The Mystery of Esau and Ephraim

“And now, behold, I go unto my people. Come therefore, and I will warn thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days,” Numbers 24:14; — these Words “in the latter days,” especially in regards to the house of Jacob, are prophecies for our times!

Numbers 23

¹ And Balaam said unto Balak, “Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven oxen and seven rams.” — a plurality of altars was a sign of idolatry; to the number of their gods, perhaps.

² And Balak did as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bullock and a ram.

³ And Balaam said unto Balak, “Stand by thy burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet me, and whatsoever He showeth me I will tell thee.” And he went to a high place. — and I will go; depart from thence, at some little distance, unto some private place;

— presuming the Lord will come to meet him; upon the offering of these sacrifices to him, though he could not be certain; God having shown some displeasure and resentment unto him; and this was also in the daytime, when it was in the night he usually came unto him;

⁴ And God met Balaam; and he said unto Him, “I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered upon every altar a bullock and a ram.” — God met Balaam, not to comply with Balaam’s charms, nor to gratify, but to oppose his wickedness and to fierce him against his own inclination and interest to utter the following words;

⁵ And the Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return unto Balak, and thus thou shalt speak.”

⁶ And he returned unto him, and lo, he stood by his burnt sacrifice, he and all the princes of Moab. — he and all the princes of Moab; not only those that were sent to Balaam, but perhaps all the princes of the kingdom who were got together on this occasion;

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, curse for me Jacob, and come, defy Israel.’ — saying, come, curse me Jacob, and come, defy Israel; he owns that this was Balak’s view in sending for him;

— nor does he deny that be himself came with such an intention, could he be able to execute it; even curse the people of Israel, with the utmost abhorrence and detestation of them, and in the most furious and wrathful manner;

⁸ How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed? Or how shall I defy whom the Lord hath not defied? — Balaam, as a magician, couldn’t distribute blessings and curses according to his own will, but put such constraint upon his God hoping to make Him subservient to his own will;

⁹ For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him; lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations. — the fact that the host of Israel dwelt by themselves in a separate encampment, Balaam discerned a type of the essential separation of Israel from the surrounding nations;

— and shall not be reckoned among the nations; as belonging to them, shall not be despised and reproached for their religion chiefly; nor mix with them; so the Targum of Jerusalem,” they shall not be mixed;” or as Jonathan says, “they shall not be led in the laws of the nations;” and though they are now scattered among the people and nations of the world, yet they should not mixed with them, nor reckoned to be a part of them;

¹⁰ Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!” — Who can count the dust of Jacob? these words point back to the promise made to Abraham: “And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth,” and Balaam knew about this!

— and the number of the fourth part of Israel; one of the four camps of Israel, as the Targum Jonathan says; for this people was divided into four camps, under so many standards, which were those of Judah, Reuben, Ephraim, and Dan: Numbers 2:1;

¹¹ And Balak said unto Balaam, “What hast thou done unto me? I took thee to curse mine enemies, and behold, thou hast blessed them altogether.” — I took thee to curse mine enemies: so he calls the Israelites, though they had never done him any wrong; nor committed any acts of hostility against him, nor showed any intention to commit any; nay, were forbidden by the Lord their God to contend in battle with him and his people;

¹² And he answered and said, “Must I not take heed to speak that which the Lord hath put in my mouth?” — must I not take heed to speak that which the Lord hath put in my mouth? pretending a great regard to the word of God, and to great carefulness to speak it, exactly and punctually as he received it, whereas he was forced to it, and could not do otherwise;

¹³ And Balak said unto him, “Come, I pray thee, with me unto another place from whence thou mayest see them. Thou shalt see but the utmost part of them, and shalt not see them all; and curse them for me from thence.” — the meaning of this verse would seem to be that if Balaam could obtain a full view of the entire army he would not only perceive the ground which existed for Balak’s alarm;

— and curse for me them from thence: that part, hoping that when he had cursed them he would gradually go on till he had cursed them all;

¹⁴ And he brought him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar. — upon the top of Pisgah, north of the former station, and nearer to the Israelite camp; the greater part of which was, however, probably concealed from it by an intervening spur of the hill;

¹⁵ And he said unto Balak, “Stand here by thy burnt offering while I meet the Lord yonder.” — while I meet the Lord yonder; pointing to some place at a little distance, where he expected to meet the Lord, and have some instructions from him, which he seemed confident of, having met with him once already.

