 38,
39; Acts xix. 13. Munue. Felix, Octav. 26: Justin,
b Acts viii.
9-13, 18-24. Cohort. ad
c Cyprian, De Vanit. Idol. 4; Numeri, p. 131.
FIRST MESSAGE. 105
rays
of truth; and another to identify them entirely
and
cheerfully with the holy proclaimers of the Divine
word.
Balaam is in familiar intercourse with
God. He asks
for
His directions and is sure of His reply, whether by
night
in dreams, or by day in clear visions. He has
wholly
merged his own will in that of his heavenly
Master.
He enquires without eagerness and listens
without
anxiety, because he trusts in His wisdom with
unquestioning
devotion. Thus he invites Balak's mes-
sengers
to stay over night, and promises to communicate
to
them, the next morning, the Lord's decision, which in-
volves
his own. This does not refer, as has been supposed,
to
the heathen custom of incubatio or sleeping in temples,a
but
to a revelation in dream, such as the favoured men
among
the Hebrews likewise expected and prized.b God
appears,
as Balaam had foreseen. With epical breadth and
calmness
He is made to ask the prophet, ‘Who are these
men
that are with thee?’c although He, the Omniscient,
had
no need to ask. For the narrative proceeds in that
even
flow which, in the midst of motion, preserves
repose,
and in repose presses onward, and which, like
the
verse of Homer, never hurries yet never pauses.
Balaam's
answer is clear and explicit. It is designedly
an
almost literal reproduction of Balak's request, but
with
two significant modifications. One, already alluded
to
above, concerns the well-known people that has come
out
of
declaration
with respect to Balaam, ‘for I know that he
whom
thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest
is
cursed.’e These words would, in Balaam's mouth, not
only
sound like self-praise, but would be particularly
a The e]gkoi<mhsij of the Greeks; me<nontej dh<lwsin o]nei<ratoj.
comp.
Herod. viii. 134; Plut. Arist. b
See supra, p. 16.
c.
19; Strab., pp. 508, 761; Diod. c Ver. 9.
Sic.
i. 63; Pausan.
krio>n qu<santej ... kaqeu<dousin a]na- e
Ver. 6.
106 NUMBERS
XXII. 5-14.
unsuitable
on account of his profound consciousness that
it
is not he who blesses or curses, but God through him,
and
that he is nothing but His human instrument. Most
frequently
has the reproach of vain arrogance been
raised
against Balaam; but in the simplest and most
efficient
manner the author would seem to have rendered
the
reproach impossible. Three times has Balaam to
deliver
Divine oracles, in reference to which the follow-
ing
gradation may be observed. The first time he says
to
Balak, ‘I will go, perhaps the Lord will come to meet
me:’a
free from giddy confidence or self-assurance, he,
who
had already been favoured with many revelations,b
is
represented as the wise man ‘that feareth always,’ and
‘who
is doubtful whether the Divine communication will
be
granted to him in the desired form and at the ex-
pected
moment. The second time he says, more decided-
‘I
go to meet the Lord;’c while the third time only
he
deems it unnecessary to solicit special suggestions.d
Even
in the most subordinate points, the author's skill
and
thoughtfulness are manifest.
God's answer to Balaam, short and
simple as it is,
leads
us with a single step to the very kernel and
marrow
of the composition. Balaam was not to go with
the
messengers to curse the people of
are
biessed.’e Thus the aged Isaac, even after having
learnt
the cunning and fraud by which Jacob had
obtained
the blessing, still exclaims, 'He shall certainly
be
blessed;'f but he does so in excitement and
agitation,
uttering
the words almost unconsciously, and impelled
by
God's secret power; while here God Himself speaks,
with
quiet emphasis, as the Lord of all nations and their
destinies.
There, a blessing that had been pronounced
is
to be sealed as irrevocable; here, an eagerly desired
a ylaUx, xxiii. 3. d
xxiv. 1.
b xxii. 9, 20. e
Ver. 12, xUh j`UrbA yKi
c xxiii. 15. f
hy,h;yi j`UrBA MGa Gen. xxvii. 33.
FIRST MESSAGE. 107
curse
is to be averted. And yet the chief and inner-
most
idea of both narratives is precisely the same.
against
them. All are compelled to bestow upon the
chosen
nation their most fervent benedictions, and are
supernaturally
restrained from uttering imprecations; if,
in
reckless defiance, anyone dares to execrate, the curse,
changed
into a blessing for
upon
himself.a Will, in this instance,
once
warned, desist from such defiance? Will they
persevere
in it? The stirring plot is laid for a grand
drama,
in which royal contumacy is opposed to Divine
wisdom
and power: how will the design be developed?
No
worthier or more suitable link between the two
chief
actors--God and Balak--could be conceived than
Balaam,
who, whatever might have been his human
sympathies,
absolutely suppressed them in order to
remain
absolutely and impartially ‘the mouth’ of God.
Thus
he declared to the messengers, with resolute calm-
ness,
that he would not accompany them to
did
he conceal from them that he was solely bound by
the
commands of Jahveh, the God of the very people
he
was summoned to imprecate.b But why did he not
communicate
to the envoys God's whole reply? He in-
deed
hinted that he could not curse
of
the journey involved the refusal of the curse. But
why
did he suppress the reason which God assigned for
that
refusal, ‘for they are blessed’? He suppressed it
because
the messengers and their master would not have
understood
the depth of its import, but would have
taken
it merely as an irritating aggravation of the
denial.
This is proved by the conduct of the messengers
themselves;
for these, evidently unable to comprehend
the
terrible scope of the new complication, or, in their
dark
forebodings, purposely ignoring it, brought back to
a xxiv. 9; Gen.
xxvii. 29. b Vers. 8, 13.
108 NUMBERS
XXII. 5-14.
the
king not even Balaam's curtailed answer in his
proper
words, ‘the Lord refuses to give me leave to go
with
you;’ but, as if it were simply a human and personal
resolve,
which a caprice had prompted and a caprice
might
change, they gave the reply in the bare terms,
'Balaam
refuses to come with us.'a
PHILOLOGICAL
REMARKS.--It is incredible how many
strange
and fanciful interpretations have been forced even
upon
these verses of plain narrative. As might be expected,
the
largest conclusions in disparagement of Balaam have
been
drawn from the word MymisAq; (ver. 7), which indeed re-
quires
some illustration. It would be erroneous to infer from
its
use in this place, that the author shared the view of Deu-
teronomy
and the Book of Joshua with respect to Balaam as
sorcerer (see supra, pp. 6, 7). It is true that the
verb MsaqA
and
its
derivative nouns (Ms,q,, MsAq;mi) are
frequently, perhaps
chiefly,
used in a bad sense. But an accurate comparison of
all
passages teaches, first, that they are not unfrequently em-
ployed
in reference to true prophecy also; and, secondly,
that
this good meaning is the older, the bad meaning the
later
one. For in an evil sense they are unquestionably
used
in the following passages: Deut. xvii. 10, 14 (Mymsq Msvq,
prohibited
as a heathen abomination together with Nnvfm,
wHnm and JwHm; comp. Jer.
xxvii. 9); 1 Sam. vi. 2 (the
Mymsvq of the Philistines, mentioned by
the side of their
priests);
xv. 23 (Msq txFH); xxviii. 8 (Saul, after having
consulted
God in vain, requests the witch of Endor yl xn ymis;qA);
2
Ki. xvii.:17 (where Msq) is included in, the heavy sins, on
account
of which
25
(Mymis;Oq, coupled with MyDiBa, lying
prophets); Jer. xiv. 14
(Ms,q,, in conjunction
with rqw,
lylx,
and tymrt);
Ezek. xiii.
6,
7; xxii. 28 (pregnant phrases bzAKA MsaqA, bzAKA
Ms,q,,
bzAKA Msaq;mi);
xiii.
23 (Ms,q,
in parallelism with xv;wA); xxi. 26 (Ms,q,
MsaqA
in-
cluded
in the various forms of magic customary in
as
divining by shaking arrows inspecting the liver, etc.). It
will
be observed, that none of these passages reach back
a Vers. 113, 14.
About the situation of Pethor, see supra,
p. 95.
FIRST MESSAGE. 109
farther
than the seventh century. On the other hand, Msq is
used
in a good sense by the first Zechariah (the author of
Chap.
ix.-xi., about B.C. 750, who, in x. 2, names Mymsvq to-
gether
with Myprt
and tvmlH,
as legitimate counsellors), by
Isaiah
(iii. 2, where the Msvq is, besides Nqzv
xybnv Fpvw,
a
principal
and valued support of the land; that it is meant as
a
contrast to the latter terms, as has been asserted, is in no
way
intimated), by Micah (iii. 6, 7, 11, where Msoq; is clearly
parallel
with NOzHA,
and MseOq
with hz,Ho,
through whom ‘an
answer
of God,' Myhlx hnfm, may be expected, and where it is
said
of the prophets of
upon
Jahveh), and in one of the earlier Proverbs (xvi. 10,
which
enjoins, 'Ms,q,
shall be on the lips of the king, and his
mouth
shall not do wrong in judgment'). This use of the
word
in a favourable meaning was maintained, in later times,
even
after the reproachful sense had gained ground; it is thus
found
in Jeremiah (xxix. 8, Mymsvq, by the side of tvmlH and
of
Myxybn,
who prophesy in Jahveh's name, though falsely and
without
a mission), and especially in Ezekiel (xii. 24; xiii. 9;
xxi.
34). Therefore, whatever date may be attributed to this
section,
the word MymisAq; does not necessarily imply anything
derogatory
to Balaam; it might have such a signification, if
the
tenour of the narrative favoured it; but, as we have shown,
the
very opposite is the case (see supra, pp. 17-21). More-
over,
it is Balak who forwards, not Balaam who demands, the
Mymsq, which are never again mentioned
in the whole account.
The
most probable meaning of the terns is here ‘rewards’ or
‘wages
of divination,’ after the analog of lfaPo and hl.AfuP;
signifying
work and also the wages of the work (Job vii. 2;
Lev.
xix. 13), or of hrAWB;, properly glad tidings, and then
reward
of the message (2 Sam. iv. 10; comp. faygiy; toil and wealth
acquired
by toil, etc.); it is no doubt referred to in 2 Pet.
ii.
15 by misqo>j a]diki<aj; Targ. Jon. has 'precious gifts' (Nydgym)
in
return for the divination; Vulg.,
divinationis pretium; Luth.,
Lohn.
des Wahrsagens; Kimchi, following Samuel Hannagid,
Mymsq ymd, although he wavers between this
sense and ’q ynym,
after
Midr. Rabb. Num. xx. 6, or 'q
ynynfm vylx Nykyrc wy hm;
and
so
Sept. ta>
mantei?a,
Origen divinacula, Koster Wahrsagungs-
Apparat;
while Targ. Jer. has, inaccurately,
sealed letters, etc.
110 NUMBERS
XXII. 5-14.
But
in whatever intention the present may have been sent, it
was
not accepted by Balaam as a bribe rendering him partial
to
the king's cause; he did not belong to 'the prophets who
prophesied
for money' (Mic. iii. 5, 11; Jer. vi. 13; viii. 10, etc.);
he
was no, pseudo-prophet corruptible by gifts,' (Winer Real-
Wort.
i. 182). The Sept. renders
formly,
by ma<ntij, mantei<a, mantei?on, manteu<esqai, and once only
MsaqA by the more general term a]pofqe<ggesqai (Ezek. xiii. 9),
in
a bad sense, by oi]w<nisma (1 Sam. xv.
23), and Mseqo
by
the
definite stoxasth<j (Isa. iii. 2);
the Vulgate, as a rule, has
divinatio,
divines, and
divinare, though occasionally ariolus and
ariolari (Jos. xiii. 22;
1 Sam. xv. 23 ; Isa. iii. 2; x1iv. 25),
and
once for MsaqA
oraculum consulere; and Luther almost
con--
stantly
Wahrsagen or Weissagen, etc., translating on one occa-
sion
only Ms,q,
by Zauberei (1 Sam. xv. 23). The
etymological
meaning
of the word is uncertain; but whether Msq be
kindred
with Mzg,
in the sense of cutting or deciding (
Mcq, Arab. XXX ), so that Ms,q, would be
decision or oracle, or
in
the sense of dividing, so that Ms,q, would properly
be discri-
minating counsel or conjecture; and whatever specific form
of
divination
may originally have been denoted by Ms,q,, since a
more
distinct statement is made only in the one passage,
where
Saul requests the witch, 'divine (ymsq) me by the
soothsaying
spirit (bvxb),
and bring me him up whom I shall
name
to thee' (I Sam. xxviii. 8); it is not improbable that
in
the history of the word Msq, a portion of the history of
For
a long time, Ms,q, was considered by them as
perfectly
ilegitimate
and was, therefore, placed in parallelism with
‘prophecy,’
'vision,' and ‘instruction.’ But when their religi-
ous
notions were more clearly defined and worked out with
greater
severity and purity, that form of oracle was denounced y
and
rejected, and was then coupled with 'sorcery and
'magic,'
'falsehood' and ‘iniquity.’ Other words and
notions
also, as MypirAT; and dvqxe, passed through
similar
stages,
and this historical examination enables us to under-
stand
many Scriptural passages which would otherwise be in
irreconcilable
contradiction (comp. Comm. on Levit. i. pp. 351-
356).--By
that systematic misconception to which we have
FIRST MESSAGE. 111
alluded,
Balaam's request to the messengers that they should
remain
over night till he had ascertained God's will (ver. 8),
is
interpreted to involve 'a show of sanctity,' which in
reality
was 'impiety,' or a cunning device to enhance his im-
portance
in the eyes of the strangers, as he would have
known
God's will without enquiring, if his wicked inclination,
which
was ready to assist the Moabites, had not obscured his
mind:
an unbiased construction will see in that request
nothing
but the most perfect self-denial. Again, God's inter-
rogation,
'Who are these men that are with thee?' (ver. 9)
is
asserted to imply a severe reproof to Balaam, meant to
break
the stubbornness of his sinful disposition, because, 'led
astray
by greed and vanity,' he had not at once sent back
the
messengers with an unqualified refusal, since he knew
that
ductory
question is in admirable harmony with a narrative
so
calm and so gradually advancing (comp. Gen. iii. 9; iv. 9;
xvi.
8; Exod. iv. 2 ; Job i. 7; ii. 2; Ebn
Ezra, tlHtv NvHtp
rvbd; Mendelssohn,
Myrbdb vmf svnkl; so Heidenheim,
hnybl fdvm,
in
loc.); in a similar manner--and this should be conclusive
--God
says to Balaam after the arrival of the second em-
bassy,
'If (Mxi)
the men are come to call thee' (ver. 20),
although
God cannot be uncertain on the subject. But it
may
be instructive to quote, in addition, the outlines of an
elaborate
theory of fraud and astuteness attributed to Balaam
by
one of the most honest and most simple-minded of theolo-
gians--as
another proof of the sad infatuation of prejudice.
Balaam
had no doubt heard, says Rosenmuller (Scholia ad
vers.
8, 23; xxiii. 7), that the Israelites were both most
numerous
and most warlike; he concluded, therefore, that
they
would surely defeat the Moabites. But the cunning
man
felt, that if he cursed the Hebrews and they were,
nevertheless,
victorious, he and his magical arts would fall
into
disrepute. On the other hand, he would not flatly decline
the
messengers' request, as he was unwilling to lose the large
gifts
which the king had promised. In this dilemma, he
determined,
indeed, not to curse the Israelites, but to act so,
that
the Moabites and their allies might consider him as a
favoured
friend of God. With this view he feigned to hold
112 NUMBERS
XXII. 5-14.
consultations
with God and to receive His replies, invented
the
whole story about the ass and the angel, and compiled
out
of his fancy prophecies so vague and obscure, that any
impostor
might safely have hazarded them. And this is
alleged
to be the spirit and meaning of the narrative! (Comp.
also
Lange, Bibelwerk, ii. 311, who sees
in vers. 9-14 a deli-
neation
of 'Bileam's formheiligen aber herzlosen Wider.
stand').--Numerous
formulas of imprecatory charms or curses
and
exorcisms have been deciphered on ancient Babylonian
and
Assyrian tablets, some of which date back at least to
the
16th century B.C. (see Records of the Past, i. 131-135;
iii.
138-154, etc.; 'The curse like an evil
demon acts against
the
man,' etc., ibid. p. 147; comp. also the powerful impre-
cations
levelled by
pal,
and other Assyrian kings against those who should
neglect
or injure their commemorative tablets, cylinders, or
buildings,
ibid. v. 26; vii. 19, 20, 56, etc.).--We have above
pointed
out some analogies between this section and the
blessing
of Isaac (in Gen. xxvii.), and shall, in the course of
these
notes, have occasion to refer to the parallel again; but
this
very repetition seems to militate against assigning both
compositions
to the same author. That Genesis xxvii. is an
adaptation
on the model of these chapters,is rendered probable
by
the time, the conception, the language, and the tendency;
for
the date of Isaac's blessing is later (viz., the ninth century,
as
the deliverance of the Edomites in Jehoram's reign is
alluded
to, Gen. xxvii. 40); the conception is less simple;
the
language less concise and pithy, and the tendency more
mythical,
since it attributes to one early ancestor, what here,
in
a more historical spirit, is referred to the whole nation (see
supra, p. 62).--The.
phrase Om.fa ynb Crx (ver. 5) 'his native
country'
(that of Balaam, not of Balak) may be unusual in-
stead
of the simple vcrx (ver. 13; Gen. xii. 1; xxiv. 4, etc.),
but
it is intelligible and idiomatic (comp. Gen. xxiii. 11; Lev.
xx.
17; Judg. xiv. 16), and should certainly not been aban-
doped
in favour of NOm.fa ynb Crx, found in the
Samaritan text,
the
Samaritan and Syriac versions, the Vulgate, and some
manuscripts
(see De-Rossi, Var. Lect. ii. 15; Kennicott, Dis-
sertat.
General. pp. 77, 369; Corn. a Lapile,
Houbigant, Geddes,
FIRST MESSAGE. 113
Clarke, and others);
for the Ammonites, though inhabiting
some
of the eastern districts of
even
advancing as far as the
this
river; yet Balaam is called an Aramcean (xxiii. 7; Deut.
xxiii.
5).—Cr,x,
may be taken in apposition to rvtp or lf
rwx
rhnh; either construction implies a free,
but not uncommon use
of
the absolute case (see Gram. § 86.4.e.).--The abruptness and
incoherency
produced by the asyndentic hn.ehiv; the second
time,
are
in excellent keeping with the character of the king's
charge;
we would, therefore, not read hn.ehiv; with the
Text
and Vers., Sept., and a considerable number of manuscripts
(see
De-Rossi, 1. c.).--The phrase
'covering the face (Nyfe) of the
land,'
is properly employed of swarms of locusts settling on
the
ground (Exod. x. 5; see Comm. on Exodus, p. 164), and
these
again are used to describe large numbers of men, and
especially
great and ravaging armies of invaders (Judg. vi.
5;
vii. 12). The same terms and images are used in the
Assyrian
inscription on the 'Taylor Cylinder' (col. v., lines
42-45):
'They united their armies, and as a
mighty swarm
of
locusts covers the face of the earth, they rushed against
me
in destroying multitudes.'--hrAxA (ver. 6) curse,
the imperat.
Kal
of rrx
with h
paragog., the vowel a being irregularly
substituted
for o, as in hnAKa (Ps. lxxx. 16) protect, and
other
imperatives
and infinitives of verbs f"f; while the
imperat.
hbAqA (ko-vah, in vers. 11, 17), of bbq to execrate, is shortened
instead
of hBAqA;
see Gram. § lxii. 3.a, p. 209. Throughout
this
section the root bbq is used (vers. 11, 17; xxiii. 8, 11,
13,
25, 27 ; xxiv. 10), and not bqn, on which see
Comm. on
Lev.
ii. p. 529.--It may deserve to be noticed that Balak
does
not, like God and Balaam, simply speak of cursing the
Hebrews
(xxii. 12; xxiii. 8), but invariably and scrupulously
puts
the request, ‘curse this people for me’ (yli, xxii. 6, 11,
17;
xxiii. 7, 13, 27); he demands a specific curse of the Is-
raelites
in direct and express reference to himself, which will
be
intelligible by remembering the minute exactness with
which
Eastern imprecations, charms, and exorcisms mention
the
names and describe the identity of the respective persons
--in
order to prevent the gods from making a mistake.--The
combination
OB-hK,na lkaUx exemplifies the formal--not the
114 NUMBERS
XXII. 5-14.
logical--looseness
of Hebrew syntax in a double way: first,
two
verbs, of which one is properly subordinate to the other,
are
co-ordinated (comp. Esth. viii. 6, ytirxirAv; lkaUx I shall he
able"
to
see), since hK,na is the future Hiphil (comp.
Josh. x. 4), not--
as
Ebn Ezra, Kimchi, Zunz, and others
suppose--the infinitive
of
Piel, for although hkn is in one passage found in Pual
(Exod.
ix. 31, 32), it never occurs in Piel; and then the
first
person singular is, with a frequent anallage, followed by
the
first person plural, 'I shall be able, we shall smite them,'
for
'I shall be able to smite them' (see. Gram. § 104. i;
lxxvii.
21.4; comp. ver. 11, vb MHlhl lkvx). The change in
the
numbers
is easily explained by understanding 'I and my
people'
(Rashi, Saadiah, and others), or by
remembering that
Balak
intended fighting against the Hebrews in conjunction
with
his allies, the Midianites; while some (as Abarban.,
Sal. b,
Melech, and others)
explain 'I—Balak--by war, and thou--
Balaam--by
curses or stratagems,' which seems artificial.--
How
did Balak know that Balaam's blessing and curse were
so
efficacious? Jewish tradition answers: The Amorite king
Sihon,
before beginning his expedition against the Moabites,
hired
Balaam to curse the latter, who consequently suffered a
most
disastrous defeat (xxi. 26; see Midr.
Rabh. Num. xx. 2).
Some
(as Origen, In Num. Hom. xiii. 4-6)
allowed, indeed,
that
Balaam was skilled in imprecations, but denied that, as
an
instrument of evil demons, he had any power to bless,
which
Balak attributed to him only 'to flatter him and to
render
him compliant with his wishes:' but if this were the
author's
meaning, what would be the value of the following
elaborate
benedictions, which prove that Balaam was at least
not
uniformly in the service of the powers of mischief?
Balak
entreats Balaam emphatically, 'Neither shalt thou
curse
them, nor shalt thou bless them' (xxiii. 25), thus
placing
curse and blessing on the same level of potency.
Some
Jewish authorities (as Bechai on ver.
20, and others) go
farther
and maintain that neither Balaam's blessing nor his
curse
had, in the writer's opinion, any real efficacy; for he
blessed
himself, 'Let me die the death of the righteous'
(xxiii.
10), and yet he died a premature and disgraceful
death
in battle (xxxi. 8); and he was prevented by God
FIRST MESSAGE. 115
from
cursing the Israelites, not because his curse would
have
had any significance, but lest people should attribute to
it
the pestilence which, as God foresaw, would soon befall the
Hebrews
(xxv. 9); by his astrological knowledge he learnt
the
seasons when God meant to inflict misfortunes; at such
times
he uttered imprecations, and thus he acquired his
fame.
The radical defect in explanations like these lies
in
mixing up this section with other and quite heterogeneous
portions
of the Book of Numbers (see pp. 3-6); neither
Balaam's
ignominious death nor his infamous counsels,
which
are supposed to have caused the plague, can be
brought
into connection with these chapters, in which the
utterances
of Balaam are represented as no less powerful
for
good or evil than those of any other prophet or 'man of
God.'--In
ver. 8 the princes of
and
not 'the elders of Midian' (ver. 7) also, simply because
the
former were no doubt the spokesmen of the embassy,
and
the latter were likewise sent by the king of
(comp.
vers. 13, 14): other explanations of the omission,
which
have been proposed in great variety, seem unneces-
sary.--'God
came (xbyv)
to Balaam' (ver. 9) in the night
(comp.
ver. 20, hlyl),
in
dream vision (see supra, p. 16, note
d).
Before Assur-bani-pal marched out against the revolted
provinces
of
(col.
4, lines 48-55) that 'a seer in the beginning of the
night
slept and dreamed a dream,' in which the god Sin
revealed
to him the successful issue of the campaign, upon
which
the king adds, 'This I heard, and trusted to the will
of
Sin, my lord' (Records of the Past,
83,
89, 90). The dream of a seer, to whom the goddess Ishtar
appeared,
re-assured the same king at his impending war
against
the Elamites (1. c. vii. 68).--MfAhA is rendered
inaccu-
rately
by the Sept. (lao<j) and others in disregarding the
article,
which
is here essential (see supra).--The command, 'Thou
shalt
not go with them' (ver. 12), is, without a conjunction,
followed
by 'Thou shalt not curse the people,' for the one
includes
the other, since Balaam can pronounce the curse
only
in Moab; the two verbs do not convey two distinct pro-
hibitions,
and several times 'going' is alone employed to
116 NUMBERS
XXII. 15-21.
express
all that is required of Balaam (vers. 13, 14. 16); the
Sept., Vulg., and others,
incorrectly join both verbs by ou]de<,
neque,
etc., and similarly the Sam. Text and Vers., and others.
--yTitil; (ver. 13) to
allow me, for yniTetil;; as, conversely, ynibeUw
(Ezek.
xlvii. 7) my returning, for ybiUw see Gram. § liv.
1. c.--
j`lohE (vers. 13, 14), a rare form of
the infinitive, instead of
tk,l, (comp. Exod. iii. 19; Job xxxiv.
23; Eccl. vi. 8, 9); and
similarly
the future j`lh<x,, j`lohEya, etc., and the
imperative
(Jer.
li. 50) ; see Gram. § lxiv. 12.--Origen (1. c.) argues:
God
does not, as a rule, appear to magicians; why, then,
did
He appear to Balaam? From the love He bore to His
people,
lest Balaam, as was his wont, should curse them by
the
aid of evil demons (‘Venit ergo Deus ad Balaam, non
quod
dignus esset, ad quem veniret, sed ut fugarenter illi
qui
ei ad maledicendum et malefaciendum adesse consueve-
rant;'
comp. also Corn. a Lapide on ver. 8,
Deus pro daemone
ei
se obtulit, idque non ejus sed Hebraeorum gratia, etc.).
4. SECOND MESSAGE. XXII. 15-21.
15.
And Balak sent yet again princes, more
numerous
and more distinguished than those.
16.
And they came to Balaam, and said to him,
Thus
says Balak, the son of Zippor, Do not, I
pray
thee, withhold thyself from coming to me;
17.
For I will honour thee greatly, and will do
whatsoever
thou sayest to me: come, therefore,
I
pray thee, curse me this people. 18. And
Balaam
answered and said to the servants of
Balak,
If Balak would give me his house full of
silver
and gold, I cannot go against the command
of
the Lord my God, to do a small or a great
thing.
19. Now, therefore, I pray you, remain
you
also here this night, that I may know what
the
Lord will say to me more. 20. And God
SECOND MESSAGE. 117
came
to Balaam at night, and said to him, if
the
men are come to call thee, rise and go with
them;
but only that which I shall tell thee, that
shalt
thou do. 21. And Balaam rose in the
morning,
and saddled his ass, and went with the
princes
of
The king of
refusal.
If anything can serve him as an excuse, it is
the
obtuseness of the messengers, who reported to him
Balaam's
answer so imperfectly in the one main point.
But
he increases his guilt by striving to subvert Heaven's
decrees
with more determined obstinacy than ever. He
despatches
to the seer a second message, in which, com-
pared
to the first, everything is enlarged and intensified.
On
both sides greater vigour and energy are displayed in
the
awful struggle. The embassy is more numerous, and
composed
of men of higher eminence. The king's request
is
more urgent and decided. His promises to Balaam,
more
splendid and more tempting, hold out to him
honours,
power, treasures, in fact all that can move and
influence
human ambition. But more decided also, on
the
other hand, is Balaam's refusal, more forcible his
declaration
of absolute submission under the will of
God,
whom he now distinctly calls his God. So clear
and
well-balanced a mind is indeed incapable of exaggera-
tion,
but he uses solemn protests which almost pass to
the
extreme boundary of emphatic earnestness: 'If Balak
would
give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot
go
against the command of the Lord my God, to do a
small
or a great thing' (ver. 18). As all else in this
narrative
is marked by the most delicate psychological
truth,
so especially Balaam's unusually strong reply, for
it
reflects both the temptation that may have assailed
him,
and the heroic resolve with which he casts it aside.
Balaam again delays his answer to the
envoys till
118 NUMBERS XXII. 15-21.
the
next morning; he tells them that he is awaiting
Divine
counsel in the night, and that he will act as he
may
be directed. So far, there is no difference, except in
degree,
between the incidents of the first and the second
embassy,
and the one may, with that single qualification,
be
regarded as a repetition of the other. Will now the
command
of God also be the same as before? Those
familiar
with the spirit of the Hebrew Scriptures will
hardly
expect it. As God revokes the decree of destruc-
tion
announced against the people of
they
abandon their evil ways; but as, on the other hand,
He
draws Pharaoh deeper and deeper into disaster and
perdition,
because that monarch, in spite of all warnings,
hardens
his heart and perseveres in the impious contest;
so
must Balak, king of
of
his blindness and obduracy. Once he had received
from
God an unmistakeable admonition, which ought to
have
induced him to earnest reflection. But instead of
retreating,
he sets his own resolution against that of Pro-
vidence
with even greater refractoriness, and he hastens
into
ruin. The Biblical doctrine of free will is, with
sufficient
correctness, expressed in the Talmudical adages,
‘If
a man is disposed to sin, the door is opened for him;
if
he is disposed to do right, he is assisted;'a ‘Everything
is
a gift of God, except the fear of God,' which must be
man's
own choice;b and ‘Man is conducted in the path
'
on which he is desirous to walk.’c These maxims are
certainly
much nearer the truth than the teaching of
Maimonides
who although vindicating to man free will
as
an intrinsic attribute of his nature, yet holds that
God--the
God of justice and mercy-inflicts upon great
sinners
‘hardening of the heart’ as a punishment,
a Talm. Shabb. 104a; Yoma 38b; c
Talm. Macc. 10b; Midr. Tanch.
rhFl xb vl NyHtp xmFl xb Balak, § 8; jlyl
hcvr Mdxw jrdb
vtvx Myfyysm. vtvx
Nykylvm hb.
Comp. Mishn.
b Talm. Berach. 33b, ydyb
lkh Avotb,
iii. 15, tvwrhv yvpc lkh
Mymw txrym CvH Mymw; see ‘kv hnvtn; Saadiah, Emun. Ved.,
Rashi in loc. iv.
10.
SECOND MESSAGE. 119
deprives
them of the liberty of repentance, and makes
them
sink from iniquity to iniquity.a After his first
repulse,
Balak was free to withdraw from his rebellious
design
without injury and without chastisement. But
he
persisted in that design; he himself--not God--
hardened
his heart; and now God's inevitable retribution
must
take its inexorable course. It is for this reason
that
Balaam receives the permission, denied before, of
repairing
with the messengers to
no
question of arbitrariness or fickleness on the part of
God,
nor of a reproachful action on the part of Balaam.
The
chief actors in this solemn drama are not God and
Balaam,
but God and Balak. If this point, which seems
so
clear and obvious, is kept in view, the narrative readily
reveals
its lucid plan, its compact unity, and its majestic
progress.
Balak has not rested till he has brought his
over-powerful
opponent--for God speaks and acts through
Balaam--face
to face with himself. He is soon to learn
the
terrible danger he has conjured up for himself and
his
country.
PHILOLOGICAL REMARKS.--The one error
just alluded to has
been
the fruitful root of a hundred strange and almost in-
conceivable
perversions. It has misled even those who, closely
approaching
to a true appreciation of this section, justly des-
cribed
it as 'a grand creation of the Hebrew mind,' and yet
found
in it 'the real expression of the forced acknowledg-
ment
of
of
intellect among the heathens' (Bunsen,
Bibelwerk, v. 599):
those
who were to be forced to such an acknowledgment,
were
not the men of intellect like Balaam, who are considered
as
no enemies to
like
Balak, who were hostile to the people of
they
had no capacity for understanding its aims and aspira-
tions.
Balaam has almost uniformly been drawn into the fore-
a Comp. Maim. Yad Chazak., Hilch. Teshuv. V. 1 sqq.,vi. 3; Shemonah
Perakim, chap.
viii.
120 NUMBERS
XXII. 15-21.
ground,
whereas the text assigns to him an absolutely passive
part,
to which he remains faithful with unvarying modesty
(see
notes on xxii. 41-xxiii. 6).--The first messengers, it is
asserted,
had well perceived how reluctantly Balaam dis-
missed
them; guided by their report, Balak now endeavoured
to
gratify the chief passions of the seer, whose refusal, he
was
convinced, had only been an artifice for obtaining better
terms
(Hengstenb. Bil., p. 41). If, as is
not impossible, the
author
attributes to the heathen messengers and the heathen
king
of
reason
for a man like Calvin and his many followers to think
as
meanly of Balaam ('flexiloqua sua excusatione visus est
accendere
desiderium stulti regis, quo pluris suam maledic-
tionem
venderet'; Michaelis: 'Balaam had feigned God's pro-
hibition
in order to extort more favourable conditions'; Oort,
l.
c., p. 7; Lange, Bibelwerk, ii. 311,
and others); and the
author
could not foresee that those who are privileged to
survey
the whole of Balaam's proceedings from the high
vantage-ground
of Hebrew prophecy, would fall into the
same
gross errors as those who beheld but single and frag-
mentary
facts through the distorting mirror of fear and su-
perstition.--If
Balaam, 'it is further contended,' had not at
heart
remained, as he had been before, a pagan prophet in-
clined
to untruth and worldly baseness, he would, after God's
first
and distinct prohibition, at once have rejected the king's
second
invitation; but human honour and greed of money,
which
he loved so much from the beginning, still lingered in
the
profoundest depths of his heart' (Ewald,
Jahrbucher, viii.
p.
19; and similarly a host of other writers; comp. Joseph.
IV.
vi. 3; Deyling, Observationes iii. p.
204; Canon Cook's
Holy
Bible, on ver. 20, etc.). But Balaam--that is, the author,
who
makes Balaam act--discerned the ways of God more
clearly
than his critics. He knew that there are cases when
God
annuls His first decree. He had not the presumption to
decide
whether this was such a case or not, but, as a faithful
servant
of God referred it to Him his Master. Is there in
all
this, any 'untruth' or 'baseness'? No prophet of
ever
acted more truthfully or more nobly. And if the author
lets
Balaam say, with uncommon force, and as distinctly as
SECOND MESSAGE. 121
human
language can express it, that all the gold and silver
of
a royal palace are to him as nothing in relation to God's
command,
who will venture to insist, with pertinacious in-
genuity,
that Balaam was unable to bridle his secret passion
for
sordid gain, and that, notwithstanding the truth, which
ought
at last to have been clear to him, he clung, in the
recesses
of his heart, too fondly to all that is false and wicked?
It
was not Balaam who had arrived at a dangerous and ‘critical
juncture,’
but the king of
in
his unholy warfare against Destiny. But as some found
those
words of Balaam (ver. 18) too clear even for the subtlest
casuistry,
they endeavoured to obscure their sense by joining
them
with the prophets succeeding invitation to the ambas-
sadors
to remain till he had learnt God's pleasure (ver. 19),
in
which request they discovered a most horrible crime--a
'plus
quam sacrilega impietas,' since Balaam's schemes were
bent
upon nothing less than upon ‘inducing God, by the
repeal
of the prohibition, even to abnegate Himself,’ to change
His
will and, consequently, His very nature' (Hengstenb.
Bil.,
p.
42). Into what fearful abysses of moral and spiritual cor-
ruption
are glimpses opened to us by pious expositors! We
may
well shudder at the possible effects of such merciless
dialectics,
and we almost cease to wonder how the great reformer
Calvin,
who is foremost among the misinterpreters of this
section,
by his keen-edged and impetuous rhetoric, brought
a
Servetus to the stake. Abraham, Moses, and many other
God-fearing
men, endeavoured to change, by supplication, the
Divine
will and decree, and God Himself requested Abraham
and
Job to pray for those by whom they had been wronged,
in
order to avert their punishment (Gen. xx. 7; Job xlii. 8;
see
Comm. on Lev., i. p, 301). But it is neither stated nor
hinted
at that Balaam ever made such an attempt, which
would
be repugnant to the spirit of the portion. We
confess,
it seems to us indeed 'plus quam sacrilega impietas'
on
the part of theologians of whatever creed, to sully so
sublime
a composition, merely because they cannot prevail
upon
their narrowness to allow to a heathen the gift of true
prophecy,
which was cheerfully accorded to him by a Hebrew
writer
nearly three thousand years ago.--Moreover, a variety
122 NUMBERS
XXII. 15-21.
of
vague surmises and fancies have been thrown out, of which
no
sound interpretation can approve. Balaam, it is said,
asked
God to be permitted to comply with Balak's wish, and
God
yielded to his ‘hypocritical importunity.’ (Origen,
In
Num.
Hom. xiii. 8, Molestus est Balaam Deo, et extorquet
propemodum
permitti sibi ut eat, etc.; xiv. 1, and others):
the
words 'Rise and go with them' (ver. 20), did not convey
a
command or charge, but merely consent and permission,
since
God, seeing Balaam insolently persist in his wicked
scheme,
did not desire to interfere with his liberty of action,
and
Balaam availed himself of that permission with a cul-
pable
eagerness, which he proved by rising early the next
morning
and saddling his ass with his own hand: had he
received
the least intimation that he was to bless the Israelites
in
left
in uncertainty on that point; and guided by the secret
wish
of his heart, he assumed that God, in retracting the
prohibition
of the journey, retracted also the prohibition of the
curse
(so Knobel, Num., pp. 122, 132, and
many others).
With
a slight modification, even Maimonides' idea, above
alluded
to, has been repeated by recent writers: when Ba-
laam's
impious design of using God for his selfish purposes
became
apparent, the journey, 'which was to result in his
destruction,'
was permitted to him as a punishment (Heng-
stenb. Bil., pp. 44,
45, and others). What is there in the
Biblical
text that can countenance any of these conceptions?
The
Hebrew language would really be that obscure and per-
plexing
hieroglyphic, which some contend it to be, if such
a
sense could be deciphered from these verses. Understood
in
their natural context, they mean just the reverse. Balaam
has
no personal desire whatever. There is not even a trace
of
an anxiety, perhaps legitimate on his part, to assist natives
and
friends against invaders. He puts to God no request;
he
merely consults Him; and he is expressly commanded to
go
to
in
the execution of that Divine judgment which had been
called
forth by Balak's conduct. But in what sense Balaam's
journey
'resulted in his destruction,' it is indeed difficult to
see
(comp. also Ebn Ezra on ver. 19, who
tries to establish
SECOND MESSAGE. 123
an
artificial parallel with Num. xiii. 2 sqq.,
but is refuted by
Nachmanides
in loc.). The following view may illustrate how
little
the depth of this remarkable composition has been
fathomed
even by candid critics. As God--it is observed--
did
not require the foreign prophet's blessing for
welfare,
He, at first, forbade the journey, but then allowed it,
'because,
after all, the benedictions of the famous seer might
be
useful to Him as a means of encouraging
heartening
their enemies, although He did not exactly want
them'
(Knobel, Num., p. 132, comp. p. 122). On so weak and
tottering
a foundation, it would never have been possible to
raise
so exalted and so powerful a creation. This must relate
to
something more than a few speeches of praise, supposed to
be
of so little consequence that they might as well have been
dispensed
with. The Book of Balaam enforces momentous prin-
ciples,
bearing not only on the election of
nal
and universal Providence.—Halow; Js,yo.va (ver. 15), he sent
again
or
once more (comp. ver. 19); see Gram. §103. 1. vkv lkaUx
xlo,
unable
to go against the command of the Lord (ver. 18;
comp.
I Sam. xv. 24), denoting a moral
impossibility (comp ver.
38;
xxiii. 12, 26; xxiv. 13), and not--who would believe that
it
has ever been contended!--a physical one, as if God moved
and
directed Balaam's mouth and organs of speech mechani-
cally
(see supra, p. 49). Nor do those words
imply ‘fear
of
Divine punishment,’ for Balaam is so completely devoted
to
God's service, that he follows His guidance from internal
necessity,
yet with such spontaneous readiness, that he knows
of
no conflict, much less of fear. It is true that, in this case,
Balaam's
deed is mainly his word; but as the injunctions he
receives
from God include other, though more subordinate,
points
besides, as, for instance, his travelling to
text
fitly alternates doing and speaking (the former in vers. 18,
20;
the latter in ver. 38; xxiii.12; xxiv. 13). However evident
this
may seem, we are induced to notice it explicitly, because
this
matter also has been most strangely misunderstood.--'A
small
or a great thing' (ver. 18) is, of course, like 'a good
or
a bad thing' (in xxiv. 13), merely an emphatic periphrasis
for
' anything,' and does not allude to Balaam's 'going' and
'cursing'
respectively (so Abarban. and
others).—hz,BA
(ver. 19),
124 NUMBERS
XXII. 22-35.
here, corresponding
to hPo,
in ver. 8; comp. Gen. xxxviii. 21.--
The
conditional clause, 'If the men are come to call thee'
(ver.
20), is analogous to the former question, 'Who are these
men
that are with thee'? (ver. 9), and serves, therefore, like
the
latter, to continue the calm flow of the narrative; but
even
in this fact a warning and a reproach against Balaam
have
been discovered, as if God, 'granting a forced and
reluctant
permission,' had said, 'If, in spite of previous ad-
monitions,
you will follow the men at any price, go?'--a bold
ellipsis
suggested by fancy.--The text does not mention the
terms
in which Balaam imparted to the messengers God's
second
reply, nor was this necessary, since Balaam's
preparations
for the journey, coupled with his previous an-
nouncement
to the ambassadors concerning his absolute
dependence
on God (ver. 18), conveyed the whole sum of
God's
answer. With little justice, therefore, has that cir-
cumstance
been held to point to a sinister reservation on
Balaam's
part, as if in the depth of his heart all his evil pas-
sions
were silently brooding over
the
other hand, it has been interpreted as culpable duplicity;
for
Balaam, it is urged, ought plainly to have told the en-
voys
that he knew he could, on no account, curse
that,
therefore, his journey would bring no gain to the king
of
journey
was, in the author's large conception, necessary, not
to
bring profit to the king of
5. THE JOURNEY. XXII. 22-35.
22. And God's anger was kindled
because he
went,
and the angel of the Lord placed himself
in
the way to withstand him; and he was riding
on
his ass, and his two servants were with him.
23.
And the ass saw the angel of the Lord
standing
in the way, and his sword drawn in his
hand;
and the ass turned aside out of the way,
THE JOURNEY. 125
and
went into the field; and Balaam smote the
ass,
to turn her into the way. 24. Then the
angel
of the Lord stood in a hollow path of the
vineyards,
a wall being on this side and a wall on
that
side. 25. And the ass saw the angel of the
Lord,
and she pressed herself against the wall,
and
pressed Balaam's foot against the wall; and
he
smote her again. 26. And the angel of the
Lord
went farther again, and stood in a narrow
place,
where there was no way to turn either to
the
right hand or to the left. 27. And the ass
saw
the angel of the Lord, and she fell down
under
Balaam. And Balaam's anger was kindled.
and
he smote the ass with the staff. 28. Then
the
Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she
said
to Balaam, What have I done to thee, that
thou
hast smitten me these three times? 29.
And
Balaam said to the ass Because thou hast
mocked
me; if there were a sword in my hand,
surely
I should now have killed thee. 30. And
the
ass said to Balaam, Am I not thine
ass, upon
which
thou hast ridden from thy earliest years to
this
day? was I ever wont to do so to thee?
And
he said, No. 31. Then the Lord opened
the
eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the
Lord
standing in the way, and his sword draw"
in
his hand; and he bowed down and fell on his
face.
32. And the angel of the Lord said to
him,
Wherefore bast thou smitten thine ass these
three
times? Behold, I went out to withstand
thee, because thy way is pernicious before me.
33.
And the ass saw me, and turned from me these
126 NUMBERS
XXII. 22-35.
three
times; unless she had turned from me,
surely
I should now have killed thee and saved
her
alive. 34. And Balaam said to the angel of
the
Lord, I have sinned, because I knew not that
thou
wast standing in the way against me; now,
therefore,
if it displease thee, I will return. 35.
And
the angel of the Lord said to Balaam, Go
with
the men, but only the word that I shall
speak
to thee, that thou shalt speak. So Balaam
went
with the princes of Balak.
It would be a vain effort were we to
try, by joining
these
verses to the preceding portion, to carry on the story
in
even continuity. Everything, from the first to the
last
word, indicates that we have before us a distinct
composition
written by a different and a later hand.
We
have just read how Balaam was commanded by
God
to go with the ambassadors, under the condition,
of
course, that he should only speak what God would
suggest.
But scarcely had he set out when ‘God's anger
was
kindled that he went.’ Very peremptory measures
were
required to bring him to a sense of his guilt, and
when
he at last perceived and acknowledged it, the former
order
to travel to Moab was repeateda--the narrative
returns
to the abandoned groove, and the episode is
rendered
purposeless and superfluous. Does a writer of
genius
relate with such confusion and self-contradiction?
And
in what light does God appear? We have shown
that,
under certain circumstances, He indeed alters His
resolves
and injunctions. But He does so only if men
occasion
and justify the change by their conduct. In
the
present instance nothing whatever has happened in
the
interval between God's permission and His wrath to
account
for the transition of the one into the other.
a Vers. 20, 22,
34, 35.
THE JOURNEY. 127
His
change of mind seems purely capricious. He does
not
appear as the wise Ruler governing the world by a
fixed
design, but as an arbitrary Eastern despot knowing
no
other law but his fickle humour. Such considerations
alone
are sufficient to mark these verses as an interpola-
tion;
but we may add another reason even more im-
portant
and decisive. The kernel of the whole section,
as
we have repeatedly pointed out, is Balak's contention
against
God and His decrees; but in these verses that
deliberate
plan is abandoned and altered into a struggle
between
God and Balaarn. Every thoughtful reader
must
be struck by this remarkable shifting of the
main
interest. How was it that Balaam, who till
then
had lived in undisturbed tranquillity of mind
and
perfect submission to God, and who, in the
whole
of the subsequent narrative is seen in the same
harmony
of character, was suddenly and transitorily
drawn
into this grave conflict? Was it necessary that a
seer,
who again and again had declared his unconditional
devotion
to God, and had invariably obeyed God's
gentlest
hints, should be terrified and admonished by an
angel
appearing with drawn sword and threatening him ,
with
death? And lastly, how different is the spirit of
the
episode from that of the bulk of the composition!
The
latter includes supernatural elements--revelations
by
vision and dream and prophetic utterances--all of
which
involve the ideal truth of a close relation of
the
spirit of man, in its highest moments of fervent
transport,
with the Divine spirit to which it is akin.
But
the episode includes the unnatural element of a
distinctly
articulating animal--of an ass, which sees an
angel
of God, and, in its fright, turns away from him;
which
complains of unjust treatment in pathetic words,
and
with which its master, by no means surprised at the
animal's
address, enters into dialogue. And, to complete
the
marvel, Balaam himself, whom we have seen to enjoy
128 NUMBERS
XXII. 22-35.
a
constant and familiar intercourse with God, does not,
for
a considerable time, behold a Divine apparition at
once
beheld by his beast. Here, as few have
hesitated
to
acknowledge, the eternal boundaries fixed by nature
between
man and animal are heedlessly overthrown.a
Analogous
stories of speaking beasts are indeed suffi-
ciently
numerous, but they belong without exception
to
the darkest periods or meanest phases of heathen
superstition.
They are monstrous prodigia invented,
in
extraordinary times, by wonder-loving credulity,
and
they refuse to be allied with any higher idea.
For
such remarks as, ‘Surely an animal is often more
intelligent
and foreboding than a foolish man,’b or,
‘The
irrational beast has a finer instinctive pre-
sentiment
of many natural phenomena than man
with
the five senses of his mind;'c these and simi-
lar
suggestions are hardly more than phrases devoid
of
definite meaning.d But even more questionable is
the
categorical declaration that ‘parallels taken from
paganism
lose all importance by the very fact that they
are
borrowed from paganism:’e they lose their impor-
tance
for those only who, wilfully discarding all historical
exposition
of the Scriptures, are determined to isolate
a Though some
have found it pos- was
opposed by a higher power,' etc.
sible
to doubt even this point. ‘La Similarly Nachmanides, Bechai, and
chose
est miraculeuse,' says Calmet other
Jewish interpreters : ' The ass
(Dictionn.
I. 720), ‘et au-dessus de did not
really see the angel, but was
la
faculte ordinaire de cet animal; darkly aware of the presence of some-
mais
elle nest pas eontre les lois de thing
unusual or preternatural, which
la
nature.' frightened her,' etc.; comp.
Dan, x.
b Ewald, Knobel. 7:
Daniel's companions, though not
c Keil and
others. seeing the vision, were seized with
d Comp. also Lange, Genesis, p. great
terror, so that they fled in con-
lxxix.,
‘horses and. donkeys...have sternation
to bide themselves; Acts
a
wonderful disposition to recognise ix.
7, ‘The men who journeyed with
spiritual
operations or, in their man- him—Saul--stood
speechless, hear-
ner,
to see spirits', Kohler, Bibl. ing
a voice, but seeing no man',
Gesch.
i. 325, ‘The ass perceived, see infra.
by
a natural impression, that she e Hengstenberg.
THE JOURNEY. 129
them
from all the principal spheres of human and intel-
lectual
interest. There is a poetical beauty, there may
be
a poetical truth, in Homer's ‘immortal horse’ Xanthus,
the
offspring of Zephyros and the Harpy Podarge,
which,
after having been familiarly addressed by its
master
Achilles, prophesies his impending death in
mournful
words; on which occasion, as is expressly stated,
'lily-armed
Here endowed with speech' the wonderfully
descended
horse, while after it had finished, ‘the
Erinnyes
checked its voice.’a We can understand that
Virgil,
to express his sense of the unnatural enormity of
Caesar's
assassination, poetically describes the utter
reversion
of the order of nature, so that not only rivers
stopped
their courses and ivory images wept in the
temples,
but ‘cattle spoke.’b But if we read that, in
the
reign of the Egyptian king Bocchoris, a lamb with
double
head and double limbs `spoke in articulated
sounds;'c
or that the golden-fleeced ram of Phrixus
‘gave
forth human speech,’ that he might be a cause of
misery
to many;d or if we are assured that 'in ancient
times
it was a common prodigy that an ox spoke,'e and
consequently
Roman historians and poets record such a
wonder
in nearly every period--in the early struggles
with
neighbouring tribes, in the Punic wars, during
the
civil dissensions, and especially at Caesar's hostile
approach
to Rome--and couple it with other portenta
hardly
less extraordinary:f if we read of these and
a Hom. 11. xvi.
150, 154; xix. d Apoll. Rhod. i. 257, 258,
au]dh>n
404-423. a]ndre<hn proe<hke.
b Pecudesque
locutee-infandum e Plin.
Nat. Hist. viii. 45 or 70.
Virg. Georg. i.
466-488. For f
Comp. Livy, iii. 10; xxiv. 10;
the
speaking of animals seems ge- xxvii. 11; xxxv. 21, bovem locutum,
nerally
to have been considered an 'Roma
cave tibi'; xliii. 13, bovem
ominous
event (comp. Lucian, Gal- feminam
locutam publice ali; Lucan,
lus
s. Somnium, § 2, w$ Zeu? tera<stie Phars. i. 524-583, Tune pecudum
...
ti< to> kako>n tou?t’ e]sti<n; a]nqrwpi- faciles humana ad murmura linguae;
kw?j e]la<lhsen a]lektruw<n). Val. Max. I. vi. 5, bos mugitu suo
c [Rh?cai fwnh<n AEl. Nat. An.
xii. 3. in sermonem humanum converso.
130 NUMBERS
XXII. 22-35.
many
similar fables that might easily be added, we are
justified
in asking what they have in common with the
dignity,
the grandeur, and elevated truth of Balaam's
conduct
and prophecies, and we feel an involuntary
repugnance
to identify the author of these vaticinations
with
the author of the episode of the menacing angel
and
the speaking ass. To the latter writer we must,
indeed,
do the justice to admit that he faithfully pre-
served
the spirit of the main narrative at least in the
one
chief point of representing Balaam as a sincere
lip
worshipper of Jahveh, ready to obey His directions as
soon
as he had comprehended them.a But, whether the
episode
was written in connection with the narrative or
independently
of it, he considered it impossible that
Balaam
should have entered upon the expedition with
pure
intentions, and should not, allured by Balak's pro-
mised
treasures and honours, have fostered the secret
design
of malignantly cursing Israel. He, therefore,
introduced
a Divine messenger angrily opposing Balaamb
and
distinctly declaring that he regarded his journey as
‘pernicious.'c
But in pursuing this course, the inter-
polator
was naturally compelled to take all the preceding
and
subsequent parts of the composition in the same hos-
tile
sense, and he may possibly have understood them
not
very differently from those later interpreters who
imputed
to Balaam every vice and baseness. Nor is it
improbable
that, like these, he was led into his miscon-
ceptions
by those diverging and detracting traditions
concerning
Balaam which made him meet his death
among
Israel's arch-enemies and vilest seducers.d Such
is
the inevitable confusion caused by blind attempts at
welding
together incongruities; and so rapidly waned in
Israel
the free and large-minded spirit of prophecy--yet,
a Vers. 31-34. c
FrayA,
ver. 32.
b NFAWAl;, vers. 22, 32. d
xxxi. 8, 16.
THE JOURNEY. 131
fortunately,
‘like the terebinth and the oak which, when
cut
down, leave their stem, a holy seed.’
What pains, what displays of acumen
and erudition
have
been lavished in justifying or explaining the speak-
ing
of the ass! For not many had the courage and
candour
to construe, in its obvious sense, the unequivocal
statement,
‘The Lord opened the mouth of the ass and
she
said to Balaam.’a So it is,
indeed, correctly construed
in
the New Testament which affirms that ‘the dumb ass
speaking
with man's voice'b was a rebuke of Balaam's
iniquity
and a check to his madness,c and by most of
the
Christian Fathers;d so also by Josephus,e who,
though
representing Balaam as embarrassed and ‘per-
plexed'
at the ass's human voice, lets her even speak of
‘a
Divine Providence'f that hindered her from moving
onward;
and similarly by some ancient and modern
writers
who deemed it a duty plainly to interpret plain
words
of the Bible.g Not so those
who endeavoured to
come
to its rescue with a false philosophy or a false
piety.
Philo, evidently unable to find an explanation
satisfactory
to his ideal spiritualism, dwells indeed on the
appearance
of the angel, and fully describes the uneasiness
and
fright which it caused to the ass, but he makes no
allusion
whatever to the animal's speaking.h Some con-
tended
‘that not the ass spoke but an angel in her stead,’
a ver. 28. serpentis,
et sicut angelus movit os
b 'En a]nqrw<pou fwn^? fqegca<me- hippoceuta
uri et satyri, ut loqueren-
non. c 2 Pet. ii. 16. tur S. Antonio, eique in eremo viam
d
See
Augustin, Qumst. 48 and 50 ostenderent
ad S. Paulum Eremi-
in
in Genes., and others; comp. Calmet, tam;'
Clericas, Calmet, De Geer,
Diction.
I. 719. Baumgarten,
Gerlach, Kurtz, Krum-
e Ant. IV. vi. 3,
kata> bou<lhsin macher, Clarke, ‘If the ass had
qeou? fwnh>n a]nqrwpi<nhn
labou?sa opened her own
mouth and reproved
f Qeou? proai<resij. the prophet, we might well be as-
g As Augustin, Origen, Theodoret, tonished; but when God opens the
Ambrosius, etc.; Cornel. a Lapide, mouth, an ass
can speak as well as
‘Movit
angelus linguam asinae, ut a man,' and others; see infra.
loqueretur,
sicut daemon moverat os h Philo, Vit. Mos. i. 49.
