I shall see, or, I have seen, or do see, for the future is oft put for other times or tenses: he speaks of a prophetical sight, like that of Abraham s, who saw Christ's day, 1 Thessalonians 8:56. Him, to wit, the Star and Sceptre, as it here follows, i.e. a great and eminent prince, which was to come out of Israel's loins; either,
1. David, who first did the things here spoken of, 2 Samuel 8:2 Psalms 60:8, Psalms 108:9, and some of the kings of Judah and Israel after him, for it is not necessarily understood of one particular person; or,
2. The Messias, as both Jewish and Christian interpreters expound it, who most eminently and fully performed what is here said, in destroying the enemies of Israel, or of God's church, who are here described under the names of the nearest and fiercest enemies of Israel; which he doth partly by himself, by his word and Spirit, and spiritual plagues; and partly by his ministers, those princes whom he makes nursing fathers to his church, and scourges to his enemies. And to him alone agrees the foregoing verb properly, I shall see him, to wit, in my own person, or with the eyes of my own body, as every eye shall see him, Revelation 1:7, when he comes to judgment. Nor can it seem strange that Balaam should speak of such high and remote things, seeing he foresaw and foretold these things by the revelation of the Spirit of God, by which also he foresaw the great felicity of good men, and the miserable state of bad men, after death and judgment, Numbers 23:10. But not now; not yet, but after many ages. A Star; a title oft given to princes and eminent and illustrious persons, and particularly to the Messias, Revelation 2:28, Revelation 22:16. A Sceptre, i.e. a sceptre-bearer, a king or ruler, even that sceptre mentioned Genesis 49:10. The corners; either,
1. Literally, the borders, which by a synecdoche are oft used in Scripture for the whole country to which they belong, as Exodus 8:2 Psalms 74:7, Psalms 147:14 Jeremiah 15:13, Jeremiah 17:3. Or,
2. Metaphorically, to wit, princes and rulers, who are sometimes compared to corners, as Malachi 10:4, and Christ himself is called a corner-stone, because he unites and supports the building. But I prefer the former sense. Sheth seems to be the name of some then eminent, though now unknown, place or prince in Moab, where there were many princes, as appears from Numbers 23:6 Amos 2:3; there being innumerable instances of such places or persons sometimes famous, but now utterly lost as to all monuments and remembrances of them.