Numbers 23:10

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹Then Balaam said to Balak, "Build me seven altars here, and prepare for me seven bulls and seven rams." ²So Balak did as Balaam had directed, and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar. ³"Stay here by your burnt offering while I am gone," Balaam said to Balak. "Perhaps the LORD will meet with me. And whatever He reveals to me, I will tell you." So Balaam went off to a barren height, ⁴and God met with him. "I have set up seven altars," Balaam said, "and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram." ⁵Then the LORD put a message in Balaam's mouth, saying, "Return to Balak and give him this message." ⁶So he returned to Balak, who was standing there beside his burnt offering, with all the princes of Moab. ⁷And Balaam lifted up an oracle, saying: "Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the mountains of the east. 'Come,' he said, 'put a curse on Jacob for me; come and denounce Israel!' ⁸How can I curse what God has not cursed? How can I denounce what the LORD has not denounced? ⁹For I see them from atop the rocky cliffs, and I watch them from the hills. Behold, a people dwelling apart, who will not reckon themselves among the nations. ¹⁰Who can count the dust of Jacob or number even a fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous; let my end be like theirs!"

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

can count: Genesis 13:16, Genesis 22:17, Genesis 28:14

the dust: i.e. The posterity of Jacob, which was to be so numerous as to resemble the dust.

the fourth: Numbers 2:9, Numbers 2:16, Numbers 2:24, Numbers 2:31

me: Heb. my soul, or, my life

the death: Psalms 37:37, Psalms 116:15, Proverbs 14:32, Isaiah 57:1, Isaiah 57:2, Luke 2:29, Luke 2:30, 1 Corinthians 3:21, 1 Corinthians 3:22, 1 Corinthians 15:53-57, 2 Corinthians 5:1, Philippians 1:21-23, 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 2 Peter 1:13-15, Revelation 14:13

Reciprocal: Leviticus 1:3 - a burnt Numbers 1:46 - General Numbers 2:34 - so they Numbers 24:2 - abiding 1 Kings 13:31 - lay my bones 2 Chronicles 1:9 - like the dust Proverbs 13:4 - desireth Proverbs 19:20 - be Ecclesiastes 7:2 - that Isaiah 26:15 - increased Romans 6:22 - and the end

Cross-References

Genesis 23:1
Now Sarah lived to be 127 years old.

Genesis 23:3
Then Abraham got up from beside his dead wife and said to the Hittites,

Genesis 23:4
"I am a stranger and an outsider among you. Give me a burial site among you so that I can bury my dead."

Genesis 23:18
to Abraham's possession in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city.

Genesis 24:10
Then the servant took ten of his master's camels and departed with all manner of good things from his master in hand. And he set out for Nahor's hometown in Mesopotamia.

Genesis 34:20
So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city and addressed the men of their city:

Genesis 34:24
All the men who went out of the city gate listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male of the city was circumcised.

Job 29:7
When I went out to the city gate and took my seat in the public square,

Isaiah 28:6
a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and a strength to those who repel the onslaught at the gate.

Matthew 9:1
Jesus got into a boat, crossed over, and came to His own town.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Who can count, the dust of Jacob,.... The people of Israel, their posterity so called, not because of their original, the dust of the earth, but because of their numbers, being as numerous as the dust of the earth, or sand of the sea, as it was promised they should be,

Genesis 28:14 and which is here confirmed by the prophecy of Balaam:

and the number of the fourth part of Israel; one of the four camps of Israel, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; for this people was divided into four camps, under so many standards, which were those of Judah, Reuben, Ephraim, and Dan, see Numbers 2:1, and one of them is represented by Balaam as so numerous, as not to be counted, or should be so, see Hosea 1:10. The spiritual Israel of God, though comparatively few, are in themselves, and will be when all together, a great number, which no man can number, Revelation 7:9:

let me die the death of the righteous; which are among them, as Jarchi, among the Israelites; for they were not all righteous, nor are any, of themselves, or by their own works, but by the righteousness of Christ: or the death of the upright ones a; such as are upright in heart and life, who have right spirits renewed in them, and walk uprightly according to the rule of the divine word; such as are Israelites indeed, in whom there is no guile; the word used is pretty near, in sound and signification, to Jeshurun, one of the names of Israel,

Deuteronomy 32:15, the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem render it,

"the death of the true ones,''

who are truly righteous and upright, truly gracious persons; who have the truth of grace, and the root of the matter in them: these die as well as others, yet their death is different from others, not in the thing itself, but in the concomitants and consequences of it; they die in the Lord, in union to him, in faith of him, in hope of eternal life by him, and their death is precious to him; and in consequence of this they are carried by angels to glory at death are immediately in heaven with Christ, and it will be well with them to all eternity. Balaam had some notion of this; and though he did not care to live the life of such, he wished to die their death, or that he might be as happy at death as they; by which he bears a testimony to the immortality of the soul, to a future state after death, and to an eternal life and happiness to be enjoyed by good men:

and let my last end be like his; which is a phrase expressive of much the same thing as before: death is the end of a man in this world; and the end of a righteous man in it is peace, rest, salvation, and eternal life, or is what follows upon it, and he then enters into: some render it, "my reward" b, which comes to much the same sense, the above being the righteous man's reward, not in a way of debt, but grace; others render the word, "my posterity" c; but it is not certain Balaam had any, and if he had, his concern seems to be more for himself than for them.

a ישרים rectorum, Pagninus, Montanus, Piscator. b אחריתי see Prov. xxiv. 20. c το σπερμα μου Sept.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The fourth part of Israel - i. e., each one of the four camps, into which the host of Israel was divided (see Numbers 2:0), seemed to swarm with innumerable multitudes. Possibly Balaam could only see one camp. Balaam bears testimony in this verse to the fulfillment of the promises in Genesis 13:16; Genesis 28:14.

The righteous - i. e., the ancestors of Israel, who “died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off” Hebrews 11:13. With their histories Balaam was familiar, particularly with that of Abraham, “the righteous man” whom God had “raised up from the east (and) called to His foot” Isaiah 41:2.

Let my last end be like his - Render rather, “last estate,” for the reference is not so much to the act of death, as to all that followed upon it - to the future, in which the name and influence of the deceased person would be perpetuated.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Numbers 23:10. Let me die the death of the righteous — Probably Balaam had some presentiment that he should be taken off by a premature death, and therefore he lodges this petition against it. The death of the righteous in those times implied being gathered to one's fathers in a good old age, having seen his children, and children's children; and to this, probably, the latter part of this petition applies: And let my last end be like his, (ותהי אחריתי כמהו uthehi acharithi chamohu, And let my POSTERITY be like his.) It has been generally supposed that Balaam is here praying for a happy death, such as true Christians die who die in the Lord; and in this way his words are generally applied; but I am satisfied this is not their meaning. The prayer, however, understood in the common way, is a good one, and may be offered to God profitably. A righteous man is one who is saved from his sins, who is justified and sanctified through the blood of the covenant, and who lives, not only an innocent, but also a holy and useful life. He who would die well should live well; for a bad death must be the issue of a bad life.