132 NUMBERS
XXII. 22-35.
as
an angel spoke in Paradise instead of the serpent.a
Maimonides,
always eager to systematise, went so far as
to
propound the principle that, wherever the Bible
speaks
of the apparition or address of an angel, ‘a pro-
phetic
vision' or ‘prophetic dream’ is meant; and he
asserted
that ‘everything which happened to Balaam on
the
road, including the speaking of his ass, took place in
a
prophetic vision'--exactly as the visit of ‘the three
angels'
to Abraham in the grove of Mamre,b Jacob's
wrestling
with the angel at Peniel,c and the appearance
of
the angel whom Joshua saw at Jericho,d happened
solely
in Abraham's, Jacob's, and Joshua's imagination
as
prophetic visions; while the voice of the angel heard
by
Hagar and by Manoah and his wife, who were in no
manner
qualified or prepared for prophetic communica-
tions,
was nothing else but that ‘sound’ or ‘echo of a
voice,'
e which plays so great a part in Talmudical
writings,'
and which, like the apparition of angels itself,
is
merely the hallucination of an overwrought fancy.g
It
must be deemed a very questionable process on the
part
of intepreters to confound their own views with
those
of the Bible, and, grafting the former on the latter, to
assume
that, if they hold angelophanies or the speaking of
animals
to be impossible, the Biblical writers necessarily
considered
these matters in the same light. The belief
that
animals have their own language was far-spread in
the
ancient world. Porphyry, among others, devotes to
this
subject an elaborate argument. Though their lan-
guage,
he observes, is not generally understood by men
it
was always intelligible to some favoured persons; as,
in
earlier ages, to Tiresias and to Melampus, who obtained
a Saad., Corn. a
Lap. (Balaam 'ab e lOq tBa.
angelo,
per os asinae loquente, corri- f Comp.
Matth. iii. 17; xvii. 5 ;
pitur'),
and others. John xii. 28.
b Gen. xviii. g
Maimon. Mor. Nevoeb. ii. 42 ;
c Gen. xxxii.
25-31. and
similarly Ralbag, and many
d Josh. v. 13,
14. others.
THE JOURNEY. 133
that
faculty after ‘dragons had licked his ears;’ and, in
later
times, to that mysterious sage, Apollonius of Tyana,
to
whom swallows made familiar communications, even
when
he was in the company of friends. He derived this
wonderful
skill from the Arabians. For ‘the Arabians,’
says
Porphyry, ‘understand the ravens, the Tyrrhenians
the
eagles;' while Philostratus maintains, more generally,
that
the Arabs and Indians can interpret the voices of
all
birds, which prophesy to them like oracles. But,
apart
from the aptitude shown by ravens, jackdaws, and
parrots
of repeating words they have frequently heard
and
apart from the accounts concerning the ‘leucrocotta,’
a
wild beast of extraordinary swiftness, in many respects
resembling
the lion, and which 'is said to imitate the
human
voice,'a it is stated, as a positive and notorious
fact,
that ‘the Indian hyena, called by the natives caro-
kotta, speaks, even
without any previous instruction, so
humanly,b
that it is wont to go to inhabited houses and
to
call out any one whom it thinks it may be able to
overcome;'
it imitates, therefore, the voice of that per-
son's
dearest friend, at whose call he would most readily
come
out-by which adroit deception many
persons have
lost
their lives!c Various isolated instances of a kindred
nature
are recorded by classical writers. It may not be
surprising
to read of the speaking bull Jupiterd and the
speaking
cock Pythagoras,e but we are also told that an
elephant
advised the Indian king Porus, ‘with human
speech,'
to submit to Alexander;f and human words are
attributed
even to the sacred oak at Dodona and the keel
of
the ship Argo;g while sacred trees in India were believed
a
Plin. N. H. viii. 21 or 30, hanc 9; comp. Cic. De Divin. i. 41 or
pernicissimam
feram .. collo, cauda, 92; Plin. Nat. Hist. x. 49 or 70.
pectore
leonis, capite melium .. hu- d
Mosch. Idyll. ii. 149 sqq.
manas
votes tradunt imitari. e Lucian, Gallus s. Somnium,
b ]Anqrwpikw?j. §§
1 sqq.
c Porphyr. De Abstin. iii. 3-5; f
Plutarch, De Fluviis, i. 6.
Philostrat. Vit. Apollon.
i. 20; iii. g Lucian, 1. c. § 2.
134 MBERS
XXII. 22-35.
to
have predicted Alexander's fate and that of his nearest
relations.a
In the Egyptian ‘Tale of the Two Brothers,’
which,
to a certain extent, forms a remarkable parallel to
the
Biblical episode of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, it is
related:
‘The first cow entered into the stable and said to
the
keeper (the innocent and calumniated brother),
"Verily,
thy elder brother is standing before thee with
his
dagger to slay thee." He heard the speech of the
first
ox; the next one entered and spoke in the same
way.'b
There can be no doubt that the Jews, in later
times,
entertained similar views. Josephus observes
that,
at first, all animals spoke as well as man,c and the
Rabbins
declare that Solomon not only ‘spoke of (lfa)
beasts,
and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of
fishes,’d
but with, them, and that, like other wise men,
he
understood their language.e But there are sufficient
proofs
even with respect to the Biblical period. We have
not
only the clear instance of the serpent in Paradise,
at
the speaking of which Eve showed as little surprise
as
Balaam did at that of the ass;f but there is the well-
known
maxim of Ecclesiastes,g ‘Even in thy thought
curse
not the king . . . for the birds of the air will carry
the
voice and the winged creatures will tellh the matter:’
though
these words may, in the writer's age, have been
understood
as a metaphor, expressing that nothing on
earth
remains unknown and unpunished, they had
originally,
like every other metaphor, a literal meaning,
a Comp. Corn. a Zapide, on ver. c
Ant. I. i. 4, [Omofwnou<ntwn de>
27. kat ] e]kei?no kairou? tw?n zw<wn a[pa<n-
b Comp. Rec. of
the Past, ii. 142; twn k.t.l.
see
also Wilh. Wackernagel, Ursprung d 1 Ki. v. 13.
und
Entwickelung der Sprache, p. e Comp. Koran, xxvii. 15,16, 'And
5,
where ‘the colloquies’ are re- Solomon
said, 0 men, we have been
ferred
to which, according to German taught
the speech of birds,' etc.
and
Celtic legends, ‘the animals of f
Gen. iii. 1, 2.
the
stable hold in the night of g x. 20.
Christmas.' h
dyGiya
THE JOURNEY. 135
and
imply that animals were once believed to speak and
to
‘tell’ secrets.
The view of Maimonides was vehemently
combated
even
by Jewish authorities of the Middle Ages.a But
it
was too alluring not to be reproduced in that age,
which
attempted another unsuccessful compromise between
tradition
and reason, and it occurs again in the writings of
Herder
and his school with still greater distinctness and
explicitness.
That great and noble-minded divine who,
in
his enthusiastic appreciation of poetical beauties, often
neglected,
if be did not disdain, a critical analysis, sup-
posed
that Balaam, though at once inclined to accompany
the
first messengers, desisted in consequence of terrifying
dreams
sent by Israel's tutelary Deity; when the second
embassy
arrived, he was no longer able to master his
worldly
desires, and received permission for the journey;
however,
in order to inspire him with new alarm he is
on
the road attacked by a fearful vision, and when the
ass,
in her anguish, fell down, ‘the vision begins in the
prophet's
soul; he hears the ass speak, he sees the mes-
senger
of Jehovah with the glittering sword--presumably
a
brilliant flame blazing up ]before his eyes ; he hears at
last
the Divine messenger's rebuke, that he, more sense-
less
than his ass, had not listened to the earlier and
gentler
forebodings'; and then Herder concludes, that
he
can find in this incident nothing that would not be
possible
to any one of those Shamans, who are capable of
the
most violent workings of fancy, ‘compared to which
this
vision of Balaam is as child's play.’b Therefore, the
whole
is ‘a waking vision,’ and the delicately intuitive
a
Comp. Nachman. on Gen. xviii. tensifies
the error (it is sadly in-
init.,
and others. structive to find even a Herder speak
b
Herder, Geist der Ebraisch. of
Balaam in such terms as 'ein ab-
Poes.
ii. 177-179; comp. also his gottischer Schadenbereiter, ein arg-
Briefe
das Studium der Theologie listiger
Lohnprophet,' whose ‘lohn-
betreffend,'
II., works, xi. 284-288, lusternes
Herz Gott zu betrugen
where
a heightened eloquence in- denkt,' etc.).
136 NUMBERS
XXII. 22-35.
theologian
knows precisely where it begins--namely, just
at
the point where, in his opinion, the incomprehensible
features
commence, at the animal's speaking. But by
what
criterion is he, or the host of his followers, guided?a
The
text affords absolutely no hint, and the supernatural
incidents
begin undoubtedly before the point fixed upon.
For
hardly less astounding than the ass's speaking is her
‘seeing
the angel of the Lord' whom Balaam does not
see.
Indeed, it is impossible to conceive a more amazing
wonder
than that Balaam who, as Herder himself--per-
haps
with some exaggeration--observes, delivered oracles,
with
which in the later prophets little, in the speeches
of
Moses nothing, can be compared'--that such a man
should
be ‘more senseless than his ass,’ and that he should
act
like a common Shaman intoxicated by raving frenzy,
or
like one ‘labouring under derangement induced by
indulgence
of avarice and ambition and aggravated at
the
moment by furious anger.'b Preferable by far to such
an
hypothesis is even the mythical story of the text
literally
taken. It has at least the recommendation of
being
intelligible and consistent, and it does not, with
fainthearted
half-belief, set arbitrary barriers to an Om-
nipotence
which might as easily open the ass's mouth
as
it closes the prophet's eye. Nor does the plain
traditional
interpretation affect to save the appearance
of
philosophic freedom amidst a complete atmosphere
of
supernaturalism; it is not afraid to ask, ‘what manner
of
organs God gave the ass, nay, it is not afraid to ask,
in
what language she spoke; and it has encouraged the
Rabbins
to extend the chain of miracles, and confidently to
maintain
that, among the ten special or memorable things
which
God created towards the end of the sixth day, was
also
‘the mouth of Balaam's ass,’ that she spoke an
Aramaean
dialect, whether Chaldee or Syriac, and that
a As Michaelis,
Jahn, Dathe, b Canon Cook's Holy Bible, on ver.
Steudell,
Tholuck, Hengstenberg, 28;
and similarly earlier and modern
and
others. writers in various
modifications.
THE JOURNEY. 137
she
died immediately after she had spoken and had thus
accomplished
her appointed work, lest she became an
object
of idolatrous worship, or remained as a permanent
reproach
to a human being.a
Modern apologists have tried to remove
the difficulty
with
greater ingenuity. Whether the ass actually spoke,
or
whether the words existed only for Balaam's inward
sense
as a part of the vision, that is, ‘whether God formed
the
sound in the ass's mouth or in Balaam's ear,’--these
two
views, it is asserted, are in reality not very different,
since,
in either case, it was God who bestowed upon the
animal
the power of reproving Balaam; nor does it mat-
ter
much whether that remonstrance was administered
by
her appearance and conduct or by her words, 'for in
the
latter eventuality also, the speech merely seemed to
proceed
from her .... the difference in the one supposition
and
the other is purely formal.'b Can earnest scholars
indeed
mean to solve a serious problem by such subtleties?
There
are two definite questions to be answered:--Does
the
text describe a vision? and does it state that the ass
really
spoke? We have pointed out before, that the for-
mer
is not the case, being nowhere intimated by the
slightest
allusion. But as regards the second question,
the
fact of the ass's speaking is stated by the author in
the
most explicit terms, which no dialectics on the part
of
reluctant readers can obscure, or reduce to the meaning
of
a donkey's ordinary and indistinct cries. And should
there
be no substantial difference between the mental
process
in the vision of a prophet and the articulated
a See . Mishn. Avoth, v. 6, 'M b
Hengstenberg, Bil., p. 49, Mi-
Nvtxh; Targ. Jon. on ver. 28, chaelis, Kurtz, Keil, and others;
xnAt;xa llam;ma MUpU; Midr. Rabb. comp. also Canon
Cook's Holy Bible
Num.
xx., etc.; comp. Bechai on l. c., ‘God may have brought it
ver.
28: ‘The speaking of the ass about that sounds uttered by the
was
a great miracle against the course creature
after its kind, became to
of
nature, and it was performed for the
prophet's intelligence as though
the
glorification of Israel,' etc. it addressed him in rational speech.’
138 NUMBERS
XXII. 22-35.
sounds
of an animal? It is scarcely possible to argue with
those,
who have neither the faith to acknowledge a super-
natural
intervention, nor the courage to follow the guid-
ance
of reason. What weapons have been seized, what
allies
have been welcomed to support the assumption of
a
vision! The operation of the nerves passing beyond the
r
usual limits, and magnetic action, clairvoyance and second
sight,
even ‘the mysterious and involuntary shudder
experienced
by animals in the Divine presence'--all this
has
been eagerly proposed and accepted, till at last the
whole
story of Balaam's journey was declared to be
nothing
but a dream.
The wonder of the speaking ass is
hardly lessened by
insisting
that a.Ll she spoke required no human intelligence,
but
‘kept entirely within the psychical sphere of animal
life.’
The words of the ass, carefully analysed, will be
found
to include some of the most important forms of
inductive
reasoning; and logical generalisation, and a
French
writer's sarcasm, 'On fait parley l'ane pour dire
si
peu de chose,' is scarcely applicable. However, the
author
did not concern himself at all with the distinction
between
man and animal. He could not have made an
ill-treated
servant speak more appropriately; and in con-
junction
with the gift of speech he attributed to the beast
sufficient
capacity to remonstrate with fitness and force.
Moreover,
speech itself forms hardly a less marked crite-
rion
between man and animal-some schools of science
will
say, a more marked one-than reason.a
All natural explanations of the incident, such as were
in
favour during the last century in the time of Reima-
rus,
and are not even now extinct, are necessarily more
artificial than an
uncompromising miracle. From poetical
and
rhetorical passages like these: ‘The ox knoweth his
a Comp. Wilh. Wackernagel, Ur- English 'the thinking,' is in Greek
sprung
and Entwickelung der Spra- me<roy 'the articulating' creature;
che,
pp. 4-7. Man, in German and comp. Aesch. Coeph. 1018, etc.
THE JOURNEY. 139
owner,
and the ass his master's crib, but Israel doth not
know,
My people doth not consider';a or, ‘The stork in
the
heaven knoweth her appointed times, and the turtle
and
the crane and the swallow observe the time of their
coming,
but My people know not the judgment of the
Lord;’b
from such terms, which relate to the simplest
effects
of animal instincts, it cannot be inferred that the
Hebrews
believed ‘the animals often to be more sensible
than
man.’c But what curious and complicated an hypo-
thesis
has been worked out on that basis! The ass, it, is
maintained,
was recalcitrant. Tradition contended, that
God
made her so, in order to impress upon Balaam that
He
disapproved of the journey undertaken for the pur-
pose
of cursing Israel, and He sent an angel to resist the
prophet.
It might, therefore, fitly be said, that the angel
was
seen by the ass sooner than by her infatuated mas-
ter.
Again, the ass was beaten and she brayed--this was
her
complaint, which Balaam, as soothsayer, readily un-
derstood.
Her braying led Balaam to reflection; these
thoughts,
which brought him to his senses, are his dialogue
with
the ass.d The defenders of the authenticity of the
episode
can hardly be said to have gained much by re-
ducing
its historical kernel to the refractoriness of an
animal,
in which refractoriness is by no means uncommon.
The object of the angel's apparition,
as is evident, was
to
convince Balaam how seriously God was displeased
with
his enterprise.e How was this object carried out by
the
author? Following the later and invidious tradition,
he
started from the idea that Balaam, a wicked heathen,
was
a secret enemy to Israel, whom, from the meanest
motives,
he burned to execrate. He made, therefore, an
a Isa. i. 3. d
Comp. Knobel, Num. pp. 133,
b Jer. viii. 7. 134;
similarly, among earlier writers,
c
Comp.
Plin. Nat. Hist. viii. 28 Lessing,
Justi, Hezel, and others;
or
42, ruinis imminentibus musculi see
also Vater, Pentat. iii. 124, 125
praemigrant,
aranei cum telis primi Bunsen, Bibelwerk, v. 600, 601, and
cadunt,
etc. others. e Ver.
32.
140 NUMBERS
XXII. 22-35.
angel
frighten Balaam on the road, and believed he could
not
show the diviner's moral obduracy more plainly than
in
typifying it as it were by his physical blindness.
Thus
Elisha's servant did not see the fiery horses and
chariots,
which the holy prophet beheld, till God ‘opened
his
eyes.' Elisha's Syrian persecutors, who searched for
him
with impious eagerness, were through his prayer ac-
tually
smitten with blindness, so that he could resistlessly
deliver
them up to their enemies. And Daniel, perceiving
ark
extraordinary vision--a human form with ‘a body
like
the beryl, and a face as the appearance of lightning'
--relates:
‘I Daniel alone saw the vision, for the men
that
were with me saw not the vision.'a But then the
author
found himself in a perplexing dilemma. Regarding
the
foreign soothsayer with hatred and contempt, he ex-
posed
him to the reproof of the angel and of his own
animal,
and made him appear not only dimsighted, but
also
irrational, obstinate, and cruel. But how would such
a
character harmonise with the whole narrative? And
how
would the benedictions of Jahveh sound from such
unworthy
lips? The writer was, therefore, to some extent
compelled
to turn and yield. He was obliged to check
his
bitterness and prejudice, and to represent Balaam as
capable
of devotion and repentance. Therefore Balaam
‘bowed
down and fell on his face;' and therefore he said
what
would almost have befitted the older Balaam, ‘I
have
sinned . . . . and now, if it displeases thee, I will
return.’b
And what was his 'sin'? In the first place,
a
2
Ki. vi. 17-2,0; Dan. x. 7; etc.;
Hom. 11. v. 127, @Axlun d ] au#
comp.
Gen. xxi. 19; Acts ix. 3-7; toi ap ]
o]fqalmw?n e!lon;
Od. xvi.
Jos. Ant. IX. iv.
3; see also Abar- 160,
161, Ou]d ] a@ra Thle<maxoj i@den
ban. in loc., ‘Angels
in their glory a]nti<on ou]d ] e]no<hsen, Ou]
ga<r pw
are
only perceived by the perfect, who pa<ntessi qeoi> fai<nontai e]nargei?j;
are
prepared for such distinction'; Virg.
AEn. ii. 604-606, namque om-
Corn. a Lapid. on ver. 22,'
Sic Beati nem, quae nunc . . .
mortales hebetat
in
corpore glorioso apparent cui vo- visus
tibi,... nubem eripiam, etc.
lunt,
et abscondunt se cui volunt,' b Vers. 31, 34.
THE JOURNEY. 141
certainly
his ill-treatment of the ass.a But this was only
a
consequence of his ‘not knowing, that the angel was
standing
in the way against him;'b and this ‘not know-
ing'
was a guilt, for it was partly a result and partly a
punishment
of his base passions, which had estranged
him
from all Divine intercourse and aspirations.c But,
in
her kind, the ass was perfect, because she had remained
true
to her nature. She had ever served her master with
fidelity,
and had thus duly fulfilled the ordained purpose
of
her existence.d She could, therefore, see ‘the angel of
the
Lord,' who remained concealed from the man formed,
indeed,
after the Divine image, but corrupted by sin.
It
is well known, and we have before dwelt on the
fact,
that, in the East, the ass, far from being a de-
spised
animal, as in western countries, is so highly prized
and
valued, that the comparison with ‘a bony ass'e could
be
regarded as an honourable distinction;' that down to
David's
time, it was among the Hebrews the animal com-
monly
used for riding by the most wealthy and powerful;
and
that even now, apart from the fine varieties of
and
of
dollars';g
while Pliny relates, that the senator Q. Axius
paid
for a donkey the fabulous sum of 400,000 sesterces,
or
about £3,200 sterling.h Although, therefore, it is not
impossible,
that to some modern readers the episode may
have
an additional strangeness, because it is a donkey
that
complains and expostulates, it bore, in the author's
a Ver. 32. e
Gen. xlix. 14.
b Ver. 34. f
See Comm. on Gen. p. 748; on
c This sense
results from the lite- Exod. p. 76.
ral
translation of the text: ‘I have g Van-Lennep, Bible Lands, i. 232;
sinned,
because I knew not that Paul Lenoir, Le Fayoum etc. p. 17;
thou
wast standing in the way comp. Judg. v. 10; x. 4; xii. 13, etc.
against
me.' Zunz, ‘Ich babe ge- h Plin. Nat. Hist. viii. 43
or 68,
fehlt,
dass icb nicht merkte.’ asinum cccc milibus nummum emp-
d Vers. 28, 30. tum,
etc.
142 NUMBERS
XXII. 22-35.
time,
exactly the same character as if, instead of an ass,
he
had introduced the most sagacious horse of the rarest
Arab
breed. It behoves us, of course, faithfully to enter
into
those old conceptions; but whether an ass or any
other
animal is speaking, the fabulous colouring is not
materially
different.
Balaam was on his journey accompanied
by the Moabite
ambassadors
and his own two servants:a in what light did
the
author view their relation to the incident? The most
probable
supposition is that he considered them neither to
have
seen the angel, nor to have heard the voice of the
ass,
since the servants had no direct interest in the matter,
and
the ambassadors could not be made to witness the
scene
without imminent peril to the whole object of the
journey.
This is indeed wonderful, but not more so than
that
Balaam himself did not see the angel for a long
time;
it has clear analogies in the Scriptures, as above
pointed
out; and the episode moves, from beginning to
end,
on miraculous ground. It is, however, also possible
that
the author regarded those persons as astonished
spectators
of the event.b In no case
would it be justifi-
able
to conclude from their presence that he intended to
describe
a vision and not a real occurrence.
If, in our remarks on these verses,
the reader should
notice
a want of systematic connection, let him consider
that
it merely mirrors the want of clearness and con-
sistency
imparted to the story by an ill-devised interpo-
lation.
For the principal narrative and the episode belong
to
two entirely different classes of literary composition.
The
former is a profound myth, the latter a fanciful legend.
The
one embodies the great idea of
their
special guidance; the other would have no more
a Vers. 21, 22,
35. were
privileged to witness the pro-
b It has even
been conjectured, cedure for the humiliation of his
that
we owe the whole of this ac- overweening
pride (Baumgarten,
count
to Balaam's servants, who Pentateuch, ii. 361).
THE JOURNEY. 143
than
a subordinate value, even if it rested on an his-
torical
foundation. Both are fictions: but the one is a
poetical
fiction of intrinsic and philosophical possibility;
the
other an arbitrary fiction suggested by misconception.
Whatever
the latter possesses of dignity and truth, it
possesses
only as a reflection falling upon it from the
former.
As the Greek myth of Poseidon and Athene
contending
for the privilege of giving the name to 'the
chief
town of
Athenians
were prouder of their achievements in the
arts
of peace than of their feats of war; as the Biblical
myth
of the creation of Eve conveys the Hebrew
writer's
conviction of the equality of the sexes and the
sacredness
of matrimony; and as no one will or should, in
the
one case, speculate how it was possible for Poseidon
to
produce ‘the neighing steed by striking the earth
with
his mighty trident;’a or, in the other case, how a
woman
could be formed out of a man's rib--because the
ideas
embodied are alone essential, while the form is
absolutely
of no account; so the enquiry how Balaam,
ostensibly
a contemporary of Moses, could foresee events
of
the time of David, would be wholly irrelevant, be-
cause,
in this composition, the matter and tendency of
the
prophecies are the only objects of importance. It is
entirely
different with the episode: its sole right of
existence
is in the reality of the facts, and the only
standard
by which it must be tested is that of historical
probability.
So admirable and organic is the unity
of the main
narrative,
that any foreign or disturbing element is at
once
revealed and expelled.
PHILOLOGICAL
REMARKS.--The following is the most usual
attempt
at reconciling the: episode with the bulk of the story.
a Comp. Virg. Georg. i. 12, 13, equum
magno tellus percussa tri-
Tuque
o, cui prima frementem Fudit dente,
144 NUMBERS
XXII. 22-35.
At
first God forbade the journey absolutely (ver. 12), but
He
afterwards allowed it in order to gratify Balaam's eager
desire
(ver. 20). When, however, the seer, after having set
out
with the intention of cursing
God's
anger on account of his determined self-will, found
that
an angel opposed him, he then, at last cured of his
blindness
and malice. resolved strictly to adhere to the
Divine
communications that were to be made to him in
disposition,
he received God's revelations and was endowed
with
the Divine spirit (so Knobel, Numeri,
p. 122; Ewald,
Geschichte
and Jahrbucher 11. cc.; Smith, Dict.
of the Bible,
i.
162, etc.; comp. Bechai in loc., llqyw
hnvkb jlvh yk,
and
many
others). How inadmissible it is to speak of an ‘eager
desire’
or a 'determined self-will' on the part of Balaam,
has
been pointed out above (p. 11); but equally groundless
is
the assumption of a 'change of disposition.' Balaam
gave
neither to the first nor the second messengers the
slightest
hope that he would prophesy as Balak desired and
expected,
and the same resignation under God's guidance he
showed
in his meeting with the angel. 'The change' is not
in
Balaam, but in the authors who describe his conduct.--
Another
expedient is the supposition that the angel did not
appear
with the view of preventing Balaam's journey, but
of
warning him of the destruction into which he was hasten-
ing
ing (Keil, Num. p. 303). What could the 'destruction' be
that
awaited one who had pledged himself only to proclaim
the
words of God, and who, by all his actions, proved his
sincerity?
But we may allude to another device, not on
account
of its intrinsic value, but from the respect due to the
scholar
who proposed it. 'The author,' observes Winer
(Real-Worterb.,
i. 182, 183), 'desired, perhaps, merely to con-
vey
that, after Balaam had been told by God that he should
scrupulously
follow the Divine suggestions (ver. 20), he
might
and should have desisted from his plan; and as he did
not
desist, he received a second and sterner admonition, in
which
the previous order of not deviating from the Divine direc-
tions
was again enjoined upon him' (ver. 35). It is confidently
maintained
that this explanation removes all want of harmony,
THE JOURNEY. 145
not
only within this narrative itself, but in its relation to
subsequent
accounts (xxxi. 16; Dent. xxiii. 5). Why, it will
be
asked in astonishment, ought Balaam to have abandoned
his
enterprise, when he received from God the distinct com-
mand:
'Rise and go with the men'? (ver. 20). Where does
the
narrative, up to that point, intimate the least displeasure
with
Balaam's conduct? Such an intimation can surely not
be
found in the fact that Palate sends him presents (ver. 7),
nor
in the circumstance that he does not at once refuse to
listen
to the second envoys (ver. 19). He had entirely and
unconditionally
surrendered his will to that of God; can he
be
covered with reproach, or could God be wroth against
him,
because he remained strictly faithful to that resolve?
The
difficulty does not 'lie merely in the form of the story;
it
is discordant in its very essence, if read as one continuous
whole.--The
interpolation may best be considered to comprise
verses
22 to 35, as vers. 21 and 36 are closely connected in
import;
it is, however, not impossible that, originally, ver. 20
concluded
with the words qlb yrw Mf Mflb jlyv (ver. 35), so
that
ver.
21 also has been added, for the purpose of introducing the
ass
of Balaam.--It will be sufficient to mention the hypothesis,
that
the verses under consideration (22-35) formed the first
groundwork
of the story, all that precedes being 'a com-
position
of the Jehovist' (Baur,
Alttestamentl. Weissagung,
i.
333): these verses, incomplete in themselves, cannot be the
foundation
of the following prophecies, while the anterior
narrative
has nothing in common with the Jahvistic style.--
The
natural impression is, that the incident here related
happened
soon after Balaam's departure: 'God's
anger was
kindled,
xvh jlvh yk, that he was going' (ver. 22). But some
place
it near the
allege,
it is psychologically probable that the passions of
evil
corrupted Balaam's heart by degrees, so that, prompted
as
he was by a 'furious determination to advance,' the
nearer
he approached his destination, the more keenly he
felt
the attractive power of the honours and treasures which
awaited
him; wherefore, in the proximity of the temptation,
he
stood in need of a special exhortation, without which he
would
surely have pronounced curses upon
146 NUMBERS
XXII. 22-35.
Bil.,
pp. 45, 46). It would, forsooth, be unjust to deny to
such
interpretations the praise of 'method.' And with what
relish
did Fathers of the Church and Reformers, at this
juncture,
hurl their strictures against the prophet (e.g.,
Origen, Magus daemones
videt, angelum non videt; asina tam
videt
.... ut confutaretur Balaam; Augustin,
Quaest. 50 in
Num.;
Calvin, Visiones extraordinarias ante
jactabat, nunc
quod
bestiae oculis expositum est eum fugit; unde haec tantii
caecitas
nisi ex avaritia? etc.; Cornel. a Lapid.,
Usus est Deus
voce
asinae, tum quia congrue bruta mens per brutum doce-
tur,
etc.; Vitringa, Obss. Sacr. IV. ix.
28, Bileamus suas
agendi
rationes ita instituit, ut asina, qua vectus est, ejus
parafronei<an insaniam inhibuerit, etc.); though not a
few
expositors
of recent times may vie with them for the palm
of
abuse (e.g., Baumgarten, Pentat. ii.
357, 'the donkey
recognising
the angel is a palpable manifestation of the in-
human
and more than brutish obtuseness of its master; Lange,
Bibelwerk,
i. p. lxxix ; ii. p. 312: 'The ass takes Balaam's
character,
to prove that he has taken her character
The
prophet riding an ass is changed into an ass riding a
prophet,'
which is, surely, the acme of epigrammatic neat-
ness).--The
following plea has, from various sides, been put
forward:
'The miracle was by no means superfluous; it was
to
convince Balaam that the mouth and tongue were under
God's
direction, and that the same Divine power which
caused
the dumb ass to speak, contrary to its nature, could
make
him, in like manner, utter blessings contrary to his
inclination;'
so Abarban., Bp. Newton, and
similarly Herder,
Werke,
xi. 287, and others. This explanation would, in its
own
sphere of thought, be conclusive, if Balaam's inclination
had
really been such as is assumed.--After the words 'God's
anger
was kindled because he went' (ver. 22), the Arabic
version
of Saadiah adds, 'impelled by greed of gain,' that is,
because
'the wages of unrighteousness' made him but too
willing
to go (2 Pet. ii. 15)--to the great delight of many
modern
expositors happy to boast of so old an authority for
their
errors. But they may claim a much older one still--the
author
of the episode himself. Others, indeed, declare, that
the
addition is superfluous; for it is quite plain that, if
THE JOURNEY. 147
Balaam
had not been prompted by sinister motives, he would
never
have gone, and he thought, 'If I only have the per-
mission,
all the rest will follow of itself' (Hengstenb. Bil.,
p.
44). Would Balaam so faithfully have obeyed God's
directions
in regard to the journey, if it was his intention to
defy
them in the much more important point of the curse?--
As
the hvhy jxlm proves to be identical with God Himself
(ver.
35, comp. ver. 18), it appears preferable to translate
the
(not an) angel of the Lord' (comp. Gen. xlviii. 16; Ex.
xxiii.
20).—Ol NmAWAl; 'as an adversary to him,' to oppose or
resist
him; in ver. 32 simply NFAWAl;, where, however, the
sonal
pronoun jnFwl and
jtdwxl,
ei]j diabolh<n sou and ut
adversarer
tibi.--The drawn sword' in the angel's hand
(ver.
23) is the symbol of God's displeasure and wrath (comp.
Gen.
iii. 24). According to the Midrash, it indicates that,
it
would be less criminal to attack
hand
than a curse in the heart—lOfw;mi (ver. 24),
literally,
‘a
hollow way’ (the other derivatives of lfw also implying
hollowness,
as lfawo
the hollow of the hand, Isa. xliv.
12; 1 Ki.
xx.
10), formed by high rocks or, as in this instance, by
vineyard
walls (rdeGA,
Isa. v. 5; comp. Ezek. xiii. 5) on either
side;
Sept., e]n
tai?j au@laci,
(in the furrows); Vulg., in angus-
tiis
; and so Targ. Jon., xqAHEUdB;, etc.--The
angel's meeting
with
Balaam and his beast is so clearly described in the
text,
that it requires no explanation. With remarkable re-
gularity,
the number three prevails in this episode: the angel
stands
in the way three times and is three times seen by the
ass;
the ass turns aside three times and is three times beaten
by
her master; and in each instance we may notice a per-
ceptible
gradation. The angel, at first, opposes himself sim-
ply
'in the road' (jrdb); next, in 'a hollow path' enclosed
by
vineyards; and lastly, 'in a narrow place where there
was
no way to turn either to the right hand or to the left'
(vers.
22, 23, 26). The ass's fright at the apparition grows
step
by step, till she finally falls down in helpless anguish
(vers.
23, 25, 27). She first turns aside into the field, then
moves
back again into the road, and, at last, arriving in the
hollow
path, presses herself in terror against the wall, un-
148 NUMBERS
XXII. 22-35.
mindful
of thus crushing Balaam's foot (vers. 23, 25). More-
over,
she is, the first two times, probably only beaten with
the
hand or a slight whip, but the third time with the stick
(lqmb) which Balaam
carried according to custom (vers. 23,
25,
27; comp. Gen. xxxviii. 18). The text expressly points
to
the threefold repetition of all these actions (vers. 28, 32,
33);
but the ass speaks only twice; the third time the angel
himself
speaks and reproves in her stead (vers. 28, 30, 31).
Such
calculating exactness in numbers is common in later
symbolism,
and, if carried out in detail, easily becomes arti-
ficial
and playful. Nor have Rabbinical and scholastic
writers
allowed this occasion for allegorising to pass unim-
proved:
three times, the Midrash observes, the ass turned
aside,
in order to remind Balaam of the three patriarchs,
Abraham,
Isaac, and
it
was intended to impress God's great compassion with man,
since
it manifested itself so signally even towards an irra-
tional
animal (Midr. Rabb., Num. 11. cc.,
etc.).--Jewish tradi-
tion
contends that the 'hollow path' was ' in the place
where
Jacob and Laban raised the mound and the pillar on
this
side, and the observatory on that side, which they raised
that
neither should pass beyond it to do evil to the other'
(Targ. Jon. on ver. 24; comp. Gen. xxxi.
51, 52); which is
the
more curious as, according to the same tradition, Balaam
and
Laban are identical (see supra, p. 29).--We have above
remarked,
that, in these occurrences, the author in no way
concerns
himself about the Moabite ambassadors and
Balaam's
servants, as they were probably meant to see and
hear
nothing of the wonderful phenomena. Certainly such
explanations
as, 'the author very likely thought that the am-
bassadors
went before and the servants followed behind,' or,
more
singularly still, 'that they looked in another direction,
if
they were not dimsighted'-such superficial explanations
are
out of the question (comp. also Nachman. on ver. 33).--In
this
episode, MyligAr;, times, is employed (vers. 28, 32, 33; comp.
Exod.
xxiii. 14) for the more usual MymifAP; (xxiv. 10; see
De-
Rossi,
Var. Lect. in loc.), which circumstance probably proves
more
than 'that King Balak did not form his language on
the
model of that of the ass' (Keil),
considering that the
THE JOURNEY. 149
word
is twice used by the angel.--St.
Augustin (l. c.) and
many
others, both in earlier and recent times, blame Balaam
severely
for not having felt surprise and terror at the ass's
speech
(iste
miraculo
terreretur et responderet quasi ad hominem loquens,
etc.;
Bechai, Comm. in loc. 'kv
vfbF fvrv vtvyrzkx jvtm lbx,
etc.);
others consider that circumstance most cogently to prove
that
the whole transaction occurred in a dream or vision, as
any
person to whom such a thing really happened, ‘would
be
half dead of fright and would fall from the animal’
(Michaelis on vers. 28-30, and others);
while one commentator
excuses
Balaam by supposing that he was probably a be-
liever
in the doctrine of transmigration of souls, and hence
regarded
the speaking of animals quite natural (Clericus,
Paraph.
of ver. 29, Comm. on ver. 28, fortasse transmigra-
tionem
mentium humanarum in brutorum corpora fieri cre-
dehat,
etc.).--The meaning of lle.fat;hi (ver. 29),
apparent from
the
context, is to mock, insult, or abuse (so in Judg. xix. 25
1
Sam. xxxi. 4; Jer. xxxviii. 19; 1 Chr. x. 4; Sept., e]mpe<pai-
xa<j moi; Vulg., commeruisti et illusisti mihi; Targ. Jon.,
T;r;qaw;; Rashi, Nvyzbv yxng Nvwl; Luth., dass du
etc.)
llf
is perhaps kindred to hlf, and is, therefore, in
Hithpael,
to lift oneself up against another,
which may either,
as
here and in the passages quoted, be done from insolence,
or
for derision, or for the display of power (as in Exod. x. 2;
1
Sam. vi. 6). Others connect llf with the Arabic
XXX to
drink
again, hence to quench thirst and, in Hithpael, ‘to
satisfy
the mind in vexing any one' (Gesen. Thesaurus, p.
1033),
which seems less simple and probable.--'kv j~d;Ofme (ver.
30),
lit. 'from thy being' or 'thy existing to this day,' that is,
properly,
from thy birth or all thy life (comp. Gen. xlviii. 15;
Comm.
on Genes. p. 719), a natural hyperbole forcibly ex-
pressing
many years of service (Sept., a]po>
neo<thto<j sou;
Vulg.,
semper;
Onk., j`tAyxiD;mi;
ginning;
Mendelss., tbkrw
Mvym,
etc.) The ass, which grows
up
to the fourth year, reaches an age of about thirty years, in
both
respects resembling the horse; the female is rather more
long-lived
than the male (comp. Plin.Nat. Hist.
viii. 43 or 68).--
150 NUMBERS
XXII. 22-35.
The
Targum of Jonathan, very free and copious in render-
ing
the following verses, embodies several peculiar features
of
Hebrew tradition. 'Ten things were created after the com-
pletion
of the world on the sixth day towards the evening (see
supra, p. 136) : the
manna... and the speaking mouth of the
ass
(xntx llmm Mvp) ... And the ass said to Balaam, Woe to
thee,
thou wanting in mind, when thou art unable to curse
me,
an unclean beast, who am to die in this world, and not
to
enter the world to come, how much less canst thou injure
the
children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, on account of
whom
the world has been created, but whom thou art going
to
curse!' and so on in the same legendary style.--The verb
FrayA, in the phrase ydggl
jrdh Fyr yk
(ver. 32), probably akin
to
drayA,
means, no doubt, to be precipitous or
destructive, after
the
analogy of Arabic (XXX, precipice, destruction,
XXX
precipice;
comp. FrAOm,
Isa. xviii. 2; Saad, XXX), though
the
verb occurs also in transitive signification, to throw into a
precipice
(Job xvi. 11, yniFer;yi with metheg, for yniFer;yyi, the future
of
Kal, not the past of Piel, which would not correspond
with
the preceding ynireyGis;ya; and would
require pathach as bind-
ing
vowel, yniFar;yi); and the sense of the phrase is: 'for thy
journey
is pernicious in my eyes,' which, though somewhat
obscure
and ambiguous, was no doubt intended by the
author
of the episode to imply a severe censure and menace
of
Balaam, in antagonism to the spirit of the main narra-
tive,
which excludes Balaam entirely from the conflict and
would,
therefore, not threaten him with disasters. The
ancient
translations of FrayA are remarkably vague; the
Vers. has the easier
equivalent hwyb; Syr.,
'because thou
hast
directed (tcrtd)
thy way against me;' Onk. and Jon.
paraphrase,
'because it is certain before me that thou
desirest
to go in a way contrary to me;' and 'it is known
before
me, that thou seekest to go to curse the people, which
is
displeasing to me;' and similarly all the rest (Sept., ou]k
a]stei<a h[ o[do<j sou, which means
probably even or proper, and
is,
therefore, not very different from eu]qei?a; Vulg., quia per-
versa
est via tua mihique contraria, etc.; comp. Kimchi,
‘thy
way
deviates--hFAWA--or
is not straight before me, for it was
THE JOURNEY. 151
in
Balaam's heart to curse the Hebrews;' Joseph.,
Ant. IV.
vi.
3, rite th>n o[do>n au]tou? para>
gnw<mhn tou? qeou? genome<nhn). It is at
least
not impossible to connect Fry, as Rashi does,
with FFr
to
fear (comp. FF,r, terror, Jer.
xlix. 24), so that the phrase would
mean,
'thy journey is terrible or awful in my eyes;' but
Fry is hardly equivalent to Cvr, so that the
sense would be,
the
journey was rashly undertaken' (Mendelss., die mir ver-
haste
Reise war zu schleunig beschlossen; and others).
Clericus,
following a doubtful authority, has, ' via coram me
clausa
est.'—yDig;n,l; is simply 'before me' or ' in my eyes,' not
‘in
opposition to me’ (Onkel.; Luzatto, deve ben essere disas-
troso
un viaggio fatto a mio dispetto--which would pre-sup-
pose
a strained ellipsis).—ynixar;Tiva (ver. 33) for ynixer;Tiva (comp.
Ex.
xxxiii. 21; see Gram., § liii. 2. c).--None of the devices
are
tenable that have been proposed to uphold, in ver. 33,
the
reading ylaUx perhaps, which it is
evidently a corruption
of
yleUl unless (comp. Gen.
xxxi. 42; xliii. 10; where xleUl
...
hTAfa yKi is used exactly as in this passage hTAfa
yKi ...
ylaUx
the
ei] mh<, Vulg. nisi, etc.). Thus Rashbam assumes
a distinction
between
ynpl
and ynpm
in the same verse: ‘if she had turned
from
me so as to pass me on the road, I
should have killed
thee;’
Koster arbitrarily explains: ‘if she had turned
away
from me a fourth time, instead of
falling on her knees,
I
should have killed thee;' and Hengstenberg (Bil., p. 64)
supposes
a very remarkable aposiopesis to this effect:
‘perhaps
she turned away from me, induced by love of her
master,
and impelled by an instinctive feeling of the danger
threatening
his safety;' which gentle hint was meant as a
greater
humiliation to Balaam and a stronger rebuke of his
ingratitude
than any distinct words on the part of the angel
could
have conveyed! (comp. also Nachman.,
Abarban., and
others,
in loc.; Luzzatto: ‘Potevi pensare the forse declinava
per
paura di me,’ where ‘potevi pensare’ is a free addition,
etc.).
But ylaUx
never occurs in the sense of unless,
as some
have
maintained (so Rashi, Ebn Ezra, Nachmanides, De Geer,
Gesenius,
Maurer, who considers ylaUx to be identical with
Mxi and yle for xlo, and others).--MGa (ver. 33)
corresponds to v;
in
h.tAOxv; on the one hand ... on the other hand (Sept. se> me>n . . .
152 NUMBERS
XXII. 36-40.
e]kei<nhn de<); more frequent
is the use of MGa ... MGa (comp.
xxiii.
25), which was not applicable in this place on account
of
the double contrast, that of the
persons and the actions.
Some
Jewish commentators, assuming a transposition of
words,
explain, with little probability: 'I should also have
slain
(jtvx ytgrh Mg), and not merely opposed and frightened
thee;'
so Rashi, Abarban., Mendelss., and
others.—Sp,x,v; (ver.
35)
is analogous to j`xav;, in ver. 20, but only; comp. xxiii. 13
(Ebn Ezra, qr vmk spx, and others).--The
command, 'Go with
the
men' (ver. 35), means, says the Midrash, 'Go, for thy
portion
is with them, and fearfully wilt thou, like them, be
exterminated
from the world;' while modern expositors
assert
that the permission implied in those words is not
contradictory
to the previous prohibition, for, coupled with
the
simultaneous restriction, it could not confirm Balaam in
his
designs against
desist
from his wickedness. Although a certain meed of
respect
cannot be withheld from such tenacious consistency,
we
confess we are heartily glad to have finished our remarks
on
that portion of the text which has yielded the most
abundant
crop of perversion and confusion.
6. ARRIVAL AND RECEPTION. XXII. 36-40.
36. And when Balak heard that Balaam
had
come,
he went out to meet him to the city of
which
is at the utmost boundary. 37. And
Balak
said to Balaam, Did I not indeed send to
thee
to call thee? wherefore didst thou not come
to
me? am I not forsooth able to honour thee?
38.
And Balaam said to Balak, Behold, I am
come
to thee; have I now any power at all to
say
anything? the word that God shall put in my
mouth,
that shall I speak. 39. And Balaam
went
with Balak, and they came to Kirjath-
huzoth.
40. And Balak killed oxen and sheep,
ARRIVAL AND
RECEPTION. 153
and
sent thereof to Balaam and to the
princes
that
were with him.
It may be presumed that Balak awaited
the return of
his
second embassy with intense anxiety, and it appears
that
messengers hastened in advance, south-westward, to
his
capital, then Rabbath-Moab (Rabbah), to report to
him
Balaam's approach. On receiving this welcome
news,
he forthwith set out to meet the seer. He was
prompted
to do so by a double motive. First, he desired
to
offer to Balaam a signal mark of attention and esteem,a
to
which he imparted the utmost possible grace by join-
ing
him at the very threshold and entrance of his king-
dom,
on its extreme north-eastern boundary, which the
travellers
coming from
touch.
But Balak's second and more pressing object was
to
prevent a single moment's unnecessary delay in the
execution
of his cherished scheme, which, by Balaam's
first
refusal, had already been deferred far too long for
his
impatience. For it was indispensable that the ex-
pected
curse should be pronounced at a place where the
prophet
could sec, the Israelites. But these had already
advanced
a considerable distance in a north-westerly
direction,
and had encamped, beyond the northern border
of
the
Had
Balaam first continued his way to Rabbath-Moab,
and
thence repaired to the scene of action with Balak,
who,
of course, desired to be present at the momentous
proceedings,
much precious time would have been lost
by
these circuitous journeys, and might not any hour
bring
attack and disaster?
One of the most recent travellers
among the Kabyles
observes:
‘As soon as the approach of the caravan of an
honoured
guest is announced in an oasis, the sheikh of
the
place, clad in his red cloak, proceeds to meet it, ac-
a See supra, p. 9. b Supra, p. 77.
154 NUMBERS
XXII. 36-40.
companied
by the kadi. Both are mounted on fine and
richly
caparisoned steeds. First they ride at a slow pace,
but
as soon as they come in sight of the expected cara-
van,
they advance in full gallop to the distance prescribed
by
the conventional rules. There they suddenly halt,
descend
from their high saddles, and allow the reins to fall
to
the ground. The horses, trained for such purposes,
stop
motionless on the spot, while the riders hasten
towards
the caravan. Here the usual civilities are
exchanged,
while the crowd brandish the palm branches
which
they carry, to evince their joy and satisfaction.’a
Might
we not imagine a similar scene to have occurred on
the
banks of the Arnon nearly three thousand years ago?
And now the two antagonists stand face
to face--the
king
of
and
the representative of the God of Israel; two powers
opposed
as Chance and
as
Worldliness and Idealism. And this contrast, which
extends
to the hidden depth of all thoughts and the secret
springs
of all deeds, which tinges every emotion of the
mind
and prompts every impulse of energy--this all
pervading
contrast is, with a master's hand, delineated
in
Balak's simple question and Balaam's simple reply at
their
first encounter. The king of
laws
of human action than ambition, and wealth, and
power.
He finds it incomprehensible, that Balaam did
not
at once comply with his royal summons. His words
express
no less wonder and astonishment than dissatis-
faction
and reproach: ‘Wherefore didst thou not come to
me?
am I not forsooth able to honour thee'?b Balaam,
unmoved
by the agitated tone of this address of wel-
come,
points again, with imperturbable calmness, to that
one
great principle which forms the guiding rule of his
life,
which he is never weary to proclaim, but which, far
from
being weakened by repetition, gains in weight and
a E. Desor, Der Mensch der Wuste, p. 25. b
Ver. 37.
ARRIVAL AND
RECEPTION. 155
emphatic
force, because each reiteration manifests, under
new
circumstances, the truth and earnestness with which
that
great idea has seized and penetrated his whole
nature:
‘Have I now any power at all to say anything?
the
word that God puts in my mouth, that shall I
speak.’a
Not ambition, wealth, and power are his
care,
but
the will of his God in which he merges his own,
and
that absolute obedience which curbs all pride and
conceit.
With sufficient clearness he makes Balak feel
even
at this early stage of their intercourse, that the
destinies
of nations do not depend on human arts and
passions,
but on a higher and inscrutable Power which
reveals
its decrees as irrevocable; and a foreboding
doubt
might pass through the heathen monarch's mind
whether
the enterprise would issue as he desired. Who
can
deny the loftiness of a character like that of Balaam?
It
is the very type of a noble Hebrew prophet--of the
Hebrew
prophet with all his glorious attributes and all
his
dangerous elements.
From the town of meeting on the Arnon,
Balak and
Balaam
went forth with their followers to advance as
close
to the Hebrew camp as was deemed necessary, and
they
proceeded to Kirjath-huzoth
(Street-fort or Strass-
burg), that is,
probably, to that place of the present
Kureiyat on the southern
declivities of the mountain
range
of Attarus, which the Hebrews, journeying from
Dibon,
reached by crossing the river Heidan.b It was
one
of those numerous towns which, not long before,
the
king of the Amorites had taken from
destroyed,
but which the Israelites, after the conquest of
this
district, rebuilt and allotted to the tribes of Reuben
and
Gad.c Under various fortunes
Kiriathaim main-
tained
itself down to the sixth century, when it was
plundered
and laid waste by the Babylonians.d
a Ver. 38. c
Num. xxxii. 37 ; Josh. xiii. 19.
b Supra p. 76. d
Jer. xlviii. 1 23; ; Ezek. xxv. 9.
156 NUMBERS
XXII. 36-40.
Thus Balak and his companions had
reached the track
of
those who were to be supernaturally assailed; and
Kiriathaim
seemed to the king the fittest place for more
formally
solemnising the seer's arrival by common re-
pasts
of slaughtered animals; he probably assigned to
Balaam
the largest and choicest portions, by means of
which
it was customary to show respect or affection
to
honoured guests.a These
feasts did not bear the
character
of sacrifices, and certainly did not constitute
‘a
great offering of consecration.' Before entering upon
the
solemn rites of religion and prophecy, the king
very
properly discharged the ordinary obligations of
hospitality.
PHILOLOGICAL REMARKS.--The 36th verse
is the immediate
continuation
of the 21st.--'The town of
36),
where Balak joined Balaam, is not the capital (Midr.
Tanch., Rashi, etc.),
supposed to be Ar (rfA Isa. xv. 1, ]Areo<-
polij; so Gesen. Thes., pp. 1004, 1005; Hengstenb.
Bil., pp.
234-237,
and many others); for this was situated north of
the
river Arnon (xxi. 15, 28), then the boundary of Balak's
kingdom
(xx.i. 13; Deut. iii. 16; Judg. xi. 18; p. 69), which
he
is not likely to have crossed, as he, no doubt, wished to
welcome
Balaam within his own territory (the Targumim
simply
bxvmd xtrql). If the meeting could be assumed to
have
taken place in the north of the Arnon, the town Aroer
(rferofE) would be
suitable (p. 75), the position of which is
repeatedly
described in a similar manner as that of this
‘town
of
it
was situated on the border (lvbg) of the Arnon,
which
river
formed 'the extreme boundary' (lvbgh hcq) of the land.
This
is the sense of the words 'kv bxvm ryf-lx, which is not
materially
obscured by the somewhat indistinct application
of
the second rwx.--Balak lays stress on the very act of
sending
(hence the finite verb preceded by the absolute infi-
nitive,
yTiH;lawA HalowA ver. 37, which is not, 'have I not sent
to
thee
repeatedly?' since on the second
summons Balaam really
a Gen. xliii. 34; 1 Sam. ix. 23,
24, etc.
ARRIVAL AND
RECEPTION. 157
came)--he
lays stress on the distance, and the number and
dignity
of the envoys; being sent for in this express manner,
Balaam
ought, independently of any other motive, to have
obeyed
with alacrity (comp. ver. 17, where, for still greater
emphasis,
the finite verb is followed by dxom;; see Heb.
Gram.,
97,
6). Different and more significant is the phrase lkoyAhE
‘kv
lkaUx
(ver. 38), 'have I any power at all to say anything?'
Either
word has its own force; the one-the infinitive--em-
phasizes
the action, the other the person: Balaam declares, that
he
is powerless to speak, and that it is God
alone who has that
power;
he advances, with increasing clearness, to the absolute
abnegation
of his own self (xxiv. 13). How it was possible
to
discover in those words the: fact that Balaam joined Balak
with
a broken or 'lacerated heart' (Bunsen,
Bibelwerk, v.
601),
will, alas! be sufficiently intelligible from preceding
remarks.--Besides
MyitayAr;qi, and distinct from it, we find tOy.riq;
mentioned
as a town of
2);
this is not surprising, considering the vagueness in the
meaning
of those names; and within those districts several
ruins
have recently been found which are similarly called by
the
natives. In all such cases, which fortunately concern but
minor
points, we must content ourselves with probability,
which,
in this instance, is decidedly in favour of the above
conjecture.
tOcHu tyaraqi is rendered by Onk. 'the town of his
market-places'
(yhvzvHm), in the
city
of his visions,' or 'of his mysteries' (vyzr tnydm), but in
the
Sept. by po<leij e]pau<lewn, as if based on the reading tvrcH
instead
of tvcH
(comp. Sept. Gen. xxv. 16; Josh.
xiii. 23,
etc.),
and in the Vulgate by 'urbs quae, in
extremis regni ejus
finibus
erat,' as if deriving tOcHu from hcAHA to divide. Some
have
identified Kirjath-huzoth with the town Huzoth read
on
an Egyptian papyrus (Anastasi iii.), and others with the
conspicuous
ruins of Shihan, four miles west by
south of the
site
usually assigned to Ar or Ir (Canon
Cook's Holy Bible,
on
ver. 39), which lies, however, south
of the Arnon, whereas
Balak's
destination was northward and north-westward.
Targ. Jon. calls the
place ‘the city of
--Hlwyv (ver. 40) viz. of the flesh, not messengers (ver. 10).—We
have
observed before how little Balak's fear and precautions
158 NUMBERS
XXII. 36-40.
were
justified by the circumstances, since the Hebrews had
proceeded
considerably beyond his territory (p. 87). This
remark
may now be extended. We see the king of
accompanied
by a brilliant retinue, pass free and unmolested
through
districts which, according to the preceding accounts
of
the Book of Numbers, were in the possession of the
Hebrews,
his enemies (comp. xxiii. 14, 28; comp. Hitzig,
Inschrift
des Mescha, p. 5). What inferences are hence to be
drawn?
Either the Hebrews had but partially conquered the
land
north of the Arnon, or the narrative of Balaam and
Balak
is an isolated episode unconnected with the events in
the
midst of which we find it. As a matter of fact, the for-
mer
may have been the case (p. 69), but it is not so repro-
sented
in the Book of Numbers, whatever efforts have been
made
to prove the contrary (for instance by Hengstenb.,
Bil.,
p.
251). The second alternative must, therefore, be adopted,
and
it confirms a view of the nature and composition of the
Book
of Balaam, which is forced upon us by many other
considerations
besides. Let us here allude to one point more.
While
in this narrative the unity of action is admirably pro-
served,
the unities of time and place are questionable. For
the
reader's impression is that the whole of the proceedings,
beginning
with Balak's and Balaam's departure from Kirjath-
huzoth
(xxii. 41) and ending with Balaam's last prophecy,
followed
each other in rapid succession and in the course
of
the same day. But while the action unfolds itself with
unbroken
interest and intrinsic probability, it is more than
doubtful
whether the long journeys from Kirjath-huzoth to
Bamoth-Baal,
thence to Pisgah, and thence to Peor (pp. 76,
77),
the threefold erection of altars and the threefold sacrifices,
Balaam's
solitary meditations and his speeches, can all be
compressed
into the space of one day. But who will lay
much
stress upon this circumstance, except as au additional
proof
that we have before us a free creation of art? (see also
Oort,
Disputatio, pp. 68, 69).--Considering the character of
the
feast (ver. 40), as pointed out above, passages like Gen.
xxii.
