Numbers 23:9 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Numbers 23:9
For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.
the head (as most easily shaken) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
rocks
צֻרִים֙tzu.Rim
H6697
properly · noun, common masculine plural absolute
see
אֶרְאֶ֔נּוּ'er.'E.nu
H7200
to see · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
hills
וּמִגְּבָע֖וֹתu.mi.ge.va.'ot
H1389
a hillock · conjunction + preposition + noun, common feminine plural absolute
behold
אֲשׁוּרֶ֑נּוּ'a.shu.Re.nu
H7789
to spy out · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
people
עָם֙'am
H5971
a people (as a congregated unit) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
dwell
יִשְׁכֹּ֔ןyish.Kon
H7931
to reside or permanently stay (literally or figurativel… · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
alone
לְבָדָ֣דle.va.Dad
H910
separate · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
reckoned
יִתְחַשָּֽׁבyit.cha.Shav
H2803
properly · verb, hithpael imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
nations
וּבַגּוֹיִ֖םu.va.go.Yim
H1471
a foreign nation · conjunction + preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Deuteronomy 33:28 Israel then shall dwell in safety alone: the fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine; also his heavens shall drop down dew.
Deuteronomy 32:8 When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according t…
Exodus 33:16 For wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight? is it not in that thou goest with us? so shall we be…
Ezra 9:2 For they have taken of their daughters for themselves, and for their sons: so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of…
Esther 3:8 And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy ki…
Exodus 19:5-6 Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all…
Jeremiah 46:28 Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, saith the LORD: for I am with thee; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven t…
Amos 9:9 For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least g…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Numbers 23:1-12
Here is, I. Great preparation made for the cursing of Israel. That which was aimed at was to engage the God of Israel to forsake them, and either to be on Moab's side or to stand neuter. O the sottishness of superstition, to imagine that God will be at men's beck! Balaam and Balak think to bribe him with altars and sacrifices, offered without any warrant or institution of his: as if he would eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats. Ridiculous nonsense, to think that these would please God, and gain his favour, when there could be in them no exercise either of faith or obedience! Yet, it should seem, they offered these sacrifices to the God of heaven the supreme Numen - Divinity, a…
from the top--literally, "a bare place" on the rocks, to which Balak had taken him, for it was deemed necessary to see the people who were to be devoted to destruction. But that commanding prospect could contribute nothing to the accomplishment of the king's object, for the destiny of Israel was to be a distinct, peculiar people, separated from the rest of the nations in government, religion, customs, and divine protection (Deu 33:28). So that although I might be able to gratify your wishes against other people, I can do nothing against them (Exo 19:5; Lev 20:24).
John Gill on Numbers 23:9
For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him,.... That is, Israel in their camps; Balaam being at this time on the top of a rock, or on an high hill, from whence he had a view of Israel, encamped in the plains of Moab below him:
lo, the people shall dwell alone; this certainly respects their dwelling in the land of Canaan, where they dwelt a separate people from all others, distinguished by their language, religion, laws, customs, and manner of living, being different both in their clothing, and in their food, from other people; nor had they dealings, nor did they company with those of other nations; see Esther 3:8 "or shall dwell safely" (z), or securely, not so…
