The hebrew and the heathen

which grows in China, western India, and some of the

Indian isles, and about which there exists a very extensive

though still rather confused literature (comp. Dioscorid., i. 21;

iii. 25; Celsius, Hierobotan., i. 135-171; Gesenius, Thesaur.

p. 33; Royle in Kitto's Cyclop., i. pp. 94-97; Rosenm., Morgenl.,

ii. 280, 281, etc.). It is, however, not impossible that that

wood, at a later period introduced in Palestine under its

native name of aghil, was designated by the Hebrews with

the similar word ahal, since it has several qualities in common

with the indigenous ahal; therefore, where, in the later Books,

this term is mentioned, it may likewise mean that foreign

product.--Some earlier translators do not render MylihAxE but

MylihAxI tents (Sept., w[sei> skhnai> a{j e@phce ku

nacula; Samar. Vers., Mynkwm; Syr., Saad., Luther, Hutten,

etc.), which is made more than doubtful by the parallelism of

MylihAxI cedars, though the verb fFn: is also used in connection

with tents (Dan xi. 45).

The aloe trees 'which God has planted' are, like the

cedars 'which God. has planted' (Ps. civ. 16), pre-eminent in

excellence and duration--and so are the Israelites, whom

God has firmly established; this notion is included in the very

expression 'planting'; thus God says to the prophet Nathan,

'I have given an abode to My people Israel and have

planted them (vytfFnv), that they may dwell in a place of

their own and be moved no more' (2 Sam. vii. 10; comp.

Amos ix. 15; Jer. xxiv. 6; Ps. xliv. 3, etc.): that those

words ‘contain a reference to Paradise’ (Gen. ii. 8) is not

evident (Lowth, Sacr. Poes., xx., 'Sacris Edenae costi ut in

sylvis virent,' and others); nor that they mean 'such trees as

grow independently of the cultivation of man,' which, if

applied to the people of Israel, would involve a questionable

simile.--As all the four parts of the sixth verse are meta-

phors, so also the first half of the seventh verse, 'water

BALAAM'S THIRD SPEECH. 217

floweth from his buckets,' etc.; for water is a common

figure for happiness and abundance in general (comp. Isa.

xliv. 3; lxvi. 12; Ps. lxv„ 10, 11, etc.; Rashi, hHlch Nvwl

xvh): the blessings of Israel will be as copious as the water

of full and overflowing buckets, and they will continue un-

diminished in later generations--'and his seed is by many

waters' (fraz, for posterity, as in Gen. xvii. 19; xlviii. 19; Ps.

xxxvii. 25, etc). Very languid is the sense, if, as is usually

done, the words 'kv Mym lzy are taken literally, viz., that the

wells and cisterns of the Hebrews will always be supplied

with water for themselves and their cattle, and that their

seed (fraz,, Gen. xlvii. 19; Lev. x.xvi. 5) will be irrigated by

abundant showers (Coccej, Baumgart., Knob., and others;

Mendelss., sein Samen fallt in feuchten Boden ; Ewald, seine

Saat wird an reichen Wassern stehen , similarly Bunsen and

others). This is to some extent already included in the pre-

ceding verse, and forms but a part of the blessings which

the Hebrews enjoy, since these blessings comprise, besides,

power, glory, peace, and other boons. Still less acceptable is

the opinion that water is here a metaphor for numerous

posterity (comp. Isa, xlviii. 1; see also Deut. xxxiii. 28; Ps.

lxviii. 27; Nah. ii. 9)--'metaphors ab aqua de situla destil-

lante ad semen virile translata' (Gesen., s. v.; Luth., sein

Saame wird ein grosses Wasser werden; Michaelis, Herder,

viele Strome werden ihm Sohne sein; Rosenm., multos

procreabit liberos, etc.): but how could Mybr Mymb vfrzv be

understood and justified? The Sept., the Syriac translation,

and the Targumim render the first half of the verse very

freely, as if following a different reading, and connect it, in

sense, with the second half--Sept., e]celeu

spe kurieuSyr;

Onk., 'the king anointed from his sons shall increase and

have dominion over many nations'; Jonath., from them

their King shall arise, and their Redeemer be of them, and

the seed of the children of Jacob shall rule over many

nations'; while the Targ. Jerus. translates plainly vtvklm by

'the Kingdom of the Messiah,' to which unwarranted con-

ception Christian interpreters have given their assent (comp.

