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…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Numbers 24:25
Balaam rose up, and went . . . to his place--Mesopotamia, to which, however, he did not return. (See on Num 31:8).
Next: Numbers Chapter 25
John Gill on Numbers 24:25
And Balaam rose up, and went and returned to his place,.... The country from whence he came, that is, he went from Balak, according to his command, in order to return to his own land; for he seems not to have reached it, but stayed by the way among the Moabites and Midianites, and was slain in a battle between Israel and them, Numbers 31:8, or if he did reach Mesopotamia, he returned again, as Chaskuni says; and either before he left Balak, or in his journey homewards, or when he returned, he gave that advice, to seduce the Israelites first to whoredom, and by that to idolatry, the effects of which are observed in the following chapter; see Gill on Numbers 24:14 and Balak also went his way;…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Calvin on Numbers 24:24–end
And ships shall come from the coast of Chittim. It is unquestionable that the word Chittim is sometimes used for the Greeks. Some, indeed, imagine that the Macedonians alone are strictly called by this name; it is, however, plain that it is applied generally to the whole of Greece. But since the countries beyond the sea were not so well known to the Jews as to allow of their distinguishing them, Scripture sometimes transfers this same name to Italy. Without doubt in Daniel, (Daniel 11:30,) "the ships of Chittim" must be taken for those of Italy or Rome; [181] because the angel there predicts that the ships of Chittim would come, which should overcome, and render frustrate the efforts of Anti…
