Westminster Annotations, Numbers · Chapter 23
CHAP. XXIII.
Vers. 1. SEven altars] He builds altars to consult with God, he should first have consulted with God about the building of his altars.
V. 2. Balak and Balaam] Among the Gentiles Kings ofttimes used to sacrifice, as did the Priests.
offered] It is not said to whom they offered; but it seemeth it was not to Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, Chap. 21. 29. but to the God that spake unto Balaam, ver. 4.
V. 4. met Balaam] In some evident apparition, whereby he might know who it was that spake to him.
I have offered] He would now bribe God with sacrifices, (as the King of Moab would doe him with offers of reward, and worship) to turne the blessing of his people into curses.
V. 5. thus shalt thou speake] As it followeth, vers. 8, &c.
V. 7. of the East] Aram, or Syria: of which name there were divers Countries, but this is that which was called Aram Naharim, or according to the Greekes, Mesopotamia. Joseph. Antiq. lib. 4. cap. 6. Both which words note the situation of it betwixt two rivers, and the rivers are Tigris and Euphrates. This Aram is in situation East-ward from the land of Moab. See Deut. 23. 4. & Isa. 2. 6.
V. 8. How shall I curse] How easie a thing is it to wagge a wicked tongue? yet without Gods leave, neither King nor Prophet can have so much power against his people: How easie is it for him to binde their hands to the peace, who so bindes their tongues to the good behaviour towards them, as to make them fall to blessing, when they would be cursing?
V. 9. dwell alone] They shall have their Religion and Lawes apart, not communicating therein with other Nations, Esther 3. 8.
among the nations] Among the profane or idolatrous Nations; severed from them as Gods peculiar people.
V. 10. dust of Jacob] The infinite multitude of Jacobs or Israels posteritie are as the dust of the earth, Gen 13. 16.
let me die] He would be like the godly in an happy death, but he cared not to be like them in an holy life; but his end is not like to be the same with theirs, unlesse he walke the same way with them, Prov. 11. 7. Numb. 31. 8.
V. 13. but the utmost part] Chap. 22. vers. 41. There are the same words without the word but; The meaning is, that in his former prospect, Cha. 22. he so saw the utmost part, and that he saw on each side, and the middle within; but here he had but a view of a part of the utmost part, and he would have him curse that in the name of the whole.
not see them all] For being so many as to be compared to the dust of the earth, too many for the fourth part of them to be counted, vers. 10. the number might dismay him, therefore he must see but a part, and in that curse the whole.
V. 14. Pisgah] Is a place of height or exaltation, and so is taken for an hill, in generall; yet there was an hill in the Land of Moab called Pisgah in particular, Deut. 3. 27. & Chap. 34. vers. 1.
V. 19. hath he spoken] He hath said I shall not curse, and if he said it, he will make me make good what he hath said; and I cannot say more or lesse in this matter, then he is pleased to put into my mouth, vers. 20.
V. 20. to blesse] The blessing as from Balaam was vaine, because he was a wicked man; but as he was commanded by God to blesse, so it was not vaine, though he were a wicked man.
