bless this people; and he hath blessed them, and I cannot reverse it, ver. 20, and he will not reverse it, though provoked to do so by their sins, which he will take no notice of. Others thus, He hath not beheld, as hitherto he hath not, so for the future he will not behold, i. e., so as to approve it, as that word renders it, "the Word of the Lord his God they do not take notice of so as to punish is his help." And so the Jerusalem Targum. them. And this sense best agrees with the The shout of a king is among them.] God context; God hath decreed and promised to being their king, he prophesies that they should always triumph over their enemies: for he alludes to the shouts which are made when a king or great captain returns victorious with the spoils of those he hath vanquished. So the meaning of the whole verse is this, in brief: Since they do not worship idols, but cleave to the Lord their is oft used, as Gen. vii. 1; Isa. lxvi. 2; Hab. God, and serve him alone, he is present i. 13, or so as to suffer it, injury against with them, not only to preserve them from Jacob [so Rosen.], &c. For aven, here their enemies, but to give them glorious rendered iniquity, is oft used in that sense, victories over them. as Job v. 6, 7; Prov. xii. 21; xxii. 8. And Pool. He, i. e., God, understood ver. 20, the other word, amal, rendered perverseness, and expressed ver. 19, hath not or doth not oft notes vexation and trouble, as Job v.6, 7; behold or see iniquity or perverseness, i. e., Psal. xxv. 17; xxxvi. 4; and the particle any sin, in Jacob or Israel; which cannot beth, rendered in, is oft used for against, as be meant of a simple seeing or knowing of Exod. xiv. 25; xx. 16; Numb. xii. 1. So him, for so God did see and observe, yea, the sense is, God will not see them wronged and chastise their sins, as is manifest, Exod. or ruined by any of their adversaries, xxxii. 9; Deut. ix. 13; but of such a sight whereof the following words may be a good of their sins as should provoke God utterly reason, for God is with him, &c. The Lord to forsake and curse and destroy them, his God is with him, i. e., he hath a favour which was Balak's desire, and Balaam's hope for this people, and will defend and save and design. For as Balaam knew that none them. So the phrase of God's being with a but Israel's God could curse or destroy person or people signifies, as Jud. vi. 13; Israel, so he knew that nothing but their Psal. xlvi. 7; Isa. viii. 10. The shout of a a security and just confidence in him as such. And here is an allusion to the silver trumpets which were made by God's command, and used upon great solemnities, in which God their King was present in a special manner, Numb. x. 9; Josh. vi. 16, 20; 1 Sam. iv. 5; 2 Chron. xiii. 12. sin could move him so to do; and therefore king is among them, i.e., such joyful and he took a right, though wicked, course after- triumphant shouts as those wherewith wards to tempt them to sin, and thereby to people congratulate the approach and preexpose them to ruin, Numb. xxv. And sence of their king when he appears among Balaam had now hoped that God was in- them upon some solemn occasion, or when censed against Israel for their sins, and he returns from battle with victory and therefore would be prevailed with to give spoils. The expression implies God's being them up to the curse and spoil. But, saith their King and Ruler, and their abundant he, I was mistaken, I see God hath a sin gular favour to this people, and though he sees and punisheth sin in other persons and people with utter destruction, as he hath now done in Sihon and Og and the Amorites, yet he will not do so with Israel; he winks at their sins, forgets and forgives them, and will not punish them as their iniquities deserve. In this sense God is said not to see sins, as elsewhere he is said to forget them, Isa. xliii. 25; Jer. xxxi. 31, and to cover them, Psal. xxxii. 1, which keeps them out of sight, and so out of mind; and to blot them out, Psal. li. 1, 9, and to cast them behind his back, Isa. xxxviii. 