¹⁶ And the Lord met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth and said, “Go again unto Balak, and say thus.” — and said, go again unto Balak, and say thus; the words which are expressed in Numbers 23:18.

¹⁷ And when he came to him, behold, he stood by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said unto him, “What hath the Lord spoken?” — and Balak said unto him, what hath the Lord spoken? being in haste to know what it was, whether agreeable or not.

¹⁸ And he took up his parable and said: “Rise up, Balak, and hear; hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor. —and Balaam said to Balak:

¹⁹ God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent. Hath He said, and shall He not do it? Or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?

— that he should repent; men change their minds, and break their words; but God never changes his mind, he doesn’t change his words; thus Balak had no hope of ruining Israel.

²⁰ Behold, I have received commandment to bless; and He hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it. — and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it; God has blessed them, has blessed them in the victories he has given them, and will complete the blessing of them, by bringing them into the land he has given them.

²¹ He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath He seen perverseness in Israel; the Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a King is among them. — He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob; many sins were observed, but no such universal and hopelessness had as yet appeared, to induce God to abandon or destroy them.

²² God brought them out of Egypt; he hath, as it were, the strength of a unicorn. — the strength of an unicorn, but not of a buffalo (Deuteronomy 33:17); the sense is, Israel is not now what he was in Egypt, a poor, weak, dispirited, unarmed people, but high, and strong and invincible, yet not of full strength;

— the strength of a unicorn, that it, a kind of mountain goat, or wild goat, of a very tall size; not quite the strength of a wild bull, or a bison;

²³ Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel. According to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, ‘What hath God wrought!’

— What hath God wrought! that is, how wonderful and glorious are those works which God is now about to do for Israel, by drying up Jordan, by subduing the Canaanites; these things will be matter of discourse and admiration to all ages;

²⁴ Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion; he shall not lie down until he eat of the prey and drink the blood of the slain.”— as a great lion; as a lion rouseth up himself to fight, or to go out to the prey, so shall Israel stir up themselves to warlike attempts against their enemies; but this is a prophecy “shall rise up” for the latter days;

²⁵ And Balak said unto Balaam, “Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.” — the sense is not, that he would not have him curse them, that he could never say, since he had pressed it both before and after this;

— wherefore the words should be rendered, “if in cursing thou dost not curse,” or will not curse, “neither in blessing bless,” or, however, do not bless: if he could not or would not curse Israel, he would be better that he doesn’t bless them on any account;

²⁶ But Balaam answered and said unto Balak, “Told not I thee, saying, ‘All that the Lord speaketh, that I must do’?” — but Balaam answered and said unto Balak, told not I thee; he appeals to him for his honesty, he would be thought to be, both to God and man; he plainly told him what he must expect from him;

— saying, all that the Lord speaketh, that I must do; which was very true, he was obliged to do as he had bid him, and speak what he had said unto him, though it was sore against his will;

²⁷ And Balak said unto Balaam, “Come, I pray thee, I will bring thee unto another place. Perhaps it will please God that thou mayest curse them for me from thence.” — Balak was not deterred, however, from making another attempt: I will bring thee unto another place;

— at first (verse 25) Balak had in his vexation desired to stop the mouth of Balaam, but afterwards he thought it wiser to make yet another attempt to change the mind of God;

²⁸ And Balak brought Balaam unto the top of Peor, that looketh toward Jeshimon. — unto the top of Peo; which was one peak of the northern part of the mountains of Abarim. It was nearer than the other heights for a better view overseeing the camp of the Israelites.

²⁹ And Balaam said unto Balak, “Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks and seven rams.” — build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven bullocks and seven rams; which had been done in two places before, Numbers 23:1

³⁰ And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar. — and Balak did as Balaam had said; though the sacrifices were expensive, he did not grudge them; he spared no cost to gain his point, though he now could have but little hope of it.