54, or Neh. viii. 10-12, are not parallel with this. The
verb
Hbz
was used, not only with respect to sacrifices, but
also
to killing for food (1 Sam. xxviii. 24 , 1 Ki. xix. 21, etc.;
PREPARATIONS. 159
see
Comm. on Lev. i. pp. 72, 74). Josephus states correctly:
when
the king had entertained (decame<nou) Balaam in a
magnificent
manner'; and similarly Philo (Vit. Mos. i. 50,
kai> meta> tau?ta eu]wxi<ai
h#san kai> polutelei?j e[stia<seij kai> o!sa a@lla
pro>j u[podoxh>n ce<nwn e@qoj
eu]trepi<zesqai k.t.l.; comp. Gen.
xliii.
16).
If the author had meant to describe a sacrifice essential
to
Balak's main purpose, he would not have so generally
spoken
of ‘oxen and sheep’ (Nxcv rqb), but would have more
accurately
specified the kinds and numbers of victims, as be
is
very careful to do at the fitting occasion (comp. xxiii.
1,
4, 14, 29). Quite unjustified, therefore, is the censure cast
upon
Balaam by many in various forms that ‘he accepted
from
Balak as an honorary gift the flesh of idolatrous sacri-
fices'
(Cleric., Michaelis, Riehm, and
others); it would, accord-
ing
to eastern notions, still more decidedly than our own,
have
been the utmost insult to his royal host to refuse the
proffered
present.
7. PREPARATIONS. XXII. 41-XXIII. 6.
41.
And on the next morning, Balak took
Balaam,
and brought him up to Bamoth-Baal, and
thence
he saw the extreme part of the people.
XXIII. 1. And Balaam said to Balak,
Build
for
me here seven altars, and prepare for me here
seven
bullocks and seven rams. 2. And Balak
did
as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam
offered
on every altar a bullock and a ram. 3. And
Balaam
said to Balak, Stand by thy burnt-offer-
ing,
and I will go, perhaps the Lord will come
to
meet me; and the word that He will show
me,
I shall tell thee. And he went to a solitude.
4.
And God met Balaam, and he said to Him, I
have
prepared the seven altars, and I have
offered
upon every altar a bullock and a ram.
5.
And the Lord put words in Balaam's mouth,
160 NUMBERS
XXII. 41-XXIII. 6.
and
said, Return to Balak, and thus thou shalt
speak.
6. And he returned to him, and, behold,
he
was standing by his burnt-offering, he and all
the
princes of
At last the long-desired day arrived
which was to
witness
the realisation of Balak's ardent hopes. He
had
considered everything with anxious calculation.
He
well knew that the prophet, to curse effectually,
must
have those before his eyes whom he desired to
curse:
but how, if the imposing aspect of the Hebrew
hosts,
swelled by numberless foreign followers, and but
recently
enriched by magnificent booty of every kind,
carried
away the seer to enthusiastic admiration, and
prompted
him not to utter execrations but praises and
benedictions?
In this dilemma Balak prudently selected
a
place from where Balaam might see a portion of the
Hebrews,
large enough to represent the whole nation,
but
not so large as to impress the beholder with the
conviction
of formidable strength and power. Balaam
showed
ready obedience in this point also: ‘And on the
next
morning Balak took Balaam 'and brought him up
to
Bamoth-Baal.' The revelations which he expected-
of
this he was sure-did not depend on the spot in,
which
they were repeated. To him one point only was
important--to
listen to those revelations with all the
energies
of his soul. He saw, therefore, likewise with
indifference,
that it was ‘heights of Baal’ to which he
was
conducted. Balak naturally regarded a place dedi-
cated
to one of his chief idols as most appropriate for
his
object; for as yet he was totally ignorant of the
deity
in whose name the prophecies were to be uttered;
he
simply relied upon Balaam's art and skill, and no
doubt
believed he was materially assisting him by the
choice
of a locality pre-eminently sacred and revered.a
a Comp. xxi. 28.
PREPARATIONS. 161
From
the tenour of the text, Bamoth-Baal seems to have
been
in the immediate neighbourhood of Kirjath-huzoth,
where,
the day before, the social feasts had been cele-
brated.
It was probably one of the many elevations of
the
chain of Attarus, from some of which it must have
been
possible to see the extreme divisions of the Hebrew
army
spreading from Abel-Shittim to Beth jeshimoth,
almost
to the point where the
Sea.a The 'evil eye'
in itself was considered to possess
terrible
force, but in conjunction with imprecating
speech,
it was deemed irresistible.b When Elisha
heard
the
children mocking him, ‘he turned back and looked
on
them, and cursed them in the name of the Lord.’c
Democritus
contended that ‘from the eyes issue images ‘
(ei@dwla), which are neither without sensation nor with-
out
volition, and are filled with the wickedness and
malice
of those from whom they proceed; imprinting
themselves
firmly upon the person to be enchanted, they
become
a part of him, and disturb and injure both his
body
and mind.'d It would be needless to dwell on
the
great
importance of the eye in all systems and doctrines
of
emanation. From the eye of Brahman, the supreme
god,
the sun was, by the Hindoos, supposed to have
sprung.
That from the eyes of Ra or Horus, the good
things,
from the eyes of Set or Typhon the noxious
things
are produced, was a common Egyptian belief fre-
quently
alluded to in the papyri; and we read not only
that
‘from the eyes of Ra mankind proceeded,’ or that
a Supra, p. 77; comp. xxi. 19, me<na be<lh propi<ptwsin k.t.l.; simi-
20. larly
Heliodor iii. 7 ; iv. 5; comp.,
b Comp. Plin. Nat. Hist. xxviii. 2. Virg. Eel. iii. 103, Neseio quis
c Nxrtv, 2 Ki. ii. 24. teneros occulus mihi fascinat agnos;
d Sunoikou?nta toi?j baskainome<- Pers.
ii. 33, 34, urentes oculos inhi-
noij e]pitara<ttein kai> kakou?n
au]-
bere perita; Plin. Nat. Hist. vii.
tw?n to< te sw?ma kai> th>n
dia<noian;
2, esse, qui visu quoque
effascinent
Plutarch, Sympos. V.
vii. 6; comp. interimantque . . .
iratis praecipue
§ 3, ai[ u@yeij . . .
w!sper pefarmag- oculis etc.; Gell. ix. 4, etc.
162 NUMBERS
XXII. 41-XXIII. 6.
‘the
eye of Ra subdues the wicked,’ but the powerful
king
Ramses II. is, on the
‘the
precious egg of the sacred Eye, emanation of the
king
of the gods.’a
It is remarkable that when the direct
execution of Balak's
scheme
is finally approached, Balaam's passive conduct
suddenly
ceases. He acts as vigorously and resolutely
as
is at all compatible with his mission. He makes
every
necessary arrangement with precise determination.
He
is now the prophet of Jahveh and directs in His
name.
He is not Balak's servant, but his master and
guide.
With great decision he requests the king, 'Build.
for
me here seven altars, and prepare for me here seven
bullocks
and seven rams.' With conscious distinctness
he
separates himself from the heathen king. The altars
and
the sacrifices are not meant for Balak's idols but for
Balaam's
God. Moreover, both altars and sacrifices are
to
be signalised by that holy number which is to the
Hebrews
the emblem of oath and covenant; which, like
a
golden thread, runs through all their sacred insti-
tutions
and festivals, from the weekly Sabbath to the
Year
of Jubilee ; which pervades and rules all their
laws
of purity and atonement; and which, divested
from
its merely cosmical character, soon obtained a pro-
foundly
religious significance.b Not easily,
therefore,
could
a better means have been devised for carrying us
directly
into the very centre of Hebrew conceptions,
than
the systematic introduction of seven altars and
seven
animals. When David brought the
Covenant
to
rejoicing,
the Levites ‘offered seven bullocks and seven
rams.'c When the pious
king Hezekiah purified the
a Comp. Com. on
Gen. p. 58; b See Comm. on
Exod. p. 449;
Rec.
of the Past, ii. 131, 132; iv. on Lev. ii. pp. 207, 534, etc.
23,
etc. c 1 Chron. xv.
26.
PREPARATIONS. 163
ing
of ‘seven bullocks and seven rams, and seven lambs
and
seven he-goats.'a And in one of
the ripest works of
Hebrew
literature, God Himself ordered the friends of
Job
to offer ‘seven bullocks and seven rams,’ in expiation
of
the sin they had committed by their unjust accusa-
tions
of the sufferer.b As the desired
prophecies relate
to
the destinies of
share
in the preparatory sacrifices;c but that share
is
altogether
subordinate. Everything that is essential pro-
ceeds
from Balaam. He gives all instructions; he says to
God,
‘I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered
upon
every altar a bullock and a ram;’d he exercises
the
sacerdotal
functions--he is both priest and prophet.
he animals chosen testify to the
importance of the
occasion.
The bullock was the victima maxima
em-
ployed
for the most solemn purposes, such as the expia-
tion
of the anointed High-priest or the community of
victim
appointed for the holocaust or thank-offering of
the
whole people and its chiefs.e
The simple and faithful narrative
implies collaterally
the
most interesting hints and inferences. The author
describes
sacrifices presented to Jahveh, the God of
and
with what rites? They evidently bear, in every
respect,
the character of patriarchal sacrifices, which were
performed
by any person at any place, such as were per-
formed
by Samuel and David and Solomon, and many
others
before and after them, unrestrained by levitical or-
dinances
enjoining a single central sanctuary and hallow-
ing
a single priestly family with exclusive privileges.f
a 2 Chron. xxix.
21. Matt.
xviii. 22; Records of the
b Job xlii. 7. In
an Accadian Past, vii. 155. c Ver. 2.
Psalm,
which must have been writ- d Ver. 4.
ten
prior to the 17th century B.C., e Comp. Comm. on Lev.
i. pp.
we
read: ‘0 my God, seven times 82,
83.
seven
are my transgressions;' comp. f See Comm. on
Lev. i. pp. 14 sqq.
164 NUMBERS
XXII. 41-XXIII. 6.
Let
it not be argued that it is the Mesopotamian
Balaam
who directs and carries out the rites; for the
author
makes Balaam throughout speak and act like a
Hebrew,
like a most pious, a most gifted and most
favoured
Hebrew. He would have shrunk from letting
him
offer, on the ‘heights of Baal,’ sacrifices to Jahveh,
if,
at his time, the rigid injunctions of the levitical
legislation
had existed.a Every single feature of the
narrative
points to the fresh and vigorous time of
David's
reign.
However, Balaam's independent
proceedings are strictly
confined
to his intercourse with Balak. In his relations
to
God he remains, as he was before, submissive and self-
denying;
he is the master of Balak, only because he is
the
servant of God. After the almost imperious com-
mands
given to the king, he dwells again on those rela-
tions
with a decision deriving a new grace from the
meekness
with which it is blended. For although he
had
frequently before received Divine communications,
he
is far from the pride of expecting them again with
certainty.
He is aware that he must entirely rely on a
higher
mercy and wisdom: ‘I will go,’ he said, ‘perhaps
the
Lord may come to meet
firmness
inspired by the consciousness of great and
unselfish
aims, and the modesty arising from the know-
ledge
of human dependence and weakness. The ‘ele-
ments
are so mixed in him,’ as they are only in the
greatest
and rarest characters.
And how does he await his inspiration?
Not amidst
the
excitement of din and tumult, not in impetuous
phrenzy
sure to be followed by exhaustion, nor by in-
toxication
of the senses paralysing clearness of mind;
but
‘he went to a solitude,’ into silent nature, to be
uplifted
by her grandeur and infinitude, and in quiet
concentration
to commune with his God, who is not in
a See supra, p. 17
. b Ver. 3; p. 106.
PREPARATIONS. 165
the
roaring ‘tempest rending mountains and shattering
rocks,’
but in the ‘still small voice,’ that speaks and is
intelligible
to none but the pure-minded.a 'And God
met
Balaam.'b How did He meet him? This is the
secret
of the prophetic writer to whom we owe this
precious
composition. It is the secret of all those great
men
who came forward and were acknowledged as pro-
phets.
It is the one questionable problem, the solution
of
which concerns alike the depths of psychology and
the
history of religion, and which can never be solved
without
due regard to the character of eastern nations
and
of those remote ages. But so much is certain, that
‘God
met Balaam’ precisely as He met a Gad or Nathan,
an
Elijah or Elisha, an Isaiah or Jeremiah--not enticed
by
spells and enchantments and magic arts, but appear-
ing
spontaneously and graciously, in order to reveal to
His
elected organ utterances concerning His elected
people.
Calm even in this solemn moment, Balaam
simply
stated the facts, not as if he desired to make to
God
new communications, for he referred to 'the seven
altars'
as well known to God but in order to express
that
he had done all that devolved upon himself. He
had
offered, he said, the sacrifices most acceptable to
God
by their character and number: they were holo-
causts,c typifying God's
absolute sovereignty as Ruler
of
nations and individuals; and they consisted of twice
seven
of the most valued animals presented on seven
altars,
by which Balaam meant to intimate--for this is
the
symbolical meaning of seven as theocratic number--
that,
as far as lay in himself, he had earnestly striven to
rise
up to God in thought and feeling. But he does not
even
now prefer a request. He goes to meet God, God
meets
him, and he declares what he has done: whether
he
is to receive a prophetic inspiration, this he leaves,
without.
eagerness or solicitude, to God's wise decision.
a See p. 19. b Ver. 4. c hlAfo vers. 3, 6.
166 NUMBERS
XXII. 41-XXIII. 6.
As
a free act of mercy God puts words into his mouth,
and
bids him announce them to Balak, who is to hear
the
Divine message to his dismay and punishment. The
king
awaits the prophet's return, standing by his sac-
rifices,
in order that their connection with Balaam's
speeches
may remain manifest; and he waits ‘with all the
princes
of
him
alone, but his whole land and people.
PHILOLOGICAL
REMARKS.--We are unable more accurately
to
ascertain the position of Bamoth-Baal (comp. Hengstenb.
Bil.,
pp. 238-243): the statement of Josephus (Ant. IV. vi.
4)
that the height ' was distant sixty stadia from the Hebrew
camp,'
is, of course, mere conjecture; but it suffices to un-
derstand
some elevation north of Kureyat, from
which it was
possible
to survey the land up to the southern extremity of the
Jordan.--In
accordance with the explanations above given
is
the remark of Philo (Vit. Mos. i. 50), that on that hill 'a
pillar
had been erected to some deity, which the natives of
the
country were accustomed to worship'; comp. Sept.
a]nebi<-
basen au]to>n e]pi> th>n
sth<lhn tou? Baa<l.
–MfAhA hceq; ‘a part
of the
people,’
in contradistinction to the ‘whole
people’ (xxiii. 13;
Sept., me<roj ti tou? laou?; Vulg.,
extremam partem, etc.; but
incorrectly
Luth., De Geer, Gesen., Kurtz, Baumgart.,
and
others,
'universum populum usque ad extremitates ejus," ‘bis
zu
Ende des Volkes,' or, 'das Yolk von einem Ende bis zum
andern,
das ganze Volk;' comp. Gen. xix. 4; xlvii. 2, and
Comm.
in locc.; see Jer. xii. 12).--Jewish tradition considers
that
the seven altars of Balaana were intended to recall the
altars
previously erected by seven pious men: by Adam,
Abel,
Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses (Midr.
Rabb.
Num.
xx. 8; comp. Rashi in loc.); but the number seven
has,
in this passage, a much deeper import than that of an
historical
analogy, and it is not confined to the altars, but
extends
to the sacrificial animals. Some modern expositors,
on
the other hand, Argus-eyed in their suspicions, find that
‘Balaam's
directions with reference to the mystical number
seven,
savour strongly of the tricks of magic and incanta-
PREPARATIONS. 167
tion'
(comp. Kether Torah, Mytrwmh
hfbwl Hbzl;
Deyling,
Obss.
iii. 112; Dathe, Kilto, Beard, Lange,
who calls the
sacrifice
'a sordid union between paganism and monotheism,
between
yes and no,' and others). Yet those expositors
would
be the last to declare the Hebrew laws and writings
as
mystical or as savouring of magical tricks on account of
their
being saturated with the same number (comp. Virg.
AEn.
vi. 38, 39, 'Nunc grege de intacto septem mactare
juvencos
Proestiterit, totidem lectas de more bidentes.' On
Assyrian
monuments the sacrifice of seven animals is not
rarely
mentioned; comp. Records of the Past, i. 99; iii. 136,
143,
etc.). Ebn Ezra, on the other hand, finds here again
‘deep
mysteries, which but few are able to fathom'; and
Maimonides
believes that the number seven prevails because
it
is the intermediate cycle between the solar day and the
lunar
month (comp. Bechai on xxiii. 4; see
also Abarban. in
loc.).--Even
Balaam's most inveterate detractors, with few
exceptions,
do him the justice to admit that the offerings
were
presented to the God of Israel and 'not to the Moabite
idols,
which, in the whole of this matter, are out of the
question'
(Hengstenberg, Bil., p. 69, and
others; comp., how-
ever,
Origen, In Num. Homil. xv. 1 ; xvii.
1, culpabilis est
Balaam,
cum aedificat aras et victimas imponit doemoniis et
aparatu
magico poscit divina consulta; Corn. a
Lapid. on
ver.
5, septem aras exstruxit ipsi Baal, eique victimas immo-
lavit,
and others). But the fact itself of offering sacrifices
as
a preliminary to the anticipated revelations, should not
be
made a subject of reproach to the seer, as if ' the lower
the
grade of prophetism is, the more it stands in need of
extraneous
aids and auxiliaries.' To the ancient world sacri-
fice
was the chief form and element of divine worship, and
was
deemed indispensable in all solemn or important emer-
gencies
of life; among the Hebrews, in particular, it re-
placed,
rather than accompanied, prayer and praise; it was,
down
to the latest periods, recommended by their noblest
and
most enlightened teachers, provided it was rendered
acceptable
by purity of heart and life; and it is by the pro-
phets
retained even in their pictures of the future golden or
Messianic
times (comp. Isa. lvi. 7; Zechar. xiv. 20, 21, etc.
168 NUMBERS
XXII. 41-XXIII. 6.
and
so Maimonides, Hileb. Melach. xi., 'kv tvnbrq Nybyrqm; see
supra, p. 17; Comm.
on Levit. i. pp. 14 sqq., 50 sqq.). Balaam's
sacrifices
had no other object than to prove and to enhance
that
purity; they were neither meant 'to change the mind
of
the Almighty,' nor to serve as an assistance to his prophe-
cies;
if this had been his intention, he would have awaited
the
inspiration at the altars, and would not have sought
it
in a solitude. The analogies, therefore, which have
been
adduced, especially from Hindoo usages, though in-
teresting,
are not applicable to Balaam's proceedings. We
learn
that before a king goes forth to battle, seven altars are
placed
in front of the temple devoted to the goddess of the
royal
family (Veerma-kali); seven, fourteen, or twenty-one
victims
(buffaloes, rams, or cocks) are killed, and their car-
cases
thrown into burning pits, near to the altars, with
prayers
and incantations; and then the priest, after having
burnt
incense in the temple, 'takes a portion of the ashes
from
each hole, and throwing them in the direction of the
enemy,
pronounces upon them the most terrible impreca-
tions'
(Paxton, Illustrations, ii. .1299; Kitto on ver. 1, etc.).
Of
the whole of this ceremony the sprinkling of the ashes is
evidently
the most essential part; but it is in our narrative
never
hinted at, which is the more decisive against the ana-
logy,
as the imprecation of enemies was Balak's only object
in
employing Balaam's services. It is, therefore, surely un-
just
to mix up the king and the prophet in suggestions like
this:
'sometimes the one only, sometimes both together, are
seen
striving to overpower the voice of conscience and of
God
with the fumes of sacrifice' (Stanley,
Jewish Church, i.
190).
Neither in religion nor in morals Balaam had any-
thing
in common with the heathen and obdurate monarch.
But
what did Balaam do in the solitude? This question has
engaged
the zeal of a hundred writers, and as it is not an-
swered
in the text, it has afforded to many another welcome
opportunity
of accusing Balaam of the darkest paganism and
the
basest juggleries. They described him as the type of
a
lying augur, and ransacked classical and unclassical anti-
quities
to paint the hideousness of the contemptible tribe of
soothsayers,
among whom they assigned to Balaam a fore-
PREPARATIONS. 169
most
rank. How greatly they thus wronged the author, we
have
shown above. Can he be supposed to represent the God
of
connection
with, nay, as the result of, the meanest of heathen
sorceries
and impositions? (About MywiHAn;, xxiv. 1, see
pp.
19-21,
and notes on xxiii. 25-xxiv. 2).--The article implied in
HaBez;mi.Ba (vers. 2, 4)
has distributive meaning, on each altar
(and
in
vers. 4, 14, 30; see Gram. § 83. 6; Onkel.,
xHAB;d;ma lKA-lfa
Luth.,
je auf einem Altar, etc.; but Sept.,
inaccurately, e]pi>
to>n bwmo<n; Vulg., super
las
aras, etc.).--hrAqA in Niphal (vers. 3, 4, 15, 16)
is to meet,
as
in Exod. iii. 18; v. 3, where the same verb is employed
with
reference to God 'meeting' Moses and Aaron; nor does
it
here imply the notion of chance, as if ' God's revelation
came
to Balaam, who was no true prophet, merely by acci-
dent'
(hrqm jrd, Nachman.,
Abarban., Mendelss., and others).--
used
as a relative pronoun, is like rwx occasionally
pre-
ceded
by the construct state (rbaD;; see Gram. § lxxx.11; 87.8f).
signifies,
etymologically, a bare or waste spot, from hpAwA,
kindred
to hvAwA,
to be equal or even (comp. Isa. xiii. 2, rh
ypw; a bare mountain, covered with no trees or shrubs; Job
xxxiii.
21 keri): Balaam went to a solitary place that he
might
not be disturbed in his attention nor miss the Divine
voice
when it came. It may be that ypw; is more
frequently
a
bare height or hill (Isa. xli. 18; Jer. iii. 2, 21; vii. 29;
xii.
12; xiv. 6), though this is by no means uniformly the
case
(Isa. xlix 9; Jer. iv. 11); but supposing even that ypw;
implies
such a notion in this passage (so R. Jonah b. Gannach,
Ebn Ezra, Kimchi,
Abarban., Mendelss., and
many others),
although
then the verb would hardly be jlyv but lfyv
(comp.
xxii.
41), that would be no cogent reason for assuming that
Balaam,
as heathen augurs did, went out to watch for
remarkable
phenomena of nature' or ‘important signs,’ as
thunder,
lightning, or the rainbow; for applying to him the
whole
vocabulary of Greek and Roman divination, of te<rata
and
sh<mata, oi]wnopo<loj and ma<ntij, of auguria and auspicia,
lituus,
auguraculum and tesca; and for insisting that, veiling
his
head and turning to the east, he practised all the arts
and
tricks usually performed on elevations. The
170 NUMBERS
XXII. 41-XXIII. 6.
stood
on a hill; and so constantly did the Hebrews worship
on
heights, that among neighbouring nations it was currently
said,
‘A God of mountains is Jahveh and not a God of valleys’
(1
Ki. xx. 23, 28; see Comm. on Lev. i. pp. 372, 373). If
the
narrative shows indeed a 'significant mixture of Hebrew
and
heathen notions of religion' (Keil),
that mixture is signi-
ficant
not in reference to Balaam, but the Hebrews. The
older
translations of ypw are extremely divergent and very
few
rest on a safe foundation. Closest to the correct meaning
is
Onkelos, who has ydyhiy;, alone or lonely, though ypw is a noun
(so
Abarban., ddvbtm;
Zanz, einsam; Bunsen, allein): Ewald
(Jahrbuch.
x. pp. 46-49, 178), after having defended this inter-
pretation
with the utmost earnestness, finally abandons it in
favour
of the casual conjecture ‘he went out to espy’
viz.,
auguries,
tracing hpw to
hpc,
for which connection, he ad-
mits,
there is no foundation in Hebrew and no analogy in
the
kindred dialects. Rashi adds the
secondary notion of
quietness or silence (hqytw xlx
vmf Nyxw;
compare Syr. tyxypw,
Saad., and others),
probably following the Targ. Jerus.,
which
here,
as in Gen. xxii. 8, renders ypiw; blb 'with tranquil
mind,'
which translation, resulting from repeated metaphors,
swerves
considerably from the right path, yet not so much as
the
interpretation 'with contrite or humbled heart' (Hvrb
hrbwn, Rabbi Jehudah quoted by Kimchi,
ypiw; being
associated
with
the Chaldee hpAw;, to crush or wear away;
similarly Dathe,
anxious,
etc.). The Midrash also attributes to the word
the
sense of calmness, and explains:
'Balaam intended
cursing
which
he had till then enjoyed, and was thenceforth uneasy
and
troubled' (drFn; Midr.
Rabb. Num. xx. 8). But the
usual
Talmudical exposition is lame (rgH); for Balaam is
asserted
to have become so by the ass pressing his leg
against
the vineyard wall (xxii. 25; Talm.
Sanhedr. 105a;
Rashbam, and others);
he was, however, lame in one foot
only,
while Samson„ who in Jacob's last Address is compared
to
a NOpypiw;, viper
(Gen. xlix. 17), was lame in both feet
(Talm.
Sot. 10a; Sanh. 105a). Guided by this conceit, Targ.
Jonath. actually
renders, 'And Balaam bent or crept like a
BALAAM'S FIRST
SPEECH. 171
serpent'
(xyvyHk NyHg); and hardly less hazardous are some
other
translations, as Sept. eu]qei?an, the straight road; Samar.
Vers. Nmkm, 'lurking'
(with which word it also expresses
Nypypw in Gen. xlix. 17), i.e.,
furtively going out after signs;
Vulg., velociter; Luth., eilend, etc.--The phrase, 'The
Lord
put
words into Balaam's mouth' (ver. 5), which, of course,
refers
to the ordinary inspiration of prophets, has been
explained
to mean that the words were put into Balaam's
mouth,
not into his heart, so that he neither understood them
nor
sympathised with their spirit (comp. Origen,
In. Num.
Hom.
xiv. 3, nunc autem, quoniam in corde ejus desiderium
mercedis
erat et cupiditas pecuniae, etc.; xv. 2, etc.).
8. BALAAM'S FIRST SPEECH. XXIII. 7-10.
7.
And he took up his parable and said,
From
he king of
of the east.
Come, curse me Jacob,
And come, execrate
8.
How shall I curse, whom God doth not
curse?
And how shall I execrate, whom the
Lord doth not execrate?
9.
For from the summit of the rocks I see
them,
And from the hills I behold them:
Lo, a people that dwelleth apart,
And is not reckoned among the nations.
10.
Who counteth the dust of Jacob,
And by number the fourth part of
Let me die the death of the righteous,
And be my end like them!
172 NUMBERS
XXIII. 7-10.
Repose characterises Balaam's lofty
oracles, as it dis-
tinguishes
the plain narrative of the Book. But those
oracles
are invested with the choicest attributes of poetry,
and
the sublime is genially blended with the beautiful.
They
are, therefore, by the author designedly called
‘parables.’a They have not
the usual vehemence of
prophetic
utterance; they are not the offspring of fervid
passion,
but of lucid thought; they are not spoken pleno
ore but ore rotundo; they do not rush along in
torrent-
like
eloquence, but move with a quiet dignity, upheld by
their
own inherent strength. The first speech in particu-
lar
bears a character almost epic and idyllic. It seems
hardly
to do more than describe, in. the simplest form,
the
actual facts and circumstances; but not less power-
ful
than the impression produced by
address
to Joseph, apparently likewise a mere recapitula-
tion,
is the effect wrought by these measured words of
Balaam.
Proceeding in unrestrained and natural grace,
they
yet do not, for a moment, lose sight of their high
object;
and breathing the most peaceful harmony, they
yet
point with irresistible weight to the grand struggle
that
is being fought and decided. With magic force
they
demolish the bulwarks of pride and stubbornness,
which
Balak deemed invincible. The king of
compelled
to learn that all his treasures are unavailing
even
to make a friendly seer speak as he desires or
commands.
He must hear, with growing distinctness,
that
blessing and curse are in the hands of no prophet,
however
famous and privileged, but in the power of
Jahveh
alone-the God of his dreaded foes; and he must
be
taught, and through him every heathen, that the
world
is not a play of human caprice or selfishness, but
is
governed by the unerring laws of a Wisdom, which is
indeed
abundant in mercy, but pours out this goodness
upon
those only who deserve it by their deeds and aims.
a lwAmA vers. 7, 18,
etc.
BALAAM'S FIRST
SPEECH. 173
But
are
a righteous people (MyriwAy;) and as they excel all
other
nations off the earth in virtue and piety, so they
are
singular in the safe protection of their God. By His
grace
they have become numerous as the dust of the
earth,
of which no one would attempt to count even a
small
portion. Through Him they enjoy the most pre-
cious
prerogatives of spiritual enlightenment. All these
gifts
and boons are by Balaam but slightly touched
upon;
yet their mere remembrance moves him so sud-
denly,
seizes him so powerfully, that he exclaims
with
an abruptness that may seem surprising, ‘Let me
die
the death of the righteous, and be my end like
them'!--and
thus concludes. A twofold lesson was to
be
impressed upon the king of
error
to declare to Balaam, ‘I know that he whom thou
cursest
is cursed'; and that
not
be cursed, because ‘they are blessed.’a The prophet
summoned
to execrate
felicity
than to share the lot of that very nation. Shall
we
more admire the consummate art which produces
such
effects with the simplest means, or the wealth of
thought
condensed in so small a compass? For what is
it
that Balaam's wish implies? Nothing less than
entire
theocratic and spiritual history. ‘The people that
dwelleth
apart (ddAbAl;) and is not reckoned among the
nations,'
is God's first-born son and His treasure, His
chosen
and peculiar people, His turtle-dove and the flock
which
He leads, the great, the wise, and the humble
nation,
the beloved bride whom He has betrothed to
Himself
for ever in mercy and faithfulness,b and lastly,
as
the culmination of all, ‘the kingdom of priests and the
holy
nation.’ And the people of
holy,
because they have received God's laws and obey
them;
they are great and powerful, living 'in safety,
a xxii. 6, 12. b Hos. ii. 21,
22.
174 NUMBERS
XXIII. 7-10.
alone,’
because He is the shield of their help, and because
He
‘pastures with His own staff the flock of His in-
heritance
that dwelleth alone' in His favoured land.a
When,
therefore, Balaam prays that his end may be like ,
that
of the Israelites, he wishes that, similar to the
members
of their great community--like Abraham, their
own
chosen type and model—‘the rock whence they
were
hewn’--he may die ‘in peace’ and ‘full of years,’b
that,
in the hour of death, he may look back upon an
existence
blessed by security and rich in pious works, a
life
ennobled by the knowledge of God and His protecting
love;
and that he may leave behind a numerous and
happy
posterity.
But if we enquire in history after ‘the
people that
dwelleth
apart,’--where is it to be found? Perhaps no
people,
certainly no Eastern people, kept itself so little
separate
as the ancient Hebrews. From the earliest
times
of their independence to the latest, they practised
all
the superstitions and idolatries of the heathen.
From
the earliest times to the latest, down to those of
Ezra
and Nehemiah, they mixed by intermarriages with
every
surrounding tribe, and so thoroughly did they
abandon
their identity, that a part of them ceased to
understand
the Hebrew tongue,c till at last
the whole
nation
spoke a foreign language, or adopted a mixed
dialect,
in which a corrupted Hebrew formed a subordi-
nate
element. ‘The children of
of
the earliest Books, ‘dwelt among the Canaanites, the
Hittites,
and Amorites, the Perizzites, and Hivites, and
Jebusites,
and they took their daughters to be their
wives,
and gave their daughters to their sons, and served
other
Gods.’d And again, ‘The people of
a Deut. iv. 1-8;
xxxiii. 28, 29; b Gen. xv. 15;
xxv. 8; Isa. lvii.
Mic.
vii. 14; see Comm. on Exod. 2; etc.
pp.
332, 333; on Lev. i. p. 398; on c Neh. xiii. 24.
Lev.
ii. p. 184; etc. d Judg. iii. 5,
6.
BALAAM'S FIRST
SPEECH. 175
in
one of their latest records. ‘and the priests and the
Levites
have not separated themselves from the (heathen)
people
of the lands ... for they have taken of their
daughters
for themselves and for their sons, so that the
holy
seed have mingled themselves with the people of
those
lands.’a The picture drawn by the author
of
Balaam's
speeches is not the picture of the real but the
ideal
aspiration
to be a ‘special’ and a holy people never died
or
waned in
among
them ardent men who fanned and fed the sacred
flame.
However often the people sank, and however
deep,
they were constantly regenerated by guides and
monitors
rising from their own midst. The great goal,
though
distant, never vanished from their eyes. It was
the
Divine beacon brightly visible even in the most
intricate
and most tortuous paths.b
At last the time came when the
Israelites really
‘dwelt
apart and were not reckoned among the nations;’
but
it came in a manner which those great and God-
inspired
men could neither foresee nor desire. Their
free
and noble teaching--was set aside to give way to
statutes
which indeed separated the Hebrews from all
other
nations like a brazen wall, but which separated
them
also from their own glorious past and its spiritual
liberty,
which replaced a living individuality, rich and
varied,
by the lifeless monotony of an unchangeable
code;
and who can say how much this matchless pro-
phecy,
misunderstood and narrowed, contributed to that
long
and fatal isolation? But how many and how great
revolutions
must have preceded before a Persian magnate
could
say of the Hebrews, ‘There is a certain people
scattered
abroad and dispersed among the nations ... and
their
laws are different from every people!'c They had
a Ezra ix. 1, 2;
see Comment. on b See supra, p. 36.
Lev.
i. p. 357; ii. p.p. 354-356. c Esth. iii. 8.
176 NUMBERS
XXIII. 7-10.
ceased
to ‘dwell apart’ in their own land, but so strange
were
their ordinances and habits, their forms and cere-
monies,
that the bond of sympathy between them and
the
other nations was rent asunder, and that in a sense
very
different from that intended by the author of these
prophecies--they
‘were not reckoned among the nations.’
Nor
will that bond be fully restored until they return-
and
by the nobleness of their lives induce others to turn
to
the light and truth of their great prophets with an
unswerving
devotion.
But in other points besides, the ideal
character of this
speech
is manifest. ‘Who counteth the dust of Jacob,
and
by number the fourth part of
earnest
patriot might proudly speak in the time of David,
when
the Hebrew monarchy fairly promised to become
one
of the powerful eastern empires, when, by that
king's
brilliant conquests, it extended almost from the
Nile
to the
occupied
by teeming and flourishing populations. But
soon
came disruption, decline, and civil dissension, the
loss
of subjected provinces, and at last the abduction of
ten
tribes to
more
compared the Hebrews so confidently with the dust
of
the earth or the stars of heaven, but he declared
impressively,
‘The Lord did not choose you, because you
are
more numerous than any people, for you are the
fewest
of all people, but because the Lord loved you.'b--
And
again, in David's time, the religious leaders might still
cherish
the hope that
people,
rejoicing in justice and piety, and united in the .
adoration
of one incorporeal and all-pervading God. But
when
generation after generation passed away, without
the
incessant admonitions of zealous men bearing any
fruit;
when, as Jeremiah again and again laments, the
a Comp. Gen. xv.
18; Ex, xxiii. b Deut. vii. 7; comp. i. 10; x.
31;
Dent. xi. 21; 1. Ki. V. 1. 22; xxviii. 62.
BALAAM'S FIRST
SPEECH. 177
prophets,
whom ‘God sent from early morning,’a were
disregarded,
slighted, and cruelly persecuted; and an
ardent
lover of his country was forced to exclaim, ‘Who
is
blind like My servant, and deaf' as My messenger
(
writer
of the seventh century felt bound to point, with
the
utmost decision, to God's all-embracing scheme of
universal
government as the inscrutable cause of
election,
and to warn the people, ‘Not on account of thy
piety
and the righteousness of thy heart dost thou go to
possess
the land of the Canaanites; but on account of the
wickedness
of these nations the Lord thy God drives
them
out before thee.’ For the Hebrews, he insists, are
a
‘perverse and crooked,’ a ‘foolish and unwise’ people,
who
‘waxed fat and rebelled, and forsook God who made
them.’c Thus thoughtful
men among the Hebrews con-
stantly
laboured to explain and to justify the course of
history
anew, when the old ideas and expectations proved
unsafe
or fallacious.
PHILOLOGICAL
REMARK.--The whole of this composition,
as
we need not prove again, is so peculiar, that analogies
should
be applied with the greatest caution. No other pro-
phecy
in the Old Testament is called lwAmA, which word,
properly
‘simile,’ is exclusively used of the metaphorical
diction
of poetry or of proverbial wisdom (Ps. xlix. 5 ; lxxviii.
2;
Isa. xiv. 4; Ezek. xvii. 2; Mic. ii. 4; Job xxvii. 1; Prov.
i.
1, etc.; comp. Num. xxi. 27, Myliw;mA, etc.; Luzzatto, proferi
la
sua poesia). Yet Balaam's speeches are none the less true
prophecy
because they are at the same time the finest
poetry.
Their difference, in form, from all other prophetic
orations
is sufficiently accounted for by the circumstance that
no
other prophet bad to accomplish so peculiar a task as
Balaam
(see p. 63); and it seems almost to pass beyond the
boundaries
of fair interpretation, to explain that difference
by
the assumption that 'Balaam had only the donum,
not the
a Hvlwv
Mkwh b Isai. x1ii. 18. c Deut. ix. 5, 6;
xxxii. 5, 6, 15.
178 NUMBERS
XXII. 7-10.
munus propheticum, and that he had
around him no congrega-
tion
which he could have improved, even if he had desired
it'
(Hengstenb., Bil., p. 79; Keil, Num., p. 310). For whom
are
all these beautiful utterances intended? Were they not
meant
for the instruction and elevation of the great and
living
community of
and
advanced with unprecedented vigour?--Bishop Lowth
(Sacr.
Poes., Prael. xx.) thus characterises the arrangement of
Balaam's
prophecies: 'Eleganti inchoantur exordio, rerum con-
tinuatione
et serie decurrunt, et perfecta demum conclusione
please
absolvuntur.' Our preceding observations will prove that
we
agree as fully with this remark as with the same divine's
general
estimate of the poetical value of these compositions, of
which
he says: 'Nihil habet Poesis Hebraea in ullo genere
limatius
aut exquisitius’ (ibid.; comp. Prael.
iv., xviii). We
are
not aware that bias, through so many centuries, misled
any
interpreter so far as to disparage the peerless beauty of
Balaam's
speeches; this was reserved--it might appear in-
credible--to
an expositor of our own time, who considers
that
those oracles ‘are more rich in pathetic forms than in
matter,
and that the images are crowded, sometimes obscure,
and
redundant’ (so Lange, Bibelwerk, ii.
315).--It is evident
that
qlABA
(in ver. 7) should be provided with a distinctive ac-
cent,
which, as our translation shows, establishes a good
parallelism
(comp. xxiii. 18; Gen. iv. 23, etc.); the order of
the
words in both hemistichs is then 'chiastic,' and the verb
yniHen;ya--is in the second part to The
supplied again from the
first.
For the utterances of Balaam are remarkable for an
exemplary
parallelism. This consists all but uniformly of
two
members mostly synonymous, more rarely antithetical
(xxiv.
9b, 20), and occasionally synthetic, whether in two
parts
(xxiii. 20, 22, 23b; xxiv. 8a, 17c, 19, 23), or three, or
even
four (xxiv. 4, 24); while, in one instance, it is thrice
synonymous
(xxiv. 8b).--As the words Mdq yrrhm correspond
to
Mrx-Nm they do not mean ‘from the primeval mountains’
(as
in Deut. xxxiii. 15; comp. Gen. xlix. 26; Hab. iii. 6),
but
'from the mountains of the east' (Sept.
e]c o]re<wn a]p ]
a]natolw?n; Vulg., de montibus orientis, etc.; comp.
Mdq Crx
or
Mdq ynb, Gen. xxv. 6; xxix. 1; Judg. vii. 12; also Isa.
BALAAM'S FIRST
SPEECH. 179
ii.
6), as
comp.
Num. xxii. 5), lying east of
whole
flat and abounding in vast plains, is not without con-
siderable
mountain elevations, especially in the northern
districts,
into which the extensive ranges of
(comp.
Ainsworth Researches in
Erdkunde,
xi., pp. 438, 585, 726, 957, etc.). It is, moreover,
interesting
to notice that the Assyrian Inscription of Rim-
mon-Nirari,
found on a pavement slab from Nimroud, men-
tions
' the Temple of Kharsak-Kurra,' which signifies ‘the
mountains
of the east,’ supposed to denote the highlands of
(comp.
Records of the Past, i. p. 4 ; see also the ‘Annals of
Assur-Nasir-pal,’
l. c. iii. 66, 'at the mountains over against
the
B.,
line 29, 'To mount Amanus I went up,' etc.). That 'the
mountains
of the east' are meant as a contrast to ‘the summit
of
the rocks’ and the 'hills' of
then
standing (ver. 9), is as little probable as the idea that
those
words emphasize the great distance from which Balak
had
called the seer, and yet to no purpose. The transparency
and
calmness of Balaam's words do not favour the search for
such
hidden and artificial allusions, and 'the mountains of
the
east' are simply a poetical description or periphrasis of
Aram.'--About
hrAxA
see on xxii. 6.--hmAfEzo, for hmAfIzA or hmAf;zA
(fut.
Mfoz;x,, ver. 9), as hlAfEh; (Judg. vi. 28)
for hlAfIhA; see
Gram.
§§ xvi. 4. b; xxxix. 4. a.--The poetical verb Mfz, whatever
its
primary meaning (probably, to foam at
the mouth; comp.
Engl.
scum, Germ. Schaum, etc.), has commonly the sense of
speaking angrily (Zech. i. 12;
Isa. lxvi. 14; Prov. xxii. 14; xxv.
23;
Dan. xi. 30), and then, with an easy transition (comp. Mal.
i.
4), that of cursing (used parallel with rrx and bbq, vers. 7,
8;
Prov. xxiv. 24; Mic. vi. 10; Sept., e]pikata<rasai; Vulg.,
detestare;
Luth., more weakly 'schilt,' and
similarly Hengstenb.,
bedraue,'
etc.; Targ. Jon., ryfez;, make small or
diminish;
Targ. Onk., j`yrit; expel or remove). It is, as in this passage,
mostly
construed with the accusative (hence also the passive
forms
MfAz;ni and MUfzA, angered, cursed; Prov. xxii. 14; xxv.
23;
Mic.
vi. 10), rarely with lfa (Deut. xi. 30).--hBoqa (ver. 8), for
180 NUMBERS
XXIII. 7-10.
OBqa (comp. Gramm. § xxx. 1), the relative rwx being omitted
in
both parts of the verse, and in the second part the
suffix
of the personal pronoun also (MfazA).--Balaam's
excla-
mation,
'How shall I curse, whom God doth not curse,' etc.
(ver.
8), refers indeed, in the first instance, to the Hebrews,
whom,
as being 'blessed by God, he must not execrate; yet
it
bears a general application, and Balaam does not hint that,
in
other cases, he is well able to pronounce an effectual.
curse,
even against the will of God (comp. xxii. 18; xxiii.
12;
xxiv. 13): the poet chooses individual and concrete
illustrations,
even if he means to convey a general idea; it
would
be strange if he were to make a vague and compre-
hensive
declaration when he has one particular instance in
view.
How unjust, therefore, is Calvin's assertion: 'Interea
se
potentia illa abdicat, qua ipsum excellere persuasus fuerat
Balaam!'
Where does Balaam express or insinuate this
conviction?--yKi (ver. 9) must
be understood in its ordinary
causal
meaning (not as indeed or when). Balaam says, he
cannot
curse
ling
apart, etc.; the words 'kv Myrc wxrm are inserted
for the
poetical
description of the scene and the Hebrew hosts, and the
sense
is: for the people I see from these heights is one that
dwelleth
apart, etc.--From our general comments it will be
clear,
that the remark, ‘non de virtute populi, sed tantum de
benedictione
Dei agitur’ (Calvin and others), is
but partially
correct:
the author means indeed to intimate that the He-
brews
have been elected by the grace and favour of God, but
he
also says distinctly that they are a people of MyriwAy; (ver.
10;
comp. ver. 21), which term ought not, for the sake of a
deep-rooted
prejudice, to be strained to signify 'recti vocan-
tur
Israelitae non propria rectitudine, sed Dei beneplacito, qui
eos
dignatus fuerat segregare ab immundis gentibus.' And
again,
the words that the Hebrews ' dwell apart' (ddAbAl;), etc.,
have
indeed the immediate or literal sense that they are
living
in safe and retired seclusion, exempt from violent
changes
and foreign interference (comp. Judg. xviii. 7, 10,
27;
Hos. viii. 9 ; Jer. xlix. 31 ; Ps. iv. 9 and Hupfeld in
loc.);
but they have, besides, the figurative and deeper im-
port,
that the Hebrews are a 'special' or ' peculiar' people
BALAAM'S FIRST
SPEECH. 181
(hl.Agus;) among all the
nations of the earth, whom God bore on
eagles'
wings and brought to Himself (Exod. xix. 4, 5; Deut.
vii.
6; xiv. 2; xxvi. 18; Ps, cxxxv. 4; Isa. xli. 8; xliii. 1,
etc.).
However, it would hardly be correct to combine both
meanings
in this way, that the Hebrews ‘delighting only in
the
knowledge and worship of their God, prefer separating
themselves
from all nations, in order to serve Him un-
disturbed,’
and then to contend that ‘this retirement of the
people,
and this desire of securing above all their religion,
did
not prevail before the ninth or eighth century, when the
political
power of the kingdom declined in every way’
(Ewald, Jahrb. viii. 25). Where does
Isaiah, the great re-
presentative
of that period, evince a desire of keeping the
Hebrews
apart from all nations in the matter of religion?
Does
he not rather long for the time when
will
worship God in common with
be
acknowledged as His inheritance? (p. 35). Moreover, it
would
be difficult to find, in the genuine parts of this section,
the
slightest trace of a decline of political power; it speaks,
on
the contrary, throughout of strength and power and victory
(p.
56). And lastly, although the Hebrews are described as
the
chosen and the pious people, they are yet as free from
tendencies
of particularism as of hierarchy.—bw.AHat;yi (ver. 9)
he
is reckoned, the meaning of the Hithpael being occasion-
ally
that of the passive of Piel (Lev. xxv. 27, 50, 52), as
nnnnn
(1 Sam. ii. 14) to be expiated (see Gram. § xxxvii. 2. d;
Sept.,
logisqh<setai; Vulg., reputabitur; Rashi, (Nynmn, etc.).--
The
phrase, 'Who counteth the dust of Jacob?' (rpf hnm-ym
bqfy, ver. 10) is a pregnant expression by
no means sur-
prising
in poetry, and means, 'Who can count (Onkel.,
lkoyye
ynem;mil;) the Israelites, who are like
the dust that cannot be
counted?'
It is indeed so natural that it certainly need not
be
regarded as a reminiscence or intentional reproduction of
such
prose passages as Gen. xiii. 16 or xxviii. 14, to which
the
author is supposed to refer, and without which, it is
asserted,
he could not have written this verse (Hengstenb.,
Ewald, and others):
the dust of the earth and the sand on the
sea-shore
(Gen. xxii. 17; xxxii. 13; Josh. xi. 4; Judg. vii. 12,
etc.),
no less than the stars of heaven (Gen. xv. 5; xxii. 17;
182 NUMBERS
XXIII. 7-10.
Deut.
x. 22, etc.), are common and obvious similes, denoting
a
vast or infinite multitude. ‘The enemy advanced with
men
and horses numerous as sand,’ we read on a papyrus
relating
the war of Ramses II. with the Khitoi; or, 'the
herds
multiplied like the sands on the shore,' on the 'Great
Harris
Papyrus' of Ramses III.; and again, 'the worship-
pers
in the temple' were 'numerous as the stars of heaven,'
on
the Inscription of Tiglath-pileser I. (see Rec. of the
Past,
ii. 68; v. 24; vi. 26, 33; viii: 9, etc.).--If rPAs;miU is the
correct
reading, and not rqas; ymiU (so Sept., kai>
ti<j a]riqmh<setai;
Samar. Vers., yntm
Nmv;
Saadiah; Venema, and others), it may
either
be taken absolutely as an adverbial accusative, accord-
ing
to the number, fbaro-tx, being governed by hnAmA, 'Who
counteth
the dust ... and by number the fourth part? (comp.
Gram.
§ 86. 4); or it may be considered to govern the accu-
sative
fbr-tx,
as a nomen verbale preserving the
force of the
verb
from which it is derived, the numbering or the number of
the
fourth part (comp. j~H,yiwim;-tx, fwayel;, Habak. iii.
13, to the
help
of thy anointed; see Gram. § lxxxvii. 15; Luther,
die
Zahl
des vierten Theils; Mendelss., Mw slpb rvqm etc.): as
hnm has the more comprehensive meaning of
preparing or
arranging
(Isa. lxv. 12; Sept., ti<j e]chkribw<sato), rpsm, in con-
nection
with it, is no tautology; and we find, in fact, the
phrase
rPAs;mi hnAmA (Ps. cxlvii. 4). By vocalising rPesam;U the
sense
would grammatically be plain, but the diction would
not
be poetical. Some old manuscripts omit tx, and read
yPas;mi (see De-Rossi, Var. Lect. ii. 16), 'the number of the
fourth
part,' which is evidently another attempt at rendering
the
construction easier.--'The fourth part (fbaro) of
means,
doubtless, a small portion: who can count even a
fraction
of
not
elsewhere occur with a similar force. Jewish tradition
found
in that word an allusion to the four divisions in
which
the encampment of the Hebrews was distributed,
during
their journeys through the desert (Num. ii., x.), and
of
which Balaam, from his position, saw only one, that of
Dan,
which was hindmost (so Targ. Onkel.
and Jonath. on
xxii.
41 and xxiii. 10, 13; Ebn Ezra, Bechai,
Abarban., and
others),
and this view has been adopted by not a few
BALAAM'S FIRST
SPEECH. 183
modern
interpreters (as Michael., Rosenm.,
Hengstenb., Baum-
gart., Keil, and others); but
it has no better support than
another
opinion of some Jewish scholars who, tracing fbaro to
fbr) in the meaning of begetting render it
by seed or posterity
(Talm.
Nidd. 31a; Rashi, Mhlw wymwth Nm xcvyh frz; Saad.,
and
others), or identifying fbaro with fbar, in the sense of
lying
down
(Ps. cxxxix.. 3), translate the camp (comp. Ebn Ezra in
loc.;
Zunz, die Lagerstatte), or than the conjecture that
instead
of fbaro-tx, we should read tOBri-tx, or tBori the myriads
(Knobel), which plural occurs only in the
latest Books, for
the
earlier form is always tvbbr.--The word MyriwAy; righteous,
has
here almost the force and nature of a proper noun, and
thus
coincides with NUrwuy; (Deut. xxxii. 15; xxxiii. 26;
comp.
NUlBuzi), a poetical appellation of
the
MyriwAy; or MyqyDica , kat ] e]coxh<n (Ps. xiv. 5; Isa. xxvi. 2;
lx.
21, etc.), as God Himself is rwAyAv; qyDica (Deut. xxxii.
4),
and
who possess or should possess those qualities as inherent
characteristics.
Thus, perhaps, the singular of the suffix in
UhmoKA, though referring to MyriwAy;
may
be accounted for, since
that
suffix is hardly meant to point to tOm; so that UhmoKA
would
stand pregnantly for OtyriHExaK;. There is no
reason for
abandoning
the usual and peculiarly appropriate meaning of
the
term, and to explain Myrwy as the happy, or the brave, like
the
Greek a]gaqo<j, so that the rwAy.Aha
rp,se
(Josh. x. 13; 2 Sam.
i.
18) would be 'the Book of Heroes,' or of 'Songs of
Heroes'
(Herder, Geist der ebr. Poes., ii. 180, 186); nor is it
possible
to refer Myrwy
to ‘the ancestors of
certainly
the singular vhmk could not be applied (ver. 22 is
not
analogous), or to restrict the sense to 'the righteous men
in
idealised.--ytiyriHExa as the
parallelism shows, is my end or
death (Vulg., novissima mea, and others), not my posterity
(comp.
Ps. xxxvii. 37, 38; cix. 13, etc.; Sept.,
to> spe<rma mou,
and
others).--We have above described the probable scope
of
Balaam's emphatic wish, 'Let me die the death of the
righteous,'
etc. It does not hint at the immortality of the
soul
and a future life, which Balaam desires to share
(Cuzari, i. 115; Bechai, Abarban., Michael., Mendelss., and
others),
for all the blessings in these prophecies have refer-
184 NUMBERS
XXIII. 7-10.
ence
solely to temporal happiness secured by piety and
God's
favour (comp. H. Schultz Alttest.
Theol, ii. 399-401).
Nor
does that exclamation point to the immortality of
people'
(Furst, Bibl. Liter., ii. 228), which
idea is too
abstract
for the time and the context. But how utterly
unwarranted
it is to connect Balaam's allusion to his own
death
with his inglorious destruction in the Midianite war
(xxxi.
8), and to regard it as a dark foreboding prompted by
a
guilt-laden conscience (Targ. Jon.
and Jerus., Cleric., Heng-
stenb., and others), it
would be unnecessary to explain again
in
this place (see pp. 4-7).--In conclusion, it may be instruc-
tive
briefly to glance at the manner in which this speech of
Balaam
is rendered by Josephus (Ant. IV. vi. 4). Though
professing
to furnish a literal reproduction of the prophecies,
he
offers a copious paraphrase differing from the original in
every
detail. Balaam speaks of ' the best institutions,' which
the
Hebrews 'leave to their better children,' of their perma-
nent
possession of the
filling
earth and sea. He expresses wonder and admiration
that
from one common ancestor should be descended such
large
hosts, sufficiently numerous to people every part of the
world,
as they are destined to do. He praises their pros-
perity
in peace and their glory in war, and expresses a wish
that
their enemies may be infatuated enough to attack them
for
their own unfailing annihilation. And then Josephus
continues:
'Thus Balaam spoke by inspiration . . . . moved
by
the Divine spirit' (o[ me>n toiau?ta e]peqei<azen . . . . t&? qei<&
pneu<mati pro>j au]ta>
kekinhme<noj).
What were his sources? And
were
they more authentic than the Hebrew Scriptures? His
paraphrase
is as much the product of fancy as the address
he
puts in Balaam's mouth for causing the corruption of
the
Hebrews (p. 25); and he consistently concludes this
section
‘These events have come to pass among the several
nations
concerned, both in former ages and in this, until
within
my own memory, both by sea
and by land' (l. c., § 5). For the
application
of prophecies invariably extends up to the inter-
preter's
time. Analogous in character is Philo's account (Vit.
Mos.
i. 50).
185
9.
REMONSTRANCES AND NEW PREPARATIONS.
XXIII. 11--17.
11. And Balak said to Balaam, What hast
thou
done
to me? I took thee to curse my enemies,
and
behold, thou hast blessed them indeed.
12.
And he answered and said, Must I not
take
heed
to speak that which the Lord puts in my
mouth?
13. And Balak said to him Come I
pray
thee, with me to another place, whence
thou
mayest see them--only the extreme part of
them
shalt thou see, but shalt not see them all--
and
curse me them from there.--14. And he
brought
him to the Field of Seers, to the top of
Pisgah,
and built seven altars, and offered a
bullock
and a ram on every altar. 15. And he
said
to Balak, Stand as before by thy burnt-
offering,
while I go to meet the Lord as before.
16.
And the Lord met Balaam, and put words
in
his mouth, and said, Go back to Balak, and
speak
thus. 17. And when he came to him,
behold,
he was standing by his burnt-offering,
and
the princes of
said
to him, What has the Lord spoken?
Balak, hearing the prophet's words in
amazement, con-
sidered
them as nothing else but base treachery, as a
breach
of that pledge which, in spite of repeated pro-
testations
to the contrary, he thought was plainly in-
volved
in Balaarn's journey to
grievously
wronged and deceived, he exclaimed, ‘I have
taken’--that
is, I have hired—‘thee to curse my enemies,
and
behold, thou hast blessed them indeed!' So bitter and
so
violent is his vexation that, at the moment, he does not
186 NUMBERS
XXIII. 11-17.
even
listen to Balaam's renewed declaration of absolute
dependence
on God. He certainly does not deem it worth
a
rejoinder. He is solely engrossed by his ardently
cherished
plan. The first failure has not conquered but
stimulated
his contumacy. ‘Who is the Lord, that I
should
listen to His voice?' Pharaoh stubbornly exclaimed.
