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
Alas
א֕וֹי'o
H188
lamentation · interjection
live
יִחְיֶ֖הyich.Yeh
H2421
to live · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
God
אֵֽל'El
H410
strength · noun, common masculine singular absolute
doeth
מִשֻּׂמ֥וֹmi.su.Mo
H7760
to put (used in a great variety of applications · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
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 23:23 Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jac…
2 Kings 5:1 Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the LORD had given del…
Malachi 3:2 But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth? for he is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap:
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…
who shall live when God doeth this!--Few shall escape the desolation that shall send a Nebuchadnezzar to scourge all those regions.
John Gill on Numbers 24:23
And he took up his parable, and said,.... Or delivered another prophecy, having made some little pause:
alas, who shall live when God doeth this? referring not to what goes before, but to what follows; though Jarchi and Aben Ezra think it refers to the Assyria conquering and carrying captive, not only the Kenites, but all the nations of the world, so that there was no living comfortably in it on his account; but this is said after Balaam had taken up his parable again, and so respects what follows, as the destruction of the Persian empire by Alexander, in which Ashur or the Assyrians were included; and the destruction of the Jews by the Romans more especially; which was such as had not been…
Until Asshur shall carry thee away captive. It is a harsh and unnatural construction to apply this to the Kenites; and the majority, indeed, consent that it should be referred to the Israelites; yet they differ as to the meaning of it, for some take it affirmatively, that the Kenites should be wasted, until the Assyrians should conquer the Israelites and carry them away captive; some, however, take it interrogatlvely, [180] as if it were an abrupt exclamation, How long shall Asshur hold thee captive? Thus they conceive the prolonged exile of the people is indicated. Undoubtedly it was the purpose of the Spirit to shew, by way of correction, that their prosperity, which had been previously me…
The Church Fathers
But after these things Balaam concludes the discourse of his prophecy in these words, saying: "And having taken up his parable, he said: Oh, oh, who shall live, when God shall do these things? And he shall come forth out of the hands of the Kittim, and they shall afflict Asshur, and they shall afflict the Hebrews, and they themselves shall likewise perish." That Balaam is said to speak through each detail by way of a parable strikes shame into the reader, lest in these things that are said he should think anything said not as in a parable, but according to the letter. He says, then: "Oh, oh, who shall live, when God shall do these things?" Here he names not this common life, but that life which is according to God, and this is what he says: that, when all these things shall come to pass, when a star shall arise out of Jacob, and a man shall rise up out of Israel and shall destroy Amalek and shall bring his seed to perdition, that is, when Christ shall come and shall destroy the worship of idols and shall subject the power of all the demons, who shall be so blessed, so happy, as to see these things? that is, who shall perceive and understand and believe that God has done these things thus? "And they shall come forth out of the hands of the Kittim, and they shall afflict the Assyrians." The Kittim are interpreted "the stroke of the end." These, therefore, who, being converted to the Lord and instructed by Christ, escape the stroke which shall come upon the impious at the end of the age, they themselves shall afflict the Assyrians, that is, these, for whom, being set in the contest of piety, God shall crush Satan under their feet, they themselves shall afflict the Assyrians, namely the nation of demons. For they shall tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy, and shall afflict them. "And they shall afflict the Hebrews, and they themselves shall likewise perish." The Hebrews are interpreted "those passing over." This same people, therefore, is also called Hebrew, because it passes over from Egypt to the land of promise, from darkness to light, from death to life. But since these things, as we have said, cannot be obtained without a contest nor without a great struggle, as one set in the contest he now afflicts, now is afflicted, and now smites the adversary, now is himself beaten by the adversary. Therefore the Assyrians themselves…
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
Kenites · 1. A — 1. A
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 fourth saying applies to Asshur, and is introduced by an exclamation of woe: "Woe! who will live, when God sets this! and ships (come) from the side of Chittim, and press Asshur, and press Eber, and he also perishes." The words "Woe, who will live," point to the fearfulness of the following judgment, which went deep to the heart of the seer, because it would fall upon the sons of his own people (see at Num 22:5). The meaning is, "Who will preserve his life in the universal catastrophe that is coming?" (Hengstenberg). משּׂמו, either "since the setting of it," equivalent to "from the time when God sets (determines) this" (ὅταν θῇ ταῦτα ὁ Θεός, quando faciet ista Deus; lxx, Vulg.), o…
The oracle ends with a word about the rise and fall of invaders from Cyprus (Hebrew Kittim; this term probably referred to a number of Mediterranean people groups; cp. Gen 10:4; Jer 2:10; Dan 11:30).
24:23 This verse, like 22:12, sums up the lesson of the entire incident.
Rashi on Numbers 24:23
וישא משלו וגו׳ AND HE TOOK UP HIS PARABLE etc. — Because he mentioned the captivity into Assyria he exclaimed, אוי מי יחיה משמו אל, who is able to save himself alive, so that He who decrees (God) should not place upon him (משמו) these things (אל, the equivalent of אלה) — for Sannacherib, king of Assyria, shall rise up and bring all the nations into confusion. And further, there will come —
