Numbers 24:20 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Numbers 24:20
And when he looked on Amalek, he took up his parable, and said, Amalek was the first of the nations; but his latter end shall be that he perish for ever.
to see · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Amalek
עֲמָלֵ֔ק'a.ma.Lek
H6002
Amalek · proper noun, a place name
up
וַיִּשָּׂ֥אvai.yi.Sa'
H5375
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
Amalek
עֲמָלֵ֔ק'a.ma.Lek
H6002
Amalek · proper noun, a place name
first
רֵאשִׁ֤יתre.Shit
H7225
the first · noun, common feminine singular construct
nations
גּוֹיִם֙go.Yim
H1471
a foreign nation · noun, common masculine plural absolute
latter
וְאַחֲרִית֖וֹve.'a.cha.ri.To
H319
the last or end · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
perish
אֹבֵֽד'o.Ved
H8
(concrete) wretched or (abstract) destruction · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
ever
עַדʻad
H5703
properly
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
Exodus 17:14 And the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the rem…
Exodus 17:8 Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim.
Exodus 17:16 For he said, Because the LORD hath sworn that the LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation.
Judges 6:3 And so it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east, even they came up agains…
1 Samuel 14:48 And he gathered an host, and smote the Amalekites, and delivered Israel out of the hands of them that spoiled them.
1 Samuel 15:3-8 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox an…
1 Samuel 27:8-9 And David and his men went up, and invaded the Geshurites, and the Gezrites, and the Amalekites: for those nations were of old the inhabitan…
1 Samuel 30:1 And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and…
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…
Amalek . . . his latter end shall be that he perish for ever--Their territory was seen at the remote extremity of the desert. (See on Exo 17:13; also 1Sa. 15:1-35).
John Gill on Numbers 24:20
And when he looked on Amalek,.... The country of Amalek, which lay to the south of the land of Canaan, Numbers 13:29 and which Balaam had a view of from the mountain of Peor, where he now was:
and he took up his parable, and said; the parable of his prophecy, as the Targum of Jonathan, and pronounced it aloud:
Amalek was the first of the nations; not the first nation in the world, nor the chief and principal for numbers, riches, or strength, but the first that made war with Israel, as all the three Targums paraphrase it, as they did, see Exodus 17:8,
but his latter end shall be that he perish for ever; this was threatened to them by the Lord upon that battle, and is confirmed by this prop…
And when he looked on Amalek. This people had already been destined to destruction by a Divine decree; but what God had before declared, is here again ratified by Moses. Although the vengeance, which God was about to take, lay dormant for many ages, it was at length experimentally proved that God had not threatened in vain. But, whilst it is true that they were destroyed by Saul, still we learn from the history that some still survived, and again inhabited their land. In order, therefore, to arrive at the entire accomplishment of this prophecy, we must come to Christ, whose kingdom is the eternal destruction of all the wicked. Poor and unsatisfactory is the view of some commentators [179] wh…
The Church Fathers
In the book also, which is titled On Numbers, Scripture says: 'The beginning of the nations is Amalek, and his seed shall perish' (Num. XXIV, 20). And indeed, Amalek is not the first of all nations; but because by interpretation Amalek is taken to mean the king of the wicked, and the wicked are the nations: beware lest we should take the prince of this world, who commands the nations doing his will, whose seed shall perish. But his seed are the wicked and the unbelievers, to whom the Lord says: 'You are of your father the devil' (John VIII, 24).
This Amalek, therefore, seeing him, Balaam the son of Beor, a man truly seeing and hearing the words of God, who knows the knowledge of the Most High and sees the visions of God, having taken up his parable as is written in the earlier visions also, says: "The beginning of the nations is Amalek, and their seed shall perish." As for what he says: "The beginning of the nations is Amalek," it is certain that it can in no way be referred to that Amalek who then existed in the flesh, for neither was he first in the antiquity of origin, but it is better referred to the invisible Amalek, who from turning the peoples aside from God and making Gentiles out of the worshipers of God is named Amalek. And therefore he is rightly called the beginning of the nations, as being a certain such adverse power which first gave the beginning for men to become Gentiles, by changing the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man and of birds and of four-footed beasts and of serpents, and by serving the creature rather than the Creator. For just as among the people of God it is written that the beginning is Christ, so on the contrary among the people who turns aside from God and becomes Gentile, the beginning is Amalek. "And their seed shall perish." Their seed is the persuasion and teaching by which they taught men to turn aside from God. This evil seed, then, and this worst teaching shall perish, not they themselves in whom it was sown. For they themselves, when they groan being converted, shall be saved. And see whether such an exposition may not also fittingly stand against those who accuse the God of the law as of harshness and cruelty, in that He pronounces that not only the nation of Amalek but also its seed shall perish; when indeed the nation is referred to the spiritual wickednesses, but its seed is expounded as the teaching of the superstitions of the Gentiles and the worship of idols and every sect which persuades the people to turn aside from God.