17, or into the depth of the sea, Micah vii. 19, in which cases they cannot be seen nor read. And men are oft said not to know or see those sins in their children or others, which Dr. A. Clarke.-21 He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel.] This is a difficult passage; for if we take the words as spoken of the people Israel, as their iniquity and their perverseness were almost unparalleled, such words cannot be spoken of them with strict truth. If we consider them as spoken of the patriarch Jacob and Israel, or of Jacob after he became Israel, they are most strictly true, as after that time a more unblemished and noble character (Abraham excepted) is not to be found in the page of history, Sed omnibus hisce interpretationibus præwhether sacred or profane; and for his sake, and for the sake of his father Isaac, and his grandfather Abraham, God is ever represented as favouring, blessing, and sparing a rebellious and undeserving people; see the concluding note, Gen. xlix. In this way, I think, this difficult text may be safely understood. ferenda videtur illa, quam Gatackerus dedit in Adversarr. Miscellann., 1. ii., cap. 4, Opp. Critt., p. 289, quæ talis est: Non intuetur Jova, i. e., non sustinet intueri, iniquitatem in Jacobum, i. e., injuriam Jacobo illatam, nec videt, videre sustinet molestiam, afflictionem, vexationem, adversus Israelem. 2 nominibus et præpositum valet adversus, contra, ut Ex. xiv. 25, Deus pugnal There is another way in which the words may be interpreted, which will give a good 2, contra Ægyptios, xx. 16. sense. Raven not only signifies iniquity, contra socium tuum, Num. xii. 1. 7, but most frequently trouble, labour, distress, contra Mosen. Huic sententiæ non perand affliction; and these indeed are its ideal mittit Jova Israelem suum injuste gravari, meanings, and iniquity is only an accommo- vel affligi, egregie quadrat quod sequitur: dated or metaphorical one, because of them, Jova Deus suus cum eo est, ei pain, distress, &c., produced by sin. adest, averruncator omnium malorum quæ amal, translated here perverseness, occurs Israelitis imminent, cf. Gen. xxxix. 2. often in scripture, but is never translated, Et clamor regis in eo. Viperverseness except in this place. It sig- dentur intelligi lætæ vociferationes, quæ nifies simply labour, especially that which is circa tentorium sacrum quod Deus, rex of an afflictive or oppressive kind. The Israelitarum habitare credebatur, a gratias words may therefore be considered as im- agentibus et post salutaria sacra convivantiplying that God will not suffer the people bus mittebantur. Recte igitur Coccejus : either to be exterminated by the sword, or Israelitæ acclamant Jovæ ut regi suo, et in to be brought under a yoke of slavery. eo gloriantur. Either of these methods of interpretation gives a good sense, but our common version! gives none. Dr. Kennicott contends for the reading of the Samaritan, which, instead of lo hibbit, he hath not seen, has 8 lo abbit, I do not see, I do not discover any thing among them on which I could ground my curse. But the sense above given is to be preferred. Rosen.-21 — 237, LXX reddiderunt: Οὐκ ἔσται μόχθος ἐν Ἰακὼ3, οὐδὲ ὀφθήσεται πόνος ἐν Ἰσραὴλ. Videlicet CHAP. XXIII. 22, XXIV. 8. θεὸς ὁ ἐξαγαγὼν αὐτὸν ἐξ Αἰγύπτου, ὡς δόξα ovokéPWTOS ALT�. Au. Ver.-22 God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn. Ged., Booth. 22 God, who brought them out of Egypt, Is to them as the strength of a rhino ceros. subinde est dolor, ut Gen. xxxv. 18; Deut. xxvi. 11, et 2, labor item molestiam, Bp. Patrick. He hath as it were the ærumnam denotat, Ps. lxxiii. 