to lift · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
parable
מְשָׁל֖וֹme.sha.Lo
H4912
properly · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
said
וַיֹּאמַ֑רvai.yo.Mar
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Balaam
בִּלְעָם֙bil.'Am
H1109
Bilam · proper noun, a man's name
son
בְּנ֣וֹbe.No
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
Beor
בְעֹ֔רve.'Or
H1160
Beor · proper noun, a man's name
said
נְאֻ֤םne.'Um
H5002
an oracle · noun, common masculine singular construct
man
הַגֶּ֖בֶרha.Ge.ver
H1397
properly · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
eyes
הָעָֽיִןha.'A.yin
H5869
an eye (literally or figuratively) · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
open
שְׁתֻ֥םshe.Tum
H8365
to unveil (figuratively) · noun, common masculine singular construct
said
וּנְאֻ֥םu.ne.'Um
H5002
an oracle · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct
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
Numbers 23:7 And he took up his parable, and said, Balak the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram, out of the mountains of the east, saying, Come, curs…
Numbers 24:3-4 And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said:
Numbers 23:18 And he took up his parable, and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear; hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor:
Job 27:1 Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,
Matthew 13:35 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been ke…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Numbers 24:15–end
The office of prophets was both to bless and to prophesy in the name of the Lord. Balaam, as a prophet, per force had blessed Israel; here he foretels future events.
I. His preface is much the same as that, Num 24:3, Num 24:4. He personates a true prophet admirably well, God permitting and directing him to do so, because, whatever he was, the prophecy itself was a true prophecy. He boasts, 1. That his eyes are open (Num 24:15), for prophets were in old time called seers (Sa1 9:9), because they must speak what they had seen, and therefore, before they opened their lips, it was necessary that they should have their eyes open. 2. That he has heard the words of God, which many do that do not hee…
he took his parable--or prophecy, uttered in a poetical style.
John Gill on Numbers 24:15
And he took up his parable, and said,.... In this and the following verse; the same preface, in the same words, is made to his prophecy as before; see Gill on Numbers 24:3, Numbers 24:4; only one clause is added, "and knew the knowledge of the Most High"; that Balaam had some knowledge of God is certain from the names by which he calls him, being such that he made himself known by to the patriarchs, and by which he is frequently called in the sacred writings; but then this knowledge of his was merely notional and speculative, and not spiritual and supernatural, and was such as men may have who are destitute of the grace of God: he was one that professed to know him in words, but in works den…
Balaam the son of Beor hath said. Inasmuch as he was preparing to treat of most important matters, it is not without reason that he renews his preface, in order to obtain more authority for his prophecy: and although it was not without ambition that he proclaimed these magnificent titles, still we cannot doubt but that God would ratify by them what he had determined to deliver through the mouth of the prophet. It was requisite that this worthless man, whose doctrine would otherwise have been contemptible: should be marked out by Divine indications; and thus it was that he assumed a character that he did not possess, and attributed to himself what only belongs to true prophets. I have before…
The Church Fathers
The unholy man does not know the evil he does unless he begins to be punished for the same evils. For Balaam offered counsel against the Israelites and afterwards saw in his punishment what sin he had previously committed. But the elect, who should not sin, are watchful. Their eyes are open before they fall. The eyes of the wicked man are open only after he falls, because after his sin he sees, in his punishment, that he should have avoided the evil he did.
One day we had before us the book of Numbers written by Moses, and [Fabiola] modestly questioned me as to the meaning of the great mass of names there to be found. Why was it, she inquired, that single tribes were differently associated in this passage and in that, how came it to be that the soothsayer Balaam, in prophesying of the future mysteries of Christ, spoke more plainly of him than almost any other prophet? I replied as best I could and tried to satisfy her inquiries.
For the ungodly man knows not the evil things he has done, except when he has already begun to be punished for those same evil deeds. Hence it is said by the Prophet; And the vexation alone shall give understanding to the hearing. For he then 'understands' what he has heard, when he now grieves that he is 'vexed' for the neglect of it. Hence it is said by Balaam concerning himself; the man whose eye is shut hath said: He hath said which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, which shall fail, and so his eyes shall be opened. For he gave counsel against the children of Israel, but he saw afterwards in punishment what it was he had been guilty of before in sin. Now the Elect, forasmuch as they see beforehand so that they should not sin, the eyes of these surely are open before their fall. But the wicked man opens his eyes after his fall, because after his sin he now in his own punishment sees that he ought to have avoided that ill which he did.
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
Beor — A torch. (1.) The father of Bela, one of the kings of Edom (Gen. 36:32). (2.) The father of Balaam (Num. 22:5; 24:3, 15; 31:8). In 2 Pet. 2:15 he is called Bosor.
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).
Balaam's fourth and last prophecy is distinguished from the previous ones by the fact that, according to the announcement in Num 24:14, it is occupied exclusively with the future, and foretells the victorious supremacy of Israel over all its foes, and the destruction of all the powers of the world. This prophecy is divided into four different prophecies by the fourfold repetition of the words, "he took up his parable" (Num 24:15, Num 24:20, Num 24:21, and Num 24:23). The first of these refers to the two nations that were related to Israel, viz., Edom and Moab (Num 24:17-19); the second to Amalek, the arch-enemy of Israel (Num 24:20); the third to the Kenites, who were allied to Israel (Num 2…
This prophecy provides more specific details than the first three. Based on another vision from the Almighty (24:16), it lists some of the enemies that Israel would defeat in the future and predicts the emergence of an outstanding leader who would play a major role in these military victories (24:17).
Rashi on Numbers 24:14
הולך לעמי [AND NOW, BEHOLD, I] GO TO MY PEOPLE — “From now on, behold, I am like the rest of my people”. He said this because he knew that the Holy One, blessed be He, had departed from him.
לך איעצך COME AND I WILL COUNSEL THEE what you have to do. And what is the counsel? The God of these people hates unchastity, therefore tempt them to sin by means of thy women-folk, as is related in the chapter חלק (Sanhedrin 106a) — You can know that it was Balaam who gave this counsel, to make them fall by the sin of unchastity, for it is stated, of the women of Midian (Numbers 31:16), “Behold, these were an enticement to the children of Israel through the word of Balaam”.
אשר יעשה העם הזה לעמך WHAT…
