Numbers 24
All the king wanted was one good curse
Attempted curse three continued
1When Balaam realized that blessing Israel made the LORD happy, he didn’t approach the LORD like he had before. He didn’t start looking for signs. [1] Instead, he looked toward the desert plains. 2He could see the sprawling camp of the Israelites, arranged by tribes. God’s Spirit came to him. [2] 3Balaam said:“I am Balaam, son of Beor, and I have something to say.
It’s a message about an eye-opening experience.
And what I’ve seen in visions he gave me,
While bowing low with eyes wide open.
5People of Jacob, the tents of your camp are beautiful,
Israel’s home before my eyes.
6Your rows of tents are like groves of palm trees,
Gardens along the river,
Aloes planted by the LORD himself,
Cedar trees beside the stream.
7Water fills your irrigation buckets.
Your crops have all the water they need.
Your king will become greater than Agag. [3]
8God led you out of Egypt.
He’s your strength, like the horns on a wild bull.
You will destroy your enemies,
Crushing their bones,
And filling their bodies with arrows.
9You crouch, then rest like a lion.
Who would dare stir you?
Happy are those who wish you well.
Damned are those who don’t.”
A slapping angry king
10Enraged, Balak slammed his hands together and said, “I called you here to damn my enemies. Instead, you bless them. Three times, you wished them well. 11Get out of my sight! Go home! I promised to pay you plenty. But the LORD jinxed that for you.” 12Balaam told Balak, “Hey, didn’t I warn your messengers? 13I said I can’t go against what the LORD my God tells me to do, whether it’s to help or to hurt. I couldn’t do that even if a king gave me all the gold and silver in his house. 14Look, I’m going to leave and go home. But before I go, I’m going to tell you what these people are going to do to your people in the coming days.Balaam dooms Israel’s enemies
15“I am Balaam, son of Beor, and I have something to say.
It’s a message about an eye-opening experience.
Insights learned from the Most High [4]
And what I’ve seen in visions from the Almighty,
While bowing low with eyes wide open.
17I see them, not as they are right now.
I see them in the distant future.
I see a star rising from Jacob’s people,
A king emerging in Israel.
They’ll crush heads in Moab. [5]
They’ll defeat the people of pride. [6]
18Edom will be theirs.
Edom and its people will belong to them,
After Israel’s brilliant performance.
19A ruler will emerge from Jacob’s people,
One who will kill survivors lingering in towns.”
20Balaam saw the people of Amalek [7] and said:
“Amalek is one of the greatest nations of all.
But it’s doomed to die forever.” 21Balaam looked at the Kenite [8] people and said:
“You live safe in your homes,
Nesting in those cliffs.
When Assyrians take you captive.” 23Balaam looked up and said:
“Tell me, who can live unless God approves?
will come to the rescue. [9]
They’ll defeat Assyrians and Eber. [10]
But they’ll end up in ruins. 25After this, Balaam stood up and headed back home. Balak went on his way, too.
Footnotes
The direction of a bird flying overhead is something Balaam might have taken as a sign, for example.
Possibly in a trance. Prophets and seers usually seemed to get their inspiration or messages from dreams sometimes called “visions of the night” (Job 33:14). But in daylight, they were often described as a trance (Acts 10:10).
The only Agag identified in the Bible was an Amalekite king 200 years or more in the future. King Saul, Israel’s first king, captured him. The prophet Samuel killed him (1 Samuel 15:33). Many scholars say this shows that the earliest this could have been written was during or after Saul’s reign. Others say this is a prophecy about Saul’s reign.
This is one of the most ancient titles of Israel’s God, in Hebrew: Elyon. This word puts him at the top of the heap of everything that exists. Some scholars say it’s strange to see a pagan seer like Balaam claim to know the mind of God when he couldn’t read the mind of his talking donkey.
Many scholars say this points to King David, who annexed Moab and claimed it as part of his kingdom. Some say what follows is intended to introduce him, in a prophecy, as an emerging and successful leader—the caliber of Egyptian pharaohs. A later king also conquered Moab: Omri, father of the infamous King Ahab, who married Jezebel. Some scholars say they see elements in this prophecy pointing to the Messiah.
The word in Hebrew is set. That could refer to Seth (aka) Sheth, third son of Adam and Eve. Scholars seem to have trouble understanding what that word is doing in this verse. Other scholars suggest taking the word in a different direction. Similar variations of set can produce words such as “tumult” (“sons of tumult,” New King James Version), and “pride.” People of Moab were famous for their pride (Isaiah 16:6; Zephaniah 2:10).
Amalekites were nomadic herders who lived in the desert parts of what is now Israel and Palestinian territories. Israel’s first kings nearly wiped them all out. But they disappeared in the time of King Hezekiah, after soldiers killed all the survivors (1 Chronicles 4:42). The line about Amalek being one of the great nations seems exaggerated, scholars say.
Kenites were friendly toward the Israelites and at least once were opposed to their enemies. One Kenite woman drove a tent peg into the temple of such an enemy (Judges 5:24). Scholars seem mystified about why Kenites would deserve such a bummer of a future.
Some scholars who date these prophecies early say Balaam was talking about the invasion of the Sea Peoples with the Philistines. Some who date the prophecy a little closer to us on the timeline say it’s probably a reference to Alexander the Great and his Greeks, a thousand years later, invading and taking control of the Persian Empire, which included the land once owned by the Assyrians.
Eber is a mystery. We could say more about it, but it would be more than we know.
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