Should
a Balak, having once undertaken the daring
warfare
against the God of Israel and His decrees, hope
lessly
abandon it without a further attempt? And yet,
in
the midst of restless excitement, he seems to be seized
by
doubt and apprehension. Balaam's words have pro-
duced
a powerful effect upon his mind, however reluctant
he
is to avow it. He indeed carries out every arrange-
ment
for a second. prophecy exactly as before. He
again--and
now of his own accord-builds seven altars,
and
presents on them twice seven victims like the first
time.
He takes the same anxious precaution that Balaam
should
on no account see the whole, but only a part of
fixes
upon a locality which he hopes will prove more
auspicious.
And yet, when he beholds Balaam returning
from
his solitary contemplations, how does he receive the
prophet?
Not as the first time silent and passive, but
with
the impatient question, ‘What has the Lord
spoken?'
Against his will the confession is wrung from
his
lips, that he must expect his fate from the hand of
the
God of the Hebrews, and that this God is not only
the
Lord of His own chosen people, but of all the nations
of
the earth. However, although he was impressed with
a
sense of the power of this God, could
he be expected
to
understand His nature? Is it
surprising that he
measured
that nature by the standard of his own idols?
He
believed that, like these, Jahveh could, by new sacri-
fices,
by reiterated ceremonies, and impetuous solicita-
tions,
be moved to revoke His councils. ‘Cry aloud,’
said
Elijah to the priests of Baal, ‘for he is a god, per-
REMONSTRANCES
AND NEW PREPARATIONS. 187
haps
he is meditating or is engaged, or he is in a journey
or
is asleep--that he may awake.'a Therefore Balak
courted
the favour of the Hebrew God anew. His heart
and
his thoughts had remained unchanged, yet he expected
that
his destinies would be changed. But the author
skilfully
uses the same means for two very different ends.
Balaam's
second prophecy is intended to show at once
the
tenaciousness of the desperate king, and the absolute
certainty
of
a
dream of the same import, is assured that it will
unfailingly
and speedily be realised;b the same
promises
are
given to the patriarchs again and again, to prove that
they
will be fulfilled under whatever conditions and
circumstances;
and thus our author unfolds his benedic-
tions
of
as
irrevocable, and to enlarge by perceptible degrees
their
depth and meaning. In equal proportions Balak's
defiance
is broken and
The notion that some localities are
more favourable
for
certain purposes than others is the natural correla-
tive
of the habit of placing every object and event
under
the influence of some special deity, spirit, or con-
stellation.
The same idea was of course extended to
seasons,
and even to names. When Abraham was to
begin
a new life as the guardian and propagator of
Divine
truth, he was bidden to leave
to
settle in
this
country was more accessible to the teachings of a
monotheistic
creed, but because the country or the place
itself
was, according to God's council, more adapted to
the
end. Nearly all the laws of festivals in the Penta-
teuch
are based on the particular sanctity of certain
seasons--of
the new and the full moons, of the seventh
days,
weeks, and years. On the Assyrian monuments
we
find constantly momentous enterprises recorded to
a Ki. viii. 27. b Gen. xli. 32;
comp. Acts xi. 10.
188 NUMBERS
XXIII.. 11-17.
have
been carried out ‘in a good month and a fortunate
day.'a Even the early
history of the patriarchs offers
the
most striking instances of change of names resorted
to
at important epochs of life; and in the Talmudical
times,
when Babylonian and Persian influences prevailed
among
the Jews more strongly than ever, it was still a
generally
received principle that man's decreed destiny
is
annulled not only by ‘change of conduct,’b but also
by
change of name and even of place.c
In selecting the new spot for the
sacrifices, the king
of
before.
He took Balaam to ‘the Field of Seers'd--a
plain
on one of the summits of Pisgah, which, as the
name
indicates, was a well-known station used by the
prophets
and diviners of the country for the exercise of
their
avocations; for Balak deemed his own holy places
particularly
suitable for Balaam's speeches--so little had
he
fathomed the God whose name he had learned, and
whose
might he began to dread. The general position
of
that ‘Field’ cannot be doubtful. The ridge of Pisgah,
a
part of the mountain-chain of Abarim, stretches to
the
north and east of
Bamoth-Baal,
the scene of the first prophecy.e The
‘Field
of Seers’ must, therefore, have been in close
vicinity
to
‘a
summit of Pisgah,’ and is only a short distance south-
a E.g., Annals of
Assur-bani-pal, c Talm. Rosh. Hash. 16 b, hqdc
col.
i., line 12; col. x., lines 60, 61; hWfm
yvnywv Mwh yvnyw hqfc
Inscription
of Esar-baddon, col. v., Mvqm
yvnyw Jx Myrmvx wyv;
see
line
27; Annals of Sargon sub fin.; Comm. on Genes. pp. 384, 394, etc.
Birs-Nimroud
Inscription of Nebu- 'May my fortunate name Nebuchad.-
chadnezzar,
col. ii., line 8 ; in fact, nezzar,'
we read in the Birs-Nirn-
in
Accadian, ' festival' is properly roud Inscription, ` or the Heaven
blessed'
or `fortunate day;' comp. adoring
king, dwell constantly in
Records
of the Past, i. 57, 101; iii. thy
mouth' (col. ii., lines 28-31;
120;
vii. 55, 77, 159 ; also ii. 15; Rec. vii. 78).
see
Ovid's Fasti passim. d Mypco
hdeW;
b hWfmh
yvnyw e Supra, p. 160.
REMONSTRANCES
AND NEW PREPARATIONS. 189
west
of the ancient town Heshbon (now Hesban or
Huzbhan);
and though
higher
of the two, and offers the widest prospect in all
directions,a the entire
range of Pisgah rises and ‘looks
out
over the wilderness' in which the Hebrews were
encamped.b On the whole,
therefore, the locality of the
second
speech was doubtless at a similar distance from
the
camp as that of the first; but in each case Balaam
surveyed
a different part of the Hebrew multitudes.
PHILOLOGICAL
REMARKS.--To express the contrast between
the
expected curse (bqolA ver. 11) and the actual blessing
with
greater
force, the finite verb is supported by the following
infinitive
j`rebA,
which, besides, intensifies the notion of blessing
--‘thou
hast blessed indeed’ (comp. xxiv. 10). In ver. 25,
where
merely the juxtaposition is intended and nothing
more,
the infinitive precedes the finite verb (comp. xxiv.
11;
see Grammar § 97. 6-8), while in ver. 20--a poetical
passage-the
stress is conveyed by the mere position of j`rebA,
which
precedes the principal verb (Grain. § 74. 5).--The
construction
of the words rBedal; rmow;x, Otxo (ver. 12) is
clear
from
the analogous phrase MtAWfEl; MT,r;miw;U, you shall take heed
to do them (Deut. v. 1;
comp. vi. 25, etc.); Otxo is, therefore,
governed
by rBeDal;, not by rmow;x,; and as this
verb has here
not
the meaning of the simple future, but implies moral
necessity
(comp. xxii. 38, lkaUx lkoyAhE those words are
to be
rendered,
'I must take heed to speak that.'—j~l; (ver. 12, as
in
Judg. xix. 13), for hkAl;, go (xxii. 6, 17, etc.), the quiescent
letter
being elided on account of the close connection of the
word
with the following xn, which for the same reason is
provided
with dagesh forte conjunctivum (comp,
Grammar,
xxxix.4.c.).--UhceqA (ver. 13)
corresponds exactly to MfAhA hceq;
(in
xxii.41) and signifies, like the latter, the
extreme part of the
people. It is
difficult to see why hcq must, in this passage,
be
taken ‘in a more comprehensive sense' (Hengstenb.,
Kurtz,
and
others). On the contrary, Balak seems the second time
to
have taken even greater care than before not to let
a Deut. iii. 27;
xxxiv. 1; comp. sxxii.49. b xxi.20; comp.
xxiii. 47.
190 NUMBERS
XXIII. 11-17.
Balaam
see too much of the Hebrew army and people. The
difference
was not in the extent but in the division of the camp
which
the prophet beheld. The limitation by, 'kv sp,x, follows
so
directly after Un.x,r;Ti, 'thou shalt see the people,'
that a
mistake
is impossible. The Sept., to make the
sense perfectly
clear,
even adds in the first part the negation unnecessarily,
e]c ou$ ou]k o@y^ au]to>n e]kei?qen, and then
continues distinctly, a]ll ]
h} me<roj ti au]tou? o@yei,
pa<ntaj de> ou] mh> i@d^j; the Vulg., briefly,
undo
partem
It
is, therefore, sufficient to quote the singular translation
which,
strange to say, has been adopted by more than one
interpreter,
'from, where thou shalt see them' (viz., the
whole
of
not
all' (viz,, here on Bamoth-Baal), which, in Balak's
opinion,
had caused the unfavourable result of the first
prophecy
(so Calmet, Dictionnaire, i. 715,
d'ou vows le verrez
entier,
car vows n'en avez vu qu'une partie; Keil,
Num., p.
313,
and others). Can hxrt in the same breath be under-
stood
so differently in a plain narrative?--The form Onb;qA, curse
them,
instead of OBq or OBqu, starts from
the irregular impe-
rative
hnAQA
(xxii. 11, p. 113), the h paragogicum
being omitted
but
the n
epentheticum not assimilated with the
suffix (as in
Uhn;k,r;bAy;, Ps. lxxii. 15,
etc.; see Gram, § liii. 2; lxii. 3. a. It
is
certainly unnecessary to assume a root Nbq (of which there
is
no trace in the Old Test.) supposed to have arisen from
bqn by way of metathesis (so Judah Chajjug, Heidenheim, and
others):
as has been observed above (p. 113), asp, not s», is
the
verb employed in this portion.--Considering the analogy
of
the 'heights of Baal' and the 'summit of Peor,' to which
Balak
took Balaam the first and third times (xxii. 41; xxiii.
28),
it is more than probable that the Mypc hdW, the locality
of
the second prophecy, was likewise connected with Balak's
religious
worship and practices, to which the literal meaning
of
the name obviously points; for hp,co is a synonym of
or
hx,ro,
seer or prophet (Isa. lvi. 10; Ezek. iii. 17; xxxiii. 6,
7;
comp. Isa. Iii. 8; Mic. vii. 4), and auguries of the most
varied
kind were usually awaited and taken on elevations
(p.
169). The sense of 'field of watchmen,' as a place where
guards
were stationed --to look out in times of war and
BALAAM'S SECOND
SPEECH. 191
danger
(Rashi, Abarb., and others), is
indeed not inappropiate
(comp.
the names hPAc;mi, MypiOc MyitamArA, etc., Isa.lii.
8), but it
has
no direct relation to the deeper tendency of the narrative.
Some
consider, with little probability, Mypc hdW the same
place
with bxAOm hPec;mi (1 Sam. xxi-i. 3; comp. Hitzig, Inschrift
des
Mescha, p. 6). The identification of
(comp.
Hengstenb., Bil., pp. 244--248).--hKo, in ver. 15,
has
both
times its usual meaning of thus,
viz., as the first time;
Balaam
requested Balak to remain with his sacrifices as
before,
while he would go to meet God, as before, in the
solitude
(ver. 3). It is doubtful whether hKo ever has the
meaning
of here; that particle is omitted
both times by the
Sept.,
the second time by the Sam. Text and Vers., evidently
on
account of its supposed inappropriateness.--To hr,q.Axi, I
shall meet or go to meet, we must supply hvhy-lx
(vers.
3, 4,
16);
it may be a terminus technicus, but
it can certainly not
coincide
with MywHn txrql jlh (xxiv. 1), for hvhy-lx is not
identical
with MywHn txrql.
10.
BALAAM'S SECOND SPEECH. XXIII. 18-24.
18.
And he took up his parable and said,
Rise, Balak, and hear,
Hearken unto me, son of Zippor!
19.
God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor the son of man, that He should
repent.
Hath He said and shall He not do it,
And spoken and shall He not fulfil it?
20.
Behold, I have received command to
bless,
And He bath blessed, and I cannot
reverse it.
21.
He beholdeth no iniquity in Jacob,
Nor seeth distress in
192 NUMBERS
XXIII. 18-24.
The Lord their God is with them,
And the trumpet-call of the King is
among them.
22.
God brought them out of
They have the fleetness of the
buffalo.
23.
For there is no enchantment in Jacob,
Nor divination in
In due time it is told to Jacob
And to
24.
Behold, they are a people that rise as the
lioness
And lift themselves up like the lion
They do not lie down till they eat their
prey,
And drink the blood of the slain.
More weighty in matter and more
elevated in tone,
the
second prophecy forms a decided contrast to the
first.
For the first breathes peace, the second war.
The
one describes tranquil possession, the other severe
struggle.
The one sketches briefly the results, the other
draws
strongly the means and efforts. The former inti-
mates
to Balak, distantly and lightly, that he is intent
on
a hopeless contest against overwhelming numbers;
the
latter impresses upon him, with crushing force,
the
indomitable heroism of his foes. Therefore the
first
speech begins calmly and without any introduc-
tion,
‘From
second
challenges the principal listener's rapt attention
at
the very outset; it bids him collect and rouse himself,
shake
off frivolous curiosity, and penetrate into the
depth
of the decrees about to be announced to him
‘Rise,
Balak, and hear, hearken unto me, son of Zippor’!
And
now Balaam refers first to the king's renewed and
impetuous
desire of hearing the Israelites cursed. He
BALAAM'S SECOND
SPEECH. 193
gives
unfaltering expression to the great principle, which
in
the author's time no doubt had taken deep root in the
Hebrew
people, that God's promises are unalterable, and
His
wise determinations irrevocable; that, as He is Jahveh,
the
Eternal and Unchangeable, so His love does not de-
cline
or swerve from the people He has chosen. ‘The
mountains
shall depart and the hills be removed, but My
kindness
shall not depart from thee, nor shall the cove-
nant
of My peace be removed, saith the Lord;'a and
more
clearly still: ‘I, the Eternal, change not, therefore
ye
sons of Jacob do not perish.'b The blessing
once
pronounced
on
for
all times. ‘Behold, I have received command to
bless,’
exclaims Balaam; 'He hath blessed and I cannot
reverse
it.'
So far his address is no more than a
rebuke of Balak's
heedless
pertinacity. But then the prophet, taking a
loftier
aim, turns away from the heathen king and is
wholly
absorbed by the life and destiny of the Hebrews.
He
has before called them a ‘righteous’ people,c and has
hinted
that they owe their election and their happiness
to
this piety. But desirous to point out, with the utmost
force,
God's justice in the government of mankind,
he
now declares more fully and more clearly how pre-
cisely
and how strikingly the fortunes of the Hebrews
correspond
to their virtues. He insists that they are free
from
all misery, because they keep aloof from all wicked-
ness
so carefully, that even God, the Searcher of hearts,
can
discover none: ‘God beholdeth no iniquity in Jacob,
nor
seeth distress in
high
prerogative that ‘God is with them’; that He has
appointed
them as ‘His portion’; that, when ‘He found
them
in a desert land, in the waste and howling wilderness,
He
encompassed and shielded and guarded them as the
apple
of His eye,' after He had led them from Egyptian
a Isa. liv. 10. b
Mat. iii. 6. c MyriwAy;, ver. 10.
194 NUMBERS
XXIII. 18-24.
slavery
into unrestricted freedom--He, in His mercy, not
through
any power of their own; and that, in all later ages
‘he
that toucheth them toucheth the pupil of His eye.’a He
is
their King, to whom they readily do homage when the
blasts
of the trumpet summon them to worship or to the
celebration
of the holy festivals, and whose guidance
they
follow in the perplexity of danger and the tempta-
tions
of prosperity. Therefore, their vigour is like that
of
the huge and formidable buffalo (Mxer;), which is the
slave
of no one and bends under no burden, is chained to
no
crib and forced to toil at no plough in the furrows of
the
field, and which, by its fleetness and the fearful
power
of its horns, is able to withstand the fiercest
attack.b But more than this:
the
buffalo which, by its enormous strength, is able to
maintain
its liberty, but like the lion, the king of beasts,
which
inspires all others with terror, and forces them
under
subjection; which takes sanguinary revenge upon
his
assailants, and does not rest till he has crushed and
annihilated
them. Balak is doomed to listen and to be-
hold
in this alarming picture the mournful fate of his
people
as in a magic mirror. But he is, moreover, to
receive
a lesson and a humiliating reproof. How do the
Hebrews
enquire into their destinies and prepare them-
selves
for the future? Not as he does, who fancies that
a
conjuror's word can overthrow Heaven's fixed decision
‘There
is no enchantment in Jacob, nor divination in
people
in this point also, that He makes them inde-
pendent
of the fallaciousness of divination and the fraud
of
diviners; for He announces to them His resolves, in-
variably
and in due time, through His holy messengers,
the
prophets and pious priests, and thus unmistakably
teaches
them how to await and understand impending
events--as
in this very instance He did through Balaam.
a Zech. ii. 12. b Job xxxix.
9-12; see iisfra.
BALAAM'S SECOND
SPEECH. 195
‘The
nations which thou expellest,’ He impresses on
them
through Moses, ‘listen to sorcerers and diviners;
but
as for thee, the Lord thy God has not suffered thee
to
do so: the Lord thy God will raise up to thee a
prophet
from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like me,
to
him you shall listen.’a
Even more decidedly than in the first
speech, the
author
refers in these utterances to the ideal
forsooth!
there was in the real
and
‘distress,’ too much of ‘enchantment’ and ‘divina-
tion.’
There was not a single form of heathen soothsay-
ing
which did not flourish in
of
the men of God--prediction by rods and auguries,
by
muttering spells, witchcraft and magic, incantation
and
necromancy. And Baal the sun, worshipped by
‘putting
the holy branch to the nose,’ and Ashtarte
with
her beloved Tammuz-Adonis; the detestable and
insatiable
Moloch and his Moabite counterpart Chemosh;
the
Assyrian war-god Nergal and the evil demon of
darkness
Nibhaz; Gad and Meni, the fancied bestowers
of
all boons and blessings, honoured with lectisternia;
the
bull Apis and he-goats; the serpent and the sea-
monster
Dagon--these were but a small portion of the
all-embracing
Hebrew pantheon. And injustice and op-
pression,
violence and every nefariousness often prevailed
to
such an extent, that the chiefs were called ‘chiefs of
bloodstained
blasphemers, plundering the widow and the
orphan.
Yet at no time were men wanting who, with a
power
surpassed by no human tongue, with a singleness
of
purpose rivalled by no human heart, reproved and
exhorted
in the name of God: ‘Wash yourselves, make
yourselves
clean, put away your evil doing from before
My
eye, cease to do evil'! In. the time when these pro-
phecies
of Balaam were written, when David was in the
a Deut. xviii.
14, 15.
196 NUMBERS
XXIII. 18-24.
height
and majesty of his power and had committed that
crime
which is the blot of his life, there came to him the
prophet
Nathan who caused him to see his misdeed in a
touching
parable--and the king in his pride humbled him-
self
before the prophet and the God who had sent him,
and
exclaimed: ‘I have sinned to the Lord'! When, in
the
evil days of Jezebel, the worship of the Phoenician
Baal
was rampant in
a
prey to the grossest paganism, there were left in the
nation
‘seven thousand, all the knees which did not bow
to
Baal, and every mouth that did not kiss him,' and
there
was also left the prophet Elijah, who took care to
‘anoint
Elisha in his place.'a The fervent and
fearless
men
like Nathan and Elijah, at times numerous, at times
but
few, who made their voice heard in palace and
cottage
alike, were the true
with
whom all the great hopes were associated who in
constant
succession and renewal guarded and perpetuated
the
treasures of truth and rectitude. They were the
‘remnant
of
falsehood
and deceit, and leans not on the vain help of
mortals,
but relies ‘in truth on the Holy One of Israel.b
And
therefore, a deep and far-seeing patriot might justly
say,
‘God beholdeth no iniquity in Jacob’; he might justly
affirm,
‘There is no divination in
There exists between several parts of
this second pro-
phecy
and other passages of the Hebrew Scriptures a
clear
and remarkable affinity, which well deserves a brief
illustration.
When Samuel, after the Amalekite war,
had an-
nounced
to Saul the loss of royalty by Divine decree,
he
replied to Saul's entreaties praying for a reversal of
that
decree, ‘The eternal God of Israel does not lie
(rq.eway;) nor repent (MHen.Ayi); for He is not
a man that He
a 1 Ki. xix. 16,
18; comp. Hos. b Comp. Zeph.
iii. 12, 13; Isa. vi.
xiii.
2, NUqw.Ayi MyligAfE. 13; x. 20, 21, etc.
BALAAM'S SECOND
SPEECH. 197
should
repent.'a It is hardly conceivable that
there
should
be no relation between these words and the very
similar
terms of our text, ‘God is not a man that He
should
lie, nor the son of man that He should repent;'
and
it is probable that Samuel's utterance, which is less
polished
and symmetrical, is the older and original
maxim.
Samuel habitually introduces general sentences
of
a religious or moral import, and at that very inter-
view
with Saul he expresses and develops the momentous
idea,
‘Has the Lord as great delight in burnt-offerings
and
sacrifices as, in obeying the voice of the Lord ?’b
Poetical
composition formed no doubt a part of the
training
in the schools of prophets, and our author must
have
been familiar with the best productions of litera-
ture,
if he was not himself educated in one of those
numerous
institutions, which flourished in all parts of
the
land, in
towns.c And yet what a
contrast between the wild
phrenzy
of the ‘sons of prophets,' who in a good and a
bad
sense were called ‘maniacs’ (MyfiGAwum;), like the
Greek
ma<nteij,d who in Samuel's
time went out in large bands
or
companies to the sound of psaltery and tabret, pipe
and
harp, and ‘prophesied,’ who ‘took off their garments
and
lay naked on the ground’ in a trance, often during
whole
days and nights, and whom anyone might join
without
the slightest preparation, provided only that he
felt
himself seized by a holy fury:e what a contrast
between
such a condition and the thoughtful terseness
and
almost epigrammatic precision which pervade all
parts
of Balaam's prophecies in such a manner, that
hardly
a word, nay, hardly the position of a word, can
a MHen.Ahil;, 1 Sam. xv. 29;
comp. 38; vi. 1; ix. 1.
AEsch.
Prom. 1032, 1033, Yeudhgo- d Jer. xxix. 26;
2 Kings ix. 11;
rei?n ga>r ou]k e]pi<statai
sto<ma To comp. Hos. ix.
7; Homer, Odyssey,
Di?on, a]lla> pa??n e@poj te<lei. xx.
360, etc.
b Vers. 22, 23. e Comp. 1 Sam. x.
5, 6, 10-12;
c 1 Sam. x. 5; 2
Ki. ii. 3, 5; iv. xix. 20-24.
198 NUMBERS
XXIII. 18-24.
be
changed without disturbing the wonderful beauty and
harmony
of the conception! Such was the rapid progress
which,
after once the impulse had been given in the right
direction,
was made in a few generations by men whose
earnestness
was equalled by their ability, and as whose
types,
besides our author, we may take his great
contemporaries
Nathan and Gad, who were fitted to
promote
alike the practical and the higher requirements
of
their community.
Balaam's speeches were preserved by
the nation as a
precious
heirloom. They were studied and often imitated.
None
of their weighty words was lost. When a great
writer,
in the time off the divided kingdom, put into the
mouth
of the dying patriarch Jacob prophecies respect-
ing
the fortunes of the Hebrew people, he believed that
the
warlike valour of that tribe which, in his age, was
the
most powerful, and represented
could
be described in no more suitable terms than those
used
by Balaam in regard of the whole nation: '
is
a lion's whelp; from the prey, my son, thou risest;
he
stoopeth down, he coucheth, like a lion and like a
lioness;
who will make him stand up?'a And when, in
the
period of the Chaldean invasion, that prophet who, in
pointed
elegance and artistic delicacy, perhaps resembles
our
author most closely, was standing before the confusion
of
his time as before an unsolvable riddle, when he beheld
danger
without and fearful depravity within, he strove
to
fortify and to comfort himself by the Divine utter-
ances
of a happier past. He weighed the terms, ‘God
beholdeth
no iniquity in Jacob, nor seeth distress in
them
to the dark and almost hopeless reality. In the
despondency
and bitterness of his heart he exclaimed
'Why
dost Thou let me behold iniquity, and cause me to
see
distress? for plunder and violence are before, me, and
a Gen. xlix. 9;
comp. Num. xxiii. 24; xxiv. 9; see Comm. on Gen. p. 748.
BALAAM'S SECOND'
SPEECH. 199
there
are many that raise strife and contention.' And
yet
so deep was his confidence in the holy Rock of
his
mind, that, repeating and enlarging them for his own
consolation,
he addressed God: 'Thou art too pure to
behold
evil, and canst not look on distress;' and like an
immovable
anchor he grasped triumphantly the truth
‘The
just shall live by his uprightness,' a maxim the
depth
and scope of which Jews, in later times, estimated
so
justly that they considered it equivalent to the whole
sum
of Divine laws and precepts.a
In what sense God was understood to ‘repent,’
has
partly
been explained above.b He does not
change His
promises
or menaces arbitraril without adequate cause
or
motive. ‘God is not a man that He should lie.’
‘Repentance,’
He declares therefore, 'is hidden from My
eyes.'c But men are not unchangeable. By virtue of
their
free will, they fluctuate between good and evil
and
exactly in accordance with their conduct, God, by
the
law of retributive justice, and as the Holy One who
loves
piety and abhors iniquity, is induced, nay compelled,
to
alter His decrees. When He saw the early genera-
tions
sink by sin from their high destinies, 'He repented
that
He had created man upon the earth, and He was
grieved
in His heart.'d After Saul's disobedience, God
said
to Samuel, ‘I repent that I have appointed Saul to
be
king, for he has not performed My commandments.'e
And,
on the other hand, God was ready to retract the
threatened
destruction of the ‘cities of the plain,’ if He
found
in them a certain number of virtuous persons;f
and
when He saw the people of
wicked
ways, 'He repented. of the evil that He had
a Hab. i. 3,13;
ii. 4; see Comm. d MHnyv, Gen. vi. 6, 7.
on
Lev. ii. p. 117. e 1 Sam. xv. 11.
b Pp. 118, 119. f Gen. xviii.
20-32; see Comm.
c MHano Hos. xiii. 14. on
Genes. pp. 406-408.
200 NUMBERS
XXIII. 18-24.
resolved
to do to them, and He did it not.’a For a long
time,
the same intelligible principle was maintained in
reference
to
leges
were made dependent on their merits and actions.
They
were to remain the people of God as long as they
were
a 'righteous" people. But in the course of time,
that
election was developed into a dogma not free from.
mystery
and mysticism.
in
spite of sin and rebellion; not on account of their
own
merit, but because ‘God loves them,’ and ‘they are
precious
in His eyes and well-honoured.'b They might
suffer
oppression, yet they are a noble vine, which men are
bidden
to spare, ‘because a blessing is in it.’ They might
be
‘sifted among all nations as corn is sifted in a sieve,
yet
no grain shall fall upon the earth.’ It is true their
very
prerogatives impose upon them severer responsibili-
ties:
‘You only have I loved of all the families of the
earth,'
says God, ‘therefore will I visit upon you all your
iniquities.’c
But if He punishes them, He acts like the
husbandrnan,
who does not crush cummin with a cart-
wheel,
but gently uses the rod. He chastens them, but
‘with
measure,’ and ‘with justice,’ not for destruction
like
other nations, not in wrath like Adamah and
Zeboim,
because His heart burns in compassion for His
people,
which is imperishable like the new heaven and
the
new earth; for ‘thus saith the Lord who giveth the
sun
for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon
and
of the stars for a light by night . . . If those ordi-
nances
depart from before Me, then the seed of
also
shall cease from being a nation before Me for ever.'d
Even
when, in His just anger at their ingratitude and
a MHnyv, Jon. iii. 10;
iv. 2; comp. c Amos iii. 2; compare Lev.
x. 3,
Origen, In Num. Hom.
xvi. 4. wdeqZ.x, ybayq;B, and Comm. in
loc.
b Isa. xlii. 18;
xliii. 4; compare d Compare Isa. xxvii. 8;
xxviii.
Amos
iii. .2; Deut. iv. 37; vii. 13; 24-28; x1i. 8-20; lxvi. 22; Jer.
x.
15; xxiii. 6, etc.; Mishn. Avoth xxx.
11; xx xi. 35-37; xxxiii. 25,
iii.
14. 26;
Hos, xi.. 8, 9; Amos ix. 9, 16.
BALAAM'S SECOND
SPEECH. 201
revolt,
He had determined their extirpation, He soon
‘repented,’
not because they evinced contrition and had
reformed
their lives, but on account of the prayer and
intercession
of a faithful servant, who reminded God
of
the inviolable covenant He had concluded with the
patriarchs.a
How far into ancient times the
beginnings
of
this proud dogma reach, is difficult to ascertain; it was
by
writers of the eighth century traced to the period of
the
redemption from
Abraham;c
and it is certainly expressed with sufficient
clearness
in this speech of Balaam. For although the
words,
‘Hath He said and shall He not do it, and spoken
and
shall He not fulfil it?' refer, in the first instance to
Balaam's
previous prophecy, they doubtless apply to all
the
Divine promises made to
relations
to God. It is unnecessary to point out the
fruits
which that dogma has borne for good and for evil,
and
to show how, on the one hand, it fostered lofty
aspirations,
and, on the other hand, promoted national
conceit
and exclusiveness; but the powerful hold which
it
acquired over the Hebrew mind is apparent from the
circumstance,
that it was almost without modification,
extended
to the royal house of David, and nothing need
be
added in explanation of the following words of a Psalm
written
shortlybefore the exile: ‘I will make him (David),’
says
God, 'My firstborn ... My mercy will I keep for him
for
evermore, and My covenant shall stand firm with him
If
his children forsake My law and break My statutes,
then
I will visit their transgression with the rod ... never-
theless
I will not take My loving-kindness from him, nor
be
untrue (rqewaxE) to My faithfulness; My covenant will I
not
break, nor alter the promise that is gone out of My
lips;
once have I sworn by My holiness, that I will not
a Ex. xxxii. 14;
comp. Deut. ix. b Hos. xii. 10; Amos ii. 10; Mic.
13-20,
25-29; x. 10; xxxii. 20 sqq.; vi.
4.
Am.
viii. 3, 6. c Mic.
vii. 20; Isa. xxix. 22.
202 NUMBERS
XXIII. 18-24.
lie
( bz.ekaxE) unto David; his seed shall endure for ever, and
his
throne shall be as the sun before
more
emphatic commentary on our passage is hardly
possible.b
PHILOLOGICAL REMARKS.--Balak was standing (bc.Ani) at his
sacrifice
(ver. 17); when, therefore, Balaam bid him ‘rise’
(MUq, ver. 18), he
invited him to listen attentively and dismiss
all
other thoughts (comp. Neh. ix. 5; Isa. xxxii. 9).—fmAwEU,
imper.
Kal for fmAw;U,
non-gutturals being occasionally pro-
vided
with chateph-pathach if the preceding letter had ori-
ginally
a sh’va mobile (fmaw;U for fmaw;v;); see Gramm.
iv. 4. a.
--Nyzix<h,, to listen,
followed by dfa (comp. Job xxxii. 11), like
the
synonymous verb NneOBt;hi, to pay attention (Job xxxii.
12;
xxxviii.
18), is hardly more emphatical than if followed, as
is
more usual, by l;, lx,, or lfa (comp. Mic. iv.
8; Ps. lxv. 3).
But
some ancient authorities seem to have read dfe or ydife, for
the
Sept. translates e]nw<tisai ma<rtuj ui[o>n
Sepfw<r;
and the Syriac
like
the Samaritan interpreter, 'listen to my testimony'
(ytvdhs and ytvdfs); and so a few
modern expositors (as
Michael.,
'sei aufmerksam and sei mein Zeuge,' and others).
--OnB, a rarer form
of the construct state for –NB,; comp. Oty;Ha
(Gen.
i. 24; Isa. lvi. 9), etc.; see Gramm. § xxvi. l b.
MHAn,t;y (ver. 19) in pausa, for MHenatyi or MHanat;yi (see Gramm. §
xvi.
9.a.; lix. 7). The Sept., to avoid anthropopathic ex-
pressions,
renders bzkyv and
MHnty
(ver. 19) by diarthqh?nai and
a]peilhqh?nai.--Targ. Jon.
paraphrases the second part of the
19th
verse thus: 'But when the Lord of all the worlds has
said,
I will multiply this people as the stars of heaven, and
will
give them to possess the land of the Canaanites, is He
not
able to perform what He has spoken?' That translator,
therefore,
like many others, considers the words 'kv rmx xvhh
to
refer to the patriarchal promises alone, whereas, consider-
ing
the completeness and unity of this composition, the
point,
in the first place, to Balaam's former speech (comp.
ver.
20; xxii. 12), though the wider application is not ex-
eluded
as an 'under-sense.' The Assyrian king Assur-Nasir-
a Ps. lxxxix. 28-37. b Comp. 2 Sam. vii. 14-16; Isa. ix. 6, etc.
BALAAM'S SECOND
SPEECH. 203
pal,
like most eastern monarchs, claiming almost divine
attributes,
calls himself 'he who changes not his purposes'
(Inscript.,
col. i. line 7; comp. Records of the Past, iii. 40;
77-79;
v. 8, 113, etc.)—yTiH;LalA j`rebA (ver. 20),
lit., I have taken to
bless,
i.e., I have received from God the commission to bless;
Targ. Jon., I have been
charged with the benediction from the
mouth
of the Holy One; the Sept. renders
the principal verb
as
incorrectly in the passive parei<lhmmai; and so Vulg., adductus
sum;
Luth., bin ich hergebracht; while Luzzatto has, ecco
'benedici'!
ho recevuto--taking, with less probability, j`rebA
the
imperative.--An ancient reading, instead of jrbv,
seems
to have been ytkrbv, which some early translators
took
as tYik;rabeU, I shall bless (Sept.,
eu]logh<sw; Samar.
Cod, and
Vers.
jrbx;
Onk., hynkrbyxv; Tar Jer. xnx jrbm; and so
Luth., ich segne),
others as ytikAr;biU, and my blessing, scil. I
shall
not reverse (Sir., xtkrvbv Vulg.,
benedictionem etc.
Onk.,
concluding the verse h.yn.emi ytiK;r;Bi bytexA xlAv;; and so some
modern
interpreters): but considering that the blessing is
throughout
traced to God and not to Balaam, the received
reading
seems preferable.—bywihe, to reverse, to annul (as in
Am.
i. 3, 6, 9, etc ; Isa. xliii. 13); not quite accurately
Sept., a]postre<yw; Vulg.,
prohibere non valeo. Balaam de-
clares
that he cannot prevent the blessing once pronounced
from
taking effect, much less change it into a curse.--The
subject
to Fybh and
hxr
(ver. 21) is evidently God (comp.
jrbv, ver. 20); it is both less simple and
less suitable to take
those
verbs impersonally (Sept. ou]k e@sti ...
ou]de> o]fqh<setai,
Vul.,
Luth., Herd.,
Mendelss., Ewald,
and others): the reading of
the
Samar. Cod. Fybx, which is
expressed by the Samar. Vers.
(lktsx), the Syr., Onk. and Jon. (lktsm xnx), and has been
adopted
by some modern scholars (Dathe non video, Houbigant
non
videbo, Geddes), whether in the corresponding member
the
third person --hxr--be read (Sam. Vers., yzH) or also the
first
person (Sqr. and others), is less adapted to the context.
--The
nouns Nv,xA
and lmAfA
are here most appropriately under-
stood
in their common significations of iniquity and toil, which
inipart
to the verse the comprehensive sense we have above
indicated,
namely, that God finds in
therefore
visits them with no sufferings; the former is a full,
204 NUMBERS
XXIII. 18-24.
explanation
of MyriwAy; (ver. 10), the latter is akin to ytyrHx
yht
vhmk (comp. Hab. i. 3, 13; Job iv. 8 ; v. 6;
Ps. vii. 15;
x.
7; Iv. 11; xc. 10; Isa. x. 1; lix. 4; in which passages
Nvx and lmf are in a
similar relation). The sense is not,
‘Unbearable
to God is the malice practised against the
Israelites
by their enemies, and the misery they suffer, so
that
He forthwith removes both malice and misery' (Rosenm.
in
loc.; Hengstb., Bil , pp. 112, 113 ;
De Geer, Maurer, Luz-
zatto,
egli non tollera di veder fatta ingiustizia a Giacobbe,
and
others); it is only by a strained construction that it is
possible
to give to Fybh xl the meaning, 'He cannot bear to
see,'
or to bqfyb Nvx that of 'iniquity committed against
Jacob.'
Still less tenable are the numerous other inter-
pretations
that have been proposed, as, 'God takes no
notice
(lktsm vnyx) of
their
good deeds' (Midr. Rabb., Num. xxiv. 14; comp. Jer.
1.
20) ; or, 'There are no idols (or idolaters) in Jacob, nor
false
gods in
idolum
in Jacob, nee videtur simulacrum in
Jahrbucher,
viii. 27, 28, Gotzen and Ungotter: though Nvx
may
be 'idols,' Isa. lxvi. 3; 1 Sam. xv. 23; lmf is certainly
never
'false gods'); or, 'There shall be no toil ... nor shall
there
be seen trouble ... ' (Sept., mo<xqoj and po<noj; Luther,
Muhe
and Arbeit ; Herder, Ungluck and Missgeschick;
Michaelis,
Leid and Ungluck: although Nvx has no doubt
oc-
casionally
the sense of misfortune, as in Gen. xxxv. 18; Hab.
iii.
7; the notion of guilt, which more commonly attaches to
the
word, is essential to the context); or, 'There shall be no
wrong
... nor injustice . . .' (De Wette, Boses and Unrecht;
Maurer,
culpa and peccatum: but lmf has nowhere clearly
the
meaning of injustice, though perhaps in Isa. x. 1);
while
some leave the right path entirely. Misunderstanding
the
ideal character of the prophecy, many have referred the
description
to the happiness of a future life (comp. Origen,
In
Num. 711omil, xvi. 5, aperte in istis sermonibus futurae
vitae
denunciat statum ... quia non erat secundum spiritum
--The
words, 'the Lord their God is with them' (vyhlx hvhy,
vmf, comp. Gen. xxxix. 2), supplement the
preceding half-
BALAAM'S SECOND
SPEECH. 205
verse
with peculiar aptness and precision. They explain the
immunity
both from Nvx
and lmf;
the Israelites are with God!
hence
there is among them no Nvx; and God is with the
Israelites--therefore
they are free from lmf (comp. xiv. 14);
and
in order to express the former idea as unequivocally as
the
second, the poet adds, ‘and the trumpet-call (tfvrt) of
the
King is with them,' that is, the Hebrews are constantly
reminded
of the dominion of their God, and summoned to
His
worship, by the solemn sound of the trumpet (rpAOw ),
which
they obey with a joyful readiness proving the sin-
cerity
of their faith and devotion. As jlm is in
parallelism
with
hvhy,
it means undoubtedly here, as elsewhere, God as
the
King and Ruler of the Hebrews (Deut. xxxiii. 5; Zech.
ix.
9; comp. 1 Sam. viii. 7; Isa. xxxiii. 22; xliii. 15; xliv.
6;
Jer. x. 7, 10; xlvi. 18; Zech. xiv. 9, 16, 17); the intro-
duction
of the earthly king in a passage which treats exclu-
sively
of
consistency
(Sept., a]rxo<ntwn; Orig.,
principum; Vulg, regis;
Luth.,
Herd., Ewald, Oort, Furst, and others). The expres-
sive
appropriateness of the term hfvrt in this
connection will
be
understood by remembering that not only were all holy
seasons
announced, and all public sacrifices accompanied by
the
‘blast of the trumpet’ (hfvrt), but that one of the most
important
and most sacred festivals appointed in later times
was
called hfvrt Mvy, or, still more significantly, hfvrt
Nvrkz,
‘a
Memorial of blowing the Trumpet’ (Lev. xxiii. 24; Num.
xxix.
1), intended to bring the Hebrews to God's merciful
remembrance,
as we have explained elsewhere (see Comm.
on
Levit. ii. pp. 489, 505). The trumpet-call of the King
reminded
them of the ‘holy convocations’ (wdq yxrqm), which
were
the chief bond between them and their God. ‘Blessed
is
the people,’ says the Psalmist, that know the trumpet-
call
(hfvrt);
‘they shall walk, 0 Lord, in the light of Thy
countenance.’
Such a people, says our author, are the
Israelites;
‘the trumpet-call of their King is among them,’
and
‘they walk in His light.’ Allusions to 'war-cries,' or
'the
alarm sounded with the trumpet,' or to 'the joyful
acclamations'
with which the people receive their king or
accompany
royal processions, or 'rejoicing at the presence of
206 NUMBERS
XXIII. 18-24.
so
glorious a King, who is at the same time God, though
admitted
by the term hfvrt (comp. Num. x. 9; Jer. iv. 19;
xlix.
2; Amos i. 14; Josh. vi. 5, 20; 1 Sam. iv. 5; x. 24;
2
Sam. vi. 15; xv. 10; 1 Ki. i. 40; Ezra iii. 11; Job. viii.
20;
2 Chron. xiii. 12), are less adapted to the context
(Aquil.,
a]lalagmo<j; Theodot., salpismo<j; Vulg., clangor vie-
toriae;
Herd., Triumphgesang; Vater, Feldposaune; Ewald,
Schlachtruf,
etc.; but Onkel., Nvhklm tnaykiw;, and similarly
Syr.,
hklmd xtHvbwt; Origen,
preeclara principum, i.e., potestas
et
regnum; Saad., alliance or friendship; and so Rashi, hbH
tvfrv, and others; while the Sept.
renders ta>
e@ndoca,
perhaps
reading
tvxrvn).--Not
like Balak does Balaam say, 'the
people
went out of
them
out of
proof
showing how manifestly God is with
deliverance
from
fidence,
and given them the power for further enterprises
and
triumphs. This being the logical relation between vers.
21-24,
it is neither requisite to consider ver. 22 as an inter-
polation,
nor to place it after ver. 23 (see, however, on xxiv.
8).
The participle MxAyciOm does not necessarily imply that,
since
the Hebrews are represented as not yet having reached
the
sidered
in the course of accomplishment; in reality forty
years
had, at the time of 'Balaam's speeches,' passed since
the
Hebrews left
the
meaning of a preterite (Gram. § 100. 8; Sept., e]cagagw<n;
Vulg.,
eduxit, etc.). An anallage in, the numbers of the
suffixes,
as in MxAycvm and Ol, both referring
to the Israelites,
is
too common to call for an emendation of the text (Gram.
lxxvii.
21. 4); comp. xxiv. 8, Oxycvm, from which parallel it
is
also evident that Ol does not refer to God (so Targ. Jon.
and
Jerus., and others; see also De-Rossi on xxiv. 8).--That
the
Mxer;
(or Myxer;,
Myre,
Mre)
is not the unicorn, as many
earlier
interpreters translate on the authority of the Sept„
(monoke<rwj; Ephr. Syr., Luth., Engl. Vers., ete.;
Vulg., rhino-
ceros,
which was frequently confounded with the unicorn), is
at
present almost generally acknowledged, since the Bible
repeatedly
mentions 'the horns' (yner;qa) of the Mxer; (Deut.
BALAAM'S SECOND
SPEECH. 207
xxxii.
17; Ps. xxii. 22); although the unicorn is not, as has
long
been believed, a fabulous animal, but is found in
Rosenm.,
Morgenland, ii. 269-279; comp. Aelian, Nat. An.
xvi.
20, monoke<rwj me<geqoj me>n
e@xein i!ppou tou? telei<ou kai> lo<fon
... podw?n de> a@rista
ei]lhxe<nai kai> ei#nai w@kiston k.t.l.; Caes. B.G.
vi.
26 ; Plin. N. H. viii. 21 or 31, asperrimam feram monocero-
tem,
reliquo corpore equo similem, capite cervo, pedibus
elephanto
... uno cornu gravi media fronte cubitorum duo emi-
nente;
hanc feram vivam negant capi). The short but graphic
description
in the Book of Job (xxxix. 9-12), to which we
have
above alluded, in conjunction with the fact that the
Mxer; is employed in parallelism with
the strongest animals,
such
as the lion, the wild ox, and the bull (Ps. xxii. 22; Deut.
xxxiii.
17; Isa. xxxiv. 7), hardly leaves a doubt that the
wild
buffalo is meant, which, of Indian origin and still found
(under
the name of arna) in the swampy jungles of Hindo-
stan,
is 'fierce and untamable, in size one-third larger than
the
domestic species, and of such power and vigor as by his
charge
to prostrate a well-sized elephant' (Van-Lennep, Bible
Lands,
i. 176-178). It is, of course, not impossible that a
kindred
genus, such as the wild ox (bos sylhetanus) or the
urus
of Pliny (Nat. Hist. viii.. 15 ; xi. 37 or 45 ; xviii. 1) is
intended,
which rival the wild buffalo in size and strength,
and
surpass it in fierceness (see Brehm, Illustrirtes Tier-
leben,
ii. 625, sqq.); but, considering the Scriptural parallels
with
the lion and other powerful beasts, it is certainly not
probable
that the Mxer;
is the oryx, a species of antelope
(Both.,
Rosenm., Miner, and others), since the circumstance
that
this animal has in Arabic. the same name (XXX) is
by
no means decisive (comp. Gesen. Lex. and Thes. s. v.);
or
that it is a kind of gazelle (xlzrvx, Talm. Zevach.
113.
Bav.
Bathr. 73. b; comp. Lewysohn, Zool. d. Talm., pp. 149-
151),
or the reindeer (Barzilai, II Renne, etc. 1870), which
cannot
be proved to have existed in
historic
time, and can hardly be described as an animal of
gigantic
strength.--The royal records on Assyrian monuments
do
not fail to mention the hunting of buffaloes; 'in those
days,'
we read in the Inscription of Assur-nasir-pal, 'I slew
208 NUMBERS
XXIII. 18-24.
fifty
buffaloes in the neighbourhood of the nearer (eastern)
side
of the
and
among the tribute paid to that king by Tangara, king of
comp.
also Inscript. of Tiglath-pileser i. § 35; the Statistical
Tablet
of the Egyptian king Thotmes III.; the 'Great
Harris'
Papyrus of R.amses III., Plate 20. a, § 9, etc.; see
Rec.
of the Past, ii. 24,; iii. 69; v. 21; vi. 47, etc.).--More un-
certain
is the quality tOpfEOT associated with the Mxr; it seems
simplest
to connect the root JfayA with JUf to fly (Arab. XXX to move
rapidly),
and to take that word in the sense of fleetness, which
attribute
is elsewhere also ascribed to the Mxr (Ps. xxix. 6),
especially
as the noun JfAy; is found in the meaning of swift
course
(Dan. ix. 21; Michael. celeritas; Herd., Vater, starker
Lauf;
Rosenm. Behendigkeit; De Wette, Schnelligkeit; Hengstb.
Rustigkeit,
etc.; but, following uncertain etymologies, Sept.
do<ca; Vulg. fortitudo; Luth.
Freudigkeit; Onkel., Syr., Ebn
Ezra,
Kimehi, Engl. Vers. strength; Rosenm. elatio--capite
sursum
elato erectisque auribus adstare,' Germ. ' frohlich um-
herschauen;'
similarly Lowth--Sacr. Poes., Prael. xx.--qualis
remotis
liter in jugis oryx fert celsa ceelo cornua; Ewald,
hehrer
Glanz, etc.; though some of these qualities are indeed
collaterally
included in the ' fleetness' of the buffalo).--In Ps.
xcv.
4 and Job xxii. 25, tvpfvt is treasures, from JfeyA, that which
is
acquired by fatiguing labour, as faygiy; from fgayA;, p. 109. The
plural
tvpfvt
is, of course, poetically used instead of the
singular,
and the word is never found in prose.--The Hebrews
are
so successful in all their undertakings, because they do
not
and need not rely on enchantment and auguries, but
enjoy
God's constant communications, which He reveals to
them
in His own manner and in the right time. This is the
tenor
of the last verses (22-24). The reason introduced by
yk (ver. 23) explains, in the first
instance, the words nlwin
vl Mxr, which are easily understood as
a metaphor for victory,
prosperity,
and success; all this the Hebrews owe to the
circumstance
that they do not require wHana and Ms,q,, and,
therefore,
do not practise such obnoxious arts--which is
another
mark of their piety (comp. Philo, Vit. Mos. i. 51,
oi]wnw?n a]logou?si kai> pa<ntwn
tw?n kata> mantikh<n). The clause
BALAAM'S SECOND
SPEECH. 209
‘kv
wHn xl yk)
cannot be intended as the reason of
deliverance
from
does
yKi
signify so that, introducing a consequence (Knob.,
Num.,
p. 141; the passages adduced in support of that
meaning
are not conclusive, as Isa. v. 10; xxix. 16 ; Job x.,
6,
etc.). About wHana see Comm. on Lev. i. 375 ; about
Ms,q,
supra
p. 108; in this context wHana has indeed, like Ms,q,
the
sense
of augury or divination; but technical exactness cannot
be
expected in poetry. bqfyB; and lxrWyB; are, therefore,
'in
Jacob'
and ‘in
also
Jewish tradition. But not even in the comments on this
sublime
and lucid speech has the usual distortion of Balaam's
conduct
been abandoned, and surprising is the insinuation of
modern
theologians, that the best proof of the Divine power
with
which Balaam had been moved, is the manner in which
he
disparages those means of ascertaining the future, which
he
himself was habitually employing' (Hengstenb.,
Bil., p.
125,
and others). Thus misinterpreted, this section, instead
of
testifying to the large-minded liberality and enlightenment
of
the Hebrew writer, would most painfully reveal narrow-
ness,
pride, and superstition; and if Hebrew prophecy were
so
mechanical a process as that assumption implies, it would
hardly
possess any real or human interest. The author so
entirely
identifies himself with Balaam, that the ordinary
views
of both concerning divination must be considered to
coincide,
and the words ‘There is no enchantment in Jacob,’
etc.,
are meant to rebuke Balak's paganism, not that of Ba-
laam,
of which there is no trace whatever. The explanation
frequently
adopted. 'No enchantment prevails
against Jacob,
nor
any divination against
Houbigant,
Michael., Dathe, Vat., Rosenm., De Wette, Gramb.,
Maur.,
Steudel, De Geer, Ewald, Luzzatto, and others), though
perhaps
philologically unobjectionable, yields no clear and
satisfactory
connection either with the preceding or the fol-
lowing
verses.--The incredible number and variety of super-
stitious
omens which prevailed in Middle Asia and were
worked
out into elaborate systems, are being more and more
brought
to light by excavations and decipherments, and they
may
be gathered from the very curious Babylonian Tablets
210 NUMBERS
XXIII. 18-24.
which
have recently been translated; for instance: 'If a
yellow
dog enters into a palace, exit from that palace will be
baleful';
'if a spotted dog enters into the palace, that palace
gives
its peace to the enemy'; 'if a black dog enters into a
temple,
the foundation of that temple is not stable'; or
'when
a woman bears a child and its right ear is wanting,
the
days of the prince are long'; 'when a woman bears a
child
and the upper lip overhangs the lower, there is pros-
perity
to the multitude,' etc. (see Records of the Past, v.
169-176);
such auguries would probably fall under the
category
of wHana,
at least according to later conceptions of the
Jews.--wHana, at the time,
or in the right time (Sept., kata> kairo<n;
Vulg.,
temporibus suis; Origen, in, tenipore, i.e., cum oportet
et
cum expedit ; Rashi, 'kv jyrcw tf lkb; Luth., Vat.,
zu seiner
Zeit;
Held., each Zeitumstanden, etc.); not as at present
(referring
to Balaam's own oracles, comp. Judg. xiii. 23);
much
less next year at this time (comp. Gen. xviii. 10), when
the
Hebrews shall have crossed the
or
when (Lengerke, comp. Job xxxix. 18, like tfeB;, Job vi. 17).
--lfaPA-hma, what He doeth,
or what He hath resolved to do, the
preterite
denoting the unfailing certainty or the immediate
execution
of an action (so that it is unnecessary to read
while
the future rmexAye describes the customary
performance
(comp.
MUqyA,
etc., in ver. 24; see Gram. § 93.4; 94.7): against
the
context is the reference to the future or Messianic Israel;
so
Origen, In Num. Ilomil. xvi 8, 'de illo populo dicit de quo
in
psalmis (xxii. 32) scriptum est, "et annuntiabunt coeli
justitiam
ejus populo, qui nascetur, quem fecit Dominus,"'
and
some others. The words 'kv bqfyl rmxy, taken
literally,
give
a most suitable sense (so Sept., r[hqh<setai
t&? ]Israh>l ti<
e]pitele<sei o[ qeo<j; Rashi, Ebn
Ezra, Rashbam, and others); but
they
are rendered by many: 'It shall be said of Jacob and
of
larly
Targ. Jon. and Jerus.; Luth., Zur Zeit wird man von
Jacob
sagen: welche Wunder Gott thut! Calv., Deum
praeclara
of era exinde editurum pro defensione populi sui,
quae
cum admiratione narrentur; Rosenm., Maur., quanta
fecit
Deus ! Eurald, so lange es heissen wird in Jacob . . . .
'was
thut Gott'! i. e., so lange man die Grossthaten Israels
AGAIN
REMONSTRANCES AND PREPARATIONS. 211
bewundern
and rubmen werde, and others. Curious is Luz-
zatto's
explanation: Jacob, also called
name,viz.,
Mah-paal-El, i.e., 'destined by God
for great things.'
About
the comparison of heroes and conquerors with the
lion
and other animals, see Comm. on Genes. p. 748. In the
Annals
of the Egyptian king Thotmes III. (line 19) it is pro-
mised:
'I let thy enemies see thy majesty like a raging lion;'
and
the king is described (line 20) as a ‘swooping hawk which
takes
at his glance what he chooses’; on the Luxor Obelisk
(
hawk’;
'powerful Bull is the name of the Egyptian mon-
archs
in their divine character;' and the god Ra himself, 'the
chief
of the great cycle of gods, the one alone without
equal,'
bears the names of ' beautiful Bull' and 'great Hawk'
(comp.
Records of the Past, ii, 34, 154, 135 ; iv. 11, 20-24,
56;
vi. 73, etc.).
11.
AGAIN REMONSTRANCES AND PREPARATIONS,
XXIII. 25-xxiv. 2.
25.
And Balak said to Balaam, Neither shalt
thou
curse them, nor shah thou bless them.
26.
And Balaam answered and said to Balak,
Have
I not told thee, saying, All that the Lord.
speaks,
that I must do? 27. And Balak said to
Balaam,
Come, I pray thee, I will take thee to
another
place; perhaps it will please God that
thou
mayest curse me them from thence. 28. Aud.
Balak
took Balaam to the summit of Peor, that
looks
over the plain of the wilderness. 29. And
Balaam
said to Balak, Build me here save n
altars,
and prepare me here seven bullocks and
seven
rams. 30. And Balak did as Balaam had
said,
and he offered a bullock and a ram on every
altar.
212 NUMBERS
XXIII. 25-XXIV 2.
XXIV.--1. And when Balaam saw that it
pleased
the Lord to bless
the
first and second time, to seek for inspirations,
and
he turned his face towards the wilderness.
2.
And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw
the
spirit of God calve upon him.
Is Balak’s obduracy vanquished at
last? Will he at
last
desist from his audacious scheme? His defiance is
not
conquered, but it is curbed and checked. He still
clinches
the old design with a convulsive grasp, but with
a
faint-heartedness which involves the germ and fore-
boding
of failure. No more does he now, as he did after
the
first speech, say determinedly and energetically,
‘Come
with me to another place ... and curse me them
from
thence,'a but he exclaims almost plaintively,
‘Neither
shalt thou curse them nor shalt thou bless
them.'b
Writhing under the stinging impression of the
words
still filling his ears, that the Hebrews 'do not lie
down
till they eat their prey and drink the blood of the
slain,'
he abandons the hope of a curse, and is content if
the
prophet withholds his blessing from the terrible and
wonderful
people. However, this frame of mind lasts
but
a short moment. The king has imbued his heart too
strongly
with an infatuated desire, not to cleave to
it
even against hope; and when, accordingly, Balaam
reminds
him again that, as he had from the beginning
declared
himself in absolute dependence and subjection
of
Jahveh,c he cannot fairly be reproached with a breach
of
faith, the monarch, as before, utterly disregards this
emphatic
protest and, apparently both unwilling and
unable
to realise its full scope, invites the seer to make
a
third attempt at prostrating
But
in what form does he make the request? He says
a Ver. 13. b Ver. 25. c xxii. 38.
