By R. D. C. Robbins, Librarian, Theol. Sem. Andover. [Continued from No. X, p. 378.] The second Prophecy. As soon as Balaam had finished his first message, Balak cried out with astonishment and terror, What hast thou done to me? Instead of cursing Israel, for which I sent for thee, thou hast even pronounced a blessing upon him. This insinuation of Balak, that Balaam had betrayed the trust placed in him, he attempts to disprove by the plea that he acted from constraint: I would gladly have complied with your wishes and cursed this people, but must I not speak what Jehovah putteth into my mouth? This double part which the soothsayer is attempting to play, his apparent readiness to submit to the commands of Jehovah and his wish, at the same time, to minister to the wicked desire of his employer, will ere long bring certain ruin upon him. His determination to obey the letter of the command with the utmost scrupulousness, is of no avail, so long as in inclination he sins against its whole meaning and design. Balak is satisfied that he has the heart of Balaam on his side, and therefore looks about him for expedients to enable the soothsayer to withstand the power of the divinity, and to pour out curses upon his enemies. It does not appear that Balak desired him to act counter to the will of his God, but to bring his will into conformity with his own. This power was supposed to be The Work most used in the preparation of this Article and the preceding one, in No. X., and on which they are to some extent based, is "Die Geschichte Bileams und seine Weissagungen. Erläutert von G. W. Hengstenberg, Dr. u. Prof. d. Theol. zu Berlin." Berlin, 1842. Frequent reference has also been made to "Die Geschichte Bileams," an Article in Tholuck's "Vermischte Schriften," Th. 1. S. 406-432. Several Commentaries upon the passage, such as those of Calvin, Vater, Rosenmueller and Maurer, and Hengstenberg's "Authentie d. Pent." and Herder's "Sp. of Hebr. Poetry," have been occasionally consulted. This question is made by and consequently implies a strong affirmation: I must speak, etc. See Stuart's Transl. of Roediger's Ed, of Gesenius's Hebr. Gr. § 150. I. long to the class of men among whom Balaam was reckoned. The influence of circumstances, such as position and the manner of offering sacrifices, was supposed to avail much with them. The view of the camp of Israel spread out before Balaam, his employer thought, might have given occasion to the blessing. He now, therefore, takes him to a more eastern part of Pisgah, called the watcher's field', where only the extreme part of the Israelitish camp could be seen. Here, as before, altars were constructed and the victims laid in order upon them, and Balaam again uttered the words which Jehovah had committed to him: Verse 18. Stand up, Balak, and hear, Listen to me, son of Zippor. 19. God is not man, that he should lie, Nor a son of man, that he should repent. He blesseth and I cannot avert it. 21. He doth not behold iniquity in Jacob, And the shouting of the king is in his midst. 22. God bringeth them out of Egypt, In fleetness he is like the buffalo; 23. For no incantation availeth against Jacob And no divination against Israel. According to the time is it told to Jacob and Israel What God doeth. 24. Behold, a people riseth up like a lioness, Like a young lion it rouseth itself; It shall not lie down, until it devour the prey, And drink the blood of the slain. Verse 18. Stand up, p. This command did not of course require physical action; for Balak, as appears from verse 17, was already standing by his burnt-offerings. It merely demands his undivided attention to a matter of importance. The same word is requently used in a similar manner, as in Judges 8: 20; and also in the Psalms, with - appended, in making requests of Jehovah. 1 Probably because of the extended eastern view, which rendered, it in times of hostility, a favorable point from which to observe the motions or approach of enemies. 1846.] The Immutability of God. 701 Listen to me,. For the use of with the imperative, making it an urgent request, see p. 371 above, and Stuart's Transl. of Roediger's Gram. § 48. 3. 46. 2. As this appendage to nouns indicates direction to a place, so with verbs it denotes, striving after, or the direction of the will towards the object of any action. The Translators of the Septuagint, the Syriac and Samaritan versions, seem to have derived the word from 3, witness, testimony; and Michaelis changes the reading to, but without ground or reason. with the suffix Pronoun is here nearly synonymous with or by, which are often used with this same verb; compare Ex. 15: 26. Job 34: 2, 16, etc. and see Nordheimer's Hebr. Gram. II. p. 226. Compare also Job 32: 11, where is used after. The meaning is: Listen attentively, so as to understand my meaning.- is from the construct state with appended. This addition of in the construct state is found in prose only in the Pentateuch; and in poetry, with two or three exceptions, only in in which is copied from the Pentateuch; as in Ps. 50: 10-72: 2. 104: 11, 20. Zeph. 2: 14. Isa. 56: 9. This form, as well as that with ", is without doubt the remains of an ancient case-ending, almost obsolete in the time of Moses. In ancient Arabic the three case-endings —,—, and are everywhere used. But in modern Arabic these terminations are almost entirely laid aside as case-endings. The Ethiopic, like the Hebrew (in ), often retains the accusative-ending. See Stuart's Tr. of Roediger's Gram. § 88. = Verse 19. God is not man, a strong and absolute negative particle like the Greek ov, ovx, is frequently used before substantives and adjectives to denote the contrary of their usual meaning; as, no-God an idol. Here it denotes that God is not like, to be compared with man.