Dictionary and topics
Rephidim — Supports, one of the stations of the Israelites, situated in the Wady Feiran, near its junction with the Wady esh-Sheikh. Here no water could be found for the people to drink, and in their impatience…
Amalekites · Prophecies against — Prophecies against
Amalekites, The · Their utter destruction foretold — Their utter destruction foretold
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).
The second saying in this prophecy relates to the Amalekites. Balaam sees them, not with the eyes of his body, but in a state of ecstasy, like the star out of Jacob. "Beginning of the heathen is Amalek, and its end is destruction." Amalek is called the beginning of the nations, not "as belonging to the most distinguished and foremost of the nations in age, power, and celebrity" (Knobel), - for in all these respects this Bedouin tribe, which descended from a grandson of Esau, was surpassed by many other nations, - but as the first heathen nation which opened the conflict of the heathen nations against Israel as the people of God (see at Exo 17:8.). As its beginning had been enmity against Isr…
A star was a symbol for a king (cp. Isa 14:12; Matt 2:1-10), and a scepter was an image of power and majesty (cp. Gen 49:10; Ps 45:6). King David fits the description historically. The Moabites, whose defeat is mentioned in Num 24:17, were among the many peoples conquered during his reign (2 Sam 8:2), though Moab remained a dangerous enemy of Israel after David’s time (cp. 2 Kgs 3:1-27; Isa 15–16; Jer 48). Many interpreters have extended the image beyond David. Christians identify Jesus of Nazareth with a star (cp. Matt 2:2; 2 Pet 1:19; Rev 2:28; 22:16) and a scepter (cp. Heb 1:8). • The people of Sheth were probably the ancient Sutu, though it might refer to Edom/Seir (also conquered by Dav…
וירא את עמלק AND HE SAW AMALEK — i.e. He perceived the retribution destined to befall Amalek.
ראשית גוים עמלק AMALEK WAS THE BEGINNING OF NATIONS — he was the first of them all to war against Israel; thus, too, does Onkelos translate it. ואחריתו BUT HIS LATTER END will be to be destroyed by their hands, as it is said, (Deuteronomy 25:19) “Thou shalt blot out the memory of Amalek”.
This fifth and likewise final vision of Balaam is now to be examined by us, concerning which, just as in the others, let us beseech the Lord that at the end He may not forsake us, so that we may be able to grasp the meaning of this vision too not far from the truth. Its beginning, then, is in these words: "And when Balaam saw Amalek," it says, "taking up his parable, he said: The beginning of the nations is Amalek, and their seed shall perish." It seems necessary to me to search out in the divine Scriptures in what places or at what time the name of Amalek is written, and from what stock that nation descends. For what is sought will be more easily recognized if it is brought forward from the several places that are written about the same matter. Therefore in the reading of Genesis, where five kings assembled to make war upon the four kings who were reigning in Sodom, after some space it is thus reported: "And returning," it says, "they came to the fountain of judgment, this is Kadesh, and they slew all the princes of Amalek and the Amorites, who were dwelling in Hazazon." In these places I first find Amalek named. But perhaps it may be asked whether there are two nations of the same name, since indeed in the catalogue of the sons of Esau and of the leaders who had descended from his stock Amalek is also mentioned. For it is thus written: "Now these are the generations of Esau, the father of Edom, in mount Seir. And these are the names of the sons of Esau: Eliphaz the son of Adah, the wife of Esau, and Raguel the son of Basemath, the wife of Esau. And the sons of Eliphaz were: Teman, Sophar, Gatam, Kenaz. And Timna was the concubine of Eliphaz, the son of Esau, and she bore Amalek to Eliphaz himself; and these are the sons of Adah, the wife of Esau." And after a little: "And these," it says, "are the leaders from the sons of Esau. The sons of Eliphaz, who was the firstborn of Esau: leader Teman, leader Omar, leader Sophar, leader Kenaz, leader Korah, leader Gatam, leader Amalek." This Amalek, therefore, was the son of Eliphaz the firstborn son of Esau, born of a concubine named Timna. But let us return to the first mention of Amalek, where those who returned and came to the fountain of judgment, which is called Kadesh, slay all the princes of Amalek. For Kadesh is interpreted "sanctification" or "holy"; but Amalek is interpreted "one who licks up the people"…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