AGAIN
REMONSTRANCES AND PREPARATIONS. 213
not
to Balaam now, ‘I know that he whom thou blessest
is
blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed;'a even
after
the first prophecy, he was impressed with a feeling,
however
vague and dim, that it was not Balaam, but
Jahveh,
the God of the Hebrews, from whom proceed
blessing
and curse;b but now, after the second oracle, he
is
shaken by doubt and hesitation; the old obstinacy is
mingled
with an unwonted. weakness, and there is almost
the
tone of a suppliant in the words, ‘Come, I pray thee,
I
will take thee to another place, perhaps it will please
God,
that thou mayest curse me them from thence.'c But,
though
his pride has been forced to bend, his mind re-
mains
unenlightened, his heart remains unreformed. Still,
as
previously, he means by extraneous artifices to rule
the
Ruler of destinies. Twice he had vainly endeavoured
to
attain his object in places whence only a portion of
the
Israelites could be beheld; he now determines to
resort
to the opposite experiment, and takes Balaam to
spot
where he can survey the entire host and crowd of
the
people ‘encamped according to their tribes.’ At first
he
had apprehended that the inspiring aspect of the
whole
nation would paralyse the efficacy of the evil eye
but
now he is anxious to try whether that evil eye has
not
the potency of blasting and overwhelming his enemies,
if
it strikes them with one comprehensive and withering
glance.
And still, as before, he believes he may the more
surely
count upon success, if he chooses a locality con-
secrated
to one of his deities--and he now selects a place
dedicated
to Peor (rOfP;),
whose worship was stained by
the
most detestable and most repulsive licentiousness,
and
perhaps more than any other form of Moabitish
idolatry,
contributed. to the people's fearful debasement.d
a xxii. 6. Balaam
divine ad maledicendum loci
b xxiii. 17. opportunitas
magis defuerit quam
c Ver. 27, 'kv
rwyy ylvx voluntas,
etc. Fogor (Peor) autern
d See xxv. 3, 5;
xxxi. 16; Josh interpretatur
delectatio: in verticern
xxii
17; comp. Origen, In Num. ergo
delectationis et libidinis impo-
Hom.
xvii. 1, Balach putans, quod nit homines iste Balach.'
214 NUMBERS
XXIII. 25-XXIV. 2.
So
little does the king fathom what Balaam has just
repeated
to him again, ‘Have I not told thee saying, All
that
the Lord speaks, that I must do?’ With the keenest
penetration,
the author delineates, step by step, the
eternal
warfare of the spirit against the varied delusions
of
paganism, which yields no farther than it is pressed
by
fear, the kernel of its creed and the motive power of
its
life.
The ‘summit of Peor' belongs to the
same ridge of
Pisgah
as the 'Field of Seers,' the scene of the second
prophecy;a
for elsewhere the whole of the Pisgah is
described
with the exact terms here applied to the
summit
of Peor, namely, that 'it looks out over the
plain
of the wilderness.'b It may have a somewhat
more
northern and western position than the ‘Field of
Seers,’
and may rival in eminence the
from
which the eve surveyed ‘all the
unto
Dan, and all Naphtali and the
and
Manasseh, and all the
western
sea, and the south, and the plain of. the valley
of
tainly
possible to see from the top of Peor ‘the wilder-
ness’
or ‘desert,’d that; is, ‘the plains of
the
Hebrews were encamped, ‘in the valley over against
Beth-Peor.'e
And how does Balaam act at this
juncture? Here,
above
all, must we look for the crucial test of his
conduct,
his character, and his religion. Readily he
responds
this time also to Balak's request. He is dis-
posed
to a third prophecy--for ‘a threefold cord is not
quickly
broken,' thinks the author, who has another and
yet
higher blessing in store for
arrangements
with respect to altars and sacrifices as
a Ver. 14. d
Nvmywyh, rbdmh, xxiii. 28;
b Ver. 28; comp.
xxi. 20. xxiv. 1.
c Deut. xxxiv.
1-3, Crxh-lk-tx e xxii. 1; Deut.
iii. 27, 29; iv.
'kv
Nd-df dflgh-tx 46; Josh. xiii. 20; see pp. 77, 188.
AGAIN
REMONSTRANCES AND PREPARATIONS. 215
before.
But he believes that he no longer needs any
special
spiritual preparations, and therefore does not
require
the aid of solitude to commune with the source
of
revelation. Quite confident, after his twofold ex-
perience,
that, contrary to Balak's wish and expectation,
‘it
pleases the Lord (hvhy) to bless
Divine
communication at the place to which he has
happened
to be conducted, and in the company of the
heathen
king and his nobles. He is not deceived--he
casts
a glance upon the Hebrew multitudes established
in
regular divisions along an extensive tract of the
desert,
‘and the spirit of God came upon him,’ as it
came
upon, or ‘clothed,’ other Divine messengers and
servants,
and as it came, among others, upon Othniel
the
Kenizzite, when he was appointed deliverer and
Judge
of Israel.a Who can fail to see that thus the
most
admirable harmony prevails throughout the whole
account
and all its parts? But no! The text includes
one
term which, if it must be retained or be taken in its
current
sense, suddenly and completely converts that
harmony
into the most painful discord. For we read
that
Balaam did not go, like the first and second time,
‘to
meet nechashim’ (MywiHAn;), that is, according to the
usual
meaning off the word, ‘to meet enchantments’ or
‘auguries.’
Did, then, really Balaam the first and second
time
practise those contemptible frauds, the absence of
which
among the Israelites he praises as their particular
glory,
and describes as one of the chief causes of their
power
and greatness?b
Whoever has read the previous
narrative in unbiassed
fairness,
must surely be surprised and perplexed by those
‘enchantments’
which appear abruptly and unawares,
like
a true deus ex machina, and he will
seriously ask
himself,
whether he is to trust to this single and casual
a Judg. iii. 10, Hvr
vylf yhtv Bible Studies, Part. ii., Preliminary
hvhy; see sutpra, pp. 16, 35; comp. Essay, § 1. b
xxiii. 23.
216 NUMBERS
XXIII. 25-XXIV. 2.
introduction
of a contradictory term, in preference not
merely
to the repeated and unequivocal statements that a
Balaam
went 'to meet God' (Myhlx) or 'to meet the
Lord'
(hvhy),a
but to the unmistakable spirit which per-
vades
this composition in every feature alike, and stamps
it
as one of the priceless pearls of Hebrew literature?
There
remain but two expedients--either to take MywiHAn;
as
a corruption instead of Myhilox< or hOAhy;, or to attribute
to
that expression a less offensive signification. That this
section
has suffered various glosses and interpolations,
we
have already attempted to show, and we shall have
further
occasion to point out; and that the meaning of
such
terms as nachash (whana) underwent, in
the language
of
the Hebrews, frequent modifications, generally changing
from
the legitimate to the unlawful, in accordance with
the
progress made in religious purity and strictness, this
is,
among many other instances, apparent from the word
kesem (Ms,q,), which Balaam
mentions in conjunction with
nachash,b
and in reference to which such a fluctuation
has
above been proved.c We confess that we find the
former
alternative more congenial, for not without the
deepest
regret and reluctance would we see the bright-
ness
of this noble work tarnished by rude and lying
superstitions.
PHILOLOGICAL
REMARKS.—MGa .. . MGa (ver. 25) is
both... and;
therefore,
in connection with xlo, it is neither ... nor (Sept.,
ou@te . . . ou@te; Vulg., nec ...
nec ; comp. Isa. xlviii. 8: not
Mgav; . . . MGa as in Sam. Text
and Version, and some MSS.);
and
the synonym Jxa is used in a similar manner (Isa, xl.
24;
COMP.
supra on xxii. 33).--bqo, a contracted form of the abso-
lute
infin. of Kal, instead of bObqA, as lwo (Ruth ii. 16
instead
of
lOlwA
(see Gram. lxii. 2. c).--The chateph-kamets in Un.b,q.Iti
in
pausa, under the non-guttural q, which was
originally
provided
with a cholemn, is not without a considerable number
of
analogies (as Un.beTIk;x, , Jer. xxxi. 33,
etc.); see Gram, §§ iv.
a xxiii. 3, 4, 15, 16. b
xxiii. 23. c P. 110,
AGAIN
REMONSTRANCES AND PREPARATIONS. 217
4.
b; xl. 4.—NOmywiy; (ver. 28), from MwayA to be laid
waste, is no
proper
noun, but a wilderness (Sept., e@rhmoj; Vulg., solitudo,
etc.),
and therefore used in parallelism with rBAd;mi (Ps.
lxxviii.
40; cvi. 14), with which it is synonymous in our
passage
also (xxiv. 1).--The king of
the
'summit of Peor,' because this ' looks over the plain of the
wilderness,'
so that the whole of the Hebrew camp could be
seen.
Eusebius (sub Fogw>r kai> Bhqfogw<r and ‘Arabw>q Mwa<b)
fixes
the position of Peor more precisely close to the
plains
of
town
Livias to Heshbon, and at a distance of about seven
Roman
miles from the latter place (u[pe<rkeitai th?j
nu?n Libia<doj
kaloume<nhj, and o@roj Fogw<r, o{ para<keitai a]nio<ntwn a]po>
Libia<doj
e]pi> ]Essebou?n th?j ]Arabi<aj a]ntikru> [Ierixw<; compare .Hengstb.,
Bil.,
pp. 248-250).--The term MfapaB;-MfapaK; (xxiv. 1),
literally
like
one time with or and another time, that is, like before, is
neither
necessarily restricted to two times, as in this passage
(xxiii.
3, 15; comp. Judg. xvi. 20; 1 Sam. iii. 10; Judg. xx.
30,
31), nor does it always mean as usual (1 Sam. xx. 25
Sept.,
kata> to> ei]wqo<j; Engl. Vers., as at other
times), in which
sense
that phrase is analogous to hnwb hnw every year,
or
wdHb wdH every month (1 Sam. i. 7 ; 1
Chron. xxvii. 1, etc.).
--MywiHAn;
txrql
is, of course, rendered by the interpreters in
a
literal sense (Sept., ei]j suna<nthsin toi?j oi]wnoi?j; Vulg., ut
augurium
quaereret ; Phzlo, Vita. Mos. i. 52, ou]ke<ti
kata> to>
ei]ko>j e]pi> klhdo<naj
kai> oi]wnou>j i@eto; Luth., nach den Zauberern;
Hengstb.,
Zeichen; De Wette, Zeichendeutereien, etc.); but
even
the obvious and striking incongruity in this verse alone
--‘When
Balaam saw that it pleased Jahveh (hvhy) to bless
pointed
the way to a juster conception.--There are still a
few
traces left-slight we admit, but still not indistinct of
the
Hebrew verb wHn used in a more general or extended
sense
for divining, considering, or interpreting (comp. Gen.
xxx.
27; 1 Ki. xx. 33). 'We may well suppose,' says
Lange
(Bibelwerk, ii. 309), with a noteworthy glimpse of
the
truth, ‘that the obscure appellation kosem
had originally
a
better meaning than in later times, similar to the worship
on
heights, which, at first patriarchal, became afterwards
218 NUMBERS
XXIII. 25-XXIV. 2.
heretical'
(comp. also Abarbanel in loc., who
thinks it possible
that
the phrase 'he did not MywHn txrql‘ means simply
'he
did not go into the solitude,' like ypw jlyv in x:xiii. 3,
serpents
living in solitary places; Clarke in loc., who surmises
that
MywHn)
probably means no more than the knowledge of
future
events' or 'prophetic declarations'). It is mainly the
employment
of the word MywHn in this place which has
suggested
the view that Balaam gradually rose from the
character
of a heathen seer and sorcerer to that of a true
Hebrew
prophet, and that, after having twice relied upon
superstitious
auguries and enchantments, and having twice
blessed
phecy,
gained the higher stage, when the spirit of God came
upon
him 'for the purpose of uttering a full prediction
respecting
the Israelite people,' and when he blessed them
with
a willing heart (so Bunsen, Bibelwerk, v. 605, 606;
0ort,
Disputatio, pp. 116-118, 127, 128, ' Spiritus divinus
vincit
peccatum; Bileam remanet eadem persona, vir Jahvi
reluctans
sed magic magisque a Numine afflatus, etc.; Kuenen,
Relig.
of
Introd.
to the Old Test., ii. 441) 442, and others; and simi-
larly
already, Nachmanides, Abarbanel, and
others). But this
compromise
is not borne out by the tenor of the narrative.
Even
before setting out on his journey to
expression
to exactly the same principle of action as after the
utterance
of the third prophecy--that not the whole of the
king's
treasures could prevail upon him to say anything but
the
words prompted by Jahveh, and it is on the earlier occa-
sion
that he calls Jahveh distinctly 'my God' (yhAlox<, xxii. 18;
xxiv.
13). Does a heathen seer consult Jahveh? Does
Jahveh
reveal Himself so constantly and so readily to a
heathen
seer, as He did to Balaam from the very beginning?
The
first and second prophecies are at least as distinctly
spiritual
in tone and tendency as the third and fourth, which
lay
great stress on worldly prosperity and conquest; and a
man
who utters the wish, 'Let me die the death of the
righteous'
(Myrwy),
and affirms that God beholdeth no iniquity
in
Jacob ... and the trumpet-call of the King is among
them,'
can hardly rise higher in knowledge and purity,
AGAIN
REMONSTRANCES AND PREPARATIONS. 219
although
his prophetic gifts may increase in extent and
intensity
(see notes on vers. 3-9). Our narrative shows no
trace
either of a combination of paganism and Hebraism, or
of
a development of the one into the other. It displays the
most
perfect unity of conception. The difficulty of a single
word
cannot outbalance the numerous arguments on the
opposite
side. The author meant to delineate Balaam like a
true
prophet of his own people; if he did not, the chief
interest
of the composition is destroyed.--The 'desert' to
which
Balaam turned his face was, of course, the desert of
gumim
and other Jewish versions render, that of
which
the prophet is supposed to have looked in order to
recall
to memory the guilt of the golden calf, which the
Hebrews
had there committed, and through which, he
thought,
they might be assailable with imprecations.--The
Israelites
were 'encamped (Nkew) according to their tribes,' as
is
fully described in another part of the Book of Numbers
(chaps.
ii., x.; Sept., e]stratope<deuntai; Vulg., in
tentorus com-
morantem,
etc.); but Targ. Jon. has, 'he beheld
ling
together by their tribes in their schools (Nhywrdm ytb),
and
saw that their doors were arranged so as not to overlook
the
doors of their rneighbours.'--The 'spirit of God' that
came
upon Balaam is not in 'pointed contrast' to his own
spirit
(ver. 13), as if he bad still wished and intended to
pronounce
a curse upon
Authent,
i. 409 which is in opposition to the clear words of
the
preceding verse; nor is it that wild trance which fell
upon
Saul and his servants, and by which they were 'turned
into
other men' (1 Sam. x. 6, 10; xi. 6 ; xix. 20, 23, 24; see
notes
on vers. 3-9); nor merely 'something like a Divine
afflatus,
which, in deference to current phraseology, is termed
the
spirit of God' (Rosenm., afflatu quodam tamquam divino
correptus,
etc.); but it is that heavenly inspiration by which
Balaam,
like other true prophets, was enabled or empowered
to
pronounce that which lies beyond the ordinary scope of
human
intelligence (Comp. Judg. iii. 10; vi. 34; Isa. xlviii.
16;
lix. 21; lxi. 1; Ezek. xi. 5; 2 Chron. xxiv. 20; also
Hos.
ix. 7, where the prophet is simply called 'a man of the
220 NUMBERS
XXIV. 3-9.
Spirit,'
Hvrh wyx).--The following sketch has been offered as
'coming
naturally out of the Scriptural narratives:' 'The
priest
of Baal--Balaam--now turns his face towards the
east,
where his sun-god is wont to make his daily rise, and
where
is his ethereal palace. With a hand outstretched, and
eyes
looking intently towards his own home and the home of
Baal,
the seer strains his faculties to find the wished-for im-
precation;
but the spirit of God comes upon him, and he
can
utter no words but those of blessing and gratulation’
(Beard, Dict. of the Bible, i. 122). This
picturesque de-
scription
is, by the simple fact that Balaam is distinctly
stated
to have looked westward and not eastward (vers. 1, 2,
see
supra), marked as the offspring of
imagination, and not
of
Biblical exegesis.
12. BALAAM'S THIRD SPEECH. XXIV. 3-9.
3.
And he took up his parable and said,
So speaketh Balaam, the son of Beor,
And so speaketh the man of unclosed
eye;
4.
So speaketh lie who hea.reth the words
of God,
He who seeth the vision of the Al-
mighty,
Prostrate and with opened eyes
5.
How goodly are thy tents, 0 Jacob,
Thy tabernacles, 0
6.
As valleys that are spread out,
As gardens by the river's side
As aloe trees which the Lord hath
planted,
As cedars beside the water.
7.
Water floweth from his buckets,
And his seed is by many waters;
BALAAM'S THIRD
SPEECH. 221
And his king is higher than Agag,
And his kingdom is exalted.
8.
God brought him forth out of
He hath the fleetness of the buffalo.
He devoureth nations, his enemies,
And crusheth their bones,
And pierceth with his arrows.
9.
He couchette, he lieth down like a lion
And like a lioness, who shall stir
him up?
Blessed are those that bless thee,
And cursed those that curse thee.
Twice has God, descending to Balaam, ‘put
words in
his
mouth';a but now, when another utterance is de-
manded,
Balaam strives to rise up to God. In delivering
the
two former prophecies, therefore, he was no more
than
a favoured instrument, but in giving forth the third,
he
is invested with all the attributes of an inspired inter-
preter
reter of Divine decrees which he unravels by the light
of
a more than ordinary discernment. As the import of
Balaam's
speeches advances from stage to stage, so also
his
own gifts and privileges; and he is now seized by
the
true power of prophecy so perfectly and so completely,
that,
while he seems to speak in strains of unfettered
independence,
he yet says nothing 'of his own mind,'b
and
that his human powers are not merely merged in his
office,
but have become one with the Divine spirit.
Therefore,
he may now introduce himself with all the
usual
designations of a chosen messenger of God, who
fully
compasses the depth of the words he pronounces, be-
cause
he reads the Divine revelations with his own ‘opened
eyes,'
and expounds them with his own ‘unclosed vision;
who,
when he receives celestial manifestations, is able to
a xxiii. 5, 16. b
ver. 13.
222 NUMBERS
XXIV. 3-9.
fathom
them with certainty and to explain them without
diffidence,
because the humility with which he bowsa be-
fore
fore God, lifts him up to His knowledge and wisdom.
Therefore,
in the poet's intention--for it is his concep-
tions
tions into which we are endeavouring to enter, in order
to
illustrate the consummate art and unity of his compo-
sition--it
is no pride, no ‘boastful vanity,’ which prompts
him
, to begin his prophecy, 'So speaketh (Mxun;) Balaam,
the
son of Beor,' and to make this equivalent to 'So
speaketh
the Lord,' whose spirit is in him. Such terms
could
no more strike Hebrew readers as conceited gran-
diloquence
than the words of king David, which, written
probably
not long after these prophecies, seem to be an
imitation
of this passage, 'So speaketh (Mxun;) David, the
son
of Jesse, and so speaketh the man who was raised up
on
high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet
minstrel.
of
through
me, and His word is on my tongue';b and at no
time
did the men of God hesitate to set forth their un-
common
endowments and superior enlightenment with the
most
emphatic assurance.c Appropriate, indeed, is such
higher
tone in this speech, the last that is directly de-
voted
to
called
the combination and the seal of the two previous
oracles.
It blends the idyllic peace of the first with the
martial
challenge of the second; it extends the one,
strengthens
the other, and then hastens to that utterance
with
regard to
principle
of Divine government, and to which the whole
narrative
gravitates as to its centre, ‘Blessed are those
that
bless thee, and cursed are those that curse thee.'d
As if carried away by the imposing
aspect of
spreading
hosts, the prophet addresses them, exclaiming
a
lpeno,
vers. 4, 16. xlix. 1, 2 ; l. 4; Ps. xlix. 2-5 (see
b 2 Sam. xxiii.
1, 2. Hupfeld,
in loc.); Gal. i. 11; 2 Cor.
c Comp. Deut.
xxxii. 1, 2; Isa. xi. 1 sqq., etc. d Ver. 9.
BALAAM'S THIRD
SPEECH. 223
‘How
goodly are thy tents, 0 Jacob, thy tabernacles, O
deed
the scene which, on the eminence of Peor, met
Balaam's
gaze glancing over the wide plains of
but,
at the same time, they bring before our mind, by
poetical
imagery, the exquisite abodes of the Hebrews in
the
their
populous towns. Balaam, however, soon remembers
that
his speech is not meant for
of
anxiety.
Therefore, changing the form, though not the
ten.our
of his words, he passes to a calmer description, in
which
Balak, if he has at length learnt wisdom, is to
read
his fate. He first pictures the Hebrews in peace--
the
large extent of their territory, 'as valleys that are
spread
out'; their flourishing and well-established pros-
perity,
'as gardens by the river's side'; their happy and
cheerful
enjoyment of life, 'as aloe trees which the Lord
hath
planted'; and their enduring and indestructible
strength,
‘as cedars beside the water'; in a word, the
high
tide of their blessings which stream freely in all
directions
‘water floweth from his buckets’; and which
are
shared by an equally successful and favoured posterity
--‘his
seed is by many waters.’
Nothing could impress the idea of felicity
and welfare
upon
the king of
Israelites
more gratefully, than this constant allusion to d
water.
Both the one and the others understood well what it
means,
‘I will give you rain in due season,’ and what, on
the
other hand, ‘I will make your heaven as iron and
your
earth as brass.’a They knew that when
was
called ‘a land of delight,’ or ‘a land of glorious
beauty’
and ‘the choicest of all countries,’ it was espe-
cially
because
fountains
and lakes that spring out of valleys and hills’;
a Lev. xxvi. 4,19; comp.
Jer. xiv. 1-6; Joel i. 18-20.
224 NUMBERS
XXIV. 3-9.
a
land that ‘drinks water of the rain of heaven.’a And
when
a later prophet addressed
upon
him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground
...
and thy descendants shall spring up as among the
grass,
as willows by the water courses;'b or when a
gifted
Psalmist described the wealth and glory of Jeru-
thee;'c
they intimated to their hearers and readers the
inexhaustible
abundance of boons allotted to them, no
more
forcibly or more intelligibly than Balaam did with
the
words, ‘Water floweth from his buckets, and his
seed
is by many waters.'d They are all familiar and
pleasing
images vividly calling forth the ideas of ease
and
comfort, of wealth and plenty; but while the sombre
and
majestic cedar, with its far-extending, broad, and
roof-like
branches, conveys the notions of dignity and
protection,
of unshaken security and permanence; the
bright
and. delicate blossoms and the fragrant resin of
the
aloe plant conjure up the graces and amenities of
life,
which, as ‘God has planted them,’ are no less lasting
than
lovely.
But all this individual and social
prosperity is not to
be
purchased by an inglorious obscurity. It is coupled
with
the highest political power and splendour. It is
the
fruit of famous wars and brilliant victories. It does
a Deut. viii. 7;
xi. 11, 14; xxxiii. A,line 7, etc.; seeRecordsof thePast,
13;
Ezek. xx. 6; Jer. iii. 19; Joel v. 25, 29, 54, 73, 7 6 (‘flowing
waters
ii.
21-24; iv. 18; Dan. viii. 9; xi. giving pleasure to the people,’ etc.).
In
16;
Ps. 1xv. 10, 11; comp. Ezek. the 'Great Harris Papyrus' (Plate 3,
xlvii.
1-12; .tech. xiv. 8. § 6) we find the expressive
prayer of
b Isa. xliv. 3,
4. king
Ramses III.: 'Give breath to
c Ps. lxxxvii. 7. my
nostril, water to my soul' (Rec.
d Comp. Ps.
lxxiii. 10; lxxxiv. 7. vi. 26) ; and the Egyptian writings
On
Assyrian inscriptions, rain, most abound
with praises of the
devoutly
prayed for, is called 'the which
they describe as 'giving life
joy
of the year,' and the god Rim- to
mon
bears the name of 'Lord of light
to every home, the creator of
Canals';
comp. Inscript. of Tigi.- all
good things' (Ibid. iv. 107-114;
pi1.
i. § 49; Black Obelisk lnscript. vi.
51).
BALAAM'S THIRD
SPEECH. 225
not
engender effeminacy, but affords the means for the in-
domitable
defence of possessions acquired by sanguinary
struggles,
and thus renders the Israelites unapproach-
able.
A kingdom has been established mightier than
that
of the proud and hated Amalekites who, alone of
all
nations, ventured to attack the Hebrews in their toil-
some
wanderings through the wilderness, but who more
than
once succumbed to their valiant arms.a That king-
dom
has not ‘come up in a night,’ but is the sure growth
of
centuries. It has its strong roots in those early con-
quests
and successes to which the miraculous deliverance
from
impulse
and the confidence, the courage and the vigour.
As
it has been founded, so it can only maintain itself, by
bitter
and implacable severity against its enemies, whom
it
has striven and has proved able to hurl down, to
crush,
or to exterminate. Therefore,
the
lion, whom, couching with his prey, no one dares to
assail
or to provoke.
To what time does this description
apply so well as to
that
of David ? Indeed, it hardly suits any other. It was
only
towards the end of David's reign, that there prevailed
in
ance,
inspired by the apprehension of losing, through the
animosity
and revenge of keen-eyed foes, the precious
boons
obtained with unspeakable labour and danger. And
to
David himself applies almost literally what is here said
of
Israel: 'He devoureth the nations, his enemies, and
crusheth
their bones, and pierceth with his arrows.'
The
Biblical accounts do not conceal the great rigour,
nay
the fearful cruelty, with which David, in accordance
with
the barbarous usages of his age or of Eastern
conquerors
generally, treated his vanquished opponents.b
a See notes on
ver. 20. note d; although the kings of
b Comp. Num. xvi.
14; Judg. xvi. bore in this respect a favourable re-
21;
2 Ki. viii. 12; xxv. 7; Isa. putation: 'We have heard that the
xiv.
17; Am. i. 3, 13; ii. 1; Ps. kings of the house of
cxxxvii.
9, etc.; see supra, p. 37, ful
kings' (ds,H, ykel;ma), 1 Ki. xx. 31.
226 NUMBERS
XXIV.
More
unpitying he appears from those records than
Gideon
in the savage period of the Judges, who threatened
the
princes and elders of Succoth, that 'he would thresh
their
flesh with the thorns of the wilderness and with
briers,'
and carried out the threat;a and more inexorable
than
Samuel, who ‘hewed Agag in pieces before the
Lord
in Gilgal.’b For however strong and painful our
repugnance,
a sound interpretation cannot avoid under-
standing,
in a literal sense the following words, which
conclude
the account of David's capture of Rabbah in
Ammon:
‘And he brought forth the people that were
therein,
and put them under saws, and under threshing
wains
of iron, and under axes of iron, and made them
pass
through the brick-kiln,' after which the text adds,
‘And
thus did he to all the cities of the children of Am-
mon.’c
As if to render doubt impossible, the
Chronicler,
generally
so eager to palliate the offences of his favourites,
makes
indeed no reference to the brick-kilns, because he
seems
unwilling to challenge a comparison between
David,
the anointed, and a later king of
who
‘burnt the bones of the king of
and
was, for this inhuman ferocity, menaced by the
prophet
Amos with God's direst anger and punishment;d
but
he, the Chronicler, observes distinctly, that David
‘cut
the Ammonite captives asunder with sawse and with
threshing
wains of iron and with axes,’f deeds that are
also
imputed to a merciless king of
and
the frenzied Jewish soldiers in the revolt under
Trajan.g
But we have David's own testimony
partially
coinciding
with our text even in words. For in a
Psalm
to
which no careful critic has yet denied the authorship,
a Judg. viii. 7,
16. g
Amos i. 3, tvcrHb Mwvd-lf
b 1 Sam. xv. 33. dflgh-tx
lzrbh;
Sueton. Caligul.
c 2 Sam,. xii.
31; comp. viii. 2, 4; c. 27, ‘multos
honesti ordinis
1
Chr. xviii. 4. medios serra dissecuit’;
Lion Cass.,
d Am. ii. 1-3. lxviii.
32,
pollou>j de> kai> me<souj
hrgmb rWayA.va a]po> korufh?j die<prion; see Comm.
1
Chr. xx. 3. on Lev. i. p. 411.
BALAAM'S THIRD
SPEECH. 227
or
at least the spirit, of David, he says, ‘I have pursued
my
enemies and overtaken them, nor did I turn again
till
they were consumed; I pierced them (MceHAm;x,) so
that
they were not able to rise ... and I crushed them
(Mteymic;xa) that hated me
... I pounded them small
(MqeHAw;x,v;) as the dust
before the wind, I cast them out as
the
dirt in the streets.'a Thus
Balaam's words stand
forth
in all their terrible significance: 'He devoureth
the
nations, his enemies, and crusheth their bones, and
pierceth
with his arrows.'b
Is such unrelenting fierceness compatible
with that
extreme
refinement otherwise: so prominent in this com-
position?
Both qualities are here as surprisingly united
as
they were in the character of David himself, who is
justly
called ‘the sweet minstrel of
joined
in the wonderful Song of Deborah, which strangely
couples
wild exultation at the murder of a sleeping
guest
with the most exquisite tenderness in the descrip-
tion
of an anxious and trembling mother--a significant
warning
that esthetic culture alone is insufficient, and
that
art must be supplemented by moral elements to
shield
it alike against callousness and effeminacy.
The monumental records of Eastern
monarchs are, for
the
most part, catalogues of campaigns, in which we
again
and again meet the phrases, 'I threw down the
cities'--the
numbers added are often prodigious, two
hundred
or five hundred, and even one thousand two
hundred
being mentioned on single occasions--or ‘I dug
them
up, ravaged, destroyed, and consumed them with
fire,'
so that ‘the smoke of their burning like a mighty
cloud
obscured the face of high heaven;’ or ‘I reduced
them
to heaps of rubbish and left them in ruins,’ and 'in
every
direction I made the land a wilderness,’c which
a Ps. xviii.
38-43, comp. Hitzig, c Comp. Isa. xiv. 17, where
it is
Delitzsch,
and Hupfeld in loc. said of the king of
b Comp. xxiii.
24; xxiv. 17. ‘kv
rBAd;m.ika lbeTe
228 NUMBERS
XXIV. 3-9.
may
well be understood when we learn that corn fields
were
sown with thistles and made the abode of serpents
and
wild beasts from the desert,a that the wells of drink-
ing
water were dried up,b and fruit and forest trees cut
down
or burnt.c As regards their enemies, the conquerors
constantly
boast that they ‘scattered theirr corpses like
rubbish,’
or ‘clay,’ or ‘water,’ or ‘chaff,’ ‘threw them
down
in the dust,’ or ‘cut them down like grass.’ They
punished
captives of war by tearing out their tongues
lips,
noses, or eyes, or cutting off their hands and feet.
They
chained them up together with dogs and other
ferocious
animals,d or threw them alive into pits ‘among
stone
lions and bulls;'e flayed,f crucified,g
impaled,h
burned,i
or starved them to death;k and they not only
‘erected
pyramids of heads' and ‘built up their corpses
into
piles,’l but also built up in this manner ‘the bodies
while
yet alive.’m Sometimes fuller descriptions are given,
of
which the following specimen will suffice, forming the
conclusion
of a very spirited account of Sennacherib's
great
battle of Khaluli, recorded on the ‘Taylor Cylinder:’
My
faultless horses, yoked to my chariot, stepped slowly
through
the deep pools of blood; the wheels of my
a Records of the
Past, i. 28, 88. h Ibid. iii. 47, 62, 68,
73, 95..
b Ibid. i. 86, etc. i
I consigned 3,000 of their cap-
c Ibid. iii. 40, 62, 76, 96, etc.; lives
to the flames' (Ibid. iii. 49);
comp.
Isa. x. 34; xxxvii. 24. One 'The sons and daughters of their
of
the titles of king Assur-nasir-pal nobles
I burned for holocausts'
is
‘destroyer of iorests and cities’ (Ibid.
p. 85), etc.
(Rec.
iii. 79), and Tiglath-pileser II. k
Ibid. iii. 68.
glories,
'The groves of palm-trees ' l Ibid. iii. 49, 52, 85-88, etc.;
I
cut down, I did not leave one' comp. 2 Ki. x. 8.
(Ibid. v. 104) ; see, on the other m Ibid. iii. 50, 57, 61. Tamerlane,
hand,
the considerate command in A. C.
1387, 'built up a living pyra-
Deut.
xx. 19, 20). mid of 2,000 people with mortar,
d Ibid. i.'93, 94, 100; iii. 113. like
stores'; comp.Van-Lennep, Bible
e Ibid. i. '78, 80. Lands,
ii. 691, 692, 743-747. Who
f Ibid. i. 101; iii. 45, 47; comp. is
not, alas! reminded of recent
2
Macc. vii. 7; Mic. iii. 1. 'atrocities'--intra inuros... et extra?
g Ibid. iit.. 42, etc. Rec.
iii. 4C-.52, 54, 56, 62, etc.
BALAAM'S THIRD
SPEECH. 229
chariot,
as it swept away the slain and the fallen, were
clogged
with blood and flesh; the heads of their soldiers
I
salted and stuffed them into great wicker baskets.'a
And
having specified all these horrors, the monarchs often
triumphantly
wind up their inscriptions with some such
sentence
as, 'By these things I satisfied the hearts of the
great
gods my lords.'b
Seeing in his words nothing else but
the praise of
addresses
them again, as he had done at the beginning,
and
declares not merely that the Hebrews, blessed by God,
are
subject to no human imprecation, but he exclaims
‘Blessed
are those that bless thee, and cursed those that
curse
thee’--impressing upon the king of
terror,
that the malediction which he had desired to call
down
upon
Balak
had believed that he was fighting against a nation
like
all other nations, but he found, to his dismay, that
he
had hazarded an impotent warfare against an omni-
potent
God.
This is the only metaphysical notion
contained in the
speech.
It is the natural complement of the idea of
also
in the accounts of the patriarchal promises.c Yet
even
that dogma admits the intelligible meaning, that he
who
turns to
a Inscript. col.
v., lines 80-85; etc.--Comparatively very rare are
Rec.
i. 49. phrases like, ‘I,
Assur-bani-pal, of
b Ibid. i. 78, 93, etc. The ‘Moabite generous heart, forgiver of sin'; ‘he
Stone'
(lines 11, 12, 16), after re- trusted
to the goodness of my heart';
lating
that king Mesha slew all tie ‘I granted favour or grace'; ‘I had
captured
Israelites, adds that he did mercy
on him and washed out his
this
for the delight of Chemosh and rebellion’;
or, not without a cer-
Rec.
i. 63, 70, 71, 84, 87, 101; ii. learn the worship of the great gods
32
; iii. 40, 41, 44, 62, 76, 87, 107; from
my city of
iv.
45, 46: v. 9, sqq., 58, 96; vi. 77, 90; iii. 95, 117; v. 17).
19,
91; vii. 25-56 passiom, 63, 64, c
Gen. xxvii. 29; xii. 2, 3.
230 NUMBERS
xxiv. 3-9.
he
who opposes
and
depravity. In every other point, the oracle so clearly
breathes
the purest and simplest humanity, that it seems
to
move in the sphere of art and history, rather than of
religion
and doctrine.
PHILOLOGICAL
REMARKS.--While in the first two speeches
the
poet depicts the destinies of the Hebrews and their rela-
tions
to God in general outlines, he portrays, in the third, more
fully,
his own age--the time of
and
power. Indeed, looking at the introductory or idyllical
portion
of the address (vers. 5-7), we might even be tempted
to
apply the description to Solomon's reign, when '
and
under
his fig tree from Dan to Beer-sheba' (1 Ki. v. 5; comp.
Mic.
iv. 4; Zech. iii. 10; 2 Ki. xviii. 31), and when ‘they
were
numerous as the sand which is by the sea, eating and
drinking
and making merry' (1 Ki. iv. 20), if the second
part
did not too clearly speak of armament, war, and conquest,
(p.
43; comp. 2 Sam. vii. 10; Ps. lxxxix. 23-28; 1 Chr. xiv.
2,
etc.). We accept it as no mean confirmation of our histo-
rical
analysis, that one of the ablest and most consistent
of
modern apologists arrived at the result: 'As the state-
ments
in ver. 8 were realised under David, so the declaration
in
ver. 9 found its fulfilment under Solomon' (Hengstenb.,
Bil.,
p.
155). There is nothing that compels us to refer the de-
scription
to Saul's time; for David also fought successfully
against
the Amalekites (2 Sam. viii. 12); and the words 'his
kingdom
shall be exalted,' are little suitable to Saul, whose
royal
authority declined, if it did not practically cease, after
his
victory over the Amalekites.--Many interpreters have
employed
the strongest terms of censure to condemn Balaam's
prefatory
sentences (e.g. Calvin, eum ad se jactandum impulit
a
fastus et ambitio .... elogiis se ornat, quibus propheticum
munus
sibi arroget, etc.)--an injustice both to the author
and
his composition.--It is as inappropriate to force upon the
designation
'Balaam, the son of Beor' a deeper significance
as
to take these and the following words as a part of the
narrative,
so that the speech would only begin with ver. 5
BALAAM'S THIRD
SPEECH. 231
(so
Philo, Vit. Mos. i. 52).--MxunA, that which is
uttered or utter-
ance,
the ordinary term introducing prophetic or Divinely
inspired
speech (Mxn
being cognate with Mhn and hmh, to
speak
in a low or murmuring voice), is always used in the
constr.
state MxunA,
commonly hOAhy Mxun; speech or revelation of
Jahreh
(of which Mxun;
in Jer. xxiii. 31 is elliptical), very often
occurring
in the three greater prophets and in Amos and
Zechariah,
occasionally in the Pentateuch (besides this pas-
sage
in Gen. xxii. 16; Num. xiv. 28), but very rarely with
the
human speaker or author following, as here MfAl;Bi Mxun;
(vers.
3, 15), dviDA Mxun; (2 Sam. xxiii. 1), and rb,G,ha
Mxun;
(Prov.
xxx.
1), that is, only in old or archaic compositions, written at
periods
when hvhy Mxun; had not yet become a fixed and almost
technical
expression, and when a combination as fwaP, Mxun;,
a
speech concerning wickedness (Ps. xxxvi. 2) was still possible
(comp.
Isa..v. 1, ydiOD traywi, a song concerning my friend). The
translation
‘speech (of God) to Balaam’ is not countenanced
by
any analogy. The rarer appellation for prophecy xWA.ma, from
xWAnA, sc. lOq, on the
contrary, a speech delivered with up-
lifted
voice (Isa. xxi. 1, 11, 13; Nah. i. 1; Hab. i. 1; comp.
Jer.
xxiii. 31 and 34); though, of course, in either case the
etymological
signification was gradually effaced, and no such
shade
of meaning is implied in the most frequent phrase
hvhy tbaDi.—OnB;, see on xxiii.
18.—NyifahA Mtuw; can only be ‘with
unclosed
eye,’ analogous to Myinayfe yUlG; (ver. 4), 'with
opened
eyes,'
an intelligible metaphor employed in various modifica-
tions
(comp. Ps. xl. 7, ‘Thou hast opened--tAyriKA--my ears’;
cxix.
18, ‘open--lGa--my eyes'; Gen. iii. 5, etc.). In the
Mishnah
(Avod. Zar. v. 3, 4), the verb Mtw is employed
side
by
side with nnD as its opposite, viz. Mtsyv Mtwyw ydk ‘while
he
opens (or bores) a hole and stops it again’ (explained by
Barten.,
bqnh Mtsyv rzHyv .... bqn bqyw yDk); and in this
sense
translate
Targ. Onk. (yzeHA ryPiwad;, seeing
clearly), Syr. ( xylgd
hnyf, whose eye is unveiled), Samar. Vers. (htvzH
Mydz),
Saad.,
Kimchi (Nyfh
Hvtp),
Sept. (a]lhqinw?j o[rw?n), and the
greater part
of
ancient and modern interpreters. But many, following
some
Greek versions and the Vulgate (e]mpefragme<noi, cujus
obturatus
est oculus), and urging the analogy of MtawA with
MtasA and MtaWA (Lam. iii. 8),
to close or to stop, translate, 'with
232 NUMBERS
XXIV. 3-9.
closed eye,' and
explain this very variously to mean either
that
Balaam's eyes had, up to that time, been blind with
respect
to the true nature and essence of things (Abarban.),
or
to future events, and especially the destinies of
(Deyling, Lengerke); or, on the contrary,
that they could see
hidden
things (Calv., se pollere arcanis
visionibus); or that
they
were unable to perceive the angel on the road (Cleric.);
or
that 'Balaam described himself as the man with closed eye
in
reference to that state of ecstasy during which the shutting
of
the outward senses goes hand in hand with the opening of
the
inward faculties,' so that we must consider Balaam to
have
pronounced all his prophecies with closed eyes' (Heng-
stenb.,
Baunagart., Oehler, Kurtz, Hupfeld, Rodiger, Bunsen, and
others).
But, if so, why did Balak make such scrupulous
efforts
that Balaam should see the Hebrews during his utter-
antes,
the first times a part of them, and the third time the
whole
people? That explanation is a branch of the same
strong
stem of invidious prejudice which yielded the corres-
ponding
ponding conception of the entire piece. 'With men like
Balaam,'
it is asserted, 'who was on a low level of spiritual
life,
the closing of the eyes was the necessary condition of
their
opening; the spirit could only disclose itself by with-
drawing
him, the defiled heathen, from the staining influences
of
the baser world' (Hengstenb., Bil.,
pp. 137-139). But what
did
Balaam see, when he opened his eyes? That people,
which
he extolled as the purest, noblest, and most pious.
Yet
here again--it might. seem incredible--recourse is taken
to
'second sight.' ‘Balaam,’ so says a follower of the author
just
quoted, having his outward eyes closed, as is the case
with
second sight, beheld the meaning of the Divine revela-
tions
with his mental eye opened' (Keil
Num., p. 317). The
Rabbins
understand indeed Mvtw as 'unclosed,' but infer
from
the singular NyifahA, the one eye which was opened, that
Balaam
was blind on the other eye (Talm.
Sanhedr., 105a and
Rashi in loc.; see supra, p. 31; but comp. MyinAyfe
yvlgv,
ver. 4).
--yDawa, the Almighty (ver. 4), is here used for yDiwa
lxe (Gen.
xvii.
1; :xxviii. 3; Exod. vi. 3, etc.), as in the contemporary
Book
of Ruth (i. 20, 21), in the Book of Job (v. 17; vi. 4,
14;
viii. 3, etc.), and some other poetical compositions (Gen.
BALAAM'S THIRD
SPEECH. 233
xlix.
25; Isa. xiii. 7 ; Ezek. i. 24; Joel i. 15 ; Ps. xci. 1),
because
it is pithier, not because the latter term was deemed
too
sacred in connection with Balaam, as some have supposed
(Herder, 'machtige Geister,' etc.). --The
word lpeno falling down,
may
possibly refer to those violent trances which overcame
inspired
persons, and. during which they ' fell down on the
ground'
and prophesied; and though such remarkable affec-
tions
are not recorded with regard to Samuel himself, we
learn
that they seized his disciples in his presence (compare
1
Sam. xix. 24, MrofA lPoy.iva). But hence it
does not follow that
that
word retained exactly the same meaning in all times.
As
ma<ntij (of mai<nomoi) is properly a
'maniac,' and yet no one
easily
figured to himself the venerable seer Tiresias as
raving
and raging when he was called a mantij; so the
Hebrews,
setting aside the original and literal sense of lpeno,
and
merely preserving its deeper or essential signification,
may
very soon have understood it of a seer or prophet in
general,
as here indeed lpeno is co-ordinated with Mynyf
yvlg
Similar
modifications in the meaning of words are natural
and
frequent; so, for instance, was syrisA properly
eunuch,
later
employed for official generally,
because, at first, all offi-
cials
were eunuchs (see Comm, on Gen., p. 617); and the
Arabic
writer, El Kifti, observes with respect to Aristotle:
for
about twenty years he poured water on the hands of
Plato,'
meaning that Aristotle was Plato's disciple, because,
in
the East, that duty devolves on disciples, as is recorded of
Ehsha,
'who poured water on the hands of Elijah' (2 Ki. iii.
11;
compare the phrases ' to be brought up' or 'to sit at the
feet'
of somebody, Luke x. 39; Acts xxii. 3, etc.). It seems
impossible
to represent to ourselves the writer of these calm
and
thoughtfully measured prophecies as a man who 'in the
moment
of supreme frenzy feels himself grasped by the
mighty
hand of Jahveh and hurled to the ground' (Ewald),
‘lying
there like dead' (Bunsen); much less
is it permitted
to
draw from that word lpeno the inference that Balaam's pro-
phecying
assumed such a vehement form because 'it found
him
in an unripe state' (Hengstenb.). It
is not even necessary
to
bring the terms lpn and Mynyf yvlg into the relation
of cause
and
effect, as has frequently been done (Syr.,
'when he falls
234 NUMBERS
XXIV. 3-9.
down—xmr
dk--his
eyes are opened'; Vulg., qui cadit et
sic
aperiuntur
oculi ejus; Luth., Michael., dem die
Augen geoffnet
werden,
wenn er niederkniet ; similarly Onk.,
Calinet, Herd,
Ewald, and others);
and it is certainly questionable to place
them
in juxtaposition (Rashi, in old MSS.,
‘although he falls
down
... yet his eyes are open'; Engl. Vers.,
falling into a
trance,
but having his eyes open; Keble, ‘thy tranc'd yet open
gaze,'
etc.) It is enough that lpeno recalled, in the then familiar
phraseology,
the idea of prophetic inspiration, and perhaps
also
implies that humble submission with which Balaam
listened
to the Divine suggestions--though not awestruck and
overwhelmed
by a special vision (as in Ezek. i. 28 ; iii. 23,
xliii.
3; Dan. viii. 17, 18; x. 9, 15; comp. Rev. i. 17); for not
from
without, but by his own spiritual elevation, did Balaam
learn
God's will and decree. Jonathan., in his copious para-
phrase,
renders lpeno
twice--'who, because he was not circum-
cised,
fell upon his face when the angel
stood before him,'
and
'he fell upon his face, and the
sacred mysteries hidden
from
the prophets were revealed to him' ; and Targ. Jerus.,
'prostrate on his face,'
and 'lie prophesied that he would fall
by
the sword.' The addition of the Sept e]n
u!pn& is
certainly
unjustifiable
(comp. Saad., XXX XXX; Luzzatto, in sonno pro-
fetico).--The
parallelism in ver. 4, it must be admitted, is
strikingly
inferior to that of almost every other sentence in
Balaam's
genuine prophecies (see infra, on
ver. 8); it consists
of
three rather irregular and monotonous members, the
mutual
relation of which is not clear, and which include the
prosaic
particle found nowhere else in these speeches.
But
of the most perfect structure is the sixteenth verse, which
corresponds
to the fourth, and which, by offering the words
Nvylf tfd fdyv instead of rwx, forms two
excellent synonym
parallelisms
of a truly poetical character; it might, there-
fore,
be supposed with some confidence that ver. 4 should be
read
like ver. 16. This point, unessential in itself, obtains
importance
as one of the proofs of the corruptions and inter-
polations
discoverable in this section (p. 41).—j~yl,hAxo (ver.
5)
points to the Israelites as Balaam sees them encamped
before
him, while jytnkwm aptly leads over to the people
domiciled
in Canaan and to their future fortunes.--As lHana
BALAAM'S THIRD
SPEECH. 235
(ver.
6) is originally a river, and then a valley through which
a
river flows (a Wady or watercourse; Germ.,
Quellthal),
that
word also brings before the mind the agreeable notion
of
water designedly repeated in this passage again and
again
(Lowth, Sacr. Poes., xx., fitly and
elegantly, 'ut rigua
vallis
fertilem pandens sinum'); yet the parallelism of tOn.gaK;
does
not favour the translation like str, ams' (the Targ., Syr.,
Gr. Yen.,
Rosenm., Zunz, Luzzatto, and others).--Before UyF.ni
the
relative rwx
is to be supplied--like valleys that are spread
out;'
we cannot take vyFn as a principal verb, 'they are
spread
out
like valleys,' as in the whole of this speech the singular
is
used in reference to Israel, and it seems less suitable to
take
'the tents' as subject (inaccurately, Sept.,
w[sei> na<pai
skia<zousai; Vulg., ut valley nemorosae, etc.).—UyF.Ani the past
of
Niphal (comp. Jer. vi. 4; Zech. i. 16), instead of 1t), the
original
y
of hFn re-appearing,
as is not seldom the case
(comp.
hyAFAnA, Ps. lxxiii. 2, Keri;
see Gram., § lxvii. 1. a). The
Samar.
Text has yfFn
plantations (like well-planted
valleys)
lanted
vsome MSS. read yvFn extended
or spread out (is Israel); and
the
Targ. render freely in accordance
with their acceptation
of
MyliHAn; (viz., NyriB;DamiD; and NyriB;Gat;miD;).
If we consider, on the one hand, the
connection in which
the
MylihAxE are here mentioned, and on the other hard, the
graphic
distinctness of this description in every detail, we
can
hardly doubt that the MylihAxE were not less familiar to the
Hebrews
and not less indigenous in their country than the
cedars,
with which they are named in conjunction. It
seems,
therefore, most natural to understand some of the
many
varieties of the aloe, a succulent
plant of the genus
asphodalus,
frequently found in Palestine, Arabia, and other
countries
adjoining the Mediterranean, and often growing
into
stately trees with stems twenty to twenty-five feet high,
and
presenting a palm-like appearance. The most common
species--aloe succotrina--has numerous tufts of light-green,
lanceolate
and thorny leaves, from the midst of which, on
long,
separate stalks, rises a cluster of bright orange-yellow
blossoms
(whence perhaps the name, from lhaxA to shine, Job
xxv.
5). The inspissated sap prepared from this plant
hardens
in the air, has a myrrh-like odour (Cant. iv. 14)
236 NUMBERS
XXIV.3-9
and
a spicy taste, and was, together with myrrh, used for
the
fumigation of garments and beds (Ps. xlv. 9; Prov. vii.
17)
and abundantly placed in graves as a protection against
decay
(John xix. 39). It is, therefore, unnecessary, if it is
not
inadmissible, here to identify the Mylhx with the
Agallo-
chum
(a]ga<lloxon or culalo<h), the product
of a resinous tree,
which
grows in China, western India, and some of the
Indian
isles, and about which there exists a very extensive
though
still rather confused literature (comp. Dioscorid.,
i. 21;
iii.
25; Celsius, Hierobotan., i. 135-171;
Gesenius, Thesaur.
p.
33; Royle in Kitto's Cyclop., i. pp. 94-97; Rosenm.,
Morgenl.,
ii.
280, 281, etc.). It is, however, not impossible that that
wood,
at a later period introduced in Palestine under its
native
name of aghil, was designated by the
Hebrews with
the
similar word ahal, since it has
several qualities in common
with
the indigenous ahal; therefore, where, in the later Books,
this
term is mentioned, it may likewise mean that foreign
product.--Some
earlier translators do not render MylihAxE but
MylihAxI tents (Sept., w[sei> skhnai> a{j e@phce ku<rioj; Vulg., taber-
nacula;
Samar. Vers., Mynkwm;
Syr., Saad., Luther, Hutten,
etc.),
which is made more than doubtful by the parallelism of
MylihAxI cedars, though the verb fFn: is also used
in connection
with
tents (Dan xi. 45).
The aloe trees 'which God has planted'
are, like the
cedars
'which God. has planted' (Ps. civ. 16), pre-eminent in
excellence
and duration--and so are the Israelites, whom
God
has firmly established; this notion is included in the very
expression
'planting'; thus God says to the prophet Nathan,
'I
have given an abode to My people Israel and have
planted
them (vytfFnv), that they may dwell in a place of
their
own and be moved no more' (2 Sam. vii. 10; comp.
Amos
ix. 15; Jer. xxiv. 6; Ps. xliv. 3, etc.): that those
words
‘contain a reference to Paradise’ (Gen. ii. 8) is not
evident
(Lowth, Sacr. Poes., xx., 'Sacris
Edenae costi ut in
sylvis
virent,' and others); nor that they mean 'such trees as
grow
independently of the cultivation of man,' which, if
applied
to the people of Israel, would involve a questionable
simile.--As
all the four parts of the sixth verse are meta-
phors,
so also the first half of the seventh verse, 'water
BALAAM'S THIRD
SPEECH. 217
floweth
from his buckets,' etc.; for water is a common
figure
for happiness and abundance in general (comp. Isa.
xliv.
3; lxvi. 12; Ps. lxv„ 10, 11, etc.; Rashi,
hHlch Nvwl
xvh): the blessings of Israel will be as
copious as the water
of
full and overflowing buckets, and they will continue un-
diminished
in later generations--'and his seed is by many
waters'
(fraz,
for posterity, as in Gen. xvii. 19;
xlviii. 19; Ps.
xxxvii.
25, etc). Very languid is the sense, if, as is usually
done,
the words 'kv Mym lzy are taken
literally, viz., that the
wells
and cisterns of the Hebrews will always be supplied
with
water for themselves and their cattle, and that their
seed
(fraz,,
Gen. xlvii. 19; Lev. x.xvi. 5) will be irrigated by
abundant
showers (Coccej, Baumgart., Knob.,
and others;
Mendelss., sein Samen
fallt in feuchten Boden ; Ewald, seine
Saat
wird an reichen Wassern stehen , similarly Bunsen and
others).
This is to some extent already included in the pre-
ceding
verse, and forms but a part of the blessings which
the
Hebrews enjoy, since these blessings comprise, besides,
power,
glory, peace, and other boons. Still less acceptable is
the
opinion that water is here a metaphor for numerous
posterity
(comp. Isa, xlviii. 1; see also Deut. xxxiii. 28; Ps.
lxviii.
27; Nah. ii. 9)--'metaphors ab aqua de situla destil-
lante
ad semen virile translata' (Gesen.,
s. v.; Luth., sein
Saame
wird ein grosses Wasser werden; Michaelis,
Herder,
viele
Strome werden ihm Sohne sein; Rosenm.,
multos
procreabit
liberos, etc.): but how could Mybr Mymb vfrzv be
understood
and justified? The Sept., the Syriac translation,
and
the Targumim render the first half of the verse very
freely,
as if following a different reading, and connect it, in
sense,
with the second half--Sept., e]celeu<setai a@nqrwpoj e]k tou?
spe<rmatoj au]tou? kai>
kurieu<sei e]qnw?n pollw?n; similarly the Syr;
Onk., 'the king
anointed from his sons shall increase and
have
dominion over many nations'; Jonath.,
from them
their
King shall arise, and their Redeemer be of them, and
the
seed of the children of Jacob shall rule over many
nations';
while the Targ. Jerus. translates
plainly vtvklm
by
'the
Kingdom of the Messiah,' to which unwarranted con-
ception
Christian interpreters have given their assent (comp.
Origen,
In Num. Hom. xvii. 5, 6, and others), contending that, as
238 NUMBERS
XXIV.3-9
the
Hebrews arrived at their full power only by the estab-
lishment
of the monarchy, so ‘the monarchy realised its full
destination
only by the advent of the Messiah' (Hengstb.,
Bil.,
154; Keil, and others); or that this
King, 'after having
crushed
all enemies, will break his own arrows (ver. 8),
because
then all instruments of war shall have become un-
necessary'
(Lange, Bibelwerk, ii. 315).--lzanA to run, to flow, a
poetical
word occurring elsewhere also in the Pentateuch
(compare
Exodus xv. 8, and Deut. xxxii. 2), is occasionally
employed
in connection with lF dew
(Deut., 1. c.), or is
metaphorically
introduced in various ways (Cant. iv. 10;
Isa.
xlv. 8, etc.), but usually chosen in reference to Myima,
which
is here construed with the singular of the verb, as
elsewhere
also (Lev. xi. 34; Num. xx. 2 ; 2 Ki. iii. 9, etc.); a
translation.,
therefore, like 'rieseln wird er (Israel) vom
Wasser
seiner Eimer' (Ewald), is doubtful and needless.--
vyAl;DA his buckets (for vyyAl;DA, as vnABA, Deut. ii. 33,
etc., see Grain.,
§
xxx. 5. c) is by many taken as the dual of yliDA (for yliD; Isa.
xl.