- means here a man, mortal, in contrast with God, and is synonymous with D, son of man = mortal, in the next stichos. So also in Job. 9: 32 et alibi. The same word is frequently used as a designation of man in contrast with women, beasts, etc. That he should lie, The Hebrew is truly protean in signification. When used with verbs to indicate design or result, that, in order that, it is frequently followed in the first person by the paragogic, and in the second and third, by the apocopate forms of the verb, in those classes of verbs which make use of these forms; but not unusually as here the common form appears. See Gesenius' Thesaurus,, and μáprvs, 1 Sept. évúrical púpruç, Syr. 20, 201, listen to my testimony. Stuart's Roediger, 152 I. 1. (B), (e), and § 126. The primary idea in 1, a softened form for 3, is probably that of cutting, or breaking; hence to break covenant or faith, and in common use in the Piel, to lie, to speak falsehood. The spirit of the passage is well expressed by an old commentator: Jam quum negat Deum mentiri posse, quia non est similis hominibus, species est objurgationis. Quasi diceret, Visne Deum facere mendacem?-That he should repent, . The is used as in the preceding stichos. The root of the verb a, b, seems to mean, like ≤ in Arabic, to pant, to groan, and here in the Hithpael, to grieve for a past action, to change the course of conduct or feeling, to repent. There is an evident reference in this verse to the views which Balak entertained of God. The reproach of Balaam in verse 11, "What hast thou done unto me? To curse my enemies I took thee," etc, in connection with the proposition, to go to another place where he should see but a part of the Israelites, in order if possible to change the curse to a blessing, implies that he believed that the purpose of God might be changed by a fortunate concurrence of circumstances, through the intervention of Balaam. But this verse would seem to be a specific confutation of that idea, and vindication of the Israelitish doctrine of the immutability of God, as exhibited even in the name Jehovah, (see Ex. 3: 13-16,) the self-existent one, consequently the one immutably changeless : παρ ̓ ᾧ οὐκ ἔνι παραλλαγγὴ ἢ τροπῆς ἀποσκίασpa, James 1: 17. How far Balaam was indebted to immediate inspiration for this idea, it cannot be confidently asserted.-There is a plain allusion to this passage in 1 Samuel 15: 29, where Samuel says to Saul: "And also the strength of Israel will not lie nor repent; for he is not a man that he should repent." Hath he promised, etc., EN NID. interrogative here makes the phrase more intensive than a simple affirmation, and indicates the impossibility and absurdity of supposing that God will not do according to what he has said. The question is naturally suggested whether this is to be understood as general or with a specific reference. The latter seems most probable from the use of the praeter tense both in 2 and 7, see Hengst. Gesch. Bil. S. 109. Many have accordingly referred it to the promises made to the patriarchs. So the Targum of Jonathan: Dominus dixit se multiplicaturum populum hunc sicut stellas coelorum, et in haereditatem illis daturum terram Cananaeorum, an fieri potest quod dixit ut non faciat? But it seems rather to have regard to those 1846.] Balaam unable to curse Israel. 703 things spoken by God through Balaam in the previous prophecy, and to declare the impossibility of a change of the blessing there declared, according to Balak's desire and expectation. It is as if Balaam had said: I received from God the blessing that I pronounced, and his character does not permit me now to change it to a curse. This interpretation is confirmed by the following verse which is merely exegetical of this.-The verb in the last clause of the verse, is in the Hiphil form, with the fem. suffix used for the neuter. See Stuart's Hebr. Gr. § 321. 1. According to a very common idiom in Hebrew, the object is not . דִּבֶּר and יַעֲשֶׂה, אָמַר,expressed with the preceding verbs Verse 20. Blessing,, literally, to bless, is the Piel Infinitive, and in the next stichos, praet. 3 pers. sing. of the same conju. gation. The use of the infinitive as a nomen actionis in the Accusative after a verb, is frequent in Hebrew, and gives a life and simplicity to the style, which is exceedingly pleasing; See Stuart's Roediger, 128, I. and Herder's Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, Vol. I. 29 sq. The subject of is Jehovah implied in the preceding verse. The copulative need not here be rendered in English, as frequently where it connects two parallel members of a sentence,—I cannot avert it, . fem. suff. with an epenthetic nun, as in the preceding verse. The word is used in a similar way, meaning hinder or avert, in Isaiah 43: 13. Balaam renounces all ability to do otherwise than he is commanded. The reasoning is Man's word may be false, and he may repent of his most solemn asseverations, but God's declarations are unchanging. He hath pronounced blessings upon this people, and they will be bestowed; it is beyond my power to prevent it. Mark, as quoted by Hengstenberg, says: Nec per temporis progressum, nec per loci mutationem, nec per repetitos conatus tuos quidquam obtinebis a deo, quando hic bona fide praedicta de hoc populo non revocabit unquam, nec in iis praestandis impedietur usque a quoquam, unde certus sis priora dicta mea amplissime fore implenda in Israele.-Declarations similar to the one in this verse are common in later prophecies. Isa. 14: 27 and 45: 23. See Hengst. Gesch. Bil. S. 111. Verse 21. In the preceding verses of this prophecy Balaam's object is to exculpate himself with Balak, by declaring his inability to curse contrary to the commands of an immutable God. With this verse he commences again to bless Israel, and both in matter and manner that which follows, is an expansion of the preceding prophecy. The main difficulty in this verse seems to be, |