V. 21. He hath not beheld iniquitie in Jacob, neither hath he seen perversenesse in Israel] The divers readings of these words, and the abuse of them to countenance some new conceipts tending to corruption in Doctrine, and dissolutenesse of life hath made the clearing of them somewhat difficult: If we should take them for the words of Balaam (as a wicked man loving the wages of unrighteousnesse, and desirous to curse where the Lord had blessed) we might passe them over without any great scruple, nor need we be sollicitous to suit them with an Orthodox exposition; But they are generally conceived to be the words, not so much of Balaam, as of the holy Spirit, which overruled the spirit, at least the tongue of the mad Prophet, and made him speake the wisdome of God in a mystery; which some hereticall Novellists would turne to a mystery of iniquitie, supposing the meaning of the words to be; That God saw no sinne at all in Jacob, nor any transgression in Israel. For refutation of which wicked Glosse we are to distinguish of the ambiguities of termes in this Sentence, whereof the parts are, 1. The Persons. 2. That which is attributed to them. 1. For the Persons, they are two, God and Jacob, or Israel. For the first, there is no doubt, but the first word hee referreth to God, called El, vers. 19. & in the 21. verse Jehovah. 2. For the other Person, it is noted by two Titles Jacob and Israel: for the great Patriarch of that Nation had those two names, and in this order, for he was first called Jacob, and afterward Israel, of which names you may read, Gen. 25. 26. & 32. 28. and the reason of them, Gen. 27. 36. & Chap. 32. 28. by both may be understood either the person of Jacob of Israel, or his posteritie; and the posteritie may be conceived under a double distinction, the one as taken totally for the whole body of the people, or particularly for some eminent persons among their Tribes: the other distinction is, that it may be taken subjectively or objectively; subjectively, as supposing Israel to be the subject in whom that evill is inherent; or objectively, that it is object against which that is committed. This for the persons; Now for the attributes they are various according to the difference of the persons to whom they are ascribed; as to God seeing, and that may be interpreted three wayes: 1. For a sensible apprehension; 2. For an intellectuall contemplation; 3. For a morall approbation. Secondly, for that which is attributed to Jacob or Israel, all that is set down under two Titles, iniquitie and perversenesse, of which the Originall words are to be explained, and for them, the former of them rendered Iniquitie is Aven, and Aven signifieth, as Schindler sheweth, Pentaglot. col. 38. First of all, griefe, sorrow, sadnesse, Gen. 35. 18. Secondly, it signifieth strength, Gen. 49. 3. Deut. 21. 17. Thirdly, violent strength, injury, injustice, (which causeth griefe also) and iniquitie, Job 11. 14. Prov. 30. 20. Psal. 5. 5. Fourthly, some take it for some hainous iniquitie for kinde or for degree; in particular, for idolatry, and for an idol in particular, Esa. 66. 3. as our translation hath it, and so the Chaldee renders it, and Schindl. Pentagl. col. 39. but Arias Montanus translates it vanitie, and there may well be a communication of these two, for an idol is nothing in the world, 1 Cor. 8. 4. and so we finde that Bethel when it had been the habitation of the golden Calfe, 1 King. 12. 28, 29, afterwards was called not Bethel, but Beth-aven, that is, the house of vanitie, Hos. 4. 15. the like sense is to be given it upon the same ground, Amos 5. 5. The other word which is here turned perversenesse, is Hbamal or Gbnamal, which signifieth toylesome labour or molestation of the body and minde, both passively, Psal. 25. 18. & 73. 5. and actively, Psal. 94. 20. & 55. 11. & 7. 15. so according to the Greeke version, and the French expresseth it by extortion.
Now out of Application of these distinctions, we shall deduce the Explication of the words, which we will set down; First, by way of Refutation of the false Expositions that are put upon the Text. Secondly, by setting down and asserting the true sense of it.
For the first, we say, that by Jacob or Israel in this place, is not meant the person of Jacob or Israel, the sonne of Isaac the father of the twelve Patriarchs, but the people or nation descending from him.
Secondly, that not some few of the better sort of the people are here meant, who as justified by faith, and walking with God in an holy life might be reputed righteous, as Enoch, Gen. 5. 22. Noah, Gen. 6. 9. Job 1. vers. 1. and Zachary and Elizabeth, Luke 1. but the body of the people, because they were the object both of Balaams sight, and of Balaks spite, whom he desired should be cursed.
Thirdly, it is not said, nor could be said, that these had none iniquitie, nor that they were chargeable with no hainous iniquitie, nor that they were free from idolatry, for they were guiltie of hainous iniquitie, of grosse and brutish and bloody Idolatry. See Act. 7. 42. Exod. 32. 32. Psal. 106. 37.
