Numbers 23:21 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, &c.— One shall not behold affliction in Jacob, nor see vexation in Israel. Waterland. Houbigant renders this, I shall not see iniquity, &c. The words will certainly bear the interpretation which Dr. Waterland has given them, and which some of the versions countenance. That our translation cannot be right, is evident from the character of the Israelites, prone to all kinds of wickedness, and to idolatry in particular: so that those interpreters who would understand the passage as referring to idolatry cannot be followed. Of this number is the Vulgate, which renders the passage, There is no idol in Jacob, nor is there any image seen in Israel. Le Clerc, with the LXX, and Dr. Waterland, renders it, No one sees trouble in Jacob, nor distress in Israel, i.e. they are and shall be a prosperous and happy people; a sufficient reason for which is assigned in the next clause; namely, that the Lord their God is with them, and the shout of a King is among them: i.e. they are under the special and immediate protection of Jehovah, their peculiar king and governor; in which words we have an immediate reference to the theocracy. The learned Gataker, in his Diatrib. Ang. gives nearly the same interpretation; and so does Dr. Wall, in his notes.