Numbers 24:1

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹And when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he did not resort to sorcery as on previous occasions, but he turned his face toward the wilderness.²When Balaam looked up and saw Israel encamped tribe by tribe, the Spirit of God came upon him, ³and he lifted up an oracle, saying: "This is the prophecy of Balaam son of Beor, the prophecy of a man whose eyes are open, ⁴the prophecy of one who hears the words of God, who sees a vision from the Almighty, who bows down with eyes wide open: ⁵How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob, your dwellings, O Israel! ⁶They spread out like palm groves, like gardens beside a stream, like aloes the LORD has planted, like cedars beside the waters. ⁷Water will flow from his buckets, and his seed will have abundant water. His king will be greater than Agag, and his kingdom will be exalted. ⁸God brought him out of Egypt with strength like a wild ox, to devour hostile nations and crush their bones, to pierce them with arrows. ⁹He crouches, he lies down like a lion; like a lioness, who dares to rouse him? Blessed are those who bless you and cursed are those who curse you."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

saw: Numbers 22:13, Numbers 23:20, Numbers 31:16, 1 Samuel 24:20, 1 Samuel 26:2, 1 Samuel 26:25, Revelation 2:14

at other times: Numbers 23:3, Numbers 23:15

to seek for enchantments: Heb. to the meeting of enchantments, Numbers 23:23

Reciprocal: Genesis 19:37 - Moabites Genesis 31:21 - set his Numbers 3:17 - Gershon Numbers 23:16 - General Joshua 13:22 - Balaam Isaiah 19:25 - the Lord

Cross-References

Genesis 12:2
I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

Genesis 13:2
And Abram had become extremely wealthy in livestock and silver and gold.

Genesis 18:11
And Abraham and Sarah were already old and well along in years. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.

Genesis 21:5
Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.

Genesis 24:1
By now Abraham was old and well along in years, and the LORD had blessed him in every way.

Genesis 24:3
and I will have you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am dwelling,

Genesis 24:35
"The LORD has greatly blessed my master, and he has become rich. He has given him sheep and cattle, silver and gold, menservants and maidservants, camels and donkeys.

Genesis 25:20
and Isaac was forty years old when he married Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean from Paddan-aram and the sister of Laban the Aramean.

Genesis 49:25
by the God of your father who helps you, and by the Almighty who blesses you, with blessings of the heavens above, with blessings of the depths below, with blessings of the breasts and womb.

1 Kings 1:1
Now King David was old and advanced in years, and though they covered him with blankets, he could not get warm.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And when Balsam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel,.... That it was good in his sight, what he approved of, and was well-pleasing to him, and that it was his determined mind that Israel should be blessed, and not cursed, from which there was no turning him, by offering sacrifices to him, and much less by his sorceries and divinations:

he went not as at other times; or, "as at a time in a time" q, at two times, of which see Numbers 23:3, he abode in the place where the sacrifices were offered, and did not depart to another at some distance, as he had twice before done:

to seek for enchantments; which it seems he used before, for he not only offered sacrifices to the true God, which yet were attended with superstitious rites, but he made use of his divining art also; and not only went to meet with God, and hear what he would say to him, but consulted the devil also, being willing to have two strings to his bow, and that, if possible, he might carry his point, and get what his covetous and ambitious mind was desirous of: the words may be literally rendered, "to meet enchantments" r; but what should be meant by the phrase is not easy to say; I should rather choose to render them, "to meet serpents", and make use of them in his divinations, make observations on them, and predictions from them: one sort of divination is called "ophiomancy", or divining by serpents; so Calchas, on seeing a serpent devour eight sparrows with their dam, foretold the duration of the siege of Troy s:

but he set his face towards the wilderness: where the people of Israel lay encamped, not with an intention to bless them, though he saw it pleased the Lord, but to take an opportunity, if he could, without his leave, to curse them; and therefore he did not go out as he did before, to know his will, but stood by the sacrifice, with his face to the wilderness, where the people were, to take any advantage that offered.

q כפעם בפעם "sicut vice in vice", Montanus, Vatablus. r לקראת נחשים "in occursum auguriorum", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus. s Homer. Iliad. 2. see more instances in Bochart. Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 1. c. 3. col. 21, 22.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

CHAPTER XXIV

Balaam, finding that God was determined to bless Israel, seeks

no longer for enchantments, 1.

The Spirit of God coming upon him, he delivers a most important

prophetic parable, 2-9.

Balak's anger is kindled against him, and he commands him to

depart to his own country, 10,11.

Balaam vindicates his conduct, 12, 13;

and delivers a prophecy relative to the future destruction of

Moab by the Israelites, 14-17;

also of Edom, 18, 19;

of the Amalekites, 20;

and of the Kenites, 21, 22.

Predicts also the destruction of Asshur and Eber, by the naval

power of Chittim, which should afterwards be itself destroyed,

23, 24.

Balaam and Balak separate, 25.

NOTES ON CHAP. XXIV

Verse Numbers 24:1. He went not, as at other times, to seek for enchantments — We have already had occasion to observe that the proper meaning of the word נחש nachash is not easily ascertained; see Numbers 21:9, and see on Genesis 3:1. Here the plural נחשים nechashim is rendered enchantments; but it probably means no more than the knowledge of future events. When Balaam saw that it pleased God to bless Israel, he therefore thought it unnecessary to apply for any farther prophetic declarations of God's will as he had done before, for he could safely infer every good to this people, from the evident disposition of God towards them.