Numbers 23:27 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

I will bring thee unto another place— As the Syrians imagined that some gods were powerful in the hills, who could do nothing in the plains, 1 Kings 20:23; 1 Kings 20:28 so it seems there was such a conceit at this time in these countries, that some gods had more power on one hill than on another. The idea of local deities was very general. Thus Balak might imagine that his God had hitherto been withheld by the gods of Israel from granting his desire, but might be more powerful in another place. Low as were the conceptions of these idolaters respecting their deities, do we not see the same style prevail in the Romish Church, where much more virtue is attributed to some images of the Blessed Virgin, than to others? for which reason devotees flock in greater numbers to the places where such images are found.