Numbers 24:23

_AND HE TOOK UP HIS PARABLE, AND SAID, ALAS, WHO SHALL LIVE WHEN GOD DOETH THIS!_ And he took up his parable, and said. [The Septuagint introduces this by: Kai idoon ton Oog , 'and when he looked on Og.'] ALAS! WHO SHALL LIVE WHEN GOD DOETH THIS? х_ MIY_ (H4310) _ YICHªYEH_ (H2421) _ MISUMOW_ (H7760) _ 'EEL _ (H410)] - who shall live from (after) God's setting (appointing) it? [Septuagint, tis zeesetai hotan thee tauta ho Theos? Who shall live when (since) God shall do this? Havernick thinks that this vexed passage can receive a satisfactory explanation only by supposing an Aramaism; 'for here the words, chaayaah min, cannot, according to the usage of the language, mean anything else than to revive, to recover from anything ...

15-25 Under the powerful influence of the Spirit of prophecy, Balaam foretold the future prosperity and extensive dominion of Israel. Balaam boasts that his eyes are open. The prophets were in old times called seers. He had heard the words of God, which many do who neither heed them, nor hear God in them. He knew the knowledge of the Most High. A man may be full of the knowledge of God, yet utterly destitute of the grace of God. He calls God the Most High and the Almighty. No man could seem to express a greater respect to God; yet he had no true fear of him, love to him, nor faith in him; so far a man may go toward heaven, and yet come short of it at last. Here is Balaam's prophecy concerning Him who should be the crown and glory of his people Israel; who is David in the type; but our Lord Jesus, the promised Messiah, is chiefly pointed at, and of him it is an illustrious prophecy. Bala...

Verse Numbers 24:23. _WHO SHALL LIVE WHEN GOD DOETH THIS!_] There are two senses in which these words may be taken: - 1. That the event is so distant that none then alive could possibly live to see it. 2. That the times would be so distressing and desolating that scarcely any should be able to escape. The words are very similar to those of our Lord, and probably are to be taken in the same sense: "Wo to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days....

WHEN GOD DOETH THIS - The eventual carrying away of the allies of Israel by Assyria presented itself to Balaam as the ruin of all peace and safety upon earth. One prediction was howerer, yet wanting, and is next given, namely, that the conquerors of the Kenites should fare no better than the Kenites themselves....

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, to συνάντησιν τοῖς οἰωνοῖς. _Nachashim; _as in Numbers 23:23, is not enchantments in the sense of magical practices, but definitely auguries, i.e. omens and signs in the natural world observed and interpreted according to an artificial system as manifesting the purposes of God. As one of the commonest and worst of heathen practices, it was forbidden to Israel (Leviticus 19:26;...

AND HE TOOK UP HIS PARABLE, AND SAID,.... Or delivered another prophecy, having made some little pause: ALAS, WHO SHALL LIVE WHEN GOD DOETH THIS? referring not to what goes before, but to what follows; though Jarchi and Aben Ezra think it refers to the Assyria conquering and carrying captive, not only the Kenites, but all the nations of the world, so that there was no living comfortably in it on his account; but this is said after Balaam had taken up his parable again, and so respects what follows, as the destruction of the Persian empire by Alexander, in which Ashur or the Assyrians were included; and the destruction of the Jews by the Romans more especially; which was such as had not been the like from the beginning of the world, Matthew 24:21, and perhaps may have a further respect to the affliction of the witnesses and church of Christ by antichrist; see...

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 (Numbers 23:18) 5. Balak's request and Balaam's reply (Numbers 23:25) 6. Balaam's third parable (Numbers 24:1) 7. Balak's anger and Balaam's firmness ...

THREE APPENDED ORACLES. These additional oracles, relating to other peoples than the Moabites, are probably derived from neither E nor J, but have been inserted by an editor from other sources. NUMBERS 24:20. ON AMALEK. This prophecy, predicting the destruction of Amalek, received a fulfilment in the time of Saul, who put them under the ban (1 Samuel 15:7 f.); but some of the Amalekites survived to be slaughtered by David (1 Samuel 30:1), and a remnant existed even in the time of Hezekiah (1 Chronicles 4:43). Numbers 24:

TOOK UP. This is not. fifth parable, but part of the fourth. LIVE. survive....

_when God doeth this_ The only rendering which the words will bear is -on account of God appointing him." If Numbers 24:21 were all one poem, as some think, -him" might refer to Asshur, appointed by God as an instrument of destruction....