Origen, In Num. Hom. xvii. 5, 6, and others), contending that, as

238 NUMBERS XXIV.3-9
the Hebrews arrived at their full power only by the estab-

lishment of the monarchy, so ‘the monarchy realised its full

destination only by the advent of the Messiah' (Hengstb.,

Bil., 154; Keil, and others); or that this King, 'after having

crushed all enemies, will break his own arrows (ver. 8),

because then all instruments of war shall have become un-

necessary' (Lange, Bibelwerk, ii. 315).--lzanA to run, to flow, a

poetical word occurring elsewhere also in the Pentateuch

(compare Exodus xv. 8, and Deut. xxxii. 2), is occasionally

employed in connection with lF dew (Deut., 1. c.), or is

metaphorically introduced in various ways (Cant. iv. 10;

Isa. xlv. 8, etc.), but usually chosen in reference to Myima,

which is here construed with the singular of the verb, as

elsewhere also (Lev. xi. 34; Num. xx. 2 ; 2 Ki. iii. 9, etc.); a

translation., therefore, like 'rieseln wird er (Israel) vom

Wasser seiner Eimer' (Ewald), is doubtful and needless.--

vyAl;DA his buckets (for vyyAl;DA, as vnABA, Deut. ii. 33, etc., see Grain.,

§ xxx. 5. c) is by many taken as the dual of yliDA (for yliD; Isa.

xl. 15), buckets for drawing water being generally used and

carried in pairs; but it may also be a shortened plural, like

Mynip;xA (Prov. xxv. 11), of Np,xo, and other segolate nouns (see

Gram., § xxiv. 5). The proper meaning of bucket yields here

a suitable sense; it is unnecessary to take the word as clouds,

which, like ‘the bottles (ylbn) of heaven' (comp. Job xxxviii. 37),

pour down the water upon the earth (Ewald), or as boughs,

equivalent to tOy.liDA, Jer. xi. 16, etc. (so Kimchi, vypnf tHtm

Mym vlzy, Ebn Ezra, Bechai, Bunsen, and others).--The result

of Israel's numerous and varied blessings will be that ‘their

king shall be higher than Agag'; the conjunction v;, there-

fore, in MrAyv; denotes the consequence, but the verbs MroyA and

Mym vlzy are simple futures announcing later events, and do not

express a wish (Hengstb., erhabener sei; Knob., Keil, and

others).--It is an unfounded assertion, dating from very early

times and still extensively upheld, that Agag (ggaxE or ggAxE) is no

proi er noun, but was an honorary title (supposed to mean

the fiery, comp. XXX arsit; or the sublime, comp. XXX altitudo)

and belonged t o the kings of the Amalekitees5 generally

(Nachman., ggx xrqn qlmf Mfb jlm lk, and others), as Pharaoh

to the kings of Egypt; or applied to a particular dynasty of

BALAAM'S THIRD SPEECH. 239

the Amalekite kings. The historical Books of the Old

Testament mention only one King Agag, who was defeated

by Saul and killed by Samuel (1 Sam. xv. 8, 9, 20, 32, 33),

and to this Agag and none else can Balaam's prophecy refer

(comp. Bechai in loc., jlm ggx tx wpt xvhv lvxw xvh vklm

qlmf; so Kether Torah, and others). None of the apologetic

devices which, with noteworthy timidity, shrink from admit-

ting the distinct prediction of historical names (as Agag and

Cyrus), is of any avail (see, for instance, Hengstenb., Auth.

d. Pentat, ii. 306-309 Bil., p. 149 comp., however, Men-

dells. in loc.), and least of all is it possible to identify as

with Ogyges, who led a Phoenician colony into Boeotia and

reigned in Thebes, the ‘Ogygian’ town (Michael. in loc.;

Specileg. Geogr., ii. 16, 17, etc.), which opinion has no other

support than the reading gvgm for ggxm found in the Samari-

tan text, and the corresponding version of the Sept. and

Symmachus h} Gw

employed as the type of ;powerful and dangerous kings

(comp. Ezek. xxviii., xxix.). It will merely be necessary to

mention that this improbable explanation has been blended

with the conjecture that ‘his king,’ in this passage, is God

Himself (comp. xxiii. 21), so that the words under discussion

would mean, ‘and Israel's God is higher or mightier than

Ogyges' (Bunsen, Bibelwerk, v. 607)--a sense which not

even the desire of proving a favourite theory ought to have

forced on the context (see supra, p. 47). But the Assyrian

King Assur-bani-pal boldly declared in his deciphered ‘Annals’

