Numbers 24:20 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

He looked upon Amalek From the top of Pisgah, which was exceeding high, and gave him the prospect of part of all these kingdoms, he turned his eyes from the Moabites more to the south and west, and looked on their neighbours the Amalekites. Amalek was the first of the nations Hebrew, the beginning, or first-fruits, so called, either because they were the first of all the neighbouring nations which were imbodied together in one government, or because they were the first who fought against Israel and were vanquished by them. That victory was an earnest and first-fruit of the large harvest of victories which the Israelites should, in due time, get over all their enemies. “The Amalekites appear to have been a very ancient nation. They are mentioned as early as the wars of Chedorlaomer, (Genesis 14:7,) and therefore must have been a nation before the times of Abraham and Lot, and consequently much older than the Moabites or Edomites, or any of the nations descended from those patriarchs. But though they were the most ancient and powerful of the neighbouring nations, yet, says Balaam, their latter end shall be that they perish for ever Here he confirms what God had before denounced by Moses: see Exodus 17:14. Balaam had before declared that the king of Israel should prevail over the king of Amalek; but here the menace is carried further, and Amalek is consigned to utter destruction. And this sentence was in a great measure executed by Saul, 1 Samuel 15:7; afterward more fully by David, 1 Samuel 27:8-9; and 1 Samuel 30:1. And at last, in the days of Hezekiah, the sons of Simeon smote the rest of the Amalekites that were escaped, and dwelt in their habitations, 1 Chronicles 4:41-43. And where is the name or nation of Amalek subsisting at this day? What history, what tradition of them is remaining anywhere? They are but just enough known and remembered to show that what God hath threatened he hath punctually fulfilled.” How incontrovertible is the argument arising from hence in favour not only of the truth of Balaam's prophecy, but of the assurance which Moses had of its truth, and of the certainty of its accomplishment, inasmuch as he recorded it while Amalek was yet a very powerful nation, and thereby risked on its truth and fulfilment all his credit as an historian and his authority as a lawgiver and messenger of God!