EXPOSITION. Ver. 3.-Moab was sore afraid of the CHAPTER XXII. people. While the Iara.elites bad moved THE COMING OJ' BAL.U.ll'. (vers. 2-40). a.long their eastern and north-ea.stem border, Ver. 2.-:Balak the 1011 of Zippor. The the Moabites snpplied them with provisions name Balak iJi conILected with a word " to (Deut. ii 29), desiring, no doubt, to be rid make waste," and "Zippor" is a small bird. of them, but not disdaining to make some Balak wa.s, as is :i:,resently explained, the profit by their presence. But after the king of Moe.b at this time, but not the king sudden defee.t and overthrow of their own from whom Sibon bad wrested so much of Amorite conquerors, their terror and uneasi- his territory (eh. :xxi. 26). He seems to be ness forced them to tako some e.ction, al- mentioned by name on a papyrus in the though they dared not commence open hos- British Museum (see Brugecb, 'Geogr. In- tilities. echr.,' ii p. 32). The later Jews made him Ver. 4.-llloab said unto the elders of out ~ have been a. Midianite, but this is llidian. Tho Midianites were descended nothing but the merest conjecture. from Abraham and Keturah (Gen. uv. ?,. GH. XXII. 2-4~.] THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. 291
4), 1md were thll8 more nearly of kin to Israel ha.ve occupied some time, and in the mean than to Moab. They lived a semi-nomadic while Israel would have gone further on his life on the steppes to the east of Moa.b and way. We may naturally conclude that the Ammon (cf. Gen. uxvi. 35), BUpporting first message was sent immediately after the themselves partly by grazing, and partly by defeat of Sihon, at a time when Israel was the caravan trade (Gen. n:xvii. 28). Their encamped very near the border of Moab. institutions were no doubt patriarchal, like Ver. 6.-1 wot that he whom thou ble11- those of tho modem Bedawin, and the est is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is " elders " were the sheiks of their tribes. cursed. This was the language of flattery As the ox lieketh up the grass of the 11.eld. intended to secure the prophet's services. The strong, scythe-like sweep of the ox's No doubt, however, Balak, like other heathens, tongue was a simile admirable in itself, and had a profound though capricious belief in most suitable to pastoral Moab and Midian, the real effect of curses and anathemas pro- Ver. 5.-He sent messengers therefore. nounced by men who had private intercourse It appears from ver. 7 that Balak acted for and influence with the unseen powers. That Midian as well as for Moab ; as the Midian- error, like most superstitions, was the per- ites were but a weak people, they may have version of a truth ; there are both benedic- placed themselves more or less under the tions and censures which, uttered by human protection of Balak. Unto Balaam the son lips, carry with them the sanction and en- forcement of Heaven. The error of antiquity of Beor. cp~:;i (Bileam : our common form lay in ignorance or forgetfulness that, as is from the Septuagint and New Testament, water cannot rise higher the.n its source, so B~aaµ)is derived either from Y?f, to destroy neither blessing nor cursing can possibly take any effect beyond the will and purpose of the or devour, e.nd Cl~, the people ; or simply Father of our souls. Ba.lae.m knew this, but from l12f, with the terminal syllable Cl--;, it was perhaps his misfortune to have been "the destroyer." The former derivation re- trained from childhood to maintain his ceives some support from Rev. ii. 14, 16, position e.nd his wealth by trading upon the where "Nicolai tans" are thought by many superstitions of his neighbours. to be only a Greek form of " Ba.la.a.mites" Ver. 7.-With the rewards of divination. (NucoXao,, from vucaw and Xao,). Beor tl 1t.;>'?P,, "soothsayings." Septuagint, Td ci-n,1,¥) has a similar signification, from °Wf, µavTEia. Here the soothsayer's wages, which to burn, or consume. Both names have St. Peter aptly calls the wagts of unrighteous- probable reference to the BUpposed effect of ness. The ease with which, among ignorant their maledictions, for 8Uccessful cursing was and ruperstitious people, a. prophet mi"ht an hereditary profession in many lnnds, as it become a hired soothsayer is apparent e~en still is in some. Beor appears in 2 Pet. ii. from the case of Samuel (1 Sam. ix. 6-8). 16 as Bosor, which is called a Chaldeeism, That it should be thought proper to resort to but the origin of the change is really un- the man of God for information about some known. A " Bela son of Beor" is named lost property, and much more that it should in Gen. xxxvi. 32 as reigning in Edom, but be thought necessary to pay him a fee for the the coincidence is of no importance : kings exercise of his supernatural powers, shows, and magicians have always loved to give not indeed that Samual was a soothsayer, for themselves names of fear, and their voca- he was a man of rnre integrity e.nd inde1;>end- bulary was not extensive. To Pethor, whioh ence, but, that Samuel was but little d1Stin• is by the river of the land of the ohildren guished from a soothsayer in the populnr of his people. Rather, "which is on the estimation. If Samuel had learnt to care river," i. e. the great river Euphrates, "in more for money than for righteousneBB, ha the land of the children of his people," i. e. might very easily have become just what in his native land. The situation of Pethor Bala.am became. (Septuagint, <l>a~oupci) is unknown. Here is Ver. 8.-Lodge here this night. It wa.s a people come out of Egypt. Forty years therefore in the night, in a dream or in a had passed since their fathers had left Egypt. vision (cf. Gen. xx. S; eh. xii. 6; Job iv.I Yet Balak's words expressed a great truth, 15, 16), that Balaam expected to receive' for this people was no wandering desert some communication from God. If he he.di tribe, but for all intents the same great received none he would no doubt havo felt' organised nation which had spoiled Egypt, himself free to go. • and left Pharaoh's host dead behind them. Ver. 16.-More, and more honourable than: they. Balak rightly judgecl that Ba.le.nm They abide over against me. '?!~ll,?. Sep- was not really unwilling to come, and that tuagint, lxoµEV6, pov. This would hardly it was only needful to ply him with more have been said when Israel was encamped flattery and larger promises. Tho heathens thirty miles north of Amon, opposite to united a firm bolief in the powers of the seer Jericho. Tho two emoassies to Bala.am must with a veryshrewcl appreciation of the motives u2 292 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS.