Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary
Numbers 24:3
Whose eyes are open - i. e., opened in inward vision, to discern things that were hidden from ordinary beholders.
Whose eyes are open - i. e., opened in inward vision, to discern things that were hidden from ordinary beholders.
Verse Numbers 24:3. _HE TOOK UP HIS PARABLE_] His prophetic declaration couched in highly poetic terms, and in regular metre, as the preceding were. _THE MAN WHOSE EYES ARE OPEN_] I believe the orig...
THE PARABLES OF BALAAM Chapter S 23-24 _ 1. The first parable (Numbers 23:1)_ 2. Balak's surprise and Balaam's answer (Numbers 23:11) 3. At Zophim (Numbers 23:13) 4. The second parable
BALAAM'S THIRD ORACLE. This varies the tenor of the two previous utterances by dwelling upon the fertility of Israel's soil, and the eminence of its ruler. It was probably constructed, like the preced...
AND HE TOOK UP HIS PARABLE. Compare Numbers 23:7; Numbers 23:18. THE MAN. the strong or mighty man. Hebrew. _geber._ See App-14. WHOSE EYES ARE. Hebrew "whose eye is". OPEN. Hebrew. _shatham, to clo...
The opening triplet is as follows: THE ORACLE OF BALAAM SON OF BEOR. The oracle of the man whose eye is (?) CLOSED. The oracle of one that heareth the words of God. The form of it should be compa...
_Balaam's first prophetic message_. In its present form this consists of nine couplets and two triplets. But the text has undergone corruption, and perhaps there were originally eleven couplets....
BALAAM, THE SON OF BEOR, HATH SAID— There seems to be no reason for understanding this introduction, with Bishop Patrick, as a proof of Balaam's vanity; since it is agreeable to the ordinary style of...
G. THE PROPHECY OF BALAAM (NUMBERS 24:1-9) TEXT Numbers 24:1. And when Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he went not, as at other times, to seek for enchantments, but he set his fa...
_AND HE TOOK UP HIS PARABLE, AND SAID, BALAAM THE SON OF BEOR HATH SAID, AND THE MAN WHOSE EYES ARE OPEN HATH SAID:_ Balaam the son of Beor hath said - _ `Balaam the son of Beor prophesies, And the...
24:3 saith, (b-14) saith, (b-21) See Genesis 22:16 ....
HATH SAID] The English here is too commonplace to represent the original, which is in a very lofty and impassioned strain. 'Oracle of Balaam, son of Beor; oracle of the man whose eyes are opened; orac...
BALAAM (CONTINUED) 1-9. Balaam's Third Utterance....
THE OLD TESTAMENT BOOK OF NUMBERS IN THE DESERT NUMBERS _MARION ADAMS_ CHAPTER 24 BALAAM’S THIRD *PROPHECY – NUMBERS 24:1-14 V1 Balaam realised that the *LORD wanted to *bless the *Israe
BALAAM THE SON OF BEOR HATH SAID. — The Hebrew word (_neum_) is imperfectly rendered by _hath said._ It is the word which is commonly used in the prophetical books of Scripture to denote a Divine sayi...
וַ יִּשָּׂ֥א מְשָׁלֹ֖ו וַ יֹּאמַ֑ר נְאֻ֤ם בִּ
BALAAM'S PARABLES Numbers 22:39, Numbers 24:1 THE scene is now on some mountain of Moab from which the encampment of the Hebrew tribes in the plain of the Jordan is fully visible. At Kiriath-huzoth,...
BALAAM'S VISION OF ISRAEL'S PROSPERITY Numbers 24:1 In these remarkable words Balaam describes the condition and prospects of God's people. They reveal the innermost thought which even a bad, double-...
From the closing sentences in chapter twenty-three we learn that Balaam was taken to yet another place of vision, from whence he looked on the desert. The Spirit of God came upon him and again he utte...
And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes (b) are open hath said: (b) His eyes were shut up before in respect to the clear visions which he saw af...
_Up. The same term only occurs again, (Lamentations iii. 8,) where it may have the same sense, though the Septuagint &c., give it here a quite opposite meaning, "the man whose eyes are open," the prop...
Observe how the HOLY GHOST hath caused the expressions of Balaam to be guarded. It is the man whose eyes are opened, not whose heart; whose knowledge of divine things is in the head, but who never fel...