15), buckets for drawing water being generally used and
carried
in pairs; but it may also be a shortened plural, like
Mynip;xA (Prov. xxv. 11), of Np,xo, and other
segolate nouns (see
Gram.,
§ xxiv. 5). The proper meaning of bucket yields here
a
suitable sense; it is unnecessary to take the word as clouds,
which,
like ‘the bottles (ylbn) of heaven' (comp. Job xxxviii. 37),
pour
down the water upon the earth (Ewald),
or as boughs,
equivalent
to tOy.liDA, Jer. xi. 16, etc. (so Kimchi, vypnf tHtm
Mym vlzy, Ebn Ezra, Bechai, Bunsen, and others).--The result
of
Israel's numerous and varied blessings will be that ‘their
king
shall be higher than Agag'; the conjunction v;, there-
fore,
in MrAyv;
denotes the consequence, but the verbs MroyA and
Mym vlzy are simple futures announcing
later events, and do not
express
a wish (Hengstb., erhabener sei; Knob., Keil, and
others).--It
is an unfounded assertion, dating from very early
times
and still extensively upheld, that Agag (ggaxE or ggAxE) is no
proi
er noun, but was an honorary title (supposed to mean
the
fiery, comp. XXX arsit; or the sublime,
comp. XXX altitudo)
and
belonged t o the kings of the Amalekitees5 generally
(Nachman., ggx xrqn
qlmf Mfb jlm lk,
and others), as Pharaoh
to
the kings of Egypt; or applied to a particular dynasty of
BALAAM'S THIRD
SPEECH. 239
the
Amalekite kings. The historical Books of the Old
Testament
mention only one King Agag, who was defeated
by
Saul and killed by Samuel (1 Sam. xv. 8, 9, 20, 32, 33),
and
to this Agag and none else can Balaam's prophecy refer
(comp.
Bechai in loc., jlm
ggx tx wpt xvhv lvxw xvh vklm
qlmf; so Kether
Torah, and others). None of the apologetic
devices
which, with noteworthy timidity, shrink from admit-
ting
the distinct prediction of historical names (as Agag and
Cyrus),
is of any avail (see, for instance, Hengstenb.,
Auth.
d.
Pentat, ii. 306-309 Bil., p. 149 comp., however, Men-
dells.
in loc.), and least of all is it possible to identify as
with
Ogyges, who led a Phoenician colony into Boeotia and
reigned
in Thebes, the ‘Ogygian’ town (Michael. in loc.;
Specileg.
Geogr., ii. 16, 17, etc.), which opinion has no other
support
than the reading gvgm for ggxm found in the Samari-
tan
text, and the corresponding version of the Sept. and
Symmachus
h} Gw<g, since in later
times Gog was frequently
employed
as the type of ;powerful and dangerous kings
(comp.
Ezek. xxviii., xxix.). It will merely be necessary to
mention
that this improbable explanation has been blended
with
the conjecture that ‘his king,’ in this passage, is God
Himself
(comp. xxiii. 21), so that the words under discussion
would
mean, ‘and Israel's God is higher or mightier than
Ogyges'
(Bunsen, Bibelwerk, v. 607)--a sense
which not
even
the desire of proving a favourite theory ought to have
forced
on the context (see supra, p. 47). But the Assyrian
King
Assur-bani-pal boldly declared in his deciphered ‘Annals’
(col.
vii., lines 9-18) that, 1,635 years before his time, he
had
by the gods been proclaimed by name as a future ruler
of
Assyria, and appointed to certain holy duties.--The Vulg.
renders,
'tolletur (MroyA) propter Agag rex ejus et
auferetur
(xWe.n.ativ; ) regnum illius
' a translation not permitted by the
verbs.—xW.en.ati, future of
Hithpael, instead of xW.enit;ti, as
UxW;.n.ayi (Dan. xi. 14), UxK;n.hi (Jer. xxiii.
13) for xW.enat;ti, etc.; see
Gram.,
§ xlvi. 8. b.--The noun tUkl;ma occurs indeed almost
exclusively
in the latest Books of the Hebrew Scriptures, as
the
Chronicles and Daniel, Ezra and Neherniah, Esther and
Ecclesiastes;
but this is no proof that it was never used in
earlier
times instead of the more frequent hkAlAm;ma (comp. Ps.
240 NUMBERS'
XXIV. 3-9.
xlv.
7; 1 Sam. xx. 31; 1 Ki. ii. 12, etc.); for, in the words
of
Horace, 'Multa renascentur qum jam cecidere, cadentque
Quae
nunc sunt in honore vocabula, si volet usus.'--However
strong
the expressions are, with which here (ver. 8) the
treatment
of Israel's vanquished enemies is described, they
do
not as has been confidently asserted, imply the abomination
of
human sacrifices (Ghillany,
Menschenopfer, pp. 770, 771;
see
Com. on Lev. i., pp. 410, 411, 415); for lkaxA is simply to
destroy,
especially enemies (comp. Jer. x. 25, where UhlukAxE is
joined
with Uhlu.kay;; xxx. 16 ;; li. 34; Deut. vii. 16; xxxi. 17;
Isa.
ix. 11, etc.), and is, therefore, used not only in connec-
tion
with fire, but also the sword, pestilence, and other
agencies
of destruction; and Mrg is most probably to crush
or
break bones (MreGe being a denominative verb of Mr,G, bone, as
Mc.ef, which is employed in the same
sense, is of Mc,f,; comp.
the
close parallel in Jer. 1. 17: ‘first the king of Assyria
devoured
him—OlkAxE--and
last the king of Babylon crushed
his
bones'—vmc;fi),
and then, in a wider sense, to break into
fragments
generally (Ezek. xxiii. 34; Sept., e]kmuliei?, he will
take
out the marrow; Vulg., confringent;
Luth., zernialmen;
Menahem ben
Saruk,
hrybw Nvwl, etc.). Less plausibly the verb
Mrg has been understood as gnawing the
bones (Gesen., De
Wette, Ewald, and others:
Ezek. xxiii. 24 is not conclusive,
and
does not counterbalance the clear analogy of MreGe and
Mc.efi; comp. Hace.Pi in Mic. iii. 3;
MraGA in
Zeph. iii. 3 is to reserve
a bone). ‘Devouring’
the enemies, ‘crushing their bones,’
and,
as has before been announced, 'drinking their blood,'
are
metaphors the more readily justified by remembering
that
they properly describe the prey of the lion introduced
immediately
afterwards (ver. 9). As these images are so
systematically
adhered to and carried out, it is indeed sur-
prising
to find them interrupted by words so heterogeneous
as
ChAm;yi vyc.AHiv;, which may either mean ‘and he (Israel)
pierces
with
his arrows' (CHm used absolutely, as in Deut. xxxii. 39;
Job.
v. 18; and the simple noun taken as the instrument
see
Gram., § 86. 4); or, ‘he pierces. them with his arrows’
(the
objective case omitted, Sept., kai> tai?j boli<sin au]tou?
katatoceu<sei e]xqro<n, the last word
being added; Vulg., et
perforabunt
sagittis, sc. ossa; Luth., und mit
seines Pfeilen
BALAAM'S THIRD
SPEECH. 241
zerschmettern,
etc.); or, 'he shatters their arrows' (viz., of
the
enemies, with an anallage in the suffix of vyc.AHiv;, instead of
comp.
Hos. i. 5); or, 'his arrows pierce' (viz., the
enemies,
the plural of the noun in vycHv taken
collectively,
comp.
ver. 9, jvrb jykrbm, and Gen. xxvii. 29; see Gram.
77.9);
or, as has been proposed, 'he shakes his arrows in
blood'
(Rashi, Gesen., Luzzatto, and others,
after the analogy
of
Ps. lxviii. 24, where, however, Iris is added, and where,
moreover,
CHAr;Ti is perhaps to be read instead of CHam;Ti). The
first
of these interpretations seems to deserve the preference
he
causes slaughter by his arrows' (comp. Ps. xviii. 39);
but
even this, we confess, appears hardly satisfactory, and
we
cannot help suspecting here, as in ver. 4, a corruption of
the
text; yet it would be hazardous to propose emendations,
as,
for instance, to read, instead of vyc>AHiv;, either vyc.AHav; (Michael.),
explained
after the Syriac xcH and
his thighs (Syr.Vers., yhvcHv,
and his back), or vycAlAHEva, and his loins (Gesen. Thesaur. p. 783), or
vycAHEmoU (Ewald, Jahrb. viii. 34,' and
die so ihn zerschellen, wird
er
zerschellen), or vymAqAv;. (Knob.; comp. Deut. xxxiii. 11), none of
which
conjectures seems to improve the rhythm or the sense.
For
it cannot be denied that the 8th verse in general is con-
structed
with an irregularity greatly contrasting with the usual
symmetry
of Balaam's oracles (p.178); and it is indeed surpris-
ingto
find here thewords' God brought him forth out of Egypt,
he
hath the fleetness of the buffalo,' reiterated from xxiii. 22
--a
repetition very different in character from another and
intelligible
one in this chapter (vers. 3, 4, and 15, 16), and
here
almost devoid of force and significance. It seems to
have
been. inserted by a later reader, who, after the mention
of
Agag, which clearly points to the time of Saul, considered
a
statement desirable which should distinctly lead back to the
period
of Moses. Thus also the greater grammatical correct-
ness
of those words in the passage before us may be accounted
for
(OxyciOm; for MxAycOm, p. 206).--Onkelos,
evidently anxious to
soften
the harshness of the prediction, renders the verse
freely:
'God, who brought them from Egypt, is mighty and
high,
and through Him shall Israel use the wealth of the
nations,
enjoy the spoils of their kings, and inherit their
lands.'--It
has been well observed: 'The image of the lion
242 NUMBERS
XXIV. 10-14.
has
here (ver. 9) not the same meaning as in xxiii. 24. In
the
previous prophecy, the lion goes out for his prey, and
has
not yet lain down; in the later speech, appears the
triumphant
lion after having couched, and in a majesty
which
no one dares any longer to approach' (Lange,
Bibel-
werk,
ii. 315). The author describes, in clear gradation,
Israel's
combats and victories; but while the former extended
through
all the earlier epochs of their history, the latter
were
at no time so conspicuous--at least not in the manner
here
depicted--as in the reign of David.
13.
BALAK'S ANGER AND BALAAM'S REPLY. XXIV. 10-14.
10. And Balak's anger was kindled
against
Balaam,
and he smote his hands together; and
Balak
said to Balaam, I called thee to curse my
enemies,
and behold, thou hast ever blessed them
these
three times. 11. Therefore now, flee thou
to
thy place; I thought to honour thee indeed,
but
behold, the Lord has kept thee back from
honour.
12. And Balaam said to Balak, Did I
not
also speak to thy messengers, whom thou
halt
sent to me, saying, 13. If Balak would
give
me his house full of silver and gold, I can-
not
not go against the command of the Lord, to do
either
good or bad of my own mind; but what
the
Lord says, that will I speak? 14. And now,
behold,
I go to my people; come, I will tell
thee,
what this people is destined to do to thy
people
in later days.
The tragical development of the story
is approaching
its
culmination. Rage, vexation, and despair struggle in ,
Balak's
heart. Even he is now certain that, after a
threefold
blessing has been pronounced upon Israel, he
BALAK'S
ANGER AND BALAAM'S REPLY. 243
must
no longer hope for a curse from Balaam's mouth.
But
against whom does he direct his wrath? Not
against
the God of the Hebrews, whose awful power
fills
his mind, in spite of himself, with a mysterious
horror,
but against the stubborn prophet, whose conduct
he
regards with amazement and burning indignation.
Agitated
by confusion and perplexity, he hardly knows
how
to act. Anger urges him to take revenge upon the
self-willed
traitor who so tenaciously and so ardently
sides
with rapacious invaders; but he is checked not
only
by fear of the God whom that traitor serves, but
by
fear of Balaam himself, to whom he had confessed,
‘I
know that he whom thou ... cursest is cursed,'a and
whose
ire he is, therefore, reluctant to provoke. As if
anxious
to remove all temptation of violence, the conse-
quences
of which he instinctively dreads, he bids Balaam
speedily
'escape' to his own home.b But it is
indeed fear
alone
by which he is actuated, not reverence. Striking
his
hands together in wild excitement, he dismisses the
prophet
with a sneering irony against the God whose
heavy
hand, he feels, is already upon him: ‘I thought to
honour
thee, but behold, the Lord (hvhy) has kept thee
back
from honour.' Why need he fear a god--what can
he
expect from a god (he recklessly implies to deaden
his
agony) who so ill requites his most faithful servants?
Distracted
by contradictory feelings inexplicable to him-
self,
he can neither reward the seer nor punish him; he
can
neither acknowledge nor oppose the God of Israel.
Once
more the name of Jahveh has fallen from his lips,
thenceforth
for ever to vanish from his horizon. Won-
derful
indeed may a narrator's art be called, that draws
the
subtlest psychological shades at once so delicately and
so
strongly.
But that art is still further
manifested in a higher
sphere.
The most consummate skill is allied with the
a xxii. 6. b Ver. 11, jl-Hrb.
244 NUMBERS
XXIV. 10-14.
greatest
depth and power of thought, and while appearing
to
sketch the infatuated enterprise of a single monarch
and
his inevitable failure, the author really delineates
the
great laws and principles that rule the destinies of
the
world and all nations. For how does Balaam act
after
the taunting provocation of the resentful king?
Does
he evince personal irritation or animosity? Does
he
even show haste or excitement? Immoveable like
fate
itself, he does nothing more than again declare his
dependence
on the God of Israel in that emphatic form
which
he had employed in his answer to the second royal
embassy,
'If Balak would give me his house full of silver
and
gold, I cannot go against the command of the Lord,
to
do either good or bad:'a but with marked
significance
he
adds that word which is the key-stone of all his
actions
and of his whole life, 'of my own mind.’b
Balaam
is the very embodiment of the Divine will, and
Balak,
fighting against Balaam, has fought against God.
Therefore,
the prophet, in uttering that momentous prin-
ciple,
is, by the Divine spirit which rests upon him,c
impelled
to exercise the office of Judge and Avenger.
The
king had taken no warning from a first and second
repulse;
he dared again and again to storm heaven and
to
substitute his own scheme for that of Omnipotence.
It
is, therefore, not sufficient that he should merely
be
annoyed and mortified by hearing a blessing invoked
upon
the people he desires to hear cursed. It is not
sufficient
that his punishment should be announced
to
him in obscure allusions and faint outlines. By the
eternal
plans of Divine justice and government, it has
become
necessary not only that his ruin should be
unmistakeably
proclaimed, but that he should fall into
the
pit he has dug for others. Therefore, Balaam de-
clares,
without agitation and without bitterness, that, in
obedience
to the king's command, he is ready to return
a Comp. xxii. 18,
p. 117. b yBilimi, see supra, pp. 7, 8. c Ver. 2.
BALAK’S
ANGER AND BALAAM’S REPLY. 245
to
his home, but that, before departing, it is his duty to
reveal
to the monarch the councils of Goda--to reveal to
him,
what ‘the people of Israel is destined to do to his
people
in later days.' The retribution is, indeed, not to
be
executed upon Balak forthwith, as it was upon the
contumacious
king of Egypt, who perished together with
the
flower of his armies, but 'in later days,’b after more
than
four centuries; but Balak feels the misfortunes of
his
descendants as his own. He must consider them so,
since
they are aggravated and partially caused by his
guilt.
He is, moreover, the unchanging type of all kings
of
Moab, both of those that preceded and those that fol-
lowed
him; and there is no glimmer of a hope left, that
the
latter would, by greater moderation and righteousness,
and
by pious submission to the God. of the Hebrews, de-
serve
serve and obtain a reversal of the fated decree.
One of the most interesting points in
connection with
the
Book of Balaam, is its history in reference to the
powerful
influence it exercised upon the later literature
of
the Hebrews. We have already dwelt on more than
one
adaptation, but none is more instructive than the
echo
which the verses under discussion found in the fresh
and
original mind of the prophet Amos.c So essentially
analogous
is the account he furnishes of his own connec-
tion
with King Jeroboam to that here given of the
relations
between Balaam and Balak, that the one seems
almost
to be moulded on the other. Amos is a native of
Judah,
but prophesies in the kingdom of Israel. In-
dignant
at his oracles, the king bids him flee or ‘escape’d
to
his own country. Amos quietly complies, but protests
that
he does not speak his own words, but delivers,the
inspirations
of the Lord; and before he departs, he
announces
in the strongest terms the king's and his
country's
downfall. If we consider the altered times
and
the essential difference in the circumstances and
a Ver. 14, jcfyx. b Mymyh
tyrHxb.
c Amos vii.
10-17. d jl-Hrb.
246 NUMBERS
XXIV. 10-14.
surroundings,
the resemblance in the two records may
well
be called remarkable, and serves as an additional
proof
of the zeal and veneration with which the best
and
most gifted among the Hebrews studied this masterly
composition.
PHILOLOGICAL
REMARKS.--The parallels just pointed out
would
lose much of their interest if the passage in Amos
were
considered as the original and earlier one (comp. for
instance,
Ewald, Jahrb. viii. 34); but Amos
wrote consider-
ably
more than two centuries after our author.--'Smiting
(qps) the hands
together,' is here naturally expressive of
anger,
impatience, and annoyance--almost as if the king had
made
a strong effort of self-control to refrain from striking
the
distasteful prophet; though the same gesture elsewhere
conveys
derision and mocking exultation (Job xxvii. 23;
xxxiv.
37; Nah. iii. 19; Lament. ii. 15).--In repeating the
answer
previously given to the ambassadors (ver. 13; xxii.
18),
Balaam, besides adding the weighty word yBil.imi, modifies
one
term not without some significance, substituting 'good
or
evil,' instead of 'a small or a great thing'; for, following
the
Divine suggestions of the moment, lie now only, after
having
delivered the speeches, knew himself that it was evil
and
not good which he had to pronounce with respect to
Balak.
The omission of yhAlox< which, from the
tenour of the
verse,
can have no importance, is by Rashi explained: 'Be-
cause
Balaam knew that drFnv h`b'qhb
wxbn.'
Some MSS.,
however,
have yhlx
(see De-Rossi, Var. Lect. in loc.),
and the
Vulg. translates Dei
mei.--The apparent abruptness of the
words
'kv jcfyx hkl (ver. 14) produces an excellent effect, the
inspiration
falling suddenly on Balaam. The verb j~c;fAyxi
most
happily chosen, recalls the hvhy tcafE, the counsel or
decree
of God, which it is Balaam's mission to unfold to the
king
of Moab (comp. Isai. xiv. 24, 26, lk lf hcAUfy;ha
hcAfehA
Crxh; xix. 17; Jer. xlix. 20; 1. 45; Rom.
xi. 34, etc. Origen,
Ins
Num. Hom. xviii: 2, 'consilium divinum, quod in novissi-
mis
diebus implendum est, mihi nunc revelatum, aperio tibi
et
manifesto, ut scias quid populus hic faciet populo tuo;'
Nachmanides, 'kv
Myhlxh Cfy rwx hcfh jl dygx, and similarly
BALAK'S
ANGER AND BALAAM'S REPLY. 247
Rashi). It seems less
appropriate to translate, 'I will declare
to
inform thee' (comp. Joseph Karo ap. Berliner, Pletath So-
pherim,
‘kv xvh Nzx yvlyg Nvwl); and although jcfyx occurs also
in
the sense 'I will give thee advice' (Exod. xviii. 19; 1 Ki.
i.
12; Jer. xxxviii. 15), it is certainly questionable to explain
that
Balaam intended 'to give counsel and warning to Balak
what
would befall the Moabites, if they persisted in their
enmity
against Israel' (Hengstenb., Bil., p.
156); the ruin of
the
Moabites is irrevocably fixed, as their constant perverse-
ness
and future conduct towards the Hebrews is fully antici-
pated
and known. Jewish tradition, entirely disregarding the
context,
renders, 'I will give thee counsel what thou shouldst
do
to cause the destruction of Israel' (Onkel.,
Rashi, Bechai,
and
others), which, brought into connection with xxxi. 16, is
thus
carried out: 'Go, furnish tavern houses, and put therein
seductive
women to sell food and beverages below their value,
and
to bring this people together to eat and drink and be
intoxicated
and commit fornication, that they may deny their
God;
then in a brief time they will be delivered into thy
hand
and many of them will fall' (Targ. Jon.);
or 'Lead this
people
into sin, for else thou shalt have no power over them'
(Targ. Jer.; Talm. Sanhedr. 105b.; see
supra, p. 25). The Vul-
gate,perhaps
merely by an oversight strangely renders
dabo
consilium quid populus tuus populo huic faciat'--the
reverse
of the Hebrew text –Mymiy.Ah tyriHExaB; is here in
later or
future days, in the time of
David; that those words have in-
deed
this meaning also, and do not always signify the end of
days (Sept., e]p
] e]sxa<tou tw?n h[merw?n; Vulg., extremo tempore;
Targ. Onk.,
Jon., Jerus.,
xymvy jvsb; Syr., Saad.,
Luth., and
others),
has been shown before (see Comm. on Genes. p. 729).
The
efforts made to prove the contrary opinion (comp., for
instance,
Hengstenb., Bil., pp. 158-160; Reinke, Beitrage, iv.
pp.
236-238, and others), have been fruitless. Objectionable,
therefore,
is the surmise of an earlier Jewish commentator,
that
Balaam encouraged Balak to take heart and shake off
all
fear of the Israelites, since the fall of Moab would not
happen
in his time, but only at the end of days; but sur-
prising
is the remark of a learned modern critic: 'It is
proper
that Balaam makes the ominous announcement with
248 NUMBERS
XXIV. 15-17.
respect
to Moab only after having experienced ill-treatment
from
Moab's king' (Knob., Num., p. 144), which
suggestion
is
by others even intensified into 'a revenge' of Balaam (so
Bunsen and others), so
that, when 'the proud seer' has
finished
his last speech, in which he proves ‘his talent for
cursing,'
he leaves the king 'in anger and rage' (Lange,
Bibelwerk,
ii. 310)--as if Balaam was ever influenced by
personal
motives, or as if his individuality was of the least
account
in his prophecies. These can only be fully under-
stood
by rising to the author's own lofty eminence of con-
ception.
14.
BALAAM'S PROPHECY ON MOAB. XXIV. 15-17.
15.
And he took up his parable, and said,
So speaketh Balaam, the son of Beor,
And so speaketh the man of unclosed
eye;
16.
So speaketh he who heareth the words
of God,
And knoweth the knowledge of the
Most High;
Who seeth the vision of the Almighty,
Prostrate and with opened eyes:
17.
I see him, but not now;
I behold liim, but not near
There cometh a star out of Jacob,
And a sceptre riseth out of Israel,
And smiteth both sides of Moab,
And shattereth all the children of
tumult.
Speaking as before from his own
enthusiasm, and with-
out
special communion with God, because the Divine
spirit
is upon him, and beginning his new utterance with
BALAAM’S
PROPHECY ON MOAB. 249
the
same stately solemnity as the preceding oracle, in
order
to impart to it the utmost weight and authority,
Balaam
advances directly to the goal which he has pro-
posed
to himself, and in words, in which force, precision,
sublimity,
and beauty vie for the palm, announces to the
king
of Moab the fate which, in future days, awaits his
people.
Uplifted by the force of an irresistible impulse
beyond
the ordinary measure of human faculties, the
prophet
looks into ‘the seed of time.’ Clear before his eye
stands
that illustrious ruler who centuries after him will
rise
in Israel like a brilliant star, and smite with his
mighty
sceptre every province and division of Moab, and
annihilate
her power for ever. Thus the object of the pro-
phecy
seems to be accomplished; for Balaam had simply
declared,
‘I will tell thee what this people is destined to do
to
thy people.'a However, while it was necessary,
on the
one
hand, plainly and specially to state Moab's ruin, al-
though
it had before been involved in the comprehensive
prediction,
‘Israel devoureth nations, his enemies, and
crusheth
their bones,'b lest any doubt or refuge be left
to
the
hardened king; it was, on the other hand, indispen-
sable
for the general plan of the composition that its scope
should
not be contracted or curtailed in its conclusion.
For
the work has a twofold aim: to depict, by the king
of
Moab's example, heathen blindness with its terrible
consequences,
and to extol the transcendent greatness
and
glory of Israel. For the former end it would have
been
sufficient to announce that ‘he sides of Moab shall be
smitten’;
but for the latter object it was essential not to
finish
Balaam's prophecies with referring to this small
portion
of Israel's victories, but to return to the wider
and
central idea of the whole. Therefore the author
pithily
adds, that Israel's famous ruler 'shattereth all
the
children of tumult.' Moab is exterminated and
Israel
has triumphed over all his fierce and restless foes.
a Ver. 14, jmfl. b Ver. 8.
250 NUMBERS
XXIV. 15-17
The
heathen king’s contumacy is broken and the omni-
potence
of Israel’s God established and recognised.
The
Gentile
prophet, inspired by the God of the Hebrews,
and
readily obeying His dictates, has faithfully pro-
claimed
His distant decrees. The author has
accom-
plished
his great task:--‘And Balaam rose and went
away,
and returned to his place, and Balak also went
his
way.’a
How perfectly the deeds of ‘Jacob’s
star,’ as here
delineated,
apply to David is apparent by remembering
this
king’s military successes and his implacable harsh-
ness
against subdued enemies.b With regard to Moab,
which
had inndeed been defeated by Saul, but soon
resumed
a hostile attitdue,c it is expressly
recorded, ‘And
David
smote Moab, and measured them with a line,
making
them lie down on the ground, and two lines he
measured
to put to death, and the length of one line to
keep
alinve’d—a kind of proceeding which is
said to have
been
adopted by other ancient and Eastern conquerors
also;e although the
Chronicler, solicitoous for the fair fame
of
the theocratic king, suppresses that statement, and
embodies
in his narrative no more than the final issue:
‘And
the Moabites became David’s servants paying
tribute’f—which consisted
, at least partly, of a very
heavy
impost of sheep.g And there was hardly
any
a Ver. 25. b P. 226 g 2 Ki. iii. 4;
Isa. xvi. 1; comp. Ps.
c 1 Sam. xiv.47 lx. 10;
cviii.10. The first of these
d 2 Sam. viii. 2.
passages
mentions 100,000 lambs
e Comp. Dougtaei,
Annal. Sacr. i. and
100,000 rams as the amount de-
195-198;
Rosenmull. Morgenl. No. manded:
whether these girgures are
553,
etc. On the Monolith Inscrip- exaggerated
(so Colenso, Lectures, p.
tion
of the Assyrian king Samas- 361,
and others), we have no means
Rimmon,
a contemporary of Jehu, of
ascertaining, yet even the most
that
king, describing his victories recent
travellers in those districts
over
Babylon, boasts, ‘Three thou- were
struck by the vast numbers of
sand
lives with a measuring line I flocks
and herds grrazing in the rich-
took’
(Col. iv., line 31; Records of est
and most extensive pastures
the
Past, i. 21). (Palmer,
Desert of the Exodus, Vol.
f 1 Chr. xviii.2.
ii.
ch. 10, and others).
BALAAM'S PROPHECY ON MOAB. 251
other
of his hostile neighbours whom David did not
attack
and curb. He fought against the Philistines
and
Ammonites, against the Amalekites and Edomites,
against
the Syrians in all parts of their wide territory,
and
everywhere with the same success—‘And the Lord
gave
His help to David whithersoever he went.’a No
other
Hebrew king so truly ‘hattered all the sons of
tumult';
and these great and warlike triumphs could
be
acknowledged and enjoyed by the Israelites with un-
mingled
pride and gratitude, for they did not lead to
haughty
despotism and dynastic self-aggrandisement, for
‘David
executed right and justice to all his people.’b
Not without reason, therefore, might a
contemporary
Hebrew,
having his people's glory at heart, and thoroughly
understanding
their character and vocation, feel induced
to
designate King David with the highest appellations
of
splendour and magnificence he could conceive, and
not
merely to praise him as ‘the light of Israel,’c but to
describe
him as a ‘star’ (bkAOK) shining with a pure light,
like
David's renown, over the whole earth for ever in
undiminished
brightness. But as if to preclude all possi-
bility,
of misconception, the author hastens to identify
that
star with a ‘sceptre’ (Fb,we) which ‘smites both sides
of
Moab,' and strikes down other aggressive adversaries
--that
is, with a worldly power which, at a definite time,
discomfits
a definite class of foes, and thus seals Israel's
temporal
dominion as an invincible kingdom. How-
ever
old, therefore, the interpretation is which associates
the
‘star’ with a Divine Messiah and Saviour, and how-
ever
large the number of adherents it has at all times
obtained
among different creeds, it is, from the spirit of
the
context, wholly inadmissible. The poet says indeed,
‘I
see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near;’
yet
this does not refer to ‘the end of days.' Taking our
a 2 Sam. viii.
1-14; comp. 1 Chr. b 2 Sam. viii. 15; 1 Chr.
xviii. 14.
xiv.
2, etc. c 2 Sam. xxi. 17 lxerAW;y
rne
252 NUMBERS
XXIV. 15-17.
starting
point in the time of Balaam, and reviewing the
history
of Israel down to the end of David's reign, we
survey
a long and eventful period--upwards of four
centuries
of struggles and bloody contentions, of humilia-
tions
and victories, of barbarism and germinating en-
lightenment
and civilisation; we survey the epochs of
Joshua
and the Judges, of Samuel, Saul, and David;
and
we might well consider the closing years of this
great
king as ‘not near.’ The ‘star’ has no other mission
than
to deliver the political Israel from their dangerous
and
vexatious enemies, conspicuous among whom are the
Moabites:
is such the only mission of the heavenly
Messiah?
After some fitful successes, the Moabites sank
into
insignificance, and centuries before the beginning of
the
current era they had disappeared from history.
But the Messianic interpretation was
by no means
uniformly
accepted even by the Jews, and passed among
them
through considerable fluctuations.a It is true that
Bar
Cochba (xbkvk rb), the brave and herculean but
somewhat
rough and savage leader of the determined re-
bellion
of Palestinian Jews against their Roman masters
under
Hadrian (A.C. 132-135), was, by so remarkable and
honoured
a teacher as Rabbi Akiva, with reference to
our
passage, ‘A star (bkvk) cometh out of Jacob,' hailed
with
the words, ‘Thou art the King Messiah.' But we
know
also that other and hardly less famous authorities, as
the
elder Rabbi Judah, though in those days of overwrought
excitement
supported by a smaller party, as firmly
opposed
that chief's recognition as Messiah, and after
the
fatal failure of the sanguinary enterprise called him,
instead
of Bar Cochba, ‘son of the star,’ Bar Cosiva (rb
xbyzvk, ‘son of falsehood,’ which name
he exclusively
bears
in Jewish writings.b
a See the various
opinions infra, 98;
Talm. Jerus. Taan. iv. 7; Midr.
Philolog.
Rem. Rabb.,
Lament. ii. 2, bkvk yrqt lx
b Comp. Talm.
Sanhedr. 93b, 97, ‘kv bzvk xlx, etc.
BALAAM'S
PROPHECY ON MOAB. 253
So obvious and natural is the
comparison of powerful
and
far-famed persons with stars, that it is found among
the
most different nations. A later Hebrew prophet,
alluding
to the king of Babylon in the zenith of his
triumphs,
addresses him as the ‘Shining star, son of the
morning.'a The Hebrews
themselves, the people of God
or
His heavenly host, rising high above all other nations,
are
designated ‘stars.’b The wise and
the righteous shall
shine
‘as the brightness of the firmament' and ‘as the
stars
for ever and ever.'c The pious on
earth, so declares
the
Book of Enoch,d are in heaven
represented by stars,
which,
called by name, are there examined and judged.
Evidently
in allusion to the passage before us, Christ calls
himself
‘the bright morning star,' because he is ‘the root
and
offspring of David.'e Very frequent
are Greek
proper
nouns like Aster and Astrcea.f One of the
Argo-
nauts
was ‘Asterios the son of Kometes.’g Anything
prominent
or renowned is described in analogous terms.
Corinth
is ‘the star of Greece.’h Fabius Maximus is by
Ovid
extolled as ‘the star of his race’;i and, similarly,
are
Caesar
and Augustus distinguished by poets, Alexander
the
Great, Mithridates, and others by historians.’k In
a Isa. xiv. 12, rHw
Nb llyh; a]li<gkion a]ste<ri kal&?; Herod. v.
comp.
ix. 1, 5. 63; Soph.
Elect. 66, etc.
b Dan. viii. 10;
comp. ver. 24; i Ex Pont. III. iii. 2, 0, sides
hence
the Chaldee translator, in Isa. Fabi
e, Maxime, gentis.
xiv.
13, renders lxe ybek;Ok the stars k Comp. Virg. Eclo. ix. 47, Ecce
of
God, by xhAlAxde h.ym.efa the people Dionaei processit Ca-saris astrum;
of
God. Hor. Od. I. xii. 46, 47, Micat inter
c Dan. xii. 3;
comp. Book of omnes Juliunt sidus velut inter ig-
Enoch,
civ. 2; Matt. xiii. 43. nes Luna minores; Plin. Nat. Hist.
d xliii. 1-4. ii.
24 or 23, eo sidere significari vol-
e Rev. xxii. 16, a]sth>r o[ lampro>j gus
credidit Caesaris animam inter
o[ prwi*no<j; comp. ii. 28;
2 Pet. i. 19. deorum immortalium numina
recep-
f Comp. Esther, a]sth<r, Ishtar, tam, etc.; Sueton. Caesar, c. 88, bac
Ashtoreth,
etc. de causa simulacro ejus in vertice
g ]Aste<rioj Komh<tou, Apollod. I. additur stella; Curt. IX.
vi. 8, quis
ix.
16. deorum
hoc Macedoniae columen ac
h [Ella<doj
a@stron;
comp. Hom. sides diuturnum fore polliceri pot-
Il.
vi. 401, [Ektori<dhn a]gaphto<n, est, etc.; Justin, xxxvii. 2, etc.
254 NUMBERS
XXIV. 15-17.
one
of the oldest and most interesting of the Assyrian
Inscriptions,
King Tiglath-pileser I. (about B.C. 1150)
styles
himself not only ‘the illustrious chief, who, under
the
auspices of the Sun God, was armed with the
sceptre,'
or ‘held the sceptre of dominion,’ but also ‘the
bright
constellation who, as he desired, has warred
against
foreign countries ... and subdued the enemies of
Ashur,'
and again simply ‘the ruling constellation, the
powerful,
the lover of battle’;a while King Assur-nasir-
pal
is, on his ‘Standard Inscription,’ denominated as ‘the
sun
of great splendour.’b No less explicit are the
Egyptian
records. King Amenophis IV. assumed the
title
of ‘splendour,’ or ‘glory of the solar disc’ (Chu-en-
aten); in his
Annals, Thotmes III. is addressed, ‘They
see
thy majesty like the star Sesht’; and in the fine
hymn
to Menephta, son of Ramses II., that king receives
almost
all the glorious attributes of Amen or the Sun-
god
himself, as whose living representative on earth he
is
revered, and depicted in poetic strains like these
‘Give
thy attention to me, thou Sun that risest to en-
lighten
the earth by thy goodness--solar orb of men
chasing
the darkness from Egypt ... whose beams pene-
trate
every cavern.'c
a Inscript. of
Tigl.-pil. I., §§ 3, scription,
Shalmaneser II. received
24,
43; comp. Rec. of the Past, v. from
Jehu, king of Israel (see the re-
8;
18-23. marks on Assyrian invasions
in notes
b Comp. loc. cit.
vii. 12. Frequent on vers. 23, 24).
allusion
is made on the Assyrian c Comp. loc. cit. ii. 33 ; iv. 98 ; vi.
monuments
both to the sceptre the 101, 102. The hymn, with an in-
dread
dread of man,' and ‘the sceptre of consistency which discloses its alle-
righteousness'
or 'justice' (comp. gorical character, contains the lines:
Ps.
xlv. 7) ; and the god Nebo is 'Bright is thy eye above the stars of
described
as the `Bearer of the high heaven,
able to gaze at the solar
sceptre'
(ibid. iii. 43, v. 29, 114, orb.' See also Horapoll. i. 13 ; ii.
122,
139, etc.). ‘Sceptres for the 1: 'God in his splendour' (Oebs
king's
band' and ‘staves’ (probably e@gkosmoj) is expressed by a star,
qqeHom;, Gen. xlix. 10, etc.) were by which also depicts fate and five, the
Assyrian
monarchs demanded as number of the chief planets, 'be-
tribute
from subjected chiefs; as, cause God's providence determines
according
to the Black Obelisk In- victory.'
BALAAM'S
PROPHECY ON MOAB. 255
Most happily and skilfully was Moab
chosen by the
author
as the vehicle of his thoughtful creation. For
the
Moabites were, in his time and long afterwards, not
only
known as wealthy and honoured, possessing large
and
populous towns, to which very numerous ruins, still
extant,
bear ample witness, flourishing in all agricultural
and
pastoral pursuits, and singularly valiant and martial;
but
they were notorious above all as proud and elated,
vainglorious
and boastful, restless and tumultuous, ever
disposed
to war and violently contentious.a Fortune,
moreover,
had done much to foster their arrogance.
They
were indeed shortly before the Hebrew immigra-
tion,
deprived by the king of the Amorites of those
provinces
which were soon afterwards conquered by the
Israelites;
but they seem gradually to have regained a
large
portion of these districts; and it is certain that
they
re-occupied them all after the deportation of the
east-Jordanic
tribes.b Justly, therefore, might
Jeremiah
say
that ' Moab hath been at ease from his youth'
(that
is, from the time of his dwelling in that country
after
the expulsion of the indigenous Emim),c ‘and hath
settled
on his lees, and hath not been emptied from
vessel
to vessel, nor hath he gone into captivity': he was
not,
like Israel, purified and refined in ‘the iron furnace
of
aflliction.'d Hence the prophet significantly
added,
‘Therefore
his (acrid) taste remained in him, and his (evil)
scent
is not changed':e the Moabites
clung to all their
sinful
ways, persisted in their moral depravity and
religious
blindness, and constantly grew in disdainful
haughtiness.f Represented as
able to crush such a
a Comp. 2 Sam.
xxiii. 20; Isa. b See supra, p.
72.
xvi.
6; Jer. xlviii. 29, 30; Amos ii. c Gen. xiv. 5 ;
Deut. ii. 10.
2;
Zeph. ii. 10; Ps. lxxiv. 23; see Comp. Deut. iv. 20; 1 Ki. viii.
also
2 Ki. iii. 4; Isa. xv. 4, 6, 7; 51; Isa. xlviii. 10; Ezek. xxii. 18,
xvi.
1, 8-10,14; and the allusions in 20,
22.
Jer.
xlviii. 2, 7, 8, 14, 17, 18, 21-24, e Jer. xlviii.
11.
28,
32, 33, 36, 41. f Comp. Zeph. i.
12.
256 NUMBERS
XXIV. 15-17.
people,
the power of Israel's illustrious king is seen in
the
strongest light; while his justice is no less clearly
apparent,
because that people, ‘having impiously risen
against
the Lord,’ deserved destruction.a
PHILOLOGICAL
REMARKS.--From our general comments it
will
be obvious that this prophecy on Moab is an essential
and
organic part of the composition, which, without it, would
be
weak and incomplete, since it would include no direct and
positive
announcement of the refractory king's subjection. It
is,
therefore, entirely unwarrantable to separate these verses
from
the original conception, and to consider them as a later
addition
(as is done by Bertholdt, Einleitung,
iii. 792, 793;
Bunsen, Bibelwerk v.
605-608 and others). All the argu-
ments
in favour of the genuineness of the first three oracles
plead
with equal force for the genuineness of the fourth; and
if
the latter was written in David's time, then the preceding
speeches
belong to the same age and not to the period of Joshua
or
Hezekiah (see supra, p.47).--Balaam
addresses this prophecy
to
Balak ('kv jcfyx jl), who, as the king of Moab, represents
the
whole people; he is, therefore, not expressly stated to
have
seen the Moabites, since Balak is with him, and we
need
not assume that 'he turned from north to south in
order
to obtain a view of Moab' (Knob.); the scope of this
remark
will become more apparent in our observations on
vers.
18-24, when we shall discuss the economy of this last
part
of the section.--Most poetically the seer refers even in
the
first two verbs (vnxrx and vnrvwx) to David as
the ‘star’
and
the ‘sceptre,’ as he has that king in his mind from the
beginning,
although he has not yet mentioned him (comp.
Deut.
xxxiii. 2; Isai. xli. 27; Ps. lxxxvii. 1, etc.); for the suf-
fixes
in those verbs do not apply to Israel (so Verschuir
and
others),
whom Balaam, while he spoke, really beheld; nor
do
they mean indefinitely ' something' (Saad.
XXX, and
a Jerem. xlviii.
26, 42 dmwnv prophet,
in his great oracle on Moab,
lydgh hvhy lf yk Mfm bxvm borrows also the principal idea of
We
are the more justified in noticing this
utterance of Balaam (Jer. xlviii.
these
parallels from Jeremiah, as the 45;
see infra).
BALAAM'S
PROPHECY ON MOAB. 257
others).
The futures vnxrx and vnrvwx have, of
course, the
signification
of the present, as the same words possess clearly
in
xxiii. 9 (comp. Gram. § 94.6); the future time in this
connection
is hardly intelligible (so Sept., dei<cw; Aqu., o@yomai;
Vulg., videbo; Luth., ich werde sehen, etc.), though we
might
expect interpretations like that of Origen (In Num.
Hom.
xv. 3; xviii. 4), 'ut futurum tempus significet ....
quando
omnis Israel ad fidem Christi veniens salvabitur et a
montibus
et a collibus intuebitur,' etc. The Sept.
reads p.
moreover
Un.x,r;xa and renders vnrvwx by makari<zw, connecting
this
word with rwaxA
in Piel (Gen. xxx. 13; Prov. xxxi. 28,
etc.).--It
would be an almost interminable task historically
to
pursue the interpretation of the 'star' (bkAOK) in detail; nor
can
we enter into the arguments by which the Messianic
conception
of that term has been defended, as they lie, for
the
most part, in the sphere of dogma and not of critical
enquiry.
It may suffice to remark that that conception is al-
ready
found in the Chaldee Targumim and was maintained by
many
Jewish authorities (the Midrashim, Zohar, Nachman.,
Rashban.i,
Bechai, Albo, Arama, Abarban., Isaac b. Abra-
ham,
Ralbag, and others), though by no means unanimously
(e.g.,
Rushi, dvd hz; Ebn Ezra, dvd lf
hxvbnh txz;
Mendelss.,
and
others); that, supported by the expressions in the Revela-
tion
of St. John, above referred to, and perhaps even more
by
the star of the wise men (ma<goi) from the east
(in Matth.
ii.
1-10, ei@domen ga>r au]tou? to>n
a]ste<ra e]n t^?> a]natol^?), since 'the
later
magicians' were supposed to be 'of the school of
Balaam,'
the same view was adopted by the Fathers of the
Church
(Justin, Irenaeus, Origen, Athanas., Euseb. Pamph.,
Basil.,
Greg. of Nyssa, Cyrill., Theodoret., Cyprian, Ambros.,
Jerome,
Evagrius, Maxim,. Turin., Gregor., and others; see
Reinke,
Beitrage, iv. 187 , although not without contradiction
from
various sides (comp. Theodoret.,
Quaest. 44 in Num), and
was
long upheld in the orthodox Church, both Catholic and
Protestant
(as by Oleaster, Bonfrerius, Corn. a Lapide, Cal-
met,
Bade, Munster, Fagius, Drusius, Calvin, Cleric., Lilien-
thal,
Warburton, Whiston, Parker, Deyling, J. H. Michaelis,
and
others; see Reinke, l.c.); but that in more recent times,
though
still pertinaciously insisted upon by some, it has
258 NUMBERS XXIV. 15-17.
generally
given way to the historical application to king
David.
Not a few, however, combine both interpretations,
and
contend, strangely, that indeed, in the first place, David,
or
the personified and ideal royalty of his house, is meant,
but,
in a more extended view, the Messiah also, since 'without
the
Messiah the monarchy of Israel is like a trunk without a
head.'
Moab, it is further asserted, is merely a type of all
adversaries
of the kingdom of God; 'wherever, therefore,
and
as long as there are enemies of Israel, there and so long
there
are also Moabites' (so Chrysostom., Augustin., Leonh.
Marius,
Deyling, Dereser, Allioli, Hengstenb., Reischl, Kurtz,
Reinke,
Lange, and others). Such dialectic subtleties, how-
ever
ably and learnedly carried out, can be of little profit, as
they
vainly attempt to volatilize a poetical and graphic crea-
tion
into a vague and indefinite symbol. The author carries
his
survey down to his own time and not farther; in his ex-
perience,
the Moabites and other enemies of Israel are de-
feated
by David--and utterly weakened or annihilated; it
cannot
concern hint that, in later times, most of them re-
gained
their strength and their liberty, and even conquered
or
outlasted the Hebrews. An ingenious Jewish commentator
urges
that, though all the nations here named have long dis-
appeared,
the prophecies concerning them are yet Messianic,
as
they mention the countries by the names which they bore
in
Balaam's time without reference to their future occupants
(Abarban., in loc); but the object of
these prophecies is not
to
announce the devastation of countries, but the extinction
of
nations. Michaelis (in loc.) remarks appositely: 'Take
heed
not to convert the saviour of the human race, the most
universal
benefactor, into an evil star, into one who is to
smite
Moab, if not to destroy all the children of men . . . .
What
is praiseworthy in David . . . . is a very unsuitable
picture
for the Messiah' (comp. also Dathe,
in loc., 'at enim-
vero
qui possunt heec nisi pergnam coacte ad Messiae regnum
pacificum
et generi humano salutare transferri?' and see es-
pecially
Hengstenb., Christologie, i. 1.
pp.78-83, First Ed., 1829,
where
the author sets forth and defends, with admirable clear-
ness,
the anti-Messianic arguments which he subsequently
abandoned,
and where he even admits (p. 79) that Balaam
BALAAM'S
PROPHECY ON MOAB. 259
is,
in this narrative, ‘represented as a true prophet of the true
God'--a
remarkable instance of earlier and juster impressions
obscured
by later researches or influences). Curious is the ex-
planation
of Maimonides (De Regib., xi. 6), who applies the
first
half of each of the three members of ver. 17 to David,
but
the second half to the future Messiah (NvrHxh Hywmh), one
of
David's descendants; e.g., 'I see him, but not now--that is
David;
I behold him, but not near--that is the King Messiah';
and
in a similar manner he understands the first two parts
of
ver. 18. It need not be remarked that such a mode of
exposition
is forbidden even by the common rules of parallel-
isrn.--The
' star' cannot denote king Uzziah (so Furst, Gesch.
d.
bibl. Liter., ii. 230), were it for no other reason than that
the
Moabites were not among the nations subdued by that
king
(comp. 2 Ki. xv. 1-7; 2 Chr. xxvi. 3-15).--But some,
though
not supposing this passage to refer to a special
Messiah,
describe the whole piece as 'Messianic.' This view
has
been most systematically carried out by Ewald (Jahrb.,
viii.
1 sqq.), who observes: 'If Israel is to be that singular
people
for whose sake an intended curse is turned into a
blessing,
they must indeed have something immortal and
Divine
.... and this is, in a word, the Messianic hope . . . .
which
is also the soul of this narrative relating to the time of
Moses'
(I.e., p. 22). But a fixed and almost technical ex-
pression
ought not to be used so loosely. The 'truth of the
immortality
of Israel' is not 'Messianic' in the ordinary and
accepted
sense of the word, and 'a national Messiahship' is
almost
a contradiction in terms, as the very essence of
Messiahship
is universality. We can discover in this section
no
allusion whatever pointing to 'the perfection and ultimate
triumph
of the true religion' . (l.c. pp.
3 38 as it hardly
refers
to religion at all. It represents God as Israel's Pro-
tector
and Guide, not as the Revealer of religious truth. The
flourishing
and youthful time of David was not an age cal-
culated
to foster Messianic expectations. The happy reality
was
too absorbing to create a longing for an indefinite ideal
in
a distant future. Morality and piety, political power and
social
prosperity--these are the notions in which this Book
of
Balaam moves (comp. also l.c., p. 36; Gesch. d. Volk. Isr.
260 NUMBERS
XXIV. 15-17.
i.
142, where Ewald, on the contrary, observes, that our
author
'urges the Messianic idea less strongly'; Baumgarten,
Pent.
ii. 372; Oehler, Theolog. d. Alt.
Test. i. 119; H. Schultz,
Alttestam.
Theol. i. 472, 473, etc.).
As the verb j`raDA (Arab. XXX) means
to tread or to walk
(Lat.
incessit), bqfym
bkvk jrd is
'a star comes out of Jacob';
it,
would be artificial to connect that verb here with the
phrase
MycH jrd, to shoot of
arrows (Ps. lviii. 8 ; lxiv. 4), or
twq jrd, to bend the bow (Lam. ii. 4, etc.); so Rashi, 'the star
passes
like an arrow'; Ebn Ezra,
shooting-star; see, on the
other
hand, Heidenheim in loc. --The 'sceptre' (Fb,we, the
symbol
of regal power (Gen. xlix. 10; Isai. xiv. 5; Am. i.
5,
8, fbw jmvt, comp. skhptou?xoj; Ps. xlv. 7),
is, by way of
metonymy,
the ruler himself (Sept., Philo, a@nqrwpoj; Onk.,
xHywm; Syr., xwyr, prince; Rashi,
lwvmv hdvr jlm, etc.), like
the
star, which properly cannot 'shatter' (CHmv) nations. The
Fb,we is here not the shepherd's
'staff,' the king understood as
the
shepherd of his people (Lev. xxvii. 32; Ps. xxiii. 4, etc.);
nor
directly 'rod' of castigation (Isai. x. 5; xi. 4 ; Job ix.
11-14;
comp. Zech. x. 11; Prov. xx. 15; Vulg.,
virga, and so
Saad., and others),
but only indirectly ('sceptrum priscorum
virgae
fuerunt'), since the power which it represents chastises
rebellious
foes (comp. Ps. ii. 9 ; see Comm. on Gen. pp. 748,
749).--The
two words bkvk
and Fbw
have curiously been
taken
as one notion, 'sceptrum stellatum,' which meaning,
applied
to a Divine ruler, has been supported by the usage
of
the Egyptians, who expressed their king and lord, Osiris,
by
the pictures of an eye and a sceptre, the former signify-
ing
Providence, the latter, Power (Plutarch, De Isid. et Osir.,
chap.
10; comp. Deyling, Observatt., iii.
109).--The prince
shall
smite bxAOm ytexEPa the two sides of Moab, that is, every
part
of
the land, or he shall humble it thoroughly and completely
(comp.
Neh. ix. 22; hxApel; MqlHtv, 'thou hast distributed
them
in
all directions'; but yteK;r;ya, Judg. xix. 1, 18; Isa. xxxvii.
24);
yet
some, following the analogy of Jer. xlviii. 45, translate,
questionably,
temples (so Ewald, Schlafen, and others see infra),
or
even the hair and beards (comp. Lev. xix. 27; Jer. ix. 25;
xxv.
23,etc.),
supposed to denote ornament or nobles (Geddes, De Geer,
and
others). But a different reading seems, in early times, to have
BALAAM'S
PROPHECY ON MOAB. 261
been
bxvm yteHEP (from tHaPa governor, equivalent to the more fre-
quent
term hHaP, and
preserved in the proper noun bxAOm-tHap,
Ezra
ii. 6; viii. 4; Neh. iii. 11, etc.; comp. 2 Ki. xvii. 21,
kethiv and keri, xdyv and Hdyv), for the Sept. renders a]rxhgou<j;
Vulg., duces; Onkel. and Jonath., yreb;r;ra princes; Targ. Jer.
and
Syr., xpyqt and xybgg the strong
ones; and so also Luth.
Fursten,
etc.—rqar;qa the Pilpel of rUq to dig (kindred to
rvK, hrAKA, rqanA, 2 Ki. xix. 24,
whence rOqmA
source), or undermine
or
destroy (comp. Gram. § xlviii. 14),
instead of rqer;qi; the
pathach
in the second syllable is not surprising, as the Piel,
and
hence also the modifications formed after its analogy, as
Pilel
and Pilpel, have frequently pat hack instead of tsere, and
we
find, indeed, the form rqar;qam; (Isai. xxii. 5; comp. Gram.
§
xliv. i. i); but the pathach in the first syllable is anomalous.
The
verb is rendered in the sense just indicated by the Sept.,
pronomeu<sei (that is,
according to Hesychius and Suidas, a[rpa<-
zein, lhi<zein, or ai]xmalwti<zein), Symm.,
e]reunh<sei; Vulg.,
vasta-
bit;
Syr., dbfwnv and he will
subdue, and others (comp, Midr.
Rabb. Gen. lxxiv. 6, hlylh lk Nyrqrqm, although
another read-
ing
is MyfFrqm leaping; see also Buxt., Lex. Talm. sub xrAUqr;qa
where
ryqd xrvqrq destructio
parietis is quoted from Zohar in
Gen.
col. 483). But in Jer. xlviii. 45, we find, instead of the
last
part of this verse, the following: dqod;qAv; bxAOm
txaP; lkaxTova
NOxwA yneB;, ‘and the fire
shall devour the side of Moab, and the
crown
of the head of the sons of tumult.’ That these words
were
meant as identical with those of our text, it is impossible
to
doubt, as Jeremiah, in his long prophecy on Moab, freely
incorporates
or adapts passages from predlecessors; yet they
are
so divergent from our text, that it is difficult to suppose
that
Jeremiah, or whoever revised and completed that pro-
phecy,
took them from this source : it is likely that different
copies
of Balaam's speeches were in circulation, and were
followed
by different writers or revisers. It would not be
easy
to decide which is the original reading; but judging by
that
canon of criticism which attributes the greater probability
of
genuineness to the more difficult version, we are inclined
to
give the preference to our text; the introduction of a new
verb
(rqrqv)
in the last hemistich is more-'emphatic, and the
addition
of 0-lKA to
‘the sons of tumult’ enlarges the circle of the
262 NUMBERS
XXIV. 15-17.
prophecy
in the appropriate and comprehensive manner above
pointed
out, whereas, without that word, the conclusion also
would
be limited to Moab alone. Yet the reading dqod;qAv;, which
is
also found in the Samaritan Codex, has been adopted by
several
modern critics (as Vater, Ewald, Lengerke, Knobel,
Graf,
Oort, and others). In Jeremiah, it will be noticed, the
word
twe
is replaced by NOxwA (comp. Isai. viii. 9; Jer. li.
55);
that
noun, therefore, which occurs also with the
scriptio plena
txwe (Lam. iii. 47), is most probably to be
referred to the
same
root hxAwA
to cause a din, from which NOxwA is derived, and
means
tumult; 'the children of tumult' being tumultuous,
seditious,
and war-loving nations, like many of those by
which
the Hebrews were surrounded (compare Amos ii. 2,
bxAOm NOxwAB; tmeU). To take twe as the proper
noun Seth, the
son
of Adam (Gen. iv. 25), and to understand tw ynb lk as
'all
the children of men' (so Sept., Sara. Vers.,
Sgr., Targ. Jon.,
Saad., Luth, and others; Onk. xwnx ynb lk, Rashi tvmvxh
lk,
Ebn Ezra Mdx
ynb,
Aharban., and others), is neither
appro-
priate
as regards the words nor the sense; for it is difficult
to
see why men should be represented as descendants of
Seth,
and not of Adam or Noah; and then, the mighty king
of
Israel is surely not expected to kill all mankind: without
urging
that thus the Hebrews also would be included in the
general
massacre, it cannot be admitted that, 'according to a
fundamental
notion of the prophets, all pagans must perish,'
because'
they are hostile to God and His truth' (so Bunsenl,
Bibelwerk,
v. 604, and others); it was, on the. contrary, the
most
cheering hope of the prophets to see the holy community
so
enlarged as to embrace all nations, and they considered it
among
their holiest tasks to accelerate the time, when 'the
earth
shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the water
covers
the sea' (Isa. xi. 9; see supra, pp. 35, 36; comp. also
Mendelss. in loc.). To
lessen the difficulty, Targ. Jer-us. renders
twe by 'all the children of the east' (xHnydm), and Onkel.
rqrqav; by 'he will reign' (and so Arabs Erp., Castell., and
others),
which are untenable expedients. Still less defensible
are
the very numerous other explanations of tw ynb, which
perplexity
has suggested, and which it would be purposeless
to
review; for instance, 'children of the drunkard' (Lot),
SUPPLEMENTS. 263
or
the Ammonites and Moabites, twe derived from htAwA or
men
of might,' twe taken as equivalent to tOtwA foundations;
or
' all the strong walls,' ynb supposed to be equivalent to Nynb
etc.
