Numbers 24:4

The third saying. - Num 24:1 and Num 24:2. From the two revelations which he had received before, Balaam, saw, i.e., perceived, that it pleased Jehovah to bless Israel. This induced him not to go out for auguries, as on the previous occasions. כּפעם־בּפעם, "as time after time," i.e., as at former times (Num 23:3 and Num 23:15). He therefore turned his face to the desert, i.e., to the steppes of Moab, where Israel was encamped (Num 22:1). And when he lifted up his eyes, "he saw Israel encamping according to its tribes; and the Spirit of God came over him." The impression made upon him by the sight of the tribes of Israel, served as the subjective preparation for the reception of the Spirit of God to inspire him. Of both the earlier utterances it is stated that "Jehovah put a word into his mouth" (Num 23:5 and Num 23:16); but of this third it is affirmed that "the Spirit of God came over him." The former were communicated to him, when he went out for a divine revelation, without his being thrown into an ecstatic state; he heard the voice of God within him telling him what he was to say. But this time, like the prophets in their prophesyings, he was placed by the Spirit of God in a state of ecstatic sight; so that, with his eyes closed as in clairvoyance, he saw the substance of the revelation from God with his inward mental eye, which had been opened by the Spirit of God. Thus not only does he himself describe his own condition in Num 24:3 and Num 24:4, but his description is in harmony with the announcement itself, which is manifestly the result both in form and substance of the intuition effected within him by the Spirit of God.

This chapter continues and concludes the history of the defeat of the counsels of Balak and Balaam against Israel, not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts; and as great an instance it is of God's power over the children of men, and his favour towards his own children, as any of the victories recorded in the book of the wars of the Lord. What preparation was made the third time for the cursing of Israel we read of in the close of the foregoing chapter. In this chapter we are told, I. What the blessing was into which that intended curse was turned (Num 24:1-9). II. How Balak dismissed Balaam from his service thereupon (Num 24:10-13). III. The predictions Balaam left behind him concerning Israel, and some of the neighbouring nations (Num 24:14, etc.).