(col. vii., lines 9-18) that, 1,635 years before his time, he

had by the gods been proclaimed by name as a future ruler

of Assyria, and appointed to certain holy duties.--The Vulg.

renders, 'tolletur (MroyA) propter Agag rex ejus et auferetur

(xWe.n.ativ; ) regnum illius ' a translation not permitted by the

verbs.—xW.en.ati, future of Hithpael, instead of xW.enit;ti, as

UxW;.n.ayi (Dan. xi. 14), UxK;n.hi (Jer. xxiii. 13) for xW.enat;ti, etc.; see

Gram., § xlvi. 8. b.--The noun tUkl;ma occurs indeed almost

exclusively in the latest Books of the Hebrew Scriptures, as

the Chronicles and Daniel, Ezra and Neherniah, Esther and

Ecclesiastes; but this is no proof that it was never used in

earlier times instead of the more frequent hkAlAm;ma (comp. Ps.

240 NUMBERS' XXIV. 3-9.

xlv. 7; 1 Sam. xx. 31; 1 Ki. ii. 12, etc.); for, in the words

of Horace, 'Multa renascentur qum jam cecidere, cadentque

Quae nunc sunt in honore vocabula, si volet usus.'--However

strong the expressions are, with which here (ver. 8) the

treatment of Israel's vanquished enemies is described, they

do not as has been confidently asserted, imply the abomination

of human sacrifices (Ghillany, Menschenopfer, pp. 770, 771;

see Com. on Lev. i., pp. 410, 411, 415); for lkaxA is simply to

destroy, especially enemies (comp. Jer. x. 25, where UhlukAxE is

joined with Uhlu.kay;; xxx. 16 ;; li. 34; Deut. vii. 16; xxxi. 17;

Isa. ix. 11, etc.), and is, therefore, used not only in connec-

tion with fire, but also the sword, pestilence, and other

agencies of destruction; and Mrg is most probably to crush

or break bones (MreGe being a denominative verb of Mr,G, bone, as

Mc.ef, which is employed in the same sense, is of Mc,f,; comp.

the close parallel in Jer. 1. 17: ‘first the king of Assyria

devoured him—OlkAxE--and last the king of Babylon crushed

his bones'—vmc;fi), and then, in a wider sense, to break into

fragments generally (Ezek. xxiii. 34; Sept., e]kmuliei?, he will

take out the marrow; Vulg., confringent; Luth., zernialmen;

Menahem ben Saruk, hrybw Nvwl, etc.). Less plausibly the verb

Mrg has been understood as gnawing the bones (Gesen., De

Wette, Ewald, and others: Ezek. xxiii. 24 is not conclusive,

and does not counterbalance the clear analogy of MreGe and

Mc.efi; comp. Hace.Pi in Mic. iii. 3; MraGA in Zeph. iii. 3 is to reserve

a bone). ‘Devouring’ the enemies, ‘crushing their bones,’

and, as has before been announced, 'drinking their blood,'

are metaphors the more readily justified by remembering

that they properly describe the prey of the lion introduced

immediately afterwards (ver. 9). As these images are so

systematically adhered to and carried out, it is indeed sur-

prising to find them interrupted by words so heterogeneous

as ChAm;yi vyc.AHiv;, which may either mean ‘and he (Israel) pierces

with his arrows' (CHm used absolutely, as in Deut. xxxii. 39;

Job. v. 18; and the simple noun taken as the instrument

see Gram., § 86. 4); or, ‘he pierces. them with his arrows’

(the objective case omitted, Sept., kai> tai?j boli

katatoceuVulg., et

perforabunt sagittis, sc. ossa; Luth., und mit seines Pfeilen

BALAAM'S THIRD SPEECH. 241
zerschmettern, etc.); or, 'he shatters their arrows' (viz., of

the enemies, with an anallage in the suffix of vyc.AHiv;, instead of

comp. Hos. i. 5); or, 'his arrows pierce' (viz., the

enemies, the plural of the noun in vycHv taken collectively,

comp. ver. 9, jvrb jykrbm, and Gen. xxvii. 29; see Gram.