Numbers 24

¹ And when Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he went not, as at other times, to seek out enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness. — and when Balsam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel; that it was good in his sight, and was well-pleasing to him, and that it was his determined mind that Israel should be blessed, and not cursed;

— but he set his face towards the wilderness: where the people of Israel lay encamped, not with an intention to bless them, though he saw it pleased the Lord, but to take an opportunity, if he could, without his leave, to curse them; 

² And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel abiding in his tents according to their tribes; and the Spirit of God came upon him. — and he saw Israel abiding in his tents according to their tribes; in that exact order in which they were directed to encamp under four standards, and so many tribes under each standard, Numbers 2:1

— and the Spirit of God came upon him; not as a spirit of sanctification, but as a spirit of prophecy, as the Targums of Jonathan paraphrases it; and so sometimes the Spirit of God in this sense has come upon wicked men, as on Nebuchadnezzar and others;

³ And he took up his parable and said: “Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said, — and he took up his parable; his parable of prophecy, as the Targum says, his prophetic speech, which, with a loud voice, he expressed in the hears of Balak and his nobles;

⁴ he hath said, who heard the words of God, who saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open: — he hath said, which heard the words of God; God speaking to him, which he did several times, and with which he was greatly elated, Numbers 22:9,

⁵ How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel! — how beautiful are thy tents, O Jacob! thy dwellings, O Israel! Like valleys are they spread out, like gardens by the stream, like aloes which God has planted, like cedars by the waters.

⁶ As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river’s side, as the trees of lignaloes which the Lord hath planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters. — as the valleys are they spread forth; long and broad, lying between several mountains, and reaching from hill to hill; so the armies of Israel lay encamped in the plains and villages of Moab, making a very considerable length and breadth;

— and as cedar trees beside the waters; which are tall and high, large and spreading, durable lasting, to which the children of Jacob are compared;

⁷ He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters; and his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted. — the children of Jacob, and they shall inherit the richest blessings; and their kings shall be higher than Agag, the dynastic monarchy of the Amalekite kings;

— the ‘Agag’ in Numbers 24:7 was translated as “Gog” in the Septuagint; thus “Agag” is a dynastic name of the kings of Amalek, a grandson of Esau; just as Pharaoh was used as a dynastic name for the ancient Egyptians, Caesar of Rome; or of more modern times, the Czar of Russia;

There shall come a man out of his seed, and he shall rule over many nations; and the kingdom of Gog shall be exalted, and his kingdom shall be increased. Numbers 24:7 (Septuagint) “Agag” in the Masoretic; throughout history there is no concept of any “kingdom of Gog” but a “kingdom of Agag” could be conceptualized as the kingdom of the Amalekites.

— an important point to be noted: it arose from the Targum, the prophecy of Eldad and Medad (Number 11:27 Jonathan), which says, “a king will arise from the land of Magog, at the end of the days,” refering to endtime “Gog and Magog.” Thus this solidifies that Gog is a dynastic title of a king, a king of the Amalekite vigour in their hatred for Israel.

⁸ God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath, as it were, the strength of a unicorn. He shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones and pierce them through with his arrows. — the strength of a unicorn, that it, a kind of mountain goat, or wild goat; he shall eat up the nations the surrounding enemies: the seven nations of Canaan; but still not quite the strength of a wild bull, or a bison;

⁹ He couched, he lay down as a lion. And as a great lion, who shall stir him up? Blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth thee.” — like a lion; “he will devour nations,” he will devour his enemies, crush their bones, and dash them in pieces: blessed is he that blesseth thee, and cursed is he that curseth the; words taken from Jacob’s blessing in Genesis 49:9.

¹⁰ And Balak’s anger was kindled against Balaam, and he smote his hands together; and Balak said unto Balaam, “I called thee to curse mine enemies, and behold, thou hast altogether blessed them these three times. — and he smote his hands together; as expressive of his indignation, vexation, and disappointment;

— and, behold, thou hast altogether blessed them these three times; done nothing else but bless them with blessing upon blessing, time after time; even everyone of the three times he opened his mouth, as Balak expected, to have cursed them.

