He sent messengers, therefore, &c.— There is nothing for therefore in the original; and all the sacred historian seems to express is, that after first confederating the Midianites, Balak thought proper, as the next step, to call in the aid of Balaam. As the miracles performed in Egypt were designed to prove the superiority of Jehovah over the false gods of that country; so the present story seems to have been inserted principally to evince the same superiority of Jehovah over the gods of Moab and Midian. For the better elucidation of this extraordinary piece of sacred history, it may be proper, after the example of the excellent Mr. Saurin, to lay down some principles, which will render the following Chapter s much more intelligible. First principle. Though the descendants of Abraham, some ages after that patriarch, formed the only nation which God owned, and to which he committed his oracles; there were other worshippers of the true God throughout the world before the conquest of the promised land. His worship and his knowledge were every where spread, when the division of languages scattered the mad builders of Babel. The Holy Scriptures give us an account of believers, of saints, of prophets: Job and his friends dwelt in Arabia; Jethro and his posterity in the country of Midian; and the sojourning of Abraham in Mesopotamia, the country of Balaam, left marks there of the partisans of truth. Second principle. Religious worship was frequently mixed with superstition and idolatry, even among those who professed to adore the one God of heaven and earth: Laban's Teraphim are a proof. Third principle. This odious mixture did not hinder God from revealing himself to those whose religious worship was thus corrupt. He revealed himself sometimes even to professed idolaters. Abimelech and Nebuchadnezzar are instances. Fourth principle. It was an opinion maintained among the Gentiles, that prophets and diviners were able to send plagues among the people: nor was it without grounds. They had likewise another notion, that before they besieged any town, or fought any battle, they should endeavour to bring over to them the tutelar gods of their enemies. When they had subdued any country, they pretended that the gods, by whom such countries were protected, had forsaken them; an opinion, which seems to have been alluded to, ch. Numbers 14:9. We find likewise, that the heathens were wont to imprecate perdition on the people against whom they waged war. Macrobius has preserved a form of the imprecations that were made use of upon the occasion: "O heavenly father," said the priest, who was destined to that employment; "or if thou chusest rather to be called Jupiter, or if any other appellation be more grateful to thee, I conjure thee to pour upon this army (or this town,) the spirit of terror and trepidation: deprive of their sight all those who shall level their strokes against us, our legions, or troops: spread darkness over our enemies, over their cities, their fields, and their armies; look upon them as accursed: bring them under the most rigorous conditions to which any enemies have been obliged to submit. As for me, I devote them also. And for witnesses of the curse I pour upon them, I have the magistrates, the people, &c." It is to this custom that Virgil alludes, when he says, AEneid, 2: ver. 351.
Excessere omnes, &c.
The passive gods behold the Greeks defile Their temples, and abandon to the spoil Their own abodes. DRYDEN.
See Macrob. Sat. lib. iii. c. 9.
Dr. Jortin has observed, that Christian Rome has kept up this art of religious execration: see a form of it in his 5th Dissertation. Fifth principle. Supernatural gifts in general, and those of prophecy in particular, did indeed enlighten the minds of the prophets; but did not always sanctify their hearts. The hearts of God's people judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire; the prophets divine for money; Micah 3:11 and our Lord shall declare at the great day, to many of those who shall have prophesied in his name, "I never knew you," Matthew 7:22. Sixth principle. The greatest wickedness and human weakness never went so far as to make them pronounce oracles contrary to what was dictated by the Holy Spirit. They were obliged, by an irresistible power, to speak when God would have them, and to say what he put into their mouths. Sometimes they uttered what they would have concealed if they could, or if they had understood the meaning of it. Caiaphas was an enemy to Jesus Christ; yet he pronounced a noble prophecy concerning him, though without knowing it himself. Sometimes the prophets were made to speak by involuntary motions, and in spite of themselves. Jeremiah had resolved not to speak any longer, yet was forced to do so by supernatural motions which the spirit produced in him; see Jeremiah 20:9. Sometimes they fell into ecstacies and trances, during which they uttered involuntary sounds. There is a remarkable passage in Josephus, much to our present purpose, where he makes Balaam speak thus to Balak: "Can you imagine then, that in the business of prophesying it depends upon us to say, or not to say, what we think fit? It is God who makes us speak as he pleases, without any voluntary concurrence on our part. I have not forgotten the request which the Midianites made me; I came with the design of contenting them; and I thought of nothing less than of proclaiming the praises of the Hebrews, or mentioning those favours which God had resolved to heap upon them. But he has been more powerful than I, who was determined to please men against his will: for when he enters into our hearts, he renders himself master thereof, and now, because he has decreed to make this people happy, and to crown them with immortal glory, he has put into my mouth the words I have pronounced;" Antiq. lib. iv. c. 6. We find a similar passage in Philo. Sometimes the representation of a terrible punishment strongly affecting their fancy, has served as a curb or check to the design the prophets might have formed of changing the oracles which God had dictated to them. We have an instance of both sorts of inspiration in the person of Balaam. We find him in these Chapter s terrified by a vision, the bare remembrance whereof was perhaps powerful enough to awe him; and we see him in an ecstacy or trance.
These principles being laid down, we seem to have a sufficient key to penetrate into the meaning of what Moses tells us concerning Balaam. He is called the son of Beor; which Beor is thought to be the same with him who was father to Bela, the first king of Edom, Genesis 36:32; consequently Balaam was brother to Belah, the first king of Edom. The tradition of the Jews in St. Jerome's time was, that Balaam was the descendant of Buz, the son of Nahor, Abraham's brother, Genesis 22:21 and he was the same as Elihu, one of Job's friends, who is called the Buzite, Job 2:6. He dwelt at Pethor, a village of Mesopotamia, which is by the river of the land of the children of his people, i.e. which is near the Euphrates, commonly called the river, Genesis 15:18. Judges 2:15 and must be meant here, as appears from Numbers 23:7 compared with Deuteronomy 23:4. Dr. Waterland renders it, by the river Euphrates, unto the land, &c. and Houbigant, after the Samaritan, by the river in the land of the children of Ammon; see his note. Though living in an idolatrous country, once famous for the abode of Abraham and his family, Balaam had been enlightened with the knowledge of God, was attached to his worship, and honoured with the gift of prophecy; see First Principle. His reputation made Balak call him to his assistance, in order to get him to curse or devote the children of Israel; see Fourth Principle. To invite him in a manner suitable to the dignity, of his character, which was greatly respected in the first ages, he deputed some of the principal lords of his court to him, with some of those of the court of Midian, whose country was threatened with the same dangers as that of the Moabites. Those deputies offered Balaam presents, which was the most effectual way to win his mercenary soul. It was the custom among the Orientals, never to apply to any person of note without a present; and the same custom remains to this very day.