77.9); or, as has been proposed, 'he shakes his arrows in

blood' (Rashi, Gesen., Luzzatto, and others, after the analogy

of Ps. lxviii. 24, where, however, Iris is added, and where,

moreover, CHAr;Ti is perhaps to be read instead of CHam;Ti). The

first of these interpretations seems to deserve the preference

he causes slaughter by his arrows' (comp. Ps. xviii. 39);

but even this, we confess, appears hardly satisfactory, and

we cannot help suspecting here, as in ver. 4, a corruption of

the text; yet it would be hazardous to propose emendations,

as, for instance, to read, instead of vyc>AHiv;, either vyc.AHav; (Michael.),

explained after the Syriac xcH and his thighs (Syr.Vers., yhvcHv,

and his back), or vycAlAHEva, and his loins (Gesen. Thesaur. p. 783), or

vycAHEmoU (Ewald, Jahrb. viii. 34,' and die so ihn zerschellen, wird

er zerschellen), or vymAqAv;. (Knob.; comp. Deut. xxxiii. 11), none of

which conjectures seems to improve the rhythm or the sense.

For it cannot be denied that the 8th verse in general is con-

structed with an irregularity greatly contrasting with the usual

symmetry of Balaam's oracles (p.178); and it is indeed surpris-

ingto find here thewords' God brought him forth out of Egypt,

he hath the fleetness of the buffalo,' reiterated from xxiii. 22

--a repetition very different in character from another and

intelligible one in this chapter (vers. 3, 4, and 15, 16), and

here almost devoid of force and significance. It seems to

have been. inserted by a later reader, who, after the mention

of Agag, which clearly points to the time of Saul, considered

a statement desirable which should distinctly lead back to the

period of Moses. Thus also the greater grammatical correct-

ness of those words in the passage before us may be accounted

for (OxyciOm; for MxAycOm, p. 206).--Onkelos, evidently anxious to

soften the harshness of the prediction, renders the verse

freely: 'God, who brought them from Egypt, is mighty and

high, and through Him shall Israel use the wealth of the

nations, enjoy the spoils of their kings, and inherit their

lands.'--It has been well observed: 'The image of the lion

242 NUMBERS XXIV. 10-14.

has here (ver. 9) not the same meaning as in xxiii. 24. In

the previous prophecy, the lion goes out for his prey, and

has not yet lain down; in the later speech, appears the

triumphant lion after having couched, and in a majesty

which no one dares any longer to approach' (Lange, Bibel-

werk, ii. 315). The author describes, in clear gradation,

Israel's combats and victories; but while the former extended

through all the earlier epochs of their history, the latter

were at no time so conspicuous--at least not in the manner

here depicted--as in the reign of David.

13. BALAK'S ANGER AND BALAAM'S REPLY. XXIV. 10-14.
10. And Balak's anger was kindled against

Balaam, and he smote his hands together; and

Balak said to Balaam, I called thee to curse my

enemies, and behold, thou hast ever blessed them

these three times. 11. Therefore now, flee thou

to thy place; I thought to honour thee indeed,

but behold, the Lord has kept thee back from

honour. 12. And Balaam said to Balak, Did I

not also speak to thy messengers, whom thou

halt sent to me, saying, 13. If Balak would

give me his house full of silver and gold, I can-

not not go against the command of the Lord, to do

either good or bad of my own mind; but what

the Lord says, that will I speak? 14. And now,

behold, I go to my people; come, I will tell

thee, what this people is destined to do to thy

people in later days.
The tragical development of the story is approaching

its culmination. Rage, vexation, and despair struggle in ,

Balak's heart. Even he is now certain that, after a

threefold blessing has been pronounced upon Israel, he

BALAK'S ANGER AND BALAAM'S REPLY. 243
must no longer hope for a curse from Balaam's mouth.

But against whom does he direct his wrath? Not

against the God of the Hebrews, whose awful power

fills his mind, in spite of himself, with a mysterious

horror, but against the stubborn prophet, whose conduct

he regards with amazement and burning indignation.