The successes given to the children of Israel alarmed some of their neighbours, more particularly Moab; and this gives occasion for a striking episode in the history which brought to issue as solemn a...
3._And the man whose eyes are open, _(166) _hath said. _This preface has no other object than to prove that he is a true prophet of God, and that he has received the blessing, which he pronounces, fro...
THE FOLLOWING COMMENTARY COVERS CHAPTER S 22, 23, 24, AND 25. Moab also opposes in vain. Now they are in the plains of Moab, having only Jordan between them and the land of their rest. But had they a...
AND HE TOOK UP HIS PARABLE,.... His parable of prophecy, as the Targums, his prophetic speech, which, with a loud voice, he expressed in the hearing of Balak and his nobles: AND SAID, BALAAM THE SON...
And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said: Ver. 3. _Whose eyes are open._] And therefore can speak it of a certainty: for what...
_The Spirit of God came upon him_ And is it likely that the Spirit of God would have come upon a sorcerer or enchanter? A prophetic influence from God came upon him, whereby he was enabled to foresee...
1 Balaam leauing diuinations, prophesieth the happinesse of Israel. 10 Balak in anger dismisseth him. 15 He prophesieth of the starre of Iacob, and the destruction of some nations. [BALAAM BLESSETH...
And he took up his parable, his prophetic utterance, and said, BALAAM, THE SON OF BEOR, HATH SAID, AND THE MAN WHOSE EYES ARE OPEN HATH SAID;...
A THIRD BLESSING...
BALAAM'S THIRD PROPHECY (vs.1-13) THE BEAUTY OF LIFE At least Balaam had learned by now that the Lord had the unchangeable purpose of blessing Israel, so this time he knew it was useless to seek e...
WHOSE EYES ARE OPEN: _ Heb._ who had his eyes shut, but now open...
1-9 Now Balaam spake not his own sense, but the language of the Spirit that came upon him. Many have their eyes open who have not their hearts open; are enlightened, but not sanctified. That knowledg...
The eyes, either, 1. Of his body, as in the following verse; or, 2. Of his mind, which God had opened in a peculiar and prophetical manner, whence prophets are called seers, 1 SAMUEL 9:9. He implies...
Numbers 24:3 up H5375 (H8799) oracle H4912 said H559 (H8799) utterance H5002 (H8803) Balaam H1109 son...
Numbers 24:3 (3a-9) ‘And he took up his incantation (parable), and said,' Here he begins with what was clearly his normal way of going into deep trance and follows it with a series of contrasts pres...
Numbers 24:3 I. Balaam was a man whose eye was open in his day. He was a man of splendid natural genius. We puzzle over the definition of genius; but perhaps it is only the open eye, the power to see...
CONTENTS: Balaam foretells prosperity for Israel. CHARACTERS: God, Balaam, Balak. CONCLUSION: Those who oppose God and His people will sooner or later be made to see themselves wretchedly deceived....
Numbers 24:7. _He shall pour the water._ This is a fine prediction of the increase of Jacob's seed, and of the temporal blessings which should fall to their lot. Agag, a perpetual name assumed by the...
_He set his face toward the wilderness._ THE FACE SET TOWARD THE WILDERNESS Evidently there is a change at this point in Balaam’s method. Hitherto he has played the soothsayer. At last he confesses h...
NUMBERS—NOTE ON NUMBERS 24:1 The mention of the Spirit of God empowering Balaam (v. Numbers 24:2) shows the validity of Balaam’s third blessing. Balaam describes himself as the
CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES Numbers 24:1. _To seek for enchantments_. See Notes on Numbers 23:3; Numbers 23:23. _He set his face toward the wilderness, i.e._, towards the plains of Moab, where the...
NUMBERS 24:1 AS AT OTHER TIMES, or, "as (he had done) time after time." SEPTUAGINT, κατὰ τὸ εἰωθός. TO SEEK FOR ENCHANTMENTS. Rather, "for the meeting with aunties." לִקְמראת נְחַשִׁים. Septuagint...
So when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he didn't even go up, as the other times before the LORD, [to seek the face or] to seek for enchantments, but he just set his face towards...
Numbers 23:18; Numbers 23:7; Numbers 22:31; Numbers 24:16; Numbers 24:4
Whose eyes are open — Heb. Who had his eyes shut, but now open. The eyes of his mind, which God had opened in a peculiar and prophetical manner, whence prophets are called Seers, 1 Samuel 9:9. It impl...