5; Job. vii. 3; strength of an unicorn.] Some would have xi. 16. Verba activa 27 et vero this referred to God, who brought them out Græcus interpres impersonaliter cepit et pro of Egypt by a mighty power, because he Futuris. Quum autem nomina et et speaks in the plural number of those to vanitatem, iniquitatem significent, alii sic whom the former sentence belongs. But vertunt: nullum peccatum in Jacobo animad- this is no good reason; for the Scripture vertit, sc. Deus, i. e., Deus condonat ei frequently varies the number, when the peccata; vide similem loquutionem Jer. same person is spoken of. And in chap. Sed huic interpretationi non favent, xxiv. 8, it is expressly said, "God brought quæ sequuntur. Alii et intelligunt him (i. c., Israel) out of Egypt; and he de cultu idolorum, ut 1 Sam. xv. 23. Ita hath the strength," &c., which every one Onkelos: ideo non esse colentes idola in allows is spoken of the Israelites, who are domo Jacobi, nec servos molestia vanitatis in said to have the strength of this creature, Israele; et Vulgatus: Non est idolum in with whom they are compared; or rather Jacob, nec videtur simulachrum in Israel. the height, as the Hebrew word certainly L. 20. Gesen.—rigin, plur. fem. (from 7). 1. Swift course, swiftness, Numb. xxiii. 22; xxiv. 8: niin, he has the swiftness of the buffalo. (The ancient translators express it by greatness, lustre.) 2. Weariness, tiresome labour, see, No. 2. Whence, probably, possession, property, treasure, acquired by labour. Comp. 7, No. 3. Ps. xev. 4: on niin, the treasures of the mountains. Job xxii. 25: niepin hp?, silver of treasures, i. e., treasures of silver. Other interpreters, as Bochart, Rosenmüller, render it in all these passages height, altitude, by a transposition of the letters, from the root ascendit, altus fuit; hence , يفع Arab. Ps. in Numbers as cited, upright course. xev. 4: heights of mountains. Job xxii. 25; silver of heaps, i. e., heaps of silver: but the signification given above is very applicable, and is better supported by the Hebrew usage. signifies, Ps. xcv. 4, "The strength of the | neither to God nor to the Israelites, but to hills (or rather, the heights of the hills, as Egypt before mentioned; as if the sense it is in the margin) is his also:" and Job was, Though the Egyptians were as strong xxii. 25, "The Almighty shall be thy defence, as an unicorn, they were not able to detain and thou shalt have plenty of silver." So the Israelites any longer in bondage to the sense led our interpreters to translate the them; but God brought them thence with a Hebrew word, which may be literally mighty hand and outstretched arm: SO here rendered great heaps of silver. These Joseph. Hispanus (lib. iii., Ikaurim, cap. 8). are the only places where this word is found. The only difficulty is, what creature it is which is here called reem; which we translate (as many others have done) an unicorn: which, though most now take to be a fabulous creature that is not in being, yet Tho. Bartholinus, in his Anatomical Histories (Centur. ii., Histor. 61), tells us, that an ambassador from the king of Guinea to the duke of Courland, assured him, at Copenhagen, that there is a beast in Africa of the bigness of an ordinary horse, very swift and fierce, which hath a horn in its forehead about three spans in length; the dead carcase of which he had seen, though never one alive. But if this be supposed to be true, it is not the creature here meant; for it is plain by the Scripture that the reem hath two horns, Deut. xxxiii. 17, where we read of the horns of the unicorn (as we translate it), to which the two tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh are compared (see also Ps. xxii. 27). Therefore the famous 287, m. Numb. xxiii. 22; Deut. xxxiii. 17; Bochartus, after a long discussion of other 7, Ps. xxix. 11; 7, Job xxxix. 