Numbers 22:29 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And Balaam said unto the ass— It is strange, says Mr. Saurin, that Balaam should not shew any kind of surprise when he heard the ass speak like a human creature. Some critics have thought they solved the difficulty, by supposing, that this prophet had embraced the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, which they prove to be very common in the East. See Le Clerc. But could Pythagoras or Plato themselves, who were such great promoters of that doctrine, have heard, without astonishment, an ass speaking like a man? The conciseness of Moses' narration certainly supplies us with a better and more solid answer to this objection. He has, without doubt, omitted some circumstances which would entirely have removed it had they been known. Josephus represents the prophet as greatly astonished at the event, Antiq. lib. iv. c. 6