20 Behold, I have received commandment to bless, and he 'hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it.

y c. 22. 12.

z John 10. 28, 29. Rom. 8.38, 39.

between confirming and continuing. Deut. 27: 26, "Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them." Gal. 3: 10, "For it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them." The words convey a universal truth, although it is not improbable that they were spoken with a more specific reference to what the Lord had declared through Balaam in his first promise, and the substance of which is recited in the ensuing verse. The causes which operate to make men fail in accomplishing their intentions or promises can have no place with Jehovah. He is indeed said in Scripture to repent when he withholds his punishments on the repentance of men, or when he revokes the mercies which they have abused. But his purposes are irrevocable by himself, and unalterable by others. Whatever of mercy or of judgment he hath declared to any man or people, neither men nor devils can hinder, for being unchangeable on earth himself, he cannot but be immutably true to his word.

V. 20. I have received (commandment) to bless. The word supplied is evidently required by the sense, and the Hebrew usage furnishes frequent instances of similar omissions, which are easily supplied from the scope of the passage. Thus, 1 Chron. 18: 6, "Then David put in Syria-Damascus," which is expressed in full in the parallel passage, 2 Sam. 8:6, "Then David put garrisons in Syria of Damascus."-T And I cannot reverse it. Or, Heb. "I shall not turn it away, or turn it back." Chald.

"And I shall not turn my blessing from them." Our version, however, conveys the correct sense. Balaam would not reverse the divine decree because he could not; and what he says of himself holds true of all others and in all ages. The divine purposes insure to the members of the true church the performance of the divine promises. Not an iota of all that the Lord hath said shall fail. No power in heaven, earth, or hell, can avail to turn aside the Most High from his fixed purpose of bestowing the blessings of eternal life upon his genuine people. Is. 14: 27, "For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?" How cheering the thought amidst the mutabilities of life -"Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and forever!" How great the consolation to the Lord's followers, that none can reverse what he has said; none turn the blessing into a curse!

V. 21. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel. Heb. âven, iniquity, a term of large import, denoting all the various kinds of sin or iniquity which cause pain, sorrow, and misery, and applied in particular to idolatry, as it is rendered 1 Sam. 15:23, while in Is. 66:3, it is rendered an idol. So also Chald. "I see that there are none who worship idols in the house of Jacob, nor any servants of trouble and vanity in Israel." Vulg. "There is no idol in Jacob, neither is there any image-God to be seen in Israel." When applied thus to idolatry it involves the accessory idea of nothingness and vanity as predicable

b Ex. 29. 45, 46. 33. 16. Ps. 46. 11.

thereof; and when Paul says, 1 Cor. 8: 4, "an idol is nothing in the world," the allusion is undoubtedly to the term âven, vanity, occurring in this and other connections. The Gr. has, "There shall be no calamity in Jacob, nor shall misery be seen in Israel." Some degree of ambiguity will still adhere to the words, preventing us from defining the exact shade of meaning, but from dominant usage in respect to both the original terms for "iniquity" and "perverseness" (âven and âmal) it is evident that the idea of idolatrous worship does enter into their import, although the authority for the present rendering cannot be fairly questioned. The purport, then, of the passage, we take to be, that God had not seen in Israel that degree of iniquity and perverseness which should be a sufficient ground for inflicting upon them a curse, which was Balaam's desire and Balak's design. But as we know the Lord did see, in the literal Israel, the grossest outbreaks of wickedness and rebellion-as he says expressly Ex. 32:9, "I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiff-necked people;" and again, Am. 3:2, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities"-we are naturally prompted to look beyond the representing to the represented body, and recognize the truth of the declaration in its reference to the spiritual instead of the natural Israel. As predicated of his true church in subsequent times, indeed in all times, the Lord may be said not to see iniquity or perverseness in it, because he does not see it to punish it, or to permit it to prevent their salvation. It means that he does not so see their sins as to be provoked

thereby utterly to forsake, curse, and destroy them. In this sense God is said not to see sins, as elsewhere he is said to forget them, Is. 43: 25. Jer. 31: 24; and to cover them, Ps. 32: 1, which keeps them out of sight, and so out of mind; to blot them out, Ps. 51:1, 9; and to cast them behind his back, Is. 38: 17, or into the depth of the sea, Mic. 7: 19. And so parents are sometimes said not to know or not to see those sins in their children which they do not so take notice of as to chastise them. Other interpretations more or less plausible have been proposed by commentators, but we forbear to state them, as the above answers sufficiently the demands of the text, and strikes us as far the most probable.- T The Lord his God is with him. Chald. "The Word of the Lord their God is for their help." These words point directly to the source of their peculiar blessedness. It was from the divine presence dwelling in the midst of them, sustaining and protecting them. This prerogative was a sign of the gracious state of those to whom it pertained, as otherwise the privilege of communion with Him could not have been enjoyed, according to the intimation 1 John 1: 6, 7. So also Ex. 33:3, "For I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiff-necked people, lest I consume thee in the way." The Lord was indeed symbolically and typically with the Israelites in the wilderness and in Canaan, but the fulness of the declaration is to be realized only in that Israel which is after the spirit and not after the flesh. And the shout of a king (is) among them. Heb. "In him," i. e. in Jacob or Israel, spoken of collectively. The original term for "shout" (teruath) is used to denote the

of Egypt

d c. 24. 8.