Some propose to read tWe identical with txeW; (comp. Job
xli.
16), in the sense of haughtiness or presumption (so Vater,
Pentat.
iii. 147; Ewald, Gesch. i. 145, and
others); but there
is,
as we have shown, no occasion for abandoning the Maso-
refit
reading.
15. SUPPLEMENTS. XXIV.
18-2-1.
Nothing can be conceived that seems
wanting to the
absolute
completeness or the fullest comprehensivenessh
of
the composition. After blessings had been pronounced
upon
Israel in threefold gradation, the prophet proposed
to
reveal how, in due time, God's chastisement would
overwhelm
the Moabites on account of their malignant
hostility
to His chosen people.a He has
not only carried
out
this object, but, in order to enforce once more Israel's
universal
power and ascendancy, he has included in his
admonition
and menace ‘all the children of tumult.
What
else remained but simply to record that thenceforth
the
paths of Balaam and Balak were for ever separate--
that
the one ‘returned to his place,’ and the other also
‘went
his way’?b Here, if anywhere, it was a sacred duty
to
obey the command, ‘You shall not add to it, nor shall
you
diminish ought from it,’ as else the beautiful harmony
of
the Book was certain to be destroyed. And yet the
strict
limits which the author had imposed upon himself,
might
appear to later readers unsatisfactory and even in-
explicable.
Scarcely less brilliant or less gratifying to
the
nation than Saul's and David's victories over Moab,
were
their triumphs and those of their successors over
the
Edomites;c and the wars against Moab and Edom,
a Ver. 14. b Ver. 25. c See infra, on vers. 18, 19.
264 NUMBERS
XXIV. 18-24.
two
neighbouring and kindred tribes, are by Hebrew
writers
constantly and closely coupled.a Those, therefore,
who,
disregarding the art and mastership in the form of
the
composition, looked upon the Book mainly as a
national
document, might consider it an unaccountable
omission
that the annihilation of the powerful Edomites,
which
was of much greater importance to the Hebrews
than
that of the Moabites, was not specially proclaimed.
They
felt, therefore, induced to supply this supposed
defect,
and added significant words concerning Edom, not
as
a distinct prophecy, introduced, like the other oracles,
by
the formula, ‘And Balaam took up his parable,’ but
in
direct conjunction with the speech against Moab-
strangely
forgetful of Balaam's clear announcement to
Balak,
‘I will tell thee what this people is destined to
do
to thy people.'b When thus the unity of the work
was
once deranged, the way was smoothed for further
enlargements.
It was considered that the admired and
popular
work offered a convenient framework for the
glorification
of Israel as a conquering people in general;
and.
one by one, such predictions were appended as, by
the
side of oracles on Moab and Edom, and in the mouth
of
an earlier prophet, appeared suitable or desirable.c
The total difference between these
additions and
Balaam's
genuine vaticinations ought to be felt and
recognised,
it might be thought, even by the common
instincts
of literary taste and judgment. That differ-
ence
extends alike to the spirit and the language.
Where
is, in these supplements, that lucid simplicity
a Comp. 1 Sam.
xiv. 47; 2 Sam. Airammu, king
of Edom;' and in the
viii.
12-14; 1 Chron. xviii. 11; Ps. Inscription
of Esarhaddon (col. v.,
lx.
10; lxxiii. 7 ; cviii. 10; Isa. xi. 1.
14): ‘Kadumukh, king of Edom,
14;
Jer. ix. 26; xxv. 21; Ezek. and
Mitzuri, king of Moab;' see
xxv.
8; Dan. xi. 41. We find them also ‘Annals of Assur-bani-pal,' col.
also
combined in Sennacherib's In- vii.,
1. 119-121, Edom, Beth-Am-
scription
on the ‘Taylor Cylinder’ men, Moab.
(col.
ii., lines 53, 54): ‘Kammuz b Ver. 14, jmfl.
(Chemosh)-natbi,
king of Moab, and c See
also notes on vers. 20-24.
SUPPLEMENTS. 265
which
is never impaired by profoundness or sublimity?
Where
is that natural splendour or beauty of imagery,
which,
in every touch, reveals the genius and the poet?
Throughout
the four speeches of Balaam there is hardly
a
single obscurity or real difficulty in the Hebrew expres-
sion:
obscurity and difficulty abound in these last few
verses.a
The former display transparency of plan in the
whole
and every individual utterance; the latter consist
of
a disconnected and almost monotonous enumeration'
of
facts scarcely adorned or veiled, and yet so dim and
shadowy
that they sound like Sibylline mysteries. In
the
one, we find depth and wealth of the most fruitful
ideas;
in the others, there is hardly a new idea of
moment.
From noon-day brightness we pass to indis-
tinct
and clouded twilight. And yet even these verses
are
not without their own interest. Though deficient as
efforts
of prophecy and poetry, they possess a high value
as
history. While destroying the picture of Davidic
times
in its rounded and finished completeness, they ex-
pand
it to an almost panoramic view comprising event-
ful
centuries; and while they exhibit youth's soaring
elevation
and aspiring vigour lowered and weakened,
they
offer in compensation the maturity, though alas
also
the bitterness, of manly experience.
PHILOLOGICAL
REMARKS.--The numerous and singular
attempts
that have been made to vindicate an organic con-
nection
between these verses and the preceding portions,
prove
sufficiently the hopelessness of the task. Some con-
tend
that Balaam's words, ‘I will tell thee, what this people
is
destined to do to thy people’ (ver. 14), are intended a
potion,
that is, that Balaam indeed restricted his announce-
ment
to Moab alone, as the people of the greatest immediate
importance,
but that he really, at the same time, bad other
a J. D.
Micbaeliswrites: ‘I honest- to have come down to us in correct
ly
confess, that from the 18th to the transcriptions'
--yet there is no
24th
verse, the Hebrew text is not reason
to doubt the general accuracy
only
difficult, but seems partly not of the received readings.
266 NUMBERS XXIV. 18-24.
enemies
of Israel in his mind. But is it likely that the author
should,
with a rude hand, destroy a finely drawn plan, which
he
had carried out from the beginning with such thoughtful
care?
The king of Moab dares to oppose Israel and their God
king
and must, therefore, hear the prediction of his ruin; no
other
people is directly concerned; the conclusion 'and he
shattereth
all the children of tumult' is not so much meant
to
depict the annihilation of the heathen world as to extol
the
victorious Israelites, and thus once more to condense, in
a
few emphatic words, a chief idea of the three preceding
speeches.--It
is, therefore, hardly necessary to refute the
vague
opinion that the narrative aims at delineating ‘Israel's
relations
to their enemies in general,’ or to announce 'the
downfall
of all the empires of the world,' which theme, it is
asserted,
the fourth prophecy carries out in detail, and in
special
applications (Hengstb., Bil., p. 150, etc.). But if so, why
are
the Ammonites not mentioned? Why not the Philistines
and
Midianites, nor the powerful Syrians, nor any other people
in
Canaan or Gilead, with whom the Hebrews exchanged
constant
and bitter feuds? and why not Egypt? It is, of
course,
not difficult to put forth specious reasons for all these
omissions,
but they do violence both to the sense and the
words
of the text. For who will find acceptable an expe-
dient
like this: ‘Balaam, standing on the height of Peor,
has
turned round to the south, in order to cast his eye upon
Moab;
he then looks farther southward and southwestward,
in
which posture he does not behold Ammon and Aram, and
therefore,
delivers about them no prophecies (Knob.,
Numer.
p.
145). It is very questionable whether Balaam must not
have
seen Ammon from the point and in the position des-
cribed
(see p. 214). But supposing he saw no part of their
territory,
could he not turn round a little more eastward if
lie
desired or was able to make a prophetic announcement
on
their future career? And was it indeed indispensable for
him
to behold those concerning whom he prophesied? This
was
certainly necessary according to the plan of the main or
genuine
narrative; but in these additions Balaam speaks of the
Cyprians
and Assyrians, whom he surely could not see from
an
eminence in the east of the Jordan--which constitutes an-
SUPPLEMENTS. 267
other
notable divergence (see p. 18; about Amalek,on ver. 20).
If
even an approximately systematic series of prophecies had
been
intended, in accordance with the events narrated in the
Book
of Numbers, it would have been impossible to exclude
the
Midianites. These were in alliance with the Moabites in
their
contemplated execration of Israel (x-vii. 4, 7), and lived
in
their immediate vicinity; they were soon afterwards
attacked
by the Hebrews and routed with fearful slaughter
(xxxi.
1-20), and for a long time they never ceased, either
alone
or in conjunction with other enemies, to annoy and to
harass
the Israelites in Canaan (pp. 85, 86). But why, in spite
of
all this, are they not introduced? Because, after having
been
completely overwhelmed by Gideon, the Judge, they
had,
in David's time, lost all power and importance. This
one
point alone ought to lead to correct inferences, and it
will
serve to show the weakness of the assertion that the
Ammonites
are passed over because, unlike Moab, Edom, or
Amalek,
they had 'till then' come into no contact whatever
with
the Hebrews, whether of a friendly or a hostile nature
(so
Keil, Num. p. 323). But without
insisting that the same
might
be said of the Cyprians and Assyrians, who are yet
noticed
(vers. 23, 24), what does 'till then' mean? The
author
takes regard throughout of his own time, not of that of
Balaam;
and the Ammonites were, like the Moabites, defeated
by
Saul and David, were by the latter most rigorously treated,
and
required the continued vigilance of Hebrew kings (1 Sam.
xi.
11; xiv. 47; 2 Sam. viii. 12; x. 14; xi. 1; xii. 26-31; xxiv.
2;
2 Chr. xxvii. 5; Ezek. xxv. 2-7, etc.). Or if it is urged,
on
the other hand, that in these prophecies Balaam ‘surveys
the
time from David to Hezekiah ' (Knobel, Num. p. 144), it
is
permitted to ask, why in all the four preceding oracles no
allusion
is found, however faint or indirect, which leads be-
yond
the time of David? For if Balaam, represented as
prophesying
in the age of Moses, did not hesitate to describe
events
reaching to the reign of David, why should he have
shrunk
from hinting at subsequent facts, if they lay within
the
circle of his knowledge or experience' How little, there-
fore,
is gained by the remark: 'As the historical events which
unroll
themselves before the prophet's spirit become more
268 NUMBERS
XXIV. 18, 19.
distant
in time, they become also less determinate in out-
line'!
Is there for the prophet who portrays scenes occurring
four
centuries after his age, a distinction between near and
distant?
Must not all future be to him like the present?
But,
in reality, Balaam, that is the author of the first four
oracles,
is not the same as the author, or any of the authors,
of
these additions; the former lived in David's time, but the
additions
reach at least down to the age of Hezekiah. The
following
finely conceived theory has been proposed. The
speech
on Edom, observes Ewald (Jahrb. viii. 37), turned out
so
brief because Balaam felt already exhaustion coming
upon
him; 'but for this very reason he collected himself
again
and again after a few moments of rest, as if impelled
by
the spirit finally still to say all that without which the
circle
of his prophecies would not be truly complete.' But
was
that exhaustion felt by the author also? To attribute it
here
to Balaam, would not be art, but playfulness. The
nations
forming the subjects of the last oracles, were partly,
like
Edom and Amalek, much more dangerous enemies to
Israel
than Moab; the same author would not so palpably
have
missed the just proportions in the various predictions.
The
perplexity created by assuming one writer indiscrimi-
nately,
is well exemplified by the same great critic, who, on
the
one hand, praises the skill and art of this composition in
the
highest terms of admiration, but, on the other hand, de-
clares,
with surprising self-contradiction, the author's style
to
be deficient in 'quiet beauty and harmony,' supporting
his
assertion by the verses under discussion, which he calls
abrupt
and quite ghostlike' (abgerissen and ganz geister-
haft;
compare Ewald, Geschichte, i. 143,
and Jahrbucher,
viii.
1 sqq., passim).
16. PROPHECY ON EDOM. XXIV. 18, 19.
18.
And Edom is his possession,
And his possession is Seir, his enemies,
And Israel acquireth might.
19.
And he that cometh out of Jacob
ruleth,
PROPHECY ON
EDOM. 269
And destroyeth the remnant from the
cities.
It would be unnecessary here to dwell
on the history
of
the Edomites in their relations to the Hebrews, as it
has
been sketched in another place with some fulness.a
For
the illustration of the words before us, it suffices to
remind
the reader that the Edomites, after having been
vanquished
by Saul, and still. more decisively crushed by
David,
who made them tributary, liberated themselves
completely
in the reign of Jehoram, king of Judah (B.C.
890),
since the advantages obtained against them by
some
later Hebrew kings, as Amaziah (B.C. 838) and
Uzziah
(B.C. 809), were so far from important or perma-
nent,
that, in the time of king Ahaz (B.C. 741) they were
able
to make a successful invasion into Judea.b Before the
reign
of Jehoram, therefore, these verses must have been
added,
possibly as early as the life-time of David or soon
afterwards.
They recall the subjugation of the Edomites
and
the dominion of Israel, the indelible enmity of the
two
nations and the merciless severity of the Hebrew
victors.
Not only did David slay, in the Salt-valley,
18,000
Edomites, and placed Hebrew garrisons in all parts
of
their territory, but, by his direction, Joab remained
for
six months as commander in those districts with
his
whole army, and slaughtered and devastated ‘till he
had
cut off every male in Edom.'c To these occurrences
especially
may apply the words of this prophecy: ‘And
he
that conieth out of Jacob ruleth, and destroyeth the
remnant
from the cities.'
It appears that the Hebrews harboured
so strong a
feeling
of kinship, that they were reluctant to estrange
themselves
from the Edomites in spite of the most
a Comp. Comm. on
Gen. pp. 486- c 2 Sam. viii. 14 (Mvdxb
Mwyv
489. Mybcn
Mw Mvdx-lkb Mybcn);
1 Ki.
b Comp. 2 Ki.
viii. 20-22; xiv. xi. 15, 16; 1 Chron. xviii. 12, 13;
7,
22; 2 Cbron, xxviii. 17. Ps. lx. 2, 10; cviii. 10.
270 NUMBERS
XXIV. 18, 19.
aggravating
provocations. Leniency and humanity were
indeed
deplorably violated both on the one side and the
other.
The prophet Amos complains bitterly that Edom
pursued
his brother--the Hebrews--with the sword,
and
cast off all pity, and his anger raged perpetually, and
he
kept his wrath for ever.'a And on the other hand,
the
Chronicler records that, after the Hebrews under King
Amaziah
(B.C. 838-811) had killed ten thousand Edomites
in
battle, ‘they carried away other ten thousand captive,
and
brought them to the top of a rock, and cast them
down
from the top of the rock that they all were dashed
in
pieces.'b And yet, Hebrew
tradition painted Esau's
character,
if not favourably, at least not invidiously. It
represented
him as the perfect man of nature, recklessly
indifferent
indeed to the higher boons and privileges of
religion
and truth and swayed by violent passion, but
generous
and forgiving, brave and confiding, and even
capable
of deep attachment. And when, in the seventh
century,
under King Josiah, the early history of the
people
was written or compiled, Edom's old and persistent
hostility
against Israel could, naturally, not be concealed
in
the facts.c We turned. .. .
and compassed Mount Seir
many
days,' observes the author, because the Edomites
refused
the Hebrews a passage through their country.
But
even on that occasion the historian alludes to them
in
terms of friendship and affection. By God's command
Moses
tells the Israelites, 'You are to pass through the
land
of your brethren (MkyHx), the children of Esau . . . .
take
good heed, do not strive against them . . . . because
I
have given Mount Seir to Esau for a possession'; and
then
the account concludes, ‘So we passed by our brethren
the
children of Esau, who dwelt in Seir.’ Even in the
Legislation
the rigorous principles ordinarily applied with
respect
to foreign nations were relaxed in their favour,
a Amos i. 11. b
2 Chron. xxv. 11, 12; comp. 2 Ki. xiv. 7.
c
Deut. ii. 1-8.
PROPHECY ON
EDOM. 271
because
they were hardly regarded as strangers: ‘Thou
shalt
not abhor an Edomite, for he is thy brother, . . . the
children
that are born of them shall enter into the con-
gregation
of the Lord in their third generation';a that
is,
after three generations the Edomites were allowed to
intermarry
with the Israelites and' were admitted to all
the
prerogatives of the holy community.
But this sympathy found among the
Edomites no echo
or
response. They saw in the Hebrews only their former
masters,
against whom they had been compelled, for
centuries,
to make the strongest efforts to assert and to
maintain
their independence. Both nations had no higher
interests
of faith or intellectual pursuit in common.
When,
therefore, not long after Josiah, ruin overtook
Judah,
when their capital was destroyed by the Babylo-
nians,
and king and people were carried away into capti-
vity,
the unbridled fierceness of the Edomites broke forth
without
restraint; in wild exultation they fired the
ravaging
Chaldean: ‘Destroy, destroy, to the very founda-
tion';
they seemed to bear their own affliction more wil-
lingly
when they saw the cruel sufferings of the Israelites;
and
from this time of ungenerous and ignoble vindictive-
ness,
a hatred against the Edomites took root so bitter
and
inplacable, that the Hebrews thenceforth designated
their
most detested foes, like the Romans in a later age, as
Edomites.
From this period the Hebrew writings abound
in
indignant invectives, and even virulent outbursts
of
rage, against the unbrotherly people.
Jeremiah
and
Obadiah, Ezekiel and the second Isaiah, and later
Psalmists,
vie with each other in portraying Edom's igno-
miny
and debasement, devastation and slavery, as a
punishment
of their taunting mockery and shameless
defiance--'because
they had a perpetual hatred and shed
the
blood of the children of Israel by the sword in the
a Deut. xxiii. 8,
9; comp. Mishn. Yevam. viii. 2, 3.
272 NUMBERS
XXIV. 18, 19.
time
of their calamity.'a Therefore, the later narrative
in
the Book of Numbers does not state, like Deuteronomy,
‘The
Edomites shall be afraid of you, take ye therefore
good
heed to yourselves';b but it represents the Edomites
as
haughtily saying to the Hebrews, 'Thou shalt not pass
by
me, lest I come out against thee with the sword';c
and
it designedly expresses the entreaty of the Israelites
for
permission of a free passage in words the most pathe-
tic
and most insinuatingly suppliant, in order to make
the
conclusion stand out in harsher contrast: ‘And Edom
answered,
Thou shalt not go through; and he came out
against
the Hebrews with a mighty army and with a
strong
hand.'d But even in these later times, when the
Edomites,
by no means politically extinct or dispossessed
of
their land, but, on the contrary, successful in enlarging
it,
continued to foster their ineradicable spirit of turbu-
lence
and revengefulness, the Hebrews might still, with
a
peculiar satisfaction, point not only to the vaticinations
attributed
to the patriarch Isaac,e but especially to this.
prophecy
ascribed to an old and famous seer: ‘And
Edom
is his possession, and his possession is Seir, his
enemies.’
This hope seemed at last to be
completely re-
alised,
when John Hyrcanus (B.C. 129) subjected the
Edomites
and forced them to submit to circumcision and
to
adopt all other Jewish rites and laws, although a
century
after this time, thoughtful men might have been
roused
to serious reflections, when they saw the Idumiean
Herod
acquire the sovereign rule over the Jewish com-
monwealth,
and when they beheld the Idumaean districts
still
untouched and flourishing, and not, as they read in
their
sacred predictions, ‘a desolation ... like the over-
a Ezek. xxxv. 5;
comp. Jer. xlix b
Deut. 14.
7-22;
Lam. iv. 21, 22; Obad. 1-21; c Num. xx. 18.
Ezek.
xxv. 12-14; xxxv. 2-15; Isa. d Ibid. ver. 20.
xxxiv.
5, sqq.; lxiii. 1-6; Psalm e Gen. xxvii. 29, 40, rybn
hvh
cxxxvii.
7; Mal. i. 3, 4. jyHxl, and dbft
jyHx-txv.
PROPHECY ON
EDOM. 273
throw
of Sodom and Gomorrah ... in which no man
shall
abide and no son of man shall dwell."a
PHILOLOGICAL
REMARKS.--None of the attempts which
have
been made to prove the agreement between the two it
accounts
on the Edomites (in Deut. ii. and Num. xx.) has
been
successful (comp. Hengstenb. Auth. d.
Pent, ii. 283-288;
Winer,
Real-Wart. i. 293; De Wette, Kritik, i. 359, 360, etc).
--From
the explanation above proposed, it cannot be sur-
prising
that the speech on Edom is not given as a distinct
oracle
premised by vlwm xwyv. But it may be observed that
this
phrase occurs in the whole section seven times, and it is
possible
that the desire of establishing this holy number of
prophecies
may not have been without influence in determin-
ing
the additions, though it cannot have prompted the amal-
gamation
of the oracle on Edom with that on Moab, because
that
oracle was probably the earliest supplement, made at a
time
when the composition comprised no more than the four
original
prophecies. In no case is the remark justified that
the
arrangement and number of predictions imperatively
require
the whole of them to be attributed to one and the
same
period' (Hengstenb., Bil., p. 273);
the symbolical signi-
ficance
of the numbers was but gradually developed, and an
adaptation
of earlier writings to subsequent notions enter-
tained
of the holiness of certain numbers is quite conceivable.
On
the application of the number three in the interpolated
incident
on the road (xxii. 22--35) see pp. 147, 148; on the
number
seven in the preliminaries to the oracles, p. 165.--It
is
hardly necessary here to enter into the relation between
these
verses and the Jahvistic blessing of Isaac (Gen. xxvii.
29,
40): as the former must be placed before
King Jehoram of
Judah,
so the latter, on account of the allusion it contains to
Edom's
liberation (ver. 40), after that
king; and as both are
identical
in the chief idea that he who blesses Israel is him-
self
blessed, so they relate to the same chief enemy of Israel;
for
in the Jahvist's time these verses on Edom had long been
a Jer. xlix. 17,
18; Mal. i. 2, 3; 17; xii. 32, sqq. ; Jos. Ant. VIII,
comp.
1 Macc. v. 65; 2 Macc. x. 15- ix. 1;
XV. vii. 9; etc.
274 NUMBERS
xxiv. 18, 19.
incorporated
with the Book of Balaam.--To hwArey, possession
(equivalent
to hw.Aruy;, Deut. ii. 5, 9, 19 ; Josh. xii. 6, 7; Sept.,
klhronomi<a), we must
supply his, viz., Israel's, or of Israel's
victorious
king (ver. 17), as can hardly be doubtful from
the
context; and to the same proper noun refers the suffix
in vybAy;xo; while this
substantive is in apposition to MOdx< and
ryfiWe, analogous to, but by no means
so clear and appropriate
as,
vyrAcA MyiOG in ver. 8; the sense being, that Edom and Seir,
Israel's
adversaries, shall become his possession (Vulg.,
dis-
tinctly
the first part, 'et erit Idumaea possessio ejus'; Sept.,
the
second part, kai> e@stai klhronomi<a ]Hsau? o[ e]xqro>j au]tou?). The
construction
is even less simple if the suffix in vybyx is applied
to
Seir, 'a possession is Seir of his-enemies' (Vulg., haeredi-
tas
Seir cedet inimicis suis; Luth., Seir
wird seinen Feinden
unterworfen
sein; Eng. Vers., Seir also shall be
a possession
for
his enemies; Rosenm., Verschuir, and
others; but Vater,
questionably,
'Seir, seiner Feinde Land'; Maur., Seir hos-
tium
suorum, i.e, Seir terra hostium, etc ). By taking MOdx<
and
ryfiWe
not as synonymous, like bqfy and lxrWy, but in a
somewhat
different sense, we avoid a languid repetition in
the
first two parts of the verse; for those terms may either
be
understood as Edomites and Horites (so also Knob.
and
others;
comp. Gen. xxxvi. 9, 20, 'Esau, the father of the
Edomites--Mvdx-- in mount Seir,'
and 'The sons of ryfiWe the
Horite,
yrvHh';
see Comm. on Gen. pp. 352, 598); or, though
less
suitably, as the people and the country (so Hengstenb.,
De Wette, and others;
comp. Gen. xxxii. 4).--As 'Edom' and
'Israel'
are in juxtaposition, so are hwry hyhv and lyH
hWf;
and
as lyH hWf' includes also the notion of ' dispossession' or
expulsion'
(comp. wry
in this sense in Deut. ii. 12; ix. 1,
etc.),
lyH hWf must here denote an increase in property or
power,
as that phrase frequently involves (Deut. viii. 17, 18;
Ruth
iv. 11; Prov. xxxi. 29, etc.)--'and Israel acquireth
might'
; yet lyH
should not be restricted to 'wealth' alone
(Targ. Onkel. and Jonath., Mysknb Hlc, etc.). Other
translations,
though
not taking full account of the parallelism, :imply a
kindred
sense (Sept., kai> ]Israh>l
e]poi<hsen e]n i]sxu<i; comp. 1
Sam.
xiv. 48; Ps. Ix. 14; cviii. 14, etc.; and so Vulg., Eng.
Vers., Vat.,
Gesen., Knob.,
and others; or Luth., Israel wird
PROPHECY ON
EDOM. 275
Sieg
haben; Heider, Ewald, and others).
--The subject to
D;r;yev; (ver. 19) is indeed indefinite,
'and one' or 'he that cometh
out
of Jacob shall rule' (comp. Mic. V. 1, xcy yl jmm); but if
we
consider that the prophecy on Edom is designedly joined
to
that on Moab as closely as it could be joined, this ruler can
be
no other than the 'star' or the 'sceptre' that humbles Moab
also
(ver. 17), that is David, to whom alone the following
words
likewise apply, ryfm dyrw dybxhv. It is
inappropriate
to
understand 'the whole race of Hebrew kings' (Hengstenb.,
Bil.,
187; Reinke Beitriige iv. 202, and others) as the
individual
conception should be adhered to as far as possible.
Some
consider indeed that in the first part of ver. 19 David
is
meant, but in the second part Joab, with respect to the
passage,
1 Ki. xi. 15, above quoted. (so Ebn Ezra), upon which
others
have improved by the still more untenable expedient
of
taking ryfime
as avenger (Michael., Mendelss., and others,
one
who rouses or stirs up'; comp. Isai. xiii. 17).—D;r;ye, the
fut.
Kal of hdArA,
to be master or to rule (Gram, §
lxvii. 15.b., not
of
drauyA
, to descend as Onk. tvHyyv;
Syr. tvHnv; Sam. Vers.
tfnyv; Sept., e]cegerqh<setai), is used as an
intransitive verb (as
in
1 Ki. v. 4 ; Ps. lxxii. 8); it is, therefore, unnecessary to
read
bqofEya MDer;yiv; or ‘y MDer;yav; (Isai. x1i. 2;
so Gaab, Vuter, Knob.,
and
others), even if the plural of the suffix admitted the con-
jecture.
As dyriWA,
abandoning its strictly etymological mean-
ing
of 'one who has escaped' (comp. draWA, Josh. x. 20;
Arab.,
XXX
like FyliPA),
has almost uniformly the sense of 'remainder'
or
'remnant' (Num. xxi. 35; Deut. iii. 3; Judg. v. 13; Job
xx.
21; comp., especially, Josh. x. 20, vdrw Mydyrwhv), it
seems
preferable to connect ryfime with dybix,h,v;; thus the word
was
construed by the Masorites, who furnished dyrw with a
distinctive
accent; and ryfm dybxh (with Nm) is 'to destroy
away
from'
or 'out of the city' (Gram. § 105.4; not as the Vulg.,
et
perdat reliquias civitatis ; the Sept., indistinctly, kai> a]polei?
swzo<menon e]k po<lewj, etc.), or
rather 'out of the cities,' since
ryfi is here used in a collective sense
(comp. Job xxiv. 12)--
all
or the principal cities of Edom which David captured and
the
population of which he partially
destroyed; for the words
ryfm dyrw dybxhv must, it is
hoped, be understood as a poetical
hyperbole.
The translation 'Out of Jacob ruleth Jehovah
and
276 NUMBERS
XXI V. 18, 19.
destroyeth
those that remain out of the town of Zion'
(so
Ewald and others,
with doubtful reference to Ps. cx. 2), pre-
supposes
a corruption of the text for which there is no proof
or
trace; it yields, moreover, the artificial sense that--'God
completes
the subjection of all nations from Zion as His
abode,'
and is at variance with the context, as then the verse
could
hardly apply to Edom alone. Such an extension of its
meaning
has indeed been asserted by the defenders of that
interpretation:
'the prophetic view stretches out into the
distant
future--far beyond David; his aspirations become in
a
wide sense Messianic; they long for
and foretell a glorious
time
of conquest, of which David was but the prelude.' To
this
opinion apply all the difficulties and objections above
pointed
out with respect to a Messianic acceptation of these
verses
in any sense. The 19th verse was at least not so ex-
plained
by the prophet Obadiah, who refers it literally to the
Edomites,
and reproduces some words very distinctly (vers.
17-19,
'kv vWf tybl dyrw hyhy xlv, comp. Am. ix. 12). Nor
do
these sentences in general seem to have been understood
as
Messianic by the ancient Hebrew writer or writers who
appended
the following predictions; for, if so, they would
have
made the additions superfluous, as they would have
included
the subjugation or destruction of the Amalekites
and
all other heathen nations. Similarly some Jewish inter-
preters
(as Ebn Ezra and others) inferred
from the very place
which
this prophecy occupies that it cannot foreshadow the
Messiah,
who is expected 'at the end of days,' and would,
therefore,
have been introduced at the conclusion, after the
announcement
of Asshur's annihilation. Yet other Jewish
authorities
uphold the Messianic conception: 'the principal
empire
of Edom,' says Rashi, 'is Rome, and these words
refer
to the king Messiah'; and a modern critic goes so far
to
contend that ‘Edom is the immediate end and object of the
whole
piece' (Ewald, Gesch., i. 148; Jahrb.
viii. 36); whereas
we
have shown thnt, in the author's original plan, Edom
is
not even specially comprised (p. 263). It
is impossible
to
associate these verses with Amaziah's expedition against
Edom
above alluded to (2 Ki. xiv. 7; 2 Chr. xxv. 11, 12),
because
that war was waged in the open field and not in
PROPHECY ON THE
AMALEKITES. 77
towns,
and because, in Amaziah's time, Israel's rule over Edom
had
long ceased, although desultory successes were occa-
sionally
achieved.
17.
PROPHECY ON THE AMALEKITES. XXIV. 20.
20.
And he saw Amalek, and he took up his
parable
and said,
Amalek is the first of the nations,
But his end is for destruction.
Long and changeful had been the
warfare carried on
by
the Hebrews against the Amalekites. It began when
the
children of Israel had hardly left Egypt,a was renewed
when
they had reached the southern border of Canaan,b
and
continued, with varying fortunes, in the period of
the
Judges and Kings.c At length, in the reign or age
of
Hezekiah, a band of Simeonites annihilated the last
remnants
of the Amalekites in their strongholds of
Mount
Seir.d At, that time, the prophecy we read in this
verse
might have been added: ‘Amalek is the first of
nations,
but his end is for destruction.' Such a supple-
ment
must have seemed particularly desirable for more
than
one reason. First, it might appear that, as Agag had
before
been incidentally mentioned,e his humiliation and
fate
ought to be proclaimed with all possible distinctness
and
emphasis. A similar announcement, moreover, forced
itself
upon the Hebrews almost spontaneously. For
though,
according to the Biblical records, the Amalekites
were
a branch of the Edomites,f the Hebrews regarded
them
by no means with the same fraternal feelings, but,
on
the contrary, conceived against them a hatred so
a Exod. xvii. d
1 Chron. iv. 42, 43.
b Num. xiv. 25,
40-45. e
Ver. 7.
c Judg. iii. 13;
vi. 3, 33; vii. 12; f Gen. xxxvi. 12,16; comp.
1 Chr.
x.
12; see Commentary on Exodus, i.
36: the sons of Esau, Elipbaz...,
pp.
309, 310. the
sons of Elipbaz ... Amalek.
278 NUMBERS
XXIV. 20.
intense
and inextinguishable, that it can only be com-
pared
to the fierce enmity of later Jews against the
Samaritans.
The older account, given in Exodus, of the
first
conflict with the Amalekites, after stating God's
resolve,
‘I will utterly blot out the remembrance of
Amalek
from under heaven,' concludes with the sentence
which
sounds like a real battle-cry in a holy campaign,
‘War
of the Lord against Amalek from generation to
generation.’a
For centuries, this was the spirit in which
both
nations met. Nothing is so much calculated to
convey
an idea of the untamed ferocity of those times,
which
the mellowing rays of a true civilisation had
hardly
reached beyond the surface, as the ruthless com-
mand
given by the great and highly cultivated leader
Samuel
to the king he had anointed in the name of
Jahveh,
‘Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy
all
that they have, and spare them not, but slay both
man
and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep,
camel
and ass.’b For when Saul,
having marched out
with
a prodigious army of two hundred and ten thousand
men,c
believed, in the joy and pride of his heart, he was
announcing
to his prophetic guide the successful execu-
tion
of the command in telling him that 'he had taken
Agag
the king of the Amalekites alive, and had utterly
destroyed
all the people with the edge of the sword;'d it
became
clear what Samuel had meant by the injunction
‘thou
shalt utterly destroy them’ (MtmrHhv). The total
reduction
and submission of the Amalekites did not
suffice.
They and their memory were to be effaced
without
leaving a vestige. As long as the faintest trace
remained
which recalled their unhallowed existence,
heaven
and earth seemed outraged and defiled. The very
a Exodus xvii.
13-15, hmHlm c
xv. 4; comp. on this verse and
‘rd rdm qlmfb hvhyl figure Noldeke, Ueber die Amale-
b 1 Sam. xv. 3, ‘kv
MtmrHhv;
kiter and einige andere
Nachbar-
comp.
ver. 18; xxviii. 18; also the volker der Israeliien, p. 14.
brief
statement in xiv. 48. d xv. 8; comp. ver.
20.
PROPHECY ON THE
AMALEKITES. 279
cattle
that belonged to them was an abomination, and
detested
by God as sacrifices. For such an object, their
king
Agag alone was deemed acceptable, and so ‘Samuel
hewed
Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.'a
It might be supposed that this was
enough of wrath
and
fierce persecution; but new wars and marauding
expeditions
followed, which were repulsed by David with
a
strong hand;b and under later kings also, as Amaziah,
Amalek
eagerly made common cause with Edom and
other
adversaries of Israel.c But not even their all but
absolute
extermination by Hezekiah could appease the
burning
animosity of the Hebrews. When, a century
later,
the Deuteronomist fixed Israel's relations to the
surrounding
tribes, he did not fail to enjoin upon his
countrymen,
'Thou shalt blot out the remembrance of
Amalek
from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.’d
This
feeling was, in subsequent times, most zealously
fostered;
it received new nourishment when the popular
belief
stamped Haman, ‘the Agagite,’ the arch-enemy
of
the Jews, as an Amalekite;e and it was
carefully
cherished
by the Synagogue, which takes Amalek, like
Edom,
as the perpetual type of all wicked and malignant
foes
of Israel; although, in this respect also, a milder
spirit
has long since arisen, which considers it the noblest
form
of the festive joy of Purim, to efface all distinction
between
‘Blessed be Mordecai’ and ‘Cursed be Haman.
If we enquire after the causes of such
deep and per-
sistent
aversion, the Hebrew documents declare that it
originated
in the base and reckless conduct of the
Amalekites
at the time when the Hebrews had but just
escaped
from an oppressive servitude and a perilous
flight;
not waiting till the embarrassed hosts arrived in
a Ver. 33; see
Comm. on Lev. i., c 2 Ki. xiv. 7; comp. Ps. lxxxiii.
p,414;
compare 1 Sam. xxviii. 18, 8; As. Antiq. IX. ix. 1, 2.
qlmfb vpx NvrH tyWf xlv. d
Deut. xxv. 19.
b 1 Sam. xxvii.
8; xxx. 1-20; e Esth. iii. 1, 10; vii. 6;
viii. 5;
2
Sam. viii. 12; 1 Chron. xviii. 11. ix. 24.
280 NUMBERS
XXIV. 20.
their
districts, the Amalekites marched out and met them
at
Rephidim, not far from the northern ridges of Mount
Sinai,
attacked and ‘smote their rear, all the feeble
behind
them, when they were faint and weary;' and
thus
acted as ‘sinners’ who 'do not fear God,' nay, as
enemies
of the Lord.'a If we recollect that the Hebrews
thus
saw their young liberty and new power menaced in
the
bud, and, instead of marching northward direct into
Canaan,
were compelled to long and weary wanderings
round
Mount Seir into the east-Jordanic country, we
shall
at least understand that vehement antipathy which
outlasted
the political existence both of the Hebrews and
the
Amalekites; although it cannot be fully estimated
without,
besides, taking,into account their constant and
violent
collisions. For the Amalekites seem indeed to
have
been ubiquitous. 'We find them at the southern
frontiers
of Canaan, spreading almost to the coast of the
Philistines
and the approaches of Egypt; we meet them
in
Arabia Petraea and the rugged fastnesses of Mount
Seir;
we see them scattered throughout the peninsula of
Sinai,
and yet also in. the tracts of Ephraim, where even
a
mountain chain bore the name of ‘Mountain of the
Amalekites.'b And wherever
they dwelt or roamed, they
fanned
the old flame of hostility by pillage, bloodshed,
and
every barbarous provocation.
Now the full import of this verse may
be intelligible:
‘And
he saw Amalek even from the summit of Peor, by
the
plains of Moab, branches of that far-extending tribe
might
be beheld, or might be supposed to be visible.
‘Amalek
is the first; of nations,' Balaam said--first in
power
and first in wantonly displaying this might against
the
distressed Hebrews; ‘but his end is for destruction’--
so
literally and so emphatically to utter destruction, that
he
became a type and an emblem of national extinction.
a hvhy
ybyvx
comp. Exod. xvii. b Judg.v. 14; xii.15; comp.
Num.
8-15;
Deut. xxv. 18; 1 Sam. xv. 2, xiii. 29; 1 Sam. xv. 7; xxvii. 8;
18;
xxx. 26. xxx.
1.
PROPHECY ON THE
AMALEKITES. 281
PHILOLOGICAL
REMARKS.--The author of this verse evidently
meant
that the prophet saw the Amalekites really, and not
merely
'in his mind's eye' the addition was framed so as
to
harmonise with the plan of the entire composition, and the
words
qlmf tx xryv correspond to lxrWy tx xryv (ver. 2). It
may
be difficult to prove that a division of the Amalekites
actually
resided in a district that could be surveyed from the
height
of Peor; but such a settlement, at some time at least,
is
not impossible on the part of a tribe so ramified and so
roving;
and this ideal possibility the author might plead as
a
sufficient justification. For he desired to describe the it
Amalekites
as Myvg tywxr, that is, as the head or chief and
most
powerful of nations; one of the principal attributes of
such
a people is wide extent of territory; and that impression
of
almost unlimited abodes is produced upon the reader by
the
supposition that the prophet 'saw Amalek' from Peor.--
In
a sense similar to this passage, Myvg tywxr is employed in
Am.
vi. 1, where the Israelites are so characterised, and
whence
the phrase may have been borrowed (Sept.,
a]rxh>
e]qnw?n; Vulg., principium gentium,
etc.; comp. Am. vi. 6,
where
the chief or choicest ointments are called Mynmw tywxr;
1
Sam. xv. 21, etc.). Israel's king has before been described
as
mightier than the king of the Amalekites (ver. 7); this
statement
is exhibited in all its force and significance by in-
timating
that the Amalekites were the most powerful and
most
important of all heathen nations. It is true that Arabic
writers
designate the Amalekites as a very old people of true
Arabs,
older not only than the Ishmaelites, but even than
the
Joktanites, and forming the primitive population not only
of
Shemitic but of many other countries (comp. D'Herbelot,
Bibl.
Orient., p. 110, etc.). But this was not the opinion of
Biblical
historians, who, as we have above observed, regarded
Amalek
as a grandson of Esau from a subordinate wife (Gen.
xxxvi.
12, 16); and the almost absurdly fabulous, confused,
and
fictitious character of all Arabic accounts of the Amale-
kites,
has been satisfactorily proved (comp. Noldeke,
Ueber die
Amalekiter,
etc., pp. 29-42). The mention of the district of
yqlmfh hdW, in the time of
Abraham (Gen. xiv. 7), is easily
explained,
by historical anticipation, as a country inhabited
282 NUMBERS
XXIV. 21, 22.
by
Amalekites in the author's time (see Comm. on Genes. pp.
355,
597). The translation 'the oldest of nations is Amalek,'
seems,
therefore, less appropriate (so Sam. Vers.,
hyfvg tvxmdq
and
many others); it is, at least, not required by the anti-
thesis,
evidently meant as pointed, of tywxr and vtyrHx,which
is
sufficiently distinct in the other acceptation also.--MyiOG is
not
heathen or hostile nations, so that the first words of the
prophecy
would denote the enmity which the
idolatrous Ama-
lekites
lekites were the first to evince
against Israel (so Onk., wyr
lxrWyd xybrq; Jon., Jerus., Rashi, lxrWyb
MHlhl Mlk tx Mdq xvh,
and
others), but, as usual, nations in general (camp. ver. 8,
where
Myvg
is qualified by vyrc; and xxiii. 9, where Myvgb is
among
the other nations').—‘His end is dbexo
ydefE,'
that is,
literally,
'as far as those who perish,' dbexo being taken col-
lectively
(comp. Job xxix. 13; xxxi. 19; Prov. xxxi. 6), or
'his
end will reach destruction,' the concrete, by way of
metonymy,
used for the abstract noun, or simply 'his end is
destruction.'
With respect to the Amalekites, Samuel com-
manded
Saul: ‘thou shalt fight against them MtAOx
MtAOl.Ka-dfa
till
they are destroyed' (1 Sam. xv. 18), and the preposition
dfa is similarly employed in other passages
(comp. 1 Chr. iv.
27;
Hag. ii. 19; Job xxv. 5; Ps. xc. 3, etc.). It is, there-
ore,
unnecessary to read dbexyo dfa (so Sam. Cod. and Vers.,
Syr., Michael., and others,
and a few MSS.), and to under-
stand
this, as the Syriac Version does, 'his posterity will
perish
for ever' (Nymlfl ydbxt htrH, which would
require
dbxt in the Hebrew text; and similarly Sept., kai>
to> spe<rma
au]tou? a]polei?tai, and others;
see supra, p. 183; but Onkel., ‘in
his
end he will perish for ever' xmlfl, and similarly Mendelss.
and
others).
18. PROPHECY ON THE KENITES. XXIV. 21,
22.
21.
And he saw the Kenite, and lie took up his
parable
and said,
Strong is thy dwelling place,
And build thou thy nest in the rock
PROPHECY ON THE
KENITES. 283
22.
Yet for destruction is Kain--
Until Asshur carrieth thee away
captive.
In their relations to the Hebrews, the
Kenites formed
the
most striking contrast to the Amalekites. From the
beginning
of their history down to its close, as far as it
has
been preserved to us, those relations were marked;
by
the sincerest friendship and goodwill; and no less
strong
and indelible than the hatred entertained by the
Israelites
against Amalek, was the gratitude they evinced
towards
the Kenites, on which it is more grateful to
dwell.
They never forgot that, in remote times, Jethro
or
Hobab, the Midianite priest or Emir, whom they
associated
with the Kenites,a afforded them advice and
assistance
in the toils and dangers of their desert
wanderings,
that he was to them ‘like eyes’ on their
journeys
and in their encampments, and that he con-
sented
to accompany them into their new homes to
share
their fortunes.b Indeed, from the earliest parts of
the
period of the Judges, we find the Kenites settled in
the
southern districts of Palestine, especially in the terri-
tory
of Judah, to which they were almost reckoned, in-
habiting
their own towns and forming independent com-
munities,
but constantly exchanging with the Hebrews
acts
of kindliness.c A portion of their number, separa-
ting
from the principal stock, settled, it is true, or lived
as
nomads, in more northern provinces of Canaan among
tribes
hostile to the Hebrews; but even there they
remained
strongly mindful of the old bonds of sym-
pathy.
When the Israelites were compelled to encounter
the
powerful northern king Jabin of Hazor, it was a
Kenite
woman, 'Jael the wife of Heber the Kenite,'
living
near Kedesh in Naphtali, who delivered them
from
their most dangerous foe, the valiant general
a Judg. i. 16,
iv. 11. c Judg. i. 16; 1 Sam. xxvii. 10;
b Exod. xviii.
1-26, and notes in xxx. 29, David sent presents from
loc.;
Num. X. 29-32.I the
booty also ynyqh yrfb rwxl.
284 NUMBERS
XXIV. 21, 22.
Sisera;
she committed that sanguinary deed in spite: of
the
alliance of friendship which existed between her
house
and King Jabin, and in spite of the sacredness of
hospitality
inviolable even to enemies, so deep was her
attachment
to Israel; and for that deed she was extolled,
with
fiery eulogies, by the Hebrew prophetess: ‘Blessed
above
women shall Jael be, the wife of Heber the
Kenite,
blessed shall she be above women in the tent.'a
And
on the other hand, when Saul, engaged in his war
of
extirpation against the Amalekites, had advanced to
their
capital, he sent to the Kenites, who had established
themselves
among that tribe, this message: ‘Go, depart,
remove
from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you
with
them; for you showed kindness to all the children
of
Israel when they came up out of Egypt.'b Even the
Chronicler
connects the Kenites with Caleb, a descendant
of
Judah, and counts among them the Rechabites, who,
living
as nomads and Nazarites, were by Jeremiah
praised
as bright examples of filial piety and obedience.
All
the Hebrew records confirm this genial attachment
and
mutual harmony, which Jewish tradition of later
times
maintained with equal unanimity.
It would, therefore, be extremely
surprising were we
here
to find a hostile utterance against the Kenites similar
to
that on Amalek or Edom. But are these verses indeed
l
conceived in such a spirit? Carefully examined, the
prophecy
is not hostile but sorrowful; it does riot
breathe
hatred, but compassion; it proclaims a sad fate,
but
without exultation or bitterness. It simply enun-
ciates
that the rocky mountain strongholds, in which the
Kenites
believed themselves unassailable, proved a vain
protection,
and that the people, weakened by repeated
losses
and reverses, were at last carried away into cap-
tivity
by the Assyrian conquerors. Indeed, weighing
a Judg. iv., 11,
17; v. 24. c Comp. 1 Chron. ii. 42, 55; Jer.
b I Sam. xv. s. xxxv.
PROPHECY ON THE
KENITES. 285
the
context, we are justified in referring to this prophecy
also
the author's plaintive and sympathetic exclamation
immediately
following: ‘Woe, who may live, when God
doeth
this!'a
But how, it may be asked, could such
an oracle find a
place
in this Book of Balaam? A correct insight into the
origin
of the ‘Supplements’ explains this point. It
appeared
suitable to join to a prophecy on the Amalekites
an
announcement concerning a people which, though
partly
domiciled among the former, and perhaps being
with
them of kindred race, was held by the Hebrews in
deep
affection, but did not escape affliction and misery.
In
setting forth this memorable contrast, the tone of
violent
indignation is naturally changed almost into
mournful
elegy. Such a connection is indeed loose if not
extraneous,
but it fully corresponds to the character of
additions
in which the strict plan and close unity of the
main
composition are disregarded. The destinies of
Moab
alone were to be delineated;b with some appear-
ance
of fitness, speeches on Edom and Amalek were
appended,
as these nations also were inveterate enemies
of
Israel; but how great is the anti-climax of annexing
an
oracle concerning a peaceful and comparatively insig-
nificant
tribe which, even if slight collisions should have
occasionally
arisen, never made itself conspicuous by
animosity
against the Hebrews!
We are not informed what disasters the
Kenites suffered
in
the course of time. Those who had taken up their abodes
in
the northern districts, probably participated in the fate
of
the ten tribes of Israel, which Shalmaneser deported
into
Assyria, if they had not already belonged to those
whom
Tiglath-pileser carried away in the reign of Pekah,
king
of Israel, since among the captives we find distinct
mention
made of the people of Kedesh and all the
a Ver. 23. b Ver. 14.
286 NUMBERS
XXIV. 21, 22.
inhabitants
of Naphtali.a After this time, therefore, the
verses
before us must have been added, probably by the
same
hand that wrote the preceding prophecy on Amalek
and
the following words concerning Kittim; all at
least
refer to the Assyrian period. We learn indeed from
the
Inscriptions, that the Assyrians began to come into
contact
with the Hebrews, and to make them tributary,
from
a time as early as the first half of the ninth century;b
but
an actual abduction into Assyria is only recorded in
connection
with much later expeditions, and these verses
manifestly
imply more than a mere menace or a vague
apprehension
of danger.
PHILOLOGICAL
REMARKS.--Among the nations whose pos-
sessions
God promised to Abraham after the conclusion of
the
Covenant (Gen. xv. 19-21), the Kenites are indeed also
mentioned.
But the object of that enumeration was merely
to
describe the extent of the future territory of the Hebrews,
which
was to reach 'from the river of Egypt to the great ,
river
Euphrates' (ibid., ver. 18). Not all those tribes need
necessarily
be considered as hostile to the Israelites, who
were,
of course, at liberty to allow residence among them to
whomsoever
they chose. It is, therefore, also an unfounded
supposition
to identify the Kenites with those Canaanites
who,
in conjunction with Amalek, fought unprovoked against
the
wandering Hebrews on the southern frontiers of Palestine
(Num.
xiv. 25, 43, 45), since even those pdltions of the Kenites
that
lived among the Amalekites were amicably disposed
towards
the Hebrews (comp. also Noldeke,
Ueber die Ama-
lekiter,
pp. 19-23; Kuenen, Relig. of Israel,
i. 179-182, and
others).--It
has been conjectured that the capital of the
southern
Kenites was Hazezon-Tamar, later called En-gedi
(the
present Ain Djidi), in the desert of
Judah, famous for its
beautiful
palm plantations and vineyards and the precious
a 2 Ki. xv. 29;
comp. the Inscrip- to Assyria' (Records of the Past,
tion
of Tiglath-pileser: 'The land v. 52).
of
Beth-Omri (Samaria), the popula- b
See the events referred to in
tion,
the goods of its people I sent notes
on vers. 23, 24.
PROPHECY ON THE KENITES. 287
opobalsamum
(Gen. xiv. 7; 1 Sam. xxiv. 1-3; 2 Chr. xx, 2;
Cant.
i. 14; comp. Joseph. Ant. IX. i. 2; Plin.
Nat. Hist. v.
17;
Robinson, Bibl. Researches, i.
500-509, etc.), while others
fix
upon the summit of the cliff rising perpendicularly from
the
level of the western shore of the Dead Sea, about ten
miles
south of En-gedi, where afterwards the famous city of
Masada
was built: the position of either place is indeed suit-
able;
but proofs are wanting in the one case and the other,
and
En-gedi is, in earlier tines, described as peopled by the
Amorites
(Gen. xiv. 7).--The friendly spirit of Jewish tradi-
tion
towards the Kenites is reflected in Rashi's explanation
Blessed
art thou in being so strongly fortified, for surely thou
shalt
no more be humbled in the world; for even if one day
expelled
from the place of thy habitation, and led into cap-
tivity
with the ten tribes of Israel, do not be concerned; this
is
no humiliation but merely a change of abodes, and thou
shalt
certainly return with the other captives.' The last
idea
is also expressed in the reading of the Samaritan Codex,
jbwvt rvwxm df, ‘till thy
inhabitants return from Assyria,' and
in
the Sam.Vers., jtvrzf rvwxm dfs. The Targum of
Jonathan
renders
yniq.eha by 'Jethro who had become a proselyte' (similarly
Mendelss. and others,
'Balaam saw Jethro and his family in
the
Hebrew camp'), and the Chaldee translators generally
represent
ynqh
by hxAmAl;wa or hy.AmAl;wa, probably
meaning
the
peaceful people' (compare, however, Talm.
Bab, Batbr.
56a,
where hxmlw
'stands for ynvmdqh, Gen. xv. 19, but yhvtpn
for
ynqh.
According to 1 Chr. ii. 51, 54, xmAl;Wa--with W--is
kindred
with the Kenites).--The hypothesis of two tribes
distinct
from each other and both accidentally bearing the
same
name of Kenites, the one of Midianite descent, friendly
to
the Hebrews, the other of Canaanite origin, hostile to
them,
can neither be supported nor is it required; it was
chiefly
suggested by the supposed necessity that these 'pro-
phecies
of Balaam' must certainly include some representa-
five
of the Canaanites, those most troublesome and most
obnoxious
foes of Israel. But this opinion rests on an estimate
of
the economy of the last speeches (vers. 18-24), which we
have
proved to be untenable. And even if that necessity were
admitted,
why should the small and peaceful people of the
288 NUMBERS
XXIV. 21, 22.
Kenites
have been selected to serve as such a representative,
since
from the height of Peor many much more conspicuous
tribes,
both east and west of the Jordan, could be seen or ima-
gined?
More consistently, though of course unwarrantably,
some
Jewish writers (as Abarbanel and
others) consider the
Kenites
here to mean the Ammonites. Hence it
is also utterly
against
the context to assume that it was the Hebrews who
caused
the ruin of the Kenites; for though they executed
punishment
upon Moab, Edom, and Amalek, they were cer-
tainly
tainly not instrumental in the downfall of Asshur and Eber
(ver.
24): a uniform plan, as is evident from all sides, is not
carried
out in the Supplements. 'The words are
not a pre-
diction
diction of evil to the Kenites, but a promise of safety to be
long
continued to them,' says the author of the Commentary
on
Numbers in Canon Cook's Holy Bible--the only modern
interpreter,
as far as we are aware, who takes this view,
which
is alone borne out by the facts of history. If any
relation
be intended between this and the preceding oracle,
it
is that of antithesis contrasting the enmity of the Ama-
lekites
with the--friendship of the Kenites, and comparing the
satisfaction
felt by the Hebrews at the annihilation of the
one
with the pity and sympathy evinced by them in the mis-
fortunes
of the others.--The first ancestor of the Kenites is
Nyiqa (ver. 22), of which word was
formed the patronymic yniyqe,
also
written yniqe
(1 Sam. xxvii. 10), or yniyqi (1 Chr. ii. 55; Sept.,
Kinai?oi); but then yniyqe itself was used
as the name of an
individual
(Judg. i. 16, yniyqe yneB;), and
conversely, what is more
natural,
Nyiqa
was employed to denote the whole tribe (ver. 22;
Judg.
iv.l 1), as bxAOm or MOdx< stands for ybixAOm or ymidoxE. Whether
the
name is to be connected with Nyiqa lance (2 Sam. xxi. 16), so
that
it would. mean lance-bearer, or with Nyiqa in the sense of
possession,
like NyAn;qi (Gen. xxxiv. 23, etc.), is doubtful.--If we
consider
this passage by itself, the simplest construction seems
to
be to take MyWi as imperative Kal, which yields a good
and
poetical
sense: 'Strong (NtAyxe) is thy dwelling place, and put
thou
thy nest in the rock, yet' etc., i.e., fortify yourselves as
strongly
as you may, yet, etc. We are certainly not compelled
to
interpret these words from the text of Obadiah (ver. 4),
who
freely adapted them (j~n.,qi MyWi ... Mxiv;
...
h.ayBig;Ta Mxi), and to
PROPHECY OF THE KENITES. 289
assume
an irregular or Aramaic participle passive of Kal,
MyWi instead of MvW, for the
existence of which a kethiv of the
feminine
(hmAyWi)
is but a feeble support (2 Sam. xiii. 32; Sept.,
freely,
kai> e]a>n q^?j; Vulg.,
sed si posueris, etc.); still less plausi-
bly,
therefore, has MyWi here been taken as the infinitive with
the
force of the finite verb.—j~n.,qi is no doubt
chosen as forming
a
paronomasia with yniyqe and Nyiqa, and the same
word has been
preserved
both by Obadiah and Jeremiah, although, in re-
producing
this verse, they apply it to the Edomites (Obad. 3,
4
; Jer. xlix. 16, kv j~n.,qi rw,n.,Ka h.ayBig;ta-yK but the
metaphor is
by
no means unusual and occurs, for instance, in the Assyrian
Inscription
of the ‘Taylor Cylinder’ (col. iii., lines 66-70),
where
Sennacherib records, ‘In any fifth
campaign the people
of
.... Kua and Kana, who had fixed their dwellings like
the
nests of eagles on the highest summits and wild crags of
the
Nippur mountains,' etc. (comp. also the same king's In-
scription
on the slab of the Kouyunjik bulls, § 38; Annals of
Assur-nasir-pal,
col. i., §§ 49, 50, 64, 65; see Rec. of the
Past,
iii. 44, 45 ; vii. 63).--The conjunction Mxi yK can here
have
no other meaning but that of an adversative--except
that
(Gen. xxxii. 27 ; xlii. 15), or simply but
or however
though
the Kenites fix their abodes on rocky strongholds,
they
yet do not escape destruction (comp. Gen. xxviii. 17;
Lev.
xxi. 2; Num. xxvi. 65, where Mx yk is the
preposition
except; and Job xlii.