¹¹ Therefore now flee thou to thy place. I thought to promote thee unto great honor, but lo, the Lord hath kept thee back from honor.” — therefore now flee thou to thy place; his own country, from whence Balak had sent for him, and he came; make haste away; he speaks as one so provoked that he could not bear him in his presence, and as threatening him if he did not at once get out of his sight;

— but, lo, the Lord hath kept thee back from honour; the Lord thou hast so much talked of, and at whose beck and command thou hast been, and by whom thou hast been checked and controlled, he has hindered thee from riches and honour; see what thou hast got, or rather lost, by hearkening to him.

¹² And Balaam said unto Balak, “Spoke I not also to thy messengers whom thou sentest unto me, saying, — spake I not also to thy messengers which thou sentest unto me: those that came to him a second time; for to the first he said nothing of what is after related, but to the last he did much the same as he had afterwards said to Balak himself;

¹³ ‘If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the Lord to do either good or bad of mine own mind; but what the Lord saith, that will I speak’? — I cannot go beyond the commandment of the Lord, to do either good or bad; for though here it is the “commandment” and there the “word” of the Lord, yet it is the same word in both places in the original text;

¹⁴ And now, behold, I go unto my people. Come therefore, and I will warn thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days.” — this prophecy “in the latter days” not much in the Masoretic, but far more in the Targum, especially in regards to a possible fall of the house of Jacob, are prophecies for our times!

— what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days; not what the Moabites should do to the Israelites now, but what the Israelites should do to the Moabites in future times; not only in the times of David, by whom they were subdued, II Samuel 8:2 but in much later times;

— now this might be said to Balak to make him feel easy, that it would not be until the latter days, many hundreds of years hence, ere the people of Israel would fight with Moab, and subdue it; and therefore he need be under no concern about them, since he would meet with no trouble from them in his time, nor his people for years to come.

— the Targum of Jonathan says with more details:

And now, behold, I return to go to my people. Come, I will give thee counsel: Go, furnish tavern houses, and employ seductive women to sell food and drinks cheaply, and to bring this people together to eat and drink, and commit whoredom with them, that they may deny their God; then in a brief time will they be delivered into thy hand, and many of them will fall. Nevertheless, after this they will still have dominion over thy people at the end of days.

¹⁵ And he took up his parable and said: “Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said, — he took up his parable; a weighty and solemn speech, delivered in figurative and majestic language, is often termed a parable in Scripture;

— Balaam’s fourth and last prophecy under the powerful influence of the Spirit of prophecy, Balaam foretold the future prosperity and extensive dominion of Israel over all its foes, and the destruction of all the powers of the world;

— the first of these refers to the two nations that were related to Israel, namely, Edom and Moab (Numbers 24:17-19); the second to Amalek, the arch-enemy of Israel (Numbers 24:20); the third to the Kenites, who were allied to Israel (Numbers 24:21-22); and the fourth proclaims the overthrow of the great powers of the world (Numbers 24:23-24).

¹⁶ he hath said, who heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the Most High, who saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open: — he knew the knowledge of the Most High; with the addition of these words, it points to the greater importance and the more distinctly predictive character of what follows;

¹⁷ I shall see Him, but not now; I shall behold Him, but not nigh. There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab and destroy all the children of Sheth. — the Targum of Jerusalem is as follows: “A King shall arise out of Jacob, and the Redeemer and Ruler from the house of Israel;”

— all the children of Sheth; the posterity of Cain and Adam’s other sons having all perished in the deluge; that he shall subdue all the sons of Sheth, and the Jerusalem Targum translates it, the sons of the east, or the Targum Jonathan “the armies of Gog” namely, the army from the East of Judea.