:

he hath

e Deut. 33. 17. Ps. 92. 10.

alarm-sound made by the silver trumpets described ch. 10:5, 6, on which see Note. It is employed also to denote a shouting of joy and exultation, as when a king or conqueror returns in triumph from war, and his coming is hailed with jubilant acclamations on the part of the people. "When people pass along the road, if they hear a great noise of joy or triumph, they say, 'This is like the shout of a king.' 'What a noise there was in your village last evening! Why, it was like the shout of a king.""-Roberts. It implies, in its ulterior reference, that the Lord's true people should be victorious in their divine Head over all enemies, and that at the last day, "at the voice of the archangel and the trump of God," they should be triumphantly put in possession of their glorious and eternal inheritance.

V. 22. God brought them out of Egypt. Heb. "Is bringing them," implying a continuous act. We learn from ch. 22: 5, that Balak sent word to Balaam, " 'Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt." This would seem to imply that in his view they had come forth from Egypt of their own motion. But Balaam now informs him that such is not the fact; that they were brought out by the hand of God himself, and that he was still bringing them; that he had not relinquished his guiding and guardian care towards them; and consequently that, to endeavor to oppose them, to contend with them, or to visit them with imprecations, would be no less than a foolish fighting with God—a vain conflict of weakness against Omnipotence. Viewed in this light the use of the Participle in the present connection is peculiarly

significant. "The fruitlessness of his undertakings against Israel is here proved to Balak, not from the fact that God had brought them out of Egypt, but that he is bringing them out. The idea is, whoever has God for a leader or companion on his way, the world with all its power can do nothing against him."-Hengstenberg. He hath as

it were the strength of an unicorn. Gr. "The glory of an unicorn." The "he" in this passage we take to refer to Israel, and not to God, although Ains worth recognizes an allusion to both, the Most High as the head of his people possessing this strength in himself, and then imparting it to them, according to the words of the Psalmist, Ps. 68: 35, "The God of Israel is he that giveth strength and power unto his people." For the natural history of the Unicorn, or the animal so denominated, see Bochart, Paxton, Robinson's Calmet, Kitto's Bib. Cyclopædia, Bush's Script. Illustrations, etc., where the subject is fully discussed. This animal, whatever it were, is noted in Scripture mainly for the potency of its horn, wherefore the Psalmist says, "Mine horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn." It thence became an ordinary symbol of strength, and especially of the prowess of a people against their enemies, as in what Moses says of Joseph, Deut. 33: 17, “His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth." In this sense Balaam here speaks of Israel, as also in the parallel passage, ch. 24: 8, "God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the na

tions his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce them through with his arrows." The pertinence of the comparison will be more obvious upon reference to the character which Job, ch. 39: 9-12, gives of this animal, "Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labor to him? Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?" In like manner it is latently implied that as the unicorn spurns the dominion of man, and refuses to be tamed or to be serviceable to him in any way, so Israel should be endowed with strength to vanquish their enemies, while they are vanquished of none, and are subject to none. In this, as in the other parts of the prophecy, that which is spoken of the literal Israel is subordinate to that which is predicated of the spiritual.

V. 23. Surely (there is) no enchantment against Jacob, neither (is there) any divination against Israel. Or, Heb. "For there is no augury in Jacob, nor divination in Israel;" i. e-, none practised. According to this rendering, the present verse assigns a reason for the use of the similitude in the preceding. It is there asserted that God led Israel out of Egypt, and that in consequence they were armed with a power inexhaustible and invincible. How does this appear? The verse before us answers because, or for, Israel is not to resort to the arts of soothsaying and augury in order to acquire a knowledge of the divine will, but God clearly reveals to them, at all times, what he does, and what, accordingly, his people

are to do. This is the construction which Hengstenberg puts upon the passage, and in which, on the whole, we are constrained to concur, although always disposed, when possible, to abide by our present version. That version makes the purport of the language to be, that no such magical arts as Balaam had resorted to would be of any avail against Israel, inasmuch as they were constantly under the powerful protection of heaven, which would be certain to render the machinations of their enemies utterly abortive. This is indeed in itself true, and would make a very appropriate sense if adequately sanctioned by philology. But it is a serious objection to it, (1.) That the original words nahash and gesem do not properly signify witchcraft and enchantment, but augury and divination. (2.) That the Heb. for "against Jacob" and "against Israel" is precisely the same with that rendered in Jacob" and "in Israel," v. 21. The preposition-b, in, occurs in both cases, and although instances may be adduced when it is properly rendered against, yet we can hardly suppose that precisely the same expression in the same context would require to be rendered in any other than the same manner. ancient versions exhibit, as usual in difficult cases, a diversity of rendering. Gr. "For there is no augury used in Jacob, nor divination in Israel." Chald. "For auguries are not acceptable in the house of Jacob, nor does the multitude of the house of Israel will that there should be divinations." Vulg. "There is no soothsaying in Jacob, nor divination in Israel." Syr. "For there is no omen against Jacob, neither divination against Israel." Arab. "Neither is there any augury which shall harm the

The