8, where it is the adverb only). The
translation
‘for Kain shall surely not be destroyed' (Keil,
Geiger,
and others), Mxi taken in the negative sense which it
bears
in oaths (xiv. 23, etc.), is syntactically not so simple,
destroys
the obvious antithesis to the preceding verse, and
gives
an incongruous sense.--'Kain rfebAl; hy,hayi,' literally,
shall
be for destroying,' i.e., shall be destroyed, a not un-
common
application of hyh with the infinitive (comp. Deut. xxxi.
17,
lkxl hyhv, he shall be consumed; ' Josh. ii. 5; 2 Chr.
xxvi.
5, etc.); which does not necessarily, as in the frequent
phrase
jbrqm frh trfbv (Deut. xiii. 6; xvii. 7; xix. 1,9,
etc.),
involve
utter and permanent annihilation, but may merely
mean
serious loss and injury (comp. Isai. iv. 4; vi. 13).--
hmA-dfa for rw,xE-dfa, until; comp.
xxiii. 3, hma rbad;U for rw,xE rbad;U
The
translation: 'How long? Asshur shall carry thee away,' is
290 NUMBERS
XXIV. 21, 22.
not
inadmissible (comp. Ps. iv. 3; lxxiv. 9, etc.), but seems
here
abrupt. The rendering of the Sept., kai> e]a>n ge<nhtai t&?
Bew>r nossia> panourgi<aj,' and if to
Beor a nest of cunning is
made,'
is evidently based on the reading Nqa
rfob;li hy,h;yi Mxiv;
‘kv
rUw.xa hmAr;fA,
that is, even if Beor most shrewdly chooses his
dwelling,
he will be carried away by the Assyrians, which
may
be meant to predict the destruction of Balaam's own
house;
whereas the version of the Vulg., 'et
si fueris electus
de
stirpe Cin, quam diu poteris permanere'? pre-supposes
the
reading Nyq rvHbl hyhtv, i.e., even if thou provest thyself
to
he a strong and elected band of Kain, thou shalt not be
rescued.
The text appears, from early times, to have been
uncertain,
but the received reading is evidently the most ap-
propriate.--The
first part of the 22nd verse, in which the
Kenites
are not, as in the rest of the prophecy, addressed in
the
second person, implies an anallage; for it cannot be
doubted
that the suffix in jbwt, 'until Asshur carries thee
away
captive,' refers to the Kenites; to apply it to the He-
brows
(Hengstenb. and others), who are not
mentioned in the
whole
oracle, would be as unsuitable in this speech, which
begins,
'And he saw the Kenite,' as it is natural in a former
prophecy
introduced by 'And he saw Israel' (vers. 2, 5, 9);
yet,
contrary to logic and contrary to the plainest rules of
construction,
that explanation has been insisted upon, because
it
was believed that every single statement in these verses
must
import enmity against the Hebrews; and the sense is
supposed
to be this: Asshur carries Israel into captivity in
defiance
of right and mercy, thus commits grave sins against
God's
people, and must therefore himself sink into ruin (ver.
24;
see supra). No dexterity or skill, even if ready to sacri-
fice
all philological accuracy, can establish that unity or
continuity
of sense, which is irreparably destroyed by the
appendages.
Something of this irregularity has been felt by
all
careful and unprejudiced critics, though a clear result is
impossible
without distinguishing between the genuine and
the
interpolated parts of the piece; so, for instance, by Schultz,
(Alttestam.
Theol., i. 93, 'The allusions to Asshur, very sur-
prising
in these verses, were probably added by the last
redactor,'
etc.), Vater, Lengerke, and others.
Bertholdt, how-
PROPHECY ON ASSYRIA. 291
ever
(Einleitung, Vol. III., pp. 792, 793), goes too far in
placing
the whole passage from ver. 14 to ver. 24 in the time
after
Alexander the Great; the objections to which this and
analogous
opinions are open will be apparent from our notes
on
these verses.
19. PROPHECY ON ASSYRIA. XXIV. 23, 24.
23.
And he took up his parable and said,
Woe, who may live, when God doeth
this!
24.
And ships from the coast of Kittim,
They humble Asshur and humble Eber,
And he also is for destruction.
‘Until Asshur carrieth thee away
captive.’a What
Hebrew
citizen in the time of Hezekiah could write or
read
these words without being agitated by the strongest
and
most conflicting emotions? They naturally prompted
another
prophecy, which, however, in a still higher
degree
than the preceding utterance, is covered by un-
certainty
and mystery. Will it be possible to lift the
veil
of so many ages?
After an unbroken and almost
unparalleled succession
of
brilliant victories and conquests, east and west of the
Euphrates;
after Assur-nasir-pal (Sardanapalus), as early
as
the first part of the ninth century, had exacted
heavy
imposts from Tyre and Sidon, Arvad, and other
Phoenician
towns;b when his successor Shalmaneser
II.
had
repeatedly, in the battle of Karkar and elsewhere,
routed
with terrible slaughter twelve allied kings of
a
j~b,w;Ti rUw.xa hmA-dfa, ver. 22. (Mediterranean)
sea' (compare his
b On his ‘Standard
Inscription’ ‘Annals' in Records of the Past, iii.
(§ 5) he calls
himself ‘the king who 70-74, 99,
100; vii. 12; Schrader,
subdued
all the regions from the Keilinsebriften
and das Alte Test.,
great
stream of the Tigris unto the pp.
66, 309, etc., and Art. Assyrien
land
of the Lebanon and the great in
Riehm's Handworterbuch).
292 NUMBERS
XXIV. 23, 24.
Syria
and the adjoining countries, among whom were
Rimmon-Hidri (Ben-hadad) of
Damascus and ‘Akhabbu
(Ahab)
of the country of the Israelites' furnishing a force
of
ten thousand men and two thousand chariots,a and had
again
and again defeated and weakened Hazael, Ben-
hadad's
successor, and levied tribute not only from the
towns
of Phoenicia, but also from Jehu, king of Israel,
as
the famous Black Obelisk of Nimroud explicitly
records
both in word and sculpture;b after Pul, or
Tiglath-pileser,
had, by rigorous extortions, asserted his
authority
over King Menahem of Israel, Rezin of Damas-
cus,
and Hiram of Tyre, and had reduced Edom, Arabia,
and
Philistia to obedience and tributary dependence,
had
carried away large numbers of Hebrews from the
northern
districts,c and even interfered in the
internal
affairs
of the country so far as himself to appoint, after
Pekah's
assassination, Hoshea as king of Israel;d and
when
at last Sargon, among outer acquisitions extending
from
Armenia and Media to Egypt and Libya, captured
Samaria,
and the ten tribes were deported to Halah,
Habor,
and the towns of the Medes:e then the Assyrian
a Monolith
Inscript. of Shalman., Discoveries, pp. 254-287; Rec. of
col.
ii., §§ 90-100; Black Obelisk the
Past, v. 43-52, etc.; 'Pakaha,
Inscript.,
Face D, lines 58-66; and their
king, they had slain ... Husih
Face
A base, lines 87-89, ‘Eighty- to
the kingdom I appointed; ten
nine
cities I took; a destruction I talents of gold, one thousand of
made
of the kings of the Hittites.' silver . . . I received from them as
b Face B base,
lines 97-99, 102- their tribute;' comp. however, 2 Ki.
104;
Face C base, line 127, Epigraph xv.
30, where the Assyrian king's
ii.,
‘the tribute of Yahua (Jehu), share in the appointment of Hoshea
son
(a successor) of Khumri (Omri) is
not mentioned.
--silver,
gold, bowls of gold, vessels e See Comm. on
Genes. p. 291;
of
gold, goblets of gold, pitchers of 'Annals
of Sargon,' in Records of the
gold,
lead, sceptres for the king's Past, vii. 25-56, 'In the beginning
hand
and staves;' see Comm. on of my
reign-B.C. 721--I besieged
Genes.
pp. 290, 296;. Records of the the king
of Samaria, occupied the
Past,
iii. 99, 100; v. 32-41. town of Samaria, and led
into cap-
c Supra, pp. 285, 286. tivity
27,280 souls; I took them to
d Comp. the
Inscript. of Tiglath- Assyria, and in their stead I there
pileser
II. in G. Smith's, Assyrian put people whom my hand had
con-
PROPHECY ON
ASSYRIA. 293
empire,
under the rule of Sargon's son, Sennacherib,
seemed
to have reached the very zenith of its might and
splendour.
This monarch, as we now know his history
and
exploits from the deciphered inscriptions on the ruins
of
his magnificent palace at Kouyunjik, from famous
cylinders,
and other contemporary records, discomfited
the
king of Babylon, Merodach Baladan (Marduk-bel-
adore)
and his allies, the Elamites, so completely, that the
Babylonian
monarchy, which, for many centuries, had
been
to Assyria a constant source of vexation and danger,
never
recovered, but thenceforth remained in subjection.a
Then
Sennacherib, after a short repose, during which he
directed
‘the enlargement of his palaces and the improve-
ment
of Nineveh, which 'he made as splendid as the
sun,’
crossed the Euphrates, marched into Syria, defeated
the
kings of Tyre and Sidon, and captured other Phoeni-
cian
cities, over which he placed Tubaal as tributary
chief,
took Ashkelon and many other coast towns, sub-
dued
Moab and Edom, scattered the united armies of
Egypt
and Ethiopia, 'in the plains of Altaku,'b or Albaku,c
and
then turned his arms against the kingdom of Judah.
‘Forty-six
of Hezekiah's strong towns,' he declares in
his
Annals,d 'his castles, and the smaller
towns in their
quered'
etc, ibid. p. 28; comp. also 13-34). The same events are related
pp.
26, 34, ‘I plundered the district in
an Inscription on a slab belonging
of
Samaria and the entire house of to
the Kouyunjik bulls (see Records
Omri;'
on the extent of Sargon's of
the Past, vii. 57, 63). Subsequent
rule,
see ibid. p. 27. revolts, as those under Esarhaddon
a ‘I entered
rejoicing,’ states the and Assur-bani-pal, Sennacherib's
Inscription
on Bellino's Cylinder, son and grandson, were easily quelled
‘into
his palace in the city of Baby- (see
1. c., i. 73-75, 79; iii. 104, 105;
lon;
I broke open his royal treasury comp.
also v. 104; vii. 26, 40-42,
.
. . his wife, the men and women of 47,
48).
his
palace . . . I carried off . . . In b Eltekon in
Judah, Josh. xv. 59,
the
power of Asshur, my lord, eighty- NqoT;l;x,, Taylor
Cylinder, col. ii.,
nine
large cities, and royal dwellings line
76.
in
the land of Chaldea, and eight c Sennacherib's
Inscription on the
hundred
and twenty small towns ... Kouyunjik
slab, § 24.
I
assaulted, captured, and carried off d
The
Taylor Cylinder, col. iii.,
their
spoils' (lines 6-12; comp. lines lines
11-41. These incidents and
294 NUMBERS
XXIV. 23, 24.
neighbourhood
beyond number, I attacked and captured.
I
carried off from the midst of them two hundred thou-
sand
one hundred and fifty people, male and female, and
horses,
asses, camels, and cattle beyond number. Heze-
kiah
himself I shut up in Jerusalem, his royal city, like
a
bird in a cage, and constructed siege towers against
him.
The cities which I plundered and cut off from his
kingdom,
I gave to the kings of Ashdod, Ekron, and
Gaza.
I diminished his kingdom and augmented his
yearly
tribute and gifts. The fearful magnificence of my
kingdom
overwhelmed him, and he sent me thirty talents
of
gold, eight hundred talents of silver ... precious stones
of
large size, couches of ivory, movable thrones of ivory
.
. . a great treasure of every kind; and his daughters
and
the male and female inmates of his palace, he sent
after
me to Nineveh, my royal city, and his envoy to pay
tribute
and do homage.'a Seeing all
these misfortunes, a
Hebrew
patriot, filled with grief and anguish, might well
exclaim,
‘Woe, who may live, when God doeth this!'
But
a faint ray of hope might have animated even the
desponding,
when the irresistible conqueror--his Inscrip-
tions
are naturally silent on this point--in the midst of
his
eager preparations for the utter demolition of Jeru-
salem,
almost without a humanly manifest cause, and as
if
compelled by the invisible hand of God, suddenly
retreated
and left the land, whether induced by a fearful
plague,
or by terrifying rumours of the approach of
southern
armies.b
facts
are, with slight modifications, cians
to Nineveh, the city of my
also
recorded in Sennacherib's In- power,
he caused to carry, and for the
script
ion on slab 1 of the Kouyunjik payment
of the tribute he sent his
bulls,
§§ 27-32. messenger.'
a See Comm. on
Genes. pp. 291, b 2 Kings xviii.
13-xix. 37; Isa.
297;
Records of the Past, i. 38, 39; xvii.
12-xviii. 7; xxxvi., xxxvii.;
vii.
61.-63,where the concluding lines Tobit
i. 21. The Inscriptions are in
read:
‘The bullion treasure of his disharmony
with the Biblical ac-
palace,
his daughters, the women of count,
which does not express or
his
palace, male and female musi- imply
that Hezekiah sent the priso-
PROPHECY ON ASSYRIA. 295
It is not impossible that, encouraged
by this unhoped-
for
change in the schemes of the powerful foe, the Cypri-
ans,
strengthened by the inhabitants of other islands and
coasts,
attempted hostile attacks upon the Assyrian
possessions
in Syria, and then extended their expedi-
tions
eastward to the Euphrates, although neither the
Biblical
nor the monumental accounts allude to any
such
enterprise. We know not only that Sennacherib's
predecessor,
Sargon, had accomplished a successful cam-
paign
against Cyprus, where his memorial tablet has
not
long since been discovered;a but we learn
from an
ners
and the envoy after Sennacherib 2
Chron. xxxii. 21; Sir. xlviii. 21;
to
Nineveh, and which, moreover, see Herod. ii. 141, where Senna-
seems
to convey that the Assyrian cherib's sudden flight in his war
king
was killed shortly after his against
the Egyptian king Sethos is
return
to his capital (2 Ki. xix. 36, attributed to swarms of field mice,
37;
Isa. xxxvii. 37, 38)--the Book which, in the night, devoured all
of
Tobit says distinctly after fifty the quivers, bow-strings, and shield-
(or
fifty-five) days: whereas accord- thongs
of his soldiers; see Wilkinson
ing
to the Inscriptions, his campaign in
loc.); for criticism has long since
against
Judea took place in the third proved
that the chapters xxxvi. to
year
of his reign, which lasted up- xxxix.
of Isaiah are not authentic,
wards
of twenty years. In accor- but
belong to the Babylonian period:
dance
with the spirit of Hebrew yet that
statement may enclose an
historiography,
the Biblical writer historical kernel rererring to some
desired
to let the heathen monarch's unexpected
event which induced the
early
and unnatural death appear as Assyrian
king to an abrupt retreat.
a
direct retribution for his impious a See ‘The Annals
of Sargon,' in
designs
against the people of God Rec. of the Past, vii. 26, ' I made
(see
supra, p. 65). The ‘Inscription tributary
the people of Yatnan (Cy-
of
Esarhaddon,' found at Kouyunjik, prus),
who have established their
throws
no light on the discrepancy dwellings
in the midst of the Sea of
(comp.
Rec. of the Past, iii. 101 sqq. the
setting sun' (comp. page 27 ibid).
The
‘Will of Sennacherib,’ see ibid. Whether
the name Yatnan or Atnan
i.
136). There are very probably has
any connection with the pro-
mythical
elements in the Biblical montory
of Acamas (now Cape Ar-
statement,
'It came to pass that nauti)
on the western side of Cyprus
night
that the angel of the Lord (Strab.
XIV. vi. 2-4), is uncertain.
went
out, and smote in the camp of In the
Egyptian Decree of Canopus'
the
Assyrians a hundred and eighty- (§
9), important in many respects,
five
thousand; and when they rose Cyprus is described as `the island
early
in the morning, behold, they Nabinaitt, which lies in the midst of
were
all dead corpses' (2 Xi. xix. the Great Sea' (comp. Rec. of the
3.5;
compare Isa. xxxvii. 36; also Past, viii. 84).
296 NUMBERS
XXIV. 23, 24.
elaborate
inscription of Sennacherib's son, Esarhaddon,
that,
at that time, the Assyrian rule extended. in those
parts
over ‘twenty-two kings of Syria, and the sea-
coast
and the islands;’ that among them were, besides
‘Baal,
king of Tyre,’ and ‘Manasseh, king of Judah,’
also
‘ten kings of Cyprus which is in the middle of the
sea;’a and that the
great monarch exacted from these
subjected
chiefs both heavy contributions and humiliating
homage.b What is,
therefore, more natural than that fear
and
revenge alike stimulated the Cyprians, assisted by
others
who shared their subjection, to dare even hazardous
ventures?
Of one such attempt that had before been made
in
Sargon's reign, the deciphered ‘Annals' of this sovereign
contain
distinct mention: ‘The kings of Jahnagi of the
land
of Yatnan (Cyprus), whose dwelling is situated at
a
distance of seven journeys in the middle of the western
sea,
refused to pay their imposts.’ The attempt failed,
and
the Cyprians were compelled to send to the king
additional
gifts of enormous value, and again to pledge
their
allegiance.c But they doubtless renewed their
efforts
after Sargon's death and Sennacherib's first great
calamity,
and then most likely directed their operations not
only
against Assyria, but also against Eber (rb,fe), the in-
habitants
of Mesopotamia and Babylonia, which countries,
by
Sennacherib's extensive conquests, had almost become
parts
of the Assyrian empire, and probably furnished
their
contingent of troops for foreign wars. Recent
discoveries
and decipherments have imparted to this
subject
a fresh and higher interest. On Cyprus, inscrip-
tions
have been found written in characters analogous to
the
Assyrian and Babylonian cuneiform signs, but com-
a The kings of Edihal (Idaliuml, b See Inscription
of Esarbaddon,
Kittie (Citium), Sillumi (Salamis), col.
v., lines 12-26; comp. Rec. of the
Pappa
(Paphos), Sillu (Soloe), Kuri Past, iii. 107, 168, 120.
(Curion),
Tamisus, Amti-Khadasta c
Comp.
the explicit statement in
(Ammochosta),
Lidini, and Upri . . . 'Annals of
Sargon,' ii. 35; see Rec.
(Apbrodisium). of
the Past, vii. 51.
PROPHECY ON
ASSYRIA. 297
posed
in a language kindred to the Greek, and it will thus
be
easier to trace the relations of the Cyprians, on the one
hand,
to Assyria, and, on the other hand, to Greece.a
It
can hardly be questioned that the Cyprians, as they
had
the disposition, possessed, to a certain extent, also
the
power for such military undertakings. For their
island,
which formed the chief westward station of
Phoenician
navigators, was eminently prosperous by
commerce,
natural fertility, and mineral wealth. They
could
command the support of many allies and kinsmen,
and
might, above all, count upon the assistance of the
Phoenicians,
who, even more oppressed and imperilled by
the
Assyrians, hardly separated their destinies from those
of
the neighbouring island, the independence and friend-
ship
of which was almost a necessity for their export
trade
and maritime supremacy.b In the
enthusiasm of
the
moment, some slight advantages gained by the
Cyprian
forces over the powerful nations of the east, may
have
been invested with an exaggerated importance;
but
certainly, although the Assyrian empire maintained
itself
about a century longer, a Hebrew statesman,
considering
its pomp and luxury, its presumption and
recklessness,
and firmly relying upon the judgment and
retribution
of a just and all-seeing God, could not be
doubtful
as to its ultimate fate, and he might declare
with
confidence, ‘And ships from the coast of Kittim
(Cyprus),
they humble Asshur and humble Eber, and he
(Asshur)
also is for destruction;’ although we know that
the
Cyprians remained tributary to the later Assyrian
kings
Esarhaddon and Assur-bani-pal. But beyond this
circle
the scope of the prophecy does not reach. It,
does
not intend to intimate the future triumphs of the
western
over the eastern world, such as the conquests of
the
Macedonians or Romans; for the Cyprians and their
a Comp. the works
of Branzis and b Comp. Isa.
xxiii. 1, 12; Ezek.
Moritz Schmidt. xxvii.
6; see Comm. on Gen. p. 244.
298 NUMBERS
XXIV. 23, 24.
Phoenician
allies were themselves, in religion and man-
ners,
emphatically eastern populations. Nor
is it the
author's
chief object to supply ‘an utterance respecting
the
destinies of the world at large,' but he desires to
it
show how the Cyprians were specially chosen by God
as
instruments to bring ruin and annihilation upon those
ruthless
tyrants who had also inflicted so many and such
cruel
sufferings upon His elected people. However, not
from
the west, but from the east, ruin and annihilation
came
upon the Assyrians--from the rugged mountain
tracts
of Kurdistan, which poured forth the rapacious and
pitiless
Chaldeans like a scourge over the lands of Asia.
Thus,
in considering this section, we have passed from
the
happy and prosperous age of David to the fatal epoch
of
the Assyrian invasion; from the time when Israel, act-
ing
with independence and self-conscious power, ‘devoured
nations,
his enemies, and crushed their bones,’ to
the years
of
decline when weakness and disunion compelled the
people
to leave the repulse of their enemies to other and
inferior
communities, and when they found their sole
gratification
in impotent wishes and denouncements. How
many
centuries of sorrowful experience separate 'Balaam's'
joyous
prophecies from the sad utterances which have
been
linked to them with so little fitness!
PHILOLOGICAL
REMARKS.--In the depth of his sorrow the
author
proclaims hyHy ym yvx, 'woe, who may live,' i.e., who
can
wish to live to see such dishonour and misfortune!
(comp.
Rev. ix. 6) not 'who can hope to live! 'which is less
pathetic;
and still less 'who will' or ‘can live,’ as if all
were
to perish (comp. Mal. iii. 2). Those who start from
the
principle of literal inspiration are, perhaps, justified in
accounting
for Balaam's grief by the circumstance that it is
his
countrymen whose ruin he announces (xxii. 5; xxiii. 7;
xxiv.
14; comp. Hengst 5., Bil., p. 263); but it is not pro-
bable
that the author of these verses, living at a much later
time,
had such considerations in his mind; in the Supple-
PROPHECY ON
ASSYRIA. 299
ments
the strictly historical background is abandoned, and
in
the genuine portions Balaam's individuality is never
obtruded.--A
foreign idea is associated with the words by
the
rendering of Targum Onkel. and Jonath., 'Woe to the
sinners
(xybyHl yv) who shall live,' etc.; and entirely against
the
context and the words ( kv yOx ) is the interpretation of
Origen
(In Num. Homil. xix. 4) and others, 'quis erit tam
beatus,
tam felix, qui haee videat?' viz., the
abolition of all
idolatry
and the destruction of all demons through the
Messiah.
Nor does the reading Ox, instead of yOx, offered
by
some MSS. (De-Rossi, Var. Lection.
ii. p. 18), in any way
recommend
itself.—lxe OmW.umi, literally, 'from the time that
God
does this'--it? denoting the terminus a
quo, and, there-
fore,
simply after or when (comp. Prov. viii. 23; Ps. lxxiii.
20;
1 Chron. viii. 8 ; 2 Chron. xxxi. 10, etc. ; Sept., (o!tan q^?
tau?ta o[ qeo<j; Vulg., quando,
etc.), which seems simpler than
the
sense of because or on account of (comp. Deu.1. vii. 7;
Isa.
liii.
5, etc.). The suffix in Omwumi refers, grammatically, to
the
statement of the next verse (the 24th), but, logically,
rather
to the preceding prophecy--to Asshur's implacable
cruelty
in carrying away captives, which reminds the author
of
the same sad fate of his own nation; for the import of
the
next verse implies nothing that was painful to the
Hebrews,
but, on the contrary, alludes to the longed for
punishment
of their oppressors. It is unnecessary, though
it
may be admissible, to take lxe as an
abbreviated form of
hl.,xe (1 Chron. xx. 8), and then to
refer the suffix in vmwm to
God;
the sense would not be different from that of the
former
interpretation. A possible exposition is also: ‘who
may
live when he considers this' (comp.
Job xxiv. 12); but it
is
certainly strained and artificial to understand those words
thus:
‘when God appoints him,’ viz., appoints (comp. Hab.
i.
12; 1 Sam. viii. 1, etc.) the Assyrian as His instrument to
punish
sinful nations (Zunz, Baumgart., Knob.,
and others),
which
idea is indeed familiar to the prophets (Isa. vii. 20;
x.
5, 6, etc.; comp. Jer. xxv. 9; xxvii. 6; xliii. 10), but can-
not
be grafted on the two words lx vmwm. Moreover, if
Asshur
was the chosen rod of chastisement, it would have
been
impious to fight against him or to desire his destruction;
300 NUMBERS
XXIV. 23, 24.
for
we do not find here the slightest or remotest allusion to
his
'having haughtily overstepped the Divine commission,
especially
with regard to Israel' (comp. Isa. x. 7-11).--It
may
be curious to observe that the Talmud (Sanhedr. 106a;
comp.
Rashi and Yalkut) interprets the words 'kv hyHy ym yvx
by
lx Mwb vmcf hyHmw yml yvx, which is supposed to involve
another
of those points of contact between Balaam and
Christ,
to which we have above referred (pp. 30, 31); that
the
Sam. Vers. renders, hlvyH Hmwm yHy Nm, 'who shall
live, if
he
(Asshur) destroys his (Israel's) power?' and that Abar-
banel
explains: 'Who can live in those days, when he-
Nebuchadnezzar--makes
himself a god' (lx vmcf MyWy); but
it
would be impossible to notice the large number of unten-
able
able interpretations which the brevity of those words has
rendered
possible (for instance, Vater, 'wer ubersteht sein
Verwusten?'
Michael., 'wenn Gott ihn unglucklich macht;'
Mendelss.,
'wenn Gott es ihm zugedacht,' etc.; Gramberg,
‘Wehe!
wer uberlebt, was Gott festgesetzt;' Kuenen ap.
Oort, l.,c., p. 45,
' Vae quis praeteribit vitae terminos, quos ei
Deus
constituit;' Luzzatto, 'Who can live
when God shall
have
put him--the Assyrian--into the world!' etc.; comp.
also
Pirke Rab. Eliez., chap. 30).-yci, a rare word,
synonymous
with
ynixE ship
(Vulg., trieres; Targ. Jerusal., xy.AnarAb;li liburnae,
light
ships, comp. Isa.. xxxiii. 21; less accurately, Onkel.,
NfAysi hosts; Jonath., Nyciyci armies; Syr., xnvygl (legions); the
plural
is both Myci
(Ezek. xxx. 9) and Myy.ici (Dan. xi. 30, where
we
find MyTiKi Myy.ici, as if in allusion to this passage; see
Gram.,
§ xxiii. 2. a). In the 24th verse some of the ancient
versions
point to another early fluctuation in the Hebrew
text
; for in the Sept. Myci is represented
by e]celeu<setai, in the
Samar. Cod. and Vers. by Mxycvy and Nyqpx, so that there
was
evidently
in the original some form of xcy, which several
modern
interpreters have unnecessarily adopted (Michaelis,
Von
der Seite her kommen; Dathe, exeunt;
so De Geer, and
others;
comp. De-Rossi, l.c., p. 18; Vater in
loc.).--dyA,
pro-
perly,
side (Ex. ii. 5; Dent. ii. 37), and then
coast.--MyTiKi
is
undoubtedly
the island. of Cyprus, in which one of the most
ancient
towns was Citium (Ki<tion or Ki<ttion), although in
sub-
sequent
periods that name comprised nearly all the shores
PROPHECY ON
ASSYRIA. 301
and
islands of the Mediterranean, as Rhodes and Sicily,
Greece
and Italy, and even Macedonia (I Mace. i. 1; Dan.
xi.
30; comp. Comm. on Gen., p. 244). ‘Ships
from the
coast
of Kittim' may include auxiliaries assembling in
Cyprus
as a convenient station, since the Cyprians would
hardly
have entered upon the daring enterprise single-
handed.--Josephus
(Ant. IX. xiv. 2) relates on the authority
of
Menander, who, in writing his ‘Chronology,’ is supposed
to
have availed himself of the archives of Tyre, that, in the
reign
of Eluleus of Tyre, the Assyrian king Shalmaneser
invaded
Phcenicia, and subjected many districts; that, how-
ever,
after his return to the Euphrates, some towns revolted,
and
among them Tyre; upon which the Assyrian monarch
re-appeared,
but was opposed by twelve ships of the Tyrians,
who
dispersed the enemy's fleet and took five hundred
prisoners,
by which deed ‘the reputation of all the citizens
of
Tyre was greatly enhanced.’ It is not probable that
this
is the event to which our text alludes, as many have
asserted;
for, on the one hand, it has no direct connection
with
the Cyprians, who in our verses are the chief actors,
and,
on the other hand', it does not include rb,fe at all; more-
over,
the result was too insignificant to kindle the hopes of
even
the most sanguine; for soon afterwards ‘the king of
Assyria
returned and placed guards at the rivers and aque-
ducts,
so that the Tyrians were hindered from drawing
water,
and this siege continued for five years.' According
to
the inscription on the Taylor Cylinder (col. ii., lines 35-
37),
and an inscription on a slab belonging to the Kouyunjik
bulls
(Rec. of the Past, vii. 61), Luliah, supposed to be
identical
with Eluleus, is mentioned as king of Sidon, who
fled
before Sennacherib ‘to a distant spot in the midst of the
sea,’
or Yatna (Cyprus); and Assur-bani-pal, the son of Esar-
haddon
and grandson of Sennacherib, again defeated and
weakened
the Tyrians; ‘their spirits I humbled,’ he recorded.,
‘and
caused them to melt away' (see ‘Annals of Assur-bani-
pal,'
col. ii., lines 84-98). Still less suitable is the applica-
tion
of this passage to such unimportant occurrences as the
invasion
of the Greeks in Asia at the time of Sennacherib,
who,
besides, was victorious, as the Assyrian annals relate in
302 NUMBERS
XXIV. 23, 24.
unison
with other accounts (comp. Alexander
Polyhistor in
Euseb. Chronic. i.
1-4). And yet most critics base their esti-
mate
of this entire composition upon
similar conjectures,
either
contending that the whole was written about B.C.
710,
or that, at this time, the verses under consideration
were
added to the principal portion, which they consider
to
have been composed about B.C. 750 (as Lengerke, Ken.,
i.
597; Bunsen, Bibelwerk, v. pp. 602,
603, who assigns
vers.
20-24 to that period, although ver. 20 stands in no e
certain
relation to the Assyrians; see supra, pp. 46, 47).
--MyTiKi has by Jewish
and Christian interpreters frequently
been
understood to mean the Romans (Onk., yxemAOrme; Jon.,
xy.Anir;Bamli, Lonabardy and
the land of xyAl;F.axi, Italy, in conjunc-
tion
with the legions that will come forth, from yneyFin;Fas;Uq, Con-
stantinople'; and similarly
Targ. Jerus., Rashi, Myymr; Vulg.,
Italia,
etc.)--which is, of course, out of the question.--The
verb
hnAfi
is not a very strong or emphatic term-for it is used
to
express the trials which God imposes upon Israel from
love
(Dent. viii. 2, 3, 16; comp. Gen. xxxi. 50)--and may
merely
imply that the Cyprians caused to the Assyrians loss
and
annoyance; but even slight victories over an all but
invincible
enemy must have excited lively hopes, and no
doubt
called forth the utmost exultation.-rb,fe, used in the
wider
sense of rb,fe yneB; (Gen. x. 21, 24; xi. 15-17; comp. Isai.
vii.
20), are the inhabitants of the land beyond the Euphrates,
or
of Mesopotamia (Onk., trp
rbyfl;
Jerus., xrhn
rbf;
Rashi,
rhnh rbfbw Mtvx), and embrace,
in this passage, especially
the
Babylonians (comp. Comm. on Genes. pp. 278, 279). The
context
forbids to take rb,fe in the stricter sense of Hebrews
(so
Sept., Vulg., and others), who, throughout the section, are
mentioned
by the names of bqfy and lxrWy, and who cannot
be
coupled with the Assyrians as common enemies of the
Cyprians;
for this reason, probably, a, modern critic un-
warrantably
identifies rvwx with the Syrians (Ewald, Gesch.,
i.
147), contrary to the meaning which that word clearly bears
in
the preceding oracle (ver. 22; comp. the full arguments
of
Hengstenb., Bil., p. 206-210).—Mgav;, and also, points to the
prediction
on the Amalekites (ver. 20)—like these inveterate
and
most detested foes of the Hebrews, the Assyrians are
PROPHECY ON
ASSYRIA. 303
devoted
to annihilation. Grammatically, 'the ships from the
coast
of Kittim,' are indeed the subject; but we must suppose
an
inversion or irregularity of construction and explain the
singular
of the pronoun xvh by remembering that the author
had
in his mind Asshur alone, the principal of the two
nations,
which included Eber (comp. ver. 22). xvh cannot
refer
to Kittim (MyTiKi); for, independently of the
syntactical
inaccuracy,
a Hebrew seer would have refrained from an-
nouncing
the extinction of those who humbled the dangerous
enemies
of his own people. But supposing even that the
ruin
of Kittim were meant, it would not involve the idea that
before
the seer's eye the whole heathen world had become
one
great Golgotha, over which God's people rises triumph-
antly'
(Oehler, Theol. d. Alt. Test.'s, i.
119): for these verses
contain
no direct allusion to Israel whatever, much less to a vic-
torious
Israel. The Sept. premises this
oracle with the words:
Kai> i]dw? to>n @Wg, which addition, whatever its origin
(comp.
supra,
p. 239), can certainly not be used to support the very
strange
and hazardous conjecture that the earlier and genuine
reading
of this verse was hy,H;yi ymi yvx ... xW.Ayiva
ggaxE-tx, xr;y.ava
lxeUmw;.mi, ‘And he saw
Agag and took up his parable and
said,
Woe, who shall live before Samuel’! (so Geiger,
Ur-
schrift,
p. 367). Though many MSS. write lxvmwm in one
word,
all ancient versions render two words and not the pro-
per
noun (comp. De-Rossi, Var. Lect. in
loc.).--It has often
been
asserted that Balaam's speeches, vague and indefinite
as
they are, include nothing which, in the time of Moses,
any
intelligent observer, having seized the idea of Israel's
election,
and weighed their hostile relations to their weaker
neighbours,
would have been unable to predict with confi-
dence
(so, for instance, Hengsteng., Bil.,
pp. 17, 19, 259-263,
268-270;
Rosenm., Schol. ad xxiii. 7; xxiv.
29, etc.). Granted
that,
to a certain extent, this might be possible with respect
to
Moab, Edom, and Amalek, does the same hold good in re-
ard
of the Assyrians and Cyprians, with whom the Hebrews,
in
the fifteenth century, came into no contact, however dis-
tant
or indirect, whether friendly or hostile? It is even
doubtful
whether Assyria existed, at so early a time, as an
independent
empire and, if so, whether her armies crossed
NUMBERS XXIV. 25.
the
Euphrates for centuries after the commencement of her
rule
(comp. Dunker, Gesch. des Alterthums,
i. 266 sqq.;
Oppert, in Zeitsch.
der D. M. G., 1869, p. 144, who places
the
foundation of the kingdom at B.C. 1318 ; Records of the
Past,
iii. 27, etc.; Tiglath-pileser I., about B C. 1150, seems to
have
made an expedition against certain ‘rebellious tribes
of
the Kheti or Khatte,' that is the Hittites or Syrians;
Records,
v. 12, 18, 20. The statements of classical and later
writers
about the antiquity of Assyria are mere surmises).
‘The
ships from the coast of Kittim,' which 'humble Asshur,'
refer
to distinct and special occurrences, which could only be
foretold
by virtue of supernatural inspiration or announced as
vaticinia post
eventum.--Nothing
but the determined endeavour
to
vindicate the whole of the story of Balaam to the 'Sup-
plementer'
(Erganzer), and to prove this writer not to have
lived
later than the time, of Solomon, could have induced a
scholar
of Tuch's critical tact and sound judgment to assert
that
this section exhibits merely an acquaintance of the He-
brews
with the existence of the Assyrians, not a hostile con-
flict
between both nations, and that ‘the prophet, in these
verses,
rises to a general prediction concerning that great
power
advancing from the east, and as indefinitely opposes
to
it a western power destined one day to break its influence’
(Tuch, Comment. uber die Genes., pp.
lxxvi., lxxvii., 2nd ed.).
What
can the sad exclamation, 'Woe, who may live, when
God
doeth this! 'mean, if it does not refer to calamities
actually
inflicted by the Assyrians? (comp. ver. 22, hm df
jbwt rvwx ). And how can 'ships from the coast of Kittim'
be
considered ideally to represent a power mighty enough to
crush
the vast Assyrian empire?
20. CONCLUSION. xxiv. 25.
25. And Balaam rose, and went away,
and
returned
to his place, and Balak also went his
way.
Previous to the announcement of the
tenth and last
Egyptian
plague, Pharaoh said to Moses in vehement
CONCLUSION. 305
anger:
‘Go away from me, take heed to thyself, see my face
no
more;' upon which Moses replied: 'Thou hast spoken
right,
I will see thy face again no more'a--the Divine
messenger
and the obdurate heathen king could only
meet
to come into terrible collision, and then for ever to
move
in opposite directions. Like Moses and Pharaoh,
those
great primeval types, Balaam and Balak are abso-
lutely
without a real tie or bond. The former has been
employed
as the mouthpiece of the God of Israel, the
latter
does not comprehend this God and dares to defy
Him,
although he dreads His power. The community of
the
‘righteous’ and the community of the worshippers of
falsehood
cannot dwell together in harmony or sym-
pathy;
therefore, ‘Balaam rose and went away. . . and
Balak
also went his way.’
Commenting on the statement of
Deuteronomy, that
God
changed Balaam's intended curse into a blessing for
Israel,'
the Midrash observes: ‘The Lord gave power to
Balaam's
voice, so that it is heard from one end of the
world
to the other.' Taken in that figurative sense in
which
this remark is no doubt intended, it implies an
incontestable
truth. Balaam's words have passed from
age
to age and from nation to nation, and they will
be
read and admired as long as men shall delight in
sublimity
of thought, largeness of soul, and perfection
of
art.
PHILOLOGICAL REMARKS.--How is it
possible even to make
the
attempt at reconciling the clear conclusion of this verse
with
the later Elohistic account in the Book of Numbers?
(see
xxxi. 8, 16; comp. Josh. xiii. 22). Language and logic
alike
must be violently strained to effect the faintest appear-
ance
of plausibility. Balaam is, in those later portions,
related
to have given to the Moabites and Midianites the
fiendish
advice to ensnare and corrupt the Hebrews by
licentious
seduction, and subsequently, fighting in the ranks
a Exod. x. 28,
29. b Deut. xxiii. 6. c Midr. Rabb. Num. xx. 13.
306 NUMBERS
XXIV. 25.
of
Israel's enemies, to have been killed in battle. Which
are
the proposals made to harmonise these facts with the
verse
before us? The words 'and he returned to his place'
(vmqml
bwyv),
it is contended, do not mean that Balaamu re-
paired
to his home in Mesopotamia--which would be the
only
possible interpretation, even if Balak had not, imme-
diately
before, expressly bidden Balaam, ' Escape to thy
place'
(jmvqm-lx) and Balaam
himself had not distinctly
said,
'And now, behold, I go to my people' (ymfl jlvh ynnh,
vers.
11, 14; comp. Gen. xviii. 33; xxxii. 1; 1 Sam. xxvi.
25;
2 Sam. xix. 40)--but they mean, it is asserted, that
Balaam
went back to the place in the east of the Jordan,
where
he had been the day before; or they signify, 'he went
away
whither he would,' or 'he went to hell,' which is ' his
place'
(Talm. Sanhedr. 105a., etc.; comp.
Acts i. 25); or 'he
resumed
his sorceries,' since he prophesied this time only for
the
honour of Israel (Bechai); or, 'he
merely started to re-
turn,'
or ' went in the direction of his home' (bwAy.Ava taken in
inchoative
sense); or 'he intended to go and to return,' but was
kept
back by the Midianites. It would be unnecessary to
refute
interpretations which would never have been advanced
had
this verse been explained from its own context, and not
in
the light of heterogeneous accounts. But some maintain
that
Balaam indeed returned to Mesopotamia, but came back
again
to the plains of Moab. We will not stop to inquire
whether
there was time for such a double journey, the war
against
the Midianites being fought very soon afterwards, in
the
same year, and the distance from Moab to the Euphrates
through
the desert requiring not less than twenty days; nor
what
object so shrewd a man as Balaam could have for this
waste
of time and exertion, if he entertained the plan imputed
to
him. But the exegetical question is not what the simple
words
vmqml bwyv ought to mean if the unity of the Book of
Numbers
is to be upheld, but what they really mean accord-
ing
to all sound rules of interpretation--and in this respect
not
the slightest doubt can prevail among men who have the
Scriptural
text more at heart than their own theories or pre-
conceptions.--The
Targ. Jon. inserts in these verses
expli-
citly:
'Balak put the daughters of the Midianites in tavern
CONCLUSION. 307
rooms
at Beth-jeshimoth, by the snow-mountain, where they
sold
various kinds of pastry (Nynsyk ynyz) below their
value,
after
the counsel of Balaam the wicked, at the parting of the
road'
(seep. 247).--It is usually contended that Balaam, 'who,
as
God's mouthpiece, had blessed the Hebrews with inward
repugnance,
soon returned to his own hostile disposition and
joined
the Midianites, another enemy of Israel' (so even
Winer, Real-Wort. i.
184, see supra, p. 50). In these
chap-
ters,
Balaam is neither represented as an unwilling instrument
of
God, nor as an enemy of Israel, and his passive conduct in
reference
to Balak is in direct contrast to the restless eager-
ness
ascribed to him in his intercourse with the Midianites.
And
if he indeed played so important and so fatal a part in
the
following events, it is surprising why, after having once
been
introduced so conspicuously as the proclaimer of these
prophecies,
he is in the next sections either not mentioned at
all
or mentioned quite incidentally. But still more astonish-
ing
is the amicable intercourse in which, immediately after-
wards,
we find the Hebrews engaged with the Moabites
(xxv.
1, 2, p. 69). Almost the only point of harmony be-
tween
the chapters under discussion and those which follow is
the
alliance or friendship which both the former and the latter
state
to have existed between Moab and Midian (xxii. 4, 7;
xxv.
1, 6, 14-18; xxxi. 1 sqq. ). All these
circumstances can be
satisfactorily
explained under no other supposition than that
the
' Book of Balaam,' having originally formed a complete
and
separate work, was incorporated in the Book of Numbers
without
being thoroughly amalgamated with the other parts
of
the narrative. Even the Talmud, in declaring that 'Moses
wrote
his own Book, and the section of Balaam, and the Book
of
Job' (Talm. Bab. Bathr. 15a.), seems
to intimate that it
considers
the 'section of Balaam' as a composition distinct
from
the rest of the Pentateuch. Hence it is not sufficient
to
say that 'the historian, as if touched with a feeling of the
greatness
of the prophet's mission, drops the veil over its
dark
close': the historian had, with respect to Balaam's life,
evidently
nothing more to add that could be of interest to
Hebrew
readers, or that was in direct connection with
Israel's
destinies.
APPENDIX.
THE ORIGINAL FORM OF THE BOOK OF
BALAAM.
IN
order to exhibit the Book of Balaam in its admirable symmetry, we
subjoin
it, in the English Translation, as we believe it to have been origi-
nally
written.a--
XXII--2. When Balak, the son of Zippor,
king of Moab,
saw
all that Israel had done to the Amorites [vers. 3, 4],
5.
He sent messengers to Balaam, the son of Beor, to Pethor,
which
is by the river (Euphrates), into the land of the
children
of his people, to call him, saying, Behold, there is
a
people come out from Egypt; behold, they cover the face
of
the earth, and they abide over against me. 6. Come now,
therefore,
I pray thee, curse me this people; for they are
too
mighty for me; perhaps I shall prevail, that we may smite
them,
and that I may drive them out of the land: for I
know
that he whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom
thou
cursest is cursed. 7. And the elders of Moab and the
elders
of Midian departed with the rewards of divination in
their
hand; and they came to Balaam, and they spoke to
him
the words of Balak. 8. And he said to them, Stay here
this
night, and I will bring you word, as the Lord shall
speak
to me. And the princes of Moab remained with
Balaam.
9. And God came to Balaam, and said, Who are
these
men that are with thee? 10. And Balaam said to God,
Balak,
the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has sent to me,
saying,
11. Behold, the people that is come out of Egypt,
it
covers the face of the earth; come now, curse me them;
perhaps
I shall then be able to fight against them, and drive
them
out. 12. And God said to Balaam, Thou shalt not go
a The additions
we have made to the received Hebrew text are marked by
italics;
the omissions from that 'text by square brackets []; and the
alterations
by CAPITALS.
ORIGINAL
FORM OF THE BOOK OF BALAAM. 309
with
them, thou shalt not curse the people; for they are ;
blessed.
13. And Balaam rose in the morning, and said to
the
princes of Balak, Go to your country, for the Lord refuses
to
give me leave to go with you. 14. And the princes of
Moab
rose, and they went to Balak, and said, Balaam refuses
to
come with us.
15. And Balaam sent yet again princes,
more numerous
and
more distinguished than those. 16. And they came to
Balaam,
and said to him, Thus says Balak, the son of Zip-
por,
Do not, I pray thee, withhold thyself from coming to
me;
17. For I will honour thee greatly, and I will do
whatsoever
thou sayest to me: come, therefore, I pray thee,
curse
me this people. 18. And Balaam answered and said
to
the servants of Balak, If Balak would give me his house
full
of silver and gold, I cannot go against the command of
the
Lord my God, to do a small or a great thing. 19. Now,
therefore,
I pray you, remain you also here this night, that
I
may know what the Lord will say to me more. 20. And
God
came to Balaam at night, and said to him, If the men
are
come to call thee, rise and go with them; but only that
which
I shall tell thee, that shalt thou do. 21. And Balaam
rose
in the morning, and saddled his ass, and went with I
the
princes of Moab.
[Vers. 22-35.]
36. And when Balak heard that Balaam
had come, he
went
out to meet him to the city of Moab, which is at the
border
of the Arnon, which is at the utmost boundary (of the
land).
37. And Balak said to Balaam, Did I not earnestly
send
to thee to call thee ? wherefore didst thou not come to
me?
am I not forsooth able to honour thee? 38. And Balaam
said
to Balak, Behold, I am come to thee ; have I now any
power
at all to say anything? the word that God shall put in
my
mouth, that shall I speak. 39. And Balaam went with
Balak,
and they came to Kirjath-huzoth. 40. And Balak
killed
oxen and sheep, and sent thereof to Balaam and to the
princes
that were with him.
41. And on the next morning, Balak took
Balaam, and
brought
him up to Bamoth-Baal, and thence he saw the extreme
part
of the people. XXIII-1. And Balaam said to Balak,
310 APPENDIX.
Build
for me here seven altars, and prepare for me here
seven
bullocks and seven rams. 2. And Balak did as Balaam
had
spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar
a
bullock and a ram. 3. And Balaam said to Balak, Stand by
thy
burnt-offering, ant I will go, perhaps the Lord will
come
to meet me; and whatsoever He will show me, I shall
tell
thee. And he went to a solitude. 4. And God met Balaam,
and
he said to Him, I have prepared the seven altars, and I
have
offered upon every altar a bullock and a ram. 5. And
the
Lord put words in Balaam's mouth, and said, Return to
Balak,
and thus thou shalt speak. 6. And he returned
to
him,
and, behold, he was standing by his burnt-offering, he
and
all the princes of Moab.
7. And he took up his parable and
said, From Aram hath
Balak
brought me, the king of Moab from the mountains of
the
east : come, curse me Jacob, and come, execrate Israel!
8.
How shall I curse, whom God doth not curse? and how
shall
I execrate, whom the Lord doth not execrate ? 9. For
from
the summit of the rocks I see them, and from the hills
I
behold them: lo, a people that dwelleth apart, and is not
reckoned
among the nations. 10. Who counteth the dust of
Jacob,
and by number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die
the
death of the righteous, and be my end like them !
11. And Balak said to Balaam, What
hast thou done to
me?
I took thee to curse my enemies, and, behold, thou hast
blessed
them indeed. 12. And he answered and said, Must
I
not take heed to speak that which the Lord puts in my
mouth?
13. And Balak said to him, Come, I pray thee,
with
me to another place, whence thou mayest see them--only
the
extreme part of them shalt thou see, but shalt not see
them
all-- and curse me them from thence. 14. And he
brought
him to the Field of Seers, to the top of Pisgah, and
built
seven altars, and offered a bullock and a ram on every
altar.
15. And he said to Balak, Stand as before by thy
burnt-offering,
while I go to meet (the Lord) as before.
16.
And the Lord met Balaam, and put words in his mouth,
and
said, Go back to Balak, and speak thus. 17. And when
he
came to him, behold, he was standing by his burnt-offer-
ing,
and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to
him,
What has the Lord spoken?
ORIGINAL
FORM OF THE BOOK OF BALAAM. 311
18. And he took up his parable, and
said, Rise, Balak,
and
hear, hearken unto me, son of Zippor! 19. God is
not
a man, that He should lie, nor the son of man, that He
should
repent: hath He said and shall He not do it, and spo-
ken
and shall He not fulfil it? 20. Behold, I have received
command
to bless, and He bath blessed, and I cannot reverse
it.
21. He beholdeth no iniquity in Jacob, nor seeth dis-
tress
in Israel; the Lord their God is with them, and the
trumpet-call
of the King is among them. 22. God brought
them
out of Egypt--they have the fleetness of the buffalo.
23.
For there is no enchantment in Jacob, nor divination in
Israel;
in due time it is told to Jacob and to Israel, what
God
doeth. 24. Behold, they are a people that rise as the
lioness,
and lift themselves up like the lion: they do not
lie
down till they eat their prey, and drink the blood of
the
slain.
25. And Balak said to Balaam, Neither
shalt thou curse
them,
nor shalt thou bless them. 26. And Balaam answered
and
said to Balak, Have I not told thee, saying, All that
the
Lord speaks, that I must do? 27. And Balak said to
Balaam,
Come, I pray thee, I will take thee to another
place;
perhaps it will please God that thou mayest curse
me
them from thence. 28. And Balak took Balaam to the
summit
of Peor, that looks over the plain of the wilderness.
29.
And Balaam said to Balak, Build me here seven
altars,
and prepare me here seven bullocks and seven rams.
30.
And Balak did as Balaam had said, and he offered a
bullock
and a ram on every altar. XXIV.--1. And
when
Balaam
saw that it pleased the Lord to, bless Israel, he went
not,
as the first and second time, to meet GOD, and he turned
his
face towards the wilderness. 2. And Balaam lifted up
his
eyes, and he saw Israel encamped according to their
tribes;
and the spirit of God came upon him.
3. And he took up his parable, and
said, So speaketh
Balaam,
the son of Beor, and so speaketh the man of un-
closed
eye; 4. So speaketh he who heareth the words of
God
[rw,xE
] and knoweth the knowledge of the Most High, he
who
seeth the vision of the Almighty, prostrate and with
opened
eyes: 5. How goodly are thy tents, 0 Jacob, thy
312 APPENDIX.
tabernacles,
0 Israel! 6. As valleys that are spread
out, as
gardens
by the river's side; as aloe trees which the Lord
hath
planted, as cedars beside the water. 7. Water floweth
from
his buckets, and his seed is by many waters: and his
king
is higher than Agag. 8. [tpofEtoK; Myirac;mi.mi OxyciOm lxe
Ol Mxer;] He devoureth nations, his
enemies, and crusheth
their
bones, and pierceth with his arrows. 9. He coucheth,
he
lieth down like a lion and like a lioness; who shall stir
him
up? Blessed are those that bless thee, and cursed those
that
curse thee.
10. And Balak's anger was kindled
against Balaam, and
he
smote his hands together; and Balak said to Balaam, I
called
thee to curse my enemies, and, behold, thou hast ever
blessed
them these three times. 11. Therefore now, flee thou
to
thy place; I thought to honour thee indeed, but, behold,
the
Lord has kept thee back from honour. 12. And Balaam
said
to Balak, Did I not also speak to thy messengers, whom
thou
hast sent to me, saying, 13. If Balak would give me
his
house full of silver and gold, I cannot go against the
command
of the Lord, to do either good or bad of my own
mind;
but what the Lord says, that will I speak? 14. And
now,
behold, I go to my people; come, I will tell thee, what
this
people is destined to do to thy people in later days.
15.
And he took up his parable, and said, So speaketh
Balaam
the son of Beor, and so speaketh the man of unclosed
eye;
16. So speaketh he who heareth the words of God,
and
knoweth the knowledge of the Most High; who seeth
the
vision of the Almighty, prostrate and with opened eyes
17.
I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near
there
cometh a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre riseth out of
Israel,
and smiteth both sides of Moab, and shattereth all
the
children of tumult.
[Vers. 18-24.]
25. And Balaam rose, and went away,
and returned to his
place,
and Balak also went his way.
|| Pope Shenouda || Father Matta || Bishop Mattaous || Fr. Tadros Malaty || Bishop Moussa || Bishop Alexander || Habib Gerguis || Bishop Angealos || Metropolitan Bishoy ||
|| The Orthodox Faith (Dogma) || Family and Youth || Sermons || Bible Study || Devotional || Spirituals || Fasts & Feasts || Coptics || Religious Education || Monasticism || Seasons || Missiology || Ethics || Ecumenical Relations || Church Music || Pentecost || Miscellaneous || Saints || Church History || Pope Shenouda || Patrology || Canon Law || Lent || Pastoral Theology || Father Matta || Bibles || Iconography || Liturgics || Orthodox Biblical topics || Orthodox articles || St Chrysostom ||
|| Bible Study || Biblical topics || Bibles || Orthodox Bible Study || Coptic Bible Study || King James Version || New King James Version || Scripture Nuggets || Index of the Parables and Metaphors of Jesus || Index of the Miracles of Jesus || Index of Doctrines || Index of Charts || Index of Maps || Index of Topical Essays || Index of Word Studies || Colored Maps || Index of Biblical names Notes || Old Testament activities for Sunday School kids || New Testament activities for Sunday School kids || Bible Illustrations || Bible short notes|| Pope Shenouda || Father Matta || Bishop Mattaous || Fr. Tadros Malaty || Bishop Moussa || Bishop Alexander || Habib Gerguis || Bishop Angealos || Metropolitan Bishoy ||
|| Prayer of the First Hour || Third Hour || Sixth Hour || Ninth Hour || Vespers (Eleventh Hour) || Compline (Twelfth Hour) || The First Watch of the midnight prayers || The Second Watch of the midnight prayers || The Third Watch of the midnight prayers || The Prayer of the Veil || Various Prayers from the Agbia || Synaxarium