9, 10. opinions, thinks it most probable that the Plur. 7, Ps. xxix. 6; also □, a wild reem is a kind of goat, which the Arabians | bull, buffalo. Arab. a kind of antecalled algazel, and is now called gazellas; lope, which signification some apply to the which is a tall creature (some of them as high as a stag) with long and sharp horns. Hebrew; but the Arab. signification is here So that Balaam foretells the Israelites should only cognate, and not identical. The Greek be as eminent among other people as the Boados, Bouẞadis, is also used of the was among other kinds of goats, antelope and wild buffalo, and the Arabs Unless we will think it refers to what the call stags and antelopes wild bulls. From Arabians observe, that it is proper to this the following passages, Ps. xxii. 13–22; animal to carry his head very high, and to Ps. xxix, 6; Deut. xxxiii. 7; Isa. xxxiv. 7; erect his ears, which is an excellent emblem and from Job's description, xxxix. 9-12, of the people of Israel; who being lately appears to correspond with the bull. oppressed in Egypt, were asserted by God See Schultens zu Job am angef. Orte, De into a state of liberty, and raised to a great height of glory, in order to be advanced unto a higher (Hierozoicon, par. i., lib. iii., cap. 27). At this Onkelos seemed to have aimed, when he translates these words thus, "fortitude and exaltation are his;" taking reem not for a proper name but for an appellative, as if it were derived from ramam, which signifies to exalt. I shall only add, [1] Swiftness, Num. xxiii. 22; xxiv. 8. that there is one who refers these words [2] Wealth, treasures; as being acquired by reem ریم Wette's Commentar zu Ps. xxii. 22, and compare Bocharti Hieroz., t. i., p. 918, &c. LXX, Vulg., monoceros, unicornis, rhinoceros, against which, see Bochart, as quoted. Prof. Lee.—rizia, pl. f. constr. Diggio. Two etymologies are given. (a) Taking, and the Arab.,, celeriter, cucurrit; . Arab., oryx. And this, Bochart. Hieroz., ., p. 948, seq., argues, is the animal in question here. Gesenius, with A. Schultens, on Job xxxix. 9, 10, will have it to be a sort of wild ox, viz., the Buffalo. The LXX makes it the unicorn, μovokéρwτa, which, although found to exist (see Quarterly Review, No. 47), is not at all likely to be the animal. Gesenius prefers considering it the buffalo, from Ps. xxix. 6, where □, is found in the parallel with, a calf. The word occurs, Numb. xxiii. 22; Deut. xxxiii. 17; Job xxxix. 9, 10; Ps. xxii. 22; xxix. 6; xcii. 11; Isa. xxxiv. 7. From these passages of Job and Isaiah, too, this animal is manifestly mentioned as one of the ox tribe. Schultens and Gesenius are, therefore, probably right. οὐ γάρ ἐστιν οἰωνισμὸς ἐν Ἰακώβ, οὐδὲ μαντεία ἐν Ἰσραήλ. κατὰ καιρὸν ῥηθήσεται Ἰακώβ, καὶ τῷ Ἰσραήλ τι ἐπιτελέσει ὁ θεὸς ; Au. Ver.-23 Surely there is no enchantment against [or, in] Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought! The Bp. Patrick. Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel.] Neither I, nor any body else, have power to hurt them, by all the secret arts of sorcery and soothsaying which are practised in the world. Vulgar Latin takes these words as if they were spoken in praise of the Israelites, that Rosen., Quasi celsitudines there were no enchantments or divinations orygis illi sunt. idem est caprearum used among them, nor any other diabolical genus, qued Arabes vocant. Cf. ad arts, which were forbidden by their law in Ps. xxii. 22, et d. a. u. n. M., p. ii., p. 269, several places. From these they being as sqq., ubi et de monocerote, quod animal hic free as from idolatry (mentioned ver. 21), pro 87 LXX posuerunt, egimus. they were secure of God's favour to them. variæ vertunt. LXX, dóέav, Vulgatus, Onke- And so we acknowledge, in the margin of be may translos, Syrus, Arabs Erp., fortitudinem. Sed neu- our Bibles, the words There is no enchantment in Jacob tram harum significationum nomen illud in lated, dialectis cognatis obtinet. Michaelis in [so Geddes], or among them:" from which Suppl., p. 1129, huic loco celeritatis notic- God intended in all ages to preserve them nem aptissimam arbitratur, et vertit: Deus by the prophets he raised up to them. And eduxit eum ex Egypto, celeritas est illi ut thus R. Solomon expounds this verse, either gazellarum. Quæ imago minus apta videtur. to signify that they could not be cursed, Existimaverim, idem esse quod because they were not given to enchantArab. 