Numbers 24:3

_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 man, unclosed of (as to) the eye prophesies: The hearer of the words of God, Who sees a vision of the Almighty, Lying (in sleep), but with eyes unveiled:_ How beautiful are thy tents, O Jacob! _ And thy tabernacles (habitations), O Israel! Like valleys are they extended,_ Like gardens along a river, Like lign aloes, which Yahweh planted, Like cedars beside waters. Waters shall flow from his buckets, And his seed is in many waters, And his king shall be higher than Agag, And his kingdom shall be exalted. God leading him forth from Egypt, His is like the speed of the reem: He shall devour nations, his enemies, And shall craunch their bones, And shake his arrows (in their blood). He couches...

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, from divine revelation; and indeed his boast was true as regarded this special act, though it might be the case that pride and ambition impelled him thus to vaunt. It is, however, probable that he prefaced his prophecy in this way by the inspiration of the Spirit, in order to demand more credit for what he said. From a consideration of this purpose we may the better gather the meaning of his words. Balaam dignifies himself with titles, by which he may claim for himself the prophetic office; whatever, therefore, he predicates of himself, we may know to be the attributes of true prophets, whose marks and distinctions he borrows. To this end he says that he is “hidden in his eye,” by which he mean...

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 knowledge which puffs men up with pride, will but serve to light them to hell, whither many go with their eyes open. The blessing is nearly the same as those given before. He admires in Israel, their beauty. The righteous, doubtless, is more excellent than his neighbour. Their fruitfulness and increase. Their honour and advancement. Their power and victory. He looks back upon what had been done for them. Their power and victory. He looks back upon what had been done for them. Their courage and security. The righteous are bold as a lion, not when assaulting others, but when at rest, because God maketh them to dwell in safety. Their influence upon their neighbours. God takes what is done to them, wheth...

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 original שתם _shethum_, should be translated _shut_, not _open_; for in the next verse, where the opening of his eyes is mentioned, a widely different word is used, גלה _galah_, which signifies to _open_ or _reveal_. At first the eyes of Balaam were _shut_, and so closely too that he could not _see_ the angel who withstood him, till God _opened_ his eyes; nor could he see the gracious intentions of God towards Israel, till the _eyes of his understanding were opened_ by the powers of the Divine Spirit. This therefore he mentions, we may suppose, with humility and gratitude, and to the credit of the prophecy which he i

WHOSE EYES ARE OPEN - i. e., opened in inward vision, to discern things that were hidden from ordinary beholders....

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,.... 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 OF BEOR HATH SAID; the preface to his prophecy is pompous, and seems to be full of pride and vanity, and so the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem represent him; "the man who is more excellent than his father hath said, to whom hidden secrets, even what was hidden from the prophets is revealed to him;'' and the Jews have a saying t that he that has an evil eye, a haughty spirit, and a large soul, or is covetous, is one of the disciples of Balaam the wicked: AND THE MAN WHOSE EYES ARE OPEN HATH SAID; or, as some u render it, whose eyes were shut, but now open; either the eyes of his body, which were shut when the angel met him, and the ass saw him and not he, but afterwards were open, and h...

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 ...

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 preceding oracle, in distichs, but in two places this arrangement has been disturbed. The reference to a king in Israel points to the poem having been written in the time of the monarchy. NUMBERS 24:3 F. The seer is represented as receiving the Divine revelations in a trance or dream, the closed eye of Numbers 24:3 being the eye of the body, and the open eyes of Numbers 24:4 being the eyes of the mind. But the rendering was closed in Numbers 24:3

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 close,_ i.e. "the man with closed eye", i.e. in an ecstasy; closed, but seeing....