And nevertheless, what the reason is that the Lord does not curse Jacob nor Israel, let us hear more carefully from Balaam himself, or rather from the word which God placed in his mouth: "For from the peaks of the mountains," he says, "I shall behold him, and from the hills I shall understand him." Because, he says, Israel is placed upon lofty mountains and high hills, that is, in a lofty and steep life, for beholding and understanding which one does not easily become fit unless he ascends to eminent and lofty knowledge, therefore, he says, God does not curse him; for his life is high and exalted, not lowly and cast down. Yet this does not seem to me to have been said concerning that Israel which is Israel according to the flesh, but concerning that one whose conversation, as he walks upon the earth, is in heaven. Or if these words are to be referred also to that people, he rightly says with a distinction: "I shall behold and I shall understand," so as to signify a future time, that one without doubt when all Israel, coming to the faith of Christ, shall be saved and shall be beheld from the mountains and hills; from those, without doubt, who, rising together with Christ, shall have practiced a lofty and heavenly life upon the earth. But also the fact that he said concerning Jacob "I shall see," but concerning Israel "I shall understand," this too is to be taken with a most apt distinction, so that the one may be referred to visible acts, the other to invisible faith and intelligible knowledge. Or if we turn these things to the future age, that is, to the time of the resurrection, "Jacob I shall see" can be understood as said of the bodies, but "Israel I shall understand" can be understood to signify the spirits and souls of those who rise again. "Behold," he says, "the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations." This can indeed stand also according to the letter; for the people of Jacob alone is not mingled with the rest of men, nor is it reckoned among the other nations: for it had certain fixed privileges in its observances and in its ordinances, by which it was held to be set apart from the other nations. For just as the tribe of Levi is not mingled among the other tribes nor is numbered among them, in this same way all Israel too is neither mixed with the other nations nor reckoned among them. These things indeed will have…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Jews, The · Separated to God — Separated to God
Rocks · Used as: Places of Observation — Used as: Places of Observation
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Calvin on Numbers 23:9
For from the top of the rocks I see him. Unless I am mistaken, the meaning is that, although he only beheld the people from afar, so that he could not accurately perceive their power from so high and distant a spot, still they portended to him something great and formidable. A closer view generally intimidates men; besides, a body of twenty thousand men then dazzles our sight, as if the number were five times as great: whilst the real extent of a thing is also more accurately ascertained. But Balaam declares, in the spirit of prophecy, that he sees far more in the people of God than their distance from him would allow; for, posted as he was on a high eminence, he would have only belleld them…
Balaam's first saying. - Having come back to the burnt-offering, Balaam commenced his utterance before the king and the assembled princes. משׁל, lit., a simile, then a proverb, because the latter consists of comparisons and figures, and lastly a sentence or saying. The application of this term to the announcements made by Balaam (Num 23:7, Num 23:18, Num 24:3, Num 24:15, Num 24:20), whereas it is never used of the prophecies of the true prophets of Jehovah, but only of certain songs and similes inserted in them (cf. Isa 14:4; Eze 17:2; Eze 24:3; Mic 2:4), is to be accounted for not merely from the poetic form of Balaam's utterances, the predominance of poetical imagery, the sustained paralle…
In his first oracle from God (23:5, 16), Balaam rehearsed the circumstances that brought him to Moab, emphasized God’s special relation with Israel, and declared his intention of protecting them from harm. • These poetic oracles illustrate the parallelism of Hebrew poetry. Parallel lines reinforce the content by repeating important concepts in a highly structured pattern. • Aram: Aram-naharaim (Gen 24:10) is another name for North Mesopotamia, where Balaam’s home of Pethor was located (Num 22:5). • The eastern hills are a line of mountains in North Syria.
23:7-8 Instead of cursing Israel, the seer noted their special status (cp. Exod 19:5-6; Deut 7:6-9) and observed that God’s blessing had…
כי מראש צורים אראנו FOR FROM THE TOP OF THE ROCKS I SEE HIM — I look at their origin and at the beginning of their root (descent), and I behold them strongly founded as younder rocks and mountains through their ancestors and ancestresses (Rashi translates thus: For (כי) starting from their very beginning (מראש) I behold them firm as rocks) (Midrash Tanchuma, Balak 12).
הן עם לבדד ישכן LO, THE PEOPLE SHALL DWELL ALONE — This it is what their ancestors have given them as a prerogative: to dwell in the world alone — as is the sense given to the passage by the Targum (“Lo, this people is alone destined to inherit the world").
ובגוים לא יתחשב AND SHALL NOT RECKON ITSELF AMONG THE NATIONS — Unde…