8, elatio caprearum, qua ments and divinations; or that they needed phrasi Arabes indicant, capreas capite sur- not to make use of diviners and magicians sum elato arrectisque auribus adstare, id having all that was needful for them to quod hæc animalia præ alacritate solent know revealed to them by God's prophets, facere. Sic pulchra imagine sistetur populus and by urim and thummim, &c. Israeliticus antea sub Egyptiorum servitute According to this time it shall be saidoppressus, nunc vero in libertatem assertus What hath God wrought!] The LXX transet in feliciorem statum evectus. Unde hunc late the first words katà kaipòv, “when time vs. ita vertere mallem (sensum magis quam shall be;" or, upon all occasions; not only propriam verborum vim exprimens): Deus now, but in future ages, men shall relate hunc populum eduxit ex Egypto, alacritas with admiration what God hath wrought for ei est ut gazellis (Aus Egyptens Sklarerey this people; not only in bringing them out führte Gott dies Volk; fröhlich schaut es of Egypt, but in conducting them into nun, gleich Gazellen, umher!) Ceterum Canaan; in drying up Jordan, as he did the monendum est, ex hac interpretatione vocem Red Sea; and subduing the Canaanites, as gia non esse referendam ad , sed, ad- he overthrew Pharaoh and his host, &c. If missa metathesi litterarum, ad Arab., there be any difference between Jacob and ascendit, procerus, altus fuit. Cf. ad Job. Israel, the former signifies this people when xxii. 25. they were in their low estate, and the latter, when they were eminently exalted; in both which God did wonderful things for them, which astonished all that observed. Ver. 24. קמין בפשטא idoù λaòs is σkúμvos ávaσtýσetai, kai is λέων γαυρωθήσεται. où koμnonσetaι ews φάγῃ θήραν, καὶ αἷμα τραυματιῶν πίεται. Au. Ver.-4 He hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open [Heb., who had his eyes shut, but now opened]. Falling into a trance. Bp. Patrick.—There being in the Hebrew only the word nophel, which signifies falling, we supply the sense by adding into a trance; lest any one should think he fell to the ground [so Rosen.], or fell asleep [so Gesen.]; which seems not to be the meaning; but that he was in a rapture, perccivAu. Ver.-24 Behold, the people shall ing nothing by his outward senses. Yet the rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself forementioned Targum takes it as if he had as a young lion he shall not lie down until fallen flat on his face; and the LXX transhe eat of the prey, and drink the blood of late it, he saw the vision of God in sleep;" the slain. according to that, Gen. xv. 12, "a deep sleep fell upon Abraham;" where the word naphela is thought by some to give a good explication of nophel in this place. A great lion. Bochart, Rosen., Lee.-A fierce she lion. See notes on Gen. xlix. 9 (page 149). A young lion. Rosenang jah, Non ivit in occursum incantationum, non discessit ad. auguria captanda, uti antea fecit, xxiii. 3, 15, ubi prætendit se Deum velle consulere; sed statim incepit carmen suum fatidicum. Ver. 3. Au. Ver.—Took up his parable. See note; on xxiii. 7. Ver. 4, 16. 66 Gesen. De propheta, qui in somno visiones videt divinitus sibi oblatas, intelligenda sunt verba Num. xxiv. 4: qui visiones Dei videt on na bin somno iacens et reclusis oculis (sc. mentis): neque enim audiendus vir doctus, qui nuper (Ephemerid. lit. Jen. 1830, iv., p. 381) h. 1. de morbo caduco interpretari volebat. Rosen., Procidens in terram. In dicat, se, ut prophetam, in terram pronum Bp. Patrick.-1s the valleys are they spread forth.] This refers either to the tabernacles, which extended themselves on either side of a wide space, which, like a valley, lay between ; or rather, to the Israelites themselves, whom he compares to φησὶν ἀκούων λόγια ἰσχυροῦ, ὅστις ὅρασιν those fruitful valleys which abound with Θεοῦ εἶδεν ἐν ὕπνῳ, ἀποκεκαλυμμένοι οἱ ἀ-water : for the Hebrew word signifies either θαλμοὶ αὐτοῦ. valleys or brooks. |