Fourthly, nor is the meaning that God did not see that evill that was in them, or done by them: for though in a literall and Physicall sense, he doth not see as we doe, because he hath not a body and organs or instruments of sense, as we have, yet he discerneth all things better by his intelligence, then we doe any things that is obvious to all senses, Esa. 38. 17.
Fifthly, nor that God did take no notice of their wickednesse; for he did so, and punished them for it, Deut. 32. 27, 28. & Psal. 78. 60. 61.
Sixthly, nor is it to be thought that God having taken notice of their sinnes and chastised them for them, he forgat what they or himselfe had done: for though forgetfulnesse be sometimes ascribed to God, as Jer. 31. 34. and elsewhere, and it be said of him, that he casteth the sinnes of his servants behind his back, Esa. 38. 17. and into the depth of the Sea, Micah 7. 19. by such expressions we are to understand a gracious forgiving, not an oblivion or forgetting; for if God could be ignorant of any thing, or forget what he hath known, he could not be Omniscient, as he is, knowing all things as he doth, Heb. 4. 13.
Seventhly, there is one interpretation more, which hath a truth in the thing it selfe, viz. that God looking on his chosen through Christ, seeth no more sinne in them then is inherent in him; for they are made the righteousnesse of God in him by imputation, as he was made unrighteous by imputation of their transgressions, 2 Cor. 5. 21. but this though very true in thesi, as to this Text may be impertinent. This for the erroneous Expositions of the words, now for the Orthodox, interpretation of them.
First, Both the Hebrew word Aven, which in our English Translation is rendered iniquitie, and vanitie, and Hbamal, or Gbnamal, which is expressed by Transgression and perversenesse, signifie in their Primitive sense, rather molestation, griese, wrong, violent strength, injury, misery, then sinne; and so they are to be taken in this place.
Secondly, they signifie passively, and so the meaning is not actively that they doe no evill, or wrong, or violence, or molestation to others, but that others shall not doe any thing to them; or that if they doe, God will not so see it as to approve of it, but will shew himselfe in their defence by way of opposition to and punishment of those that doe oppose them to oppresse them, Psal, 105. 14, 15.
Thirdly and lastly, the words may be expounded, either of the time past, present, or to come, as if he said, God neither hath, nor can, nor will give up his people to the wicked will of their enemies, because he loves them, and because should he desert them and give them over to their enemies hands, they would exalt themselves not only above his people, but against himselfe, and would breake out into blasphemous brags of themselves, and reproaches of him, Isa. 36. Exod. 32. 12.
V. 21. the shout] That is, a valorous shout of a puissant King and his people, encouraging each other to the Battell; and victorious shout, as having obtained the victorie in the hattell.
V. 22. an Ʋnicorne] Or, Licorne, as Pliny calleth him, lib. 8. cap. 21. is a very strong beast, Job 39. 10, 11. and armed with a dangerous weapon against any adversary, Deut. 33. 17. There are two kindes of Unicornes, the one is called Rhinoceros, which hath an horne on his nose, Plin. Hist. l. 8. c. 20. the other on his head, Ibid, c. 21,
V. 23. against Jacob] Or. in Israel. None against Israel shall be of force, or take effect to doe the posteritie of Jacob or Israel any hurt; or none in Iacob, or among the posteritie of
Jacob shall either need, or use such unlawfull meanes either of telling, or fore-telling, or of effecting any thing by devillish arts or meanes, as the Gentiles doe, since they shall have God to consult with, and ready both to counsell them in doubtfull cases, and to defend them against all their enemies.
What hath God wrought] Men shall by way of wonder at Gods doing on their behalfe, at this time aske, What hath God wrought?
V. 27. another place] It is an old superstition to ascribe the efficacie of religious services to places, and to thinke that Gods presence or power admits of any locall limitation, so that he is not present, or favourable, or powerfull as well in one place as another.