Numbers 23:23 - Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob... — The verse may be rendered as follows: For there is no augury in Jacob, and there is no divina-Hon in Israel. At the (set) time it is told to Jacob and to Israel what God hath done (or, doth). The ordinary meaning of the words nahash (omen, or augury) and kesem (soothsaying, or divination), the use of the same preposition in Numbers 23:21 which is there rendered in, and more especially the second clause of the verse, seem to decide the meaning of the former clause to be as it is here given. The Israelites had no need of augury and divination, seeing that God revealed to them His acts. His counsel, and His will. “What is here affirmed of Israel,” says Hengstenberg, “applies to the Church of all ages, and also to every individual believer. The Church of God knows from His own Word what God does, and what it has to do in consequence. The wisdom of this world resembles augury and divination. The Church of God, which is in possession of His word, has no need of it.” (History of Balaam and his Prophecies, p. 441).