¹⁸ And Edom shall be a possession; Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies, and Israel shall do valiantly. — the double conquest of Moab and Edom; as from Amos 9:12 Obadiah 1:18; whom Jacob or Israel, shall subdue and possess all his enemies;

— Israel shall do valiantly; in fighting with and conquering the Edomites or the Idumaeans, or shall get much wealth and riches by the spoil of them; Edom is the name of the people, Seir of the country; as the later had been subjugated by the descendants of Esau;

— in Moses’ days the Israelites were not allowed to fight with the Edomites, even when they refused to allow them to pass peaceably through their territory (Numbers 20:21), but were commanded to leave them in their possessions as a brother nation (Deuteronomy 2:4-5);

— but in prophecy, in the latter days, however, their relation to one another was to be different; because the hostility of Edom, already in existence, grew more and more into obstinate and daring enmity, which broke up all the ties of affection that Israel was to regard as holy, and thus brought about the destruction of the Edomites;

— the fulfilment of this prophecy commenced with the subjugation of the Edomites by David (2 Samuel 8:14; 1 Kings 11:15-16; 1 Chronicles 18:12-13), but it will not be completed till “the end of the latter days,” when all the enemies of the children of Israel, and when the Star out of Jacob, and a Scepter out of Israel, shall rule the world;

¹⁹ Out of Jacob shall come He that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city.” — the “Star” and “Sceptre” of the prophecy, like the “Sceptre” and “Lawgiver” point naturally to an individual rather than to a line of princes;

— and shall destroy him, that remaineth of the city; chief city of Edom, or of any of the cities of it, signifying that there should be none left, Obadiah 1:18, this is also applied to the days of the Messiah;

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.” — and when Balaam looked on Amalek; from the mountain of Peor, on which Balaam stood, he had a view of the country of the Amalekites, which lay to the south of the land of Canaan;

— Amalek was the first of the nations; the ancestor of the Amalekites was Eliphaz, the son of Esau (Genesis 36:12). It has been supposed that the Amalekites separated themselves at a very early period from the rest of the Edomites; also, the Targum says the Amalekites were the first nation to attack Israel when they had come out of Egypt (Exodus 17:8);

²¹ And he looked on the Kenites, and took up his parable and said: “Strong is thy dwelling place, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock. — the Kenites; first mentioned Genesis 15:19 as one of the tribes whose territory was promised to Abraham;

— and said, strong is thy dwelling place, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock, they dwelling in craggy rocky places, where they thought themselves secure and out of danger;

²² Nevertheless the Kenite shall be wasted, until Asshur shall carry thee away captive.” — until Ashur shall carry thee away captive; Tiglathpileser, king of Assyria, when he carried captive the people of Syria, took these with them; the Targum of Jonathan, by Sennacherib, king of Assyria;

²³ And he took up his parable and said: “Alas, who shall live when God doeth this! — and Balaam took up his parable, and said; or delivered another prophecy, having made some little pause;

²⁴ And ships shall come from the coast of Chittim, and shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, and he also shall perish for ever.” — from the coast of Chittim; a place or people, so called from Chittim, the son of Javan, (Genesis 10:4);

— shall afflict Asshur; Asshur signifies the descendants of Asshur, the Assyrians; but their name was of as large extent as their empire, and the Syrians and Assyrians are often confounded together, and mentioned as one people.

²⁵ And Balaam rose up, and went and returned to his place; and Balak also went his way. — Balaam rose up, and went to his place; to which, however, he went only to Midian, where he was slain among the kings of the Midianites, Numbers 31:8.

— and Balak also went his way; to his royal city, court, and family, attended, very probably, by the princes of Moab, who had been with him all this while.

In the further course of the history, we learn that Balaam went to the Midianites, and advised them to seduce the Israelites to unfaithfulness to God, by tempting them to join in the worship of Peor (Numbers 31:16). He was still with them at the time when the Israelites engaged in the war of vengeance against that people, and was slain by the Israelites along with the five princes of Midian (Numbers 31:8; Joshua 13:22).

The prophecies against Edom were indeed taken up again and again by the prophets (eg, Ezekiel, Obadiah), but they were never adequately fulfilled. Later, Jews themselves and some Christian groups came to regard “Edom” as a Scriptural synonym for all who hated and oppressed Israel.

Amalek was very thoroughly overthrown by Saul, acting under the directions of Samuel (1 Samuel 15:7, 8), and never appears to have regained any national existence. Certain bands of Amalekites were smitten by David, and others at a later period in the reign of Hezekiah by the men of Simeon (1 Chronicles 4:39-43).

~ by Japheth on March 16, 2024.

Posted in Books of Moses