Ver. 23.-Enchantment, ~i• Re.ther, Arboth Moa.b. From Peor, therefore, the • augury." Septuagint, ol1uv,11µ6,. See on whole encampment, in all its length and Levit. xix. 26, where the practice is for- breadth, would lie beneath their gaze. leehi• bidden to Israel. Against J' acob, or, " in mo11. See on eh. lli. 20. Jacob," as the marginal reading, and this is favoured b:y the Septuagint e.nd the Tar- Cb. :x:xiv. 1. -Aa at other times, or, gnms, and is equally true and striking. It "as (he had done) time after time." Sep- was the proud peculiarity of Israel that he tuagint, ,co,-d ro i/.,!76,. To aeek for en· trusted not to any magic arts or superstitious chantm.ents. Rather, "for the meeting with rites, uncertain 1n themselves, and always auguries." e'Wtl? Ml:tJP.?• Septuagint, rr, lending to imposture, but to the direction 11vvavr11a•v roii: ol1uvoic. Na.cha,sh,im, a.s in and favour of the Almighty. Divination. eh. xxiii. 23, is not enchantments in the Dlj.)~. Septuagint, µavrEia.. The art of the sense of magical practices, but definitely soothsayer. According to this time it shall auguries, i. e. omens and signs in the natural be said of Jacob and of Israel. Rather, world observed and interpreted according to "in season," i.e. in God's good time, "it shall an artificial system as manifesting the pur- be said to Jacob and to Israel." What hath poses of God. As one of the commonest and God wrought! or, "what God doeth." worst of heathen practices, it was forbidden The meaning seems to be that angnry and to Israel (Levit. xu:. 26; Dent. xviii. JO) divination were useless and vain in the ea.so and held up to reprobation, as in 2 Kings of Israel, because God himself declared and :xvii. 17; ni. 6; 2 Chron. :xxxili. 6. To- would declare his mighty acts in behalf of ward the wilderneBB. .,~lijiJ. Not "Je- his people, and that by no uncertain va.tici- shimon," but apparently the A.rboth Moab in nation, but by open declaration. t. which Israel was encamped, and which were • Ver. 24.-As a great lion. ~':+{, gener- for the most part desert as compared with ally translated "old lion," as in Gen. xlix. the country around. 9. By some it is rendered lioness (cf. Job Ver. 2.-The spirit of God came upon him. iv. 11; Nahum ii. 12). As a young lion. This seems to intimate a higher state of in- ''113, the ordinary term for a lion without spiration than the expression, " God put a further distinction. It is e.lto~ether fa.ntastic word into his mouth" (eh. x:riii. 5, 16). to suppose that Balaam had Just seen a lion Ver. 3.-:Balaam . . ha.th sa.id. Rather, coming up from the ghor of Jordan, and that "the utterance of Bo.lanm." C~t is con- this "omen" inspired his "11UZ8hal." The stantly used, as in eh. xiv. 28, for a Divine rising of a lion from its covert w11s one of the uttorance, effatum Dd-, but it does not by most common of the more striking phe- itself, ap11rt from the context, claim e. super- nomena of nature in those regions, and the human origin. The ma.n whose eyes a.re open. imagery it afforded was in consta.nt use ; but t!~y t:l{1~ i;itr, The authorities a.re divid,,d in truth it is evident that thesij similes are borrowed from Ja.cob's dying prophecy con- between the rettderin,g in the text nnd th, cerning Judah (Gen. xlix. 9), in which the opposite rendel'ing ven in the margin word "prey" (Hebrew, ~1~• a tom thing) is t:l)JI? is used in D11n. viii. 26, and DJ)~ in also found. Bo.lo.om was acquainted with Lam. iii. 8, in the sense of " shut ; " but, on that prophecy, as he was with the promises the other ho.nd, 11. passage in the Mishnah made to Abraham (ef. ver, 10 with Gen. xiii. distinctly uses en!& a.11d enc in opposite 16 ; xxviii. 14). senses. The Vulgu.te, on the one hand, has Ver. 27.-I will bring thee unto anotner obtura.tus; the Septuagint, on the other, place. At first (vcr. 26) Balak had in his has o a.~11~111wi: opiiiv, and this is the sense vexation desired to stop the mouth of Ba.lum, given by the Targums. Strnnge to suy, it but afterwards he thought it wiser to make makes no real difference whether we read yet another attempt to change the mind of "open" or "shut," because in any case it God ; as a heathen, he still thought that this was the inward vision that was quickened, might be done by dint of importunity and while the outward senses were closed. renewed sacrifices. Ver. 4.-P'alling into a trance. Re.ther, Ver. 28.-Unto the top of Peor. On the "falling down." Qui cad.it, Vulgu.te. The meaning o( Peor see on eh. xxv. 3. This case of Saul, who " fell down naked all th11t Peor was fi summit of the Ab11rim ranges day" (l Sam. xix. 24), overcome by the il· northwards from Pisgah, and nearer to the lapse of the Spirit, affords the best com- Iara.elites. The adjacent village, Beth-Peor, parison. Physically, it would seom to have was near the place of Moses' burial (Dcut. been a kind of ~atalepsy, in which the senses xxxiv. 6). From the phrase used in Deut. were closed to outward things, and the eyes iii. 29 ; iv. 46, with which the testimony of open but unseeing. The word for " open" Eusebius agrees, it must have lain almost in this verse is the ordilmry one, uot tho.t opposite Jericho on the heights behind the used in ver. 3. 816 THE BOOK OF NUMBERS. [OK. xxu. 41-nrv.
Ver. 6. - As thll valle:rs, or, " as the RrOWI, or, " dash fn pieces his &ITOWII " t.orrenta" (C'~!;'ltl, which pour down in i. e. the arrows shot at him. Yr.IQ: i1~6. p&rallel courses from the npper slopes. As The 4:if difflonlty• is • the ~ossessive euffl:r to prdena by the river'■ side. The river arrows, H which 1s Ln• " e singular • other• (i.,;, as in eh. :a:ii. 6) means the Enphmtes. wise this rendering gives a much' better Balaam combines the pleasant im&g!)ry of his sense, a.nd more in keeping with the rest of own cultivated land with that of the wilder the passage. Theim~ in Balanm's mind is BCene amidst which he I\OW stood. As the evidently that of a temble wild beast devour- tTeea of ligu aloea. 0'°<y\t• .Aloe trees, and ing his· e!1emies, _ste.m11ing. them underfoot, de.ah.mg to pieces m his fury the arrows such as grew in the further east, where Balaam or darts which they vainl1 launch against had perhaps eeen them, Whieh the Lord him (compare the im&g!)ry m Dau. vil. 7). hath planted, or, "the Lord's planting," Ver. 9.~ lion. "llt, A great lion. e. poetical way of describing their beauty and tt•:;i,. See on eh. :aiii 24 and Gen, :tlix. 9. rarity (cf. Pa. i. lJ ; civ. 16). 1