Agitated by confusion and perplexity, he hardly knows

how to act. Anger urges him to take revenge upon the

self-willed traitor who so tenaciously and so ardently

sides with rapacious invaders; but he is checked not

only by fear of the God whom that traitor serves, but

by fear of Balaam himself, to whom he had confessed,

‘I know that he whom thou ... cursest is cursed,'^a and

whose ire he is, therefore, reluctant to provoke. As if

anxious to remove all temptation of violence, the conse-

quences of which he instinctively dreads, he bids Balaam

speedily 'escape' to his own home.^b But it is indeed fear

alone by which he is actuated, not reverence. Striking

his hands together in wild excitement, he dismisses the

prophet with a sneering irony against the God whose

heavy hand, he feels, is already upon him: ‘I thought to

honour thee, but behold, the Lord (hvhy) has kept thee

back from honour.' Why need he fear a god--what can

he expect from a god (he recklessly implies to deaden

his agony) who so ill requites his most faithful servants?

Distracted by contradictory feelings inexplicable to him-

self, he can neither reward the seer nor punish him; he

can neither acknowledge nor oppose the God of Israel.

Once more the name of Jahveh has fallen from his lips,

thenceforth for ever to vanish from his horizon. Won-

derful indeed may a narrator's art be called, that draws

the subtlest psychological shades at once so delicately and

so strongly.

But that art is still further manifested in a higher

sphere. The most consummate skill is allied with the
^a xxii. 6. ^b Ver. 11, jl-Hrb.

244 NUMBERS XXIV. 10-14.

greatest depth and power of thought, and while appearing

to sketch the infatuated enterprise of a single monarch

and his inevitable failure, the author really delineates

the great laws and principles that rule the destinies of

the world and all nations. For how does Balaam act

after the taunting provocation of the resentful king?

Does he evince personal irritation or animosity? Does

he even show haste or excitement? Immoveable like

fate itself, he does nothing more than again declare his

dependence on the God of Israel in that emphatic form

which he had employed in his answer to the second royal

embassy, 'If Balak would give me his house full of silver

and gold, I cannot go against the command of the Lord,

to do either good or bad:'^a but with marked significance

he adds that word which is the key-stone of all his

actions and of his whole life, 'of my own mind.’^b

Balaam is the very embodiment of the Divine will, and

Balak, fighting against Balaam, has fought against God.

Therefore, the prophet, in uttering that momentous prin-

ciple, is, by the Divine spirit which rests upon him,^c

impelled to exercise the office of Judge and Avenger.

The king had taken no warning from a first and second

repulse; he dared again and again to storm heaven and

to substitute his own scheme for that of Omnipotence.

It is, therefore, not sufficient that he should merely

be annoyed and mortified by hearing a blessing invoked

upon the people he desires to hear cursed. It is not

sufficient that his punishment should be announced

to him in obscure allusions and faint outlines. By the

eternal plans of Divine justice and government, it has

become necessary not only that his ruin should be

unmistakeably proclaimed, but that he should fall into

the pit he has dug for others. Therefore, Balaam de-

clares, without agitation and without bitterness, that, in

obedience to the king's command, he is ready to return
^a Comp. xxii. 18, p. 117. ^b yBilimi, see supra, pp. 7, 8. ^c Ver. 2.

BALAK’S ANGER AND BALAAM’S REPLY. 245

to his home, but that, before departing, it is his duty to

reveal to the monarch the councils of God^a--to reveal to

him, what ‘the people of Israel is destined to do to his

people in later days.' The retribution is, indeed, not to

be executed upon Balak forthwith, as it was upon the

contumacious king of Egypt, who perished together with

the flower of his armies, but 'in later days,’^b after more

than four centuries; but Balak feels the misfortunes of

his descendants as his own. He must consider them so,

since they are aggravated and partially caused by his

guilt. He is, moreover, the unchanging type of all kings

of Moab, both of those that preceded and those that fol-

lowed him; and there is no glimmer of a hope left, that

the latter would, by greater moderation and righteousness,

and by pious submission to the God. of the Hebrews, de-

serve serve and obtain a reversal of the fated decree.

One of the most interesting points in connection with

the Book of Balaam, is its history in reference to the

powerful influence it exercised upon the later literature

of the Hebrews. We have already dwelt on more than

one adaptation, but none is more instructive than the

echo which the verses under discussion found in the fresh

and original mind of the prophet Amos.^c So essentially