And Balaam—returned to his place— i.e. say some, he set forward for Mesopotamia, after having given the prince that detestable counsel, the issue of which we shall see in the next chapter; but being detained in the country of Midian, he perished, as we read in the 31st chapter. Others think that he returned again from Mesopotamia to Midian; but nothing is more uncertain than this inquiry. It will be of more importance to consider, before we leave the subject, first how Moses obtained this remarkable piece of history; and, secondly, why God chose to employ so wicked a Man 1:1. How came Moses to the knowledge of these transactions? "I answer," says Dr. Jortin, "that as there is no such intimation given, so there is no reason to imagine, that he had his knowledge by revelation: he had it then by information, which he might easily obtain concerning an event, in his own time, and in the neighbourhood. Balaam himself must have related to the Moabites, what befel them on his journey; and when the spirit of the Lord was upon him, and he delivered his prophesies concerning the people of Israel and other nations, the Moabites who stood by took down his discourses; or he himself might afterwards commit them to writing, and so they came into the hands of Moses." Jortin's Dissert. 5: But, though this will very well account for the matter; why may we not also conceive, that the same power, which inspired Balaam involuntarily to deliver these prophesies, revealed them also to Moses, whom we must allow to have been inspired for the writing of these sacred books?—But, 2. Why did God employ a man of so infamous a character?—Most probably, because one of a better would not have answered the end proposed; and such a one's blessing Israel, instead of cursing them, might have been looked upon as the effect of his zeal for that favourite nation of providence, and his hatred for those idolatrous notions and rites of the Moabites and Midianites. Whereas a person of Balaam's unbounded ambition and avarice, and addicted also to the reigning sorceries and inchantments of those times, being forced, against his own inclination and interest, to bless those whom Balak would have bribed him at any rate to curse, could not but convince them, as well as all the rest of his behaviour on this occasion did, that he was driven to it by a superior, or rather an irresistible power; as, on the other hand, had he been less than a real prophet, or had he been, as many learned men have supposed him, only a mere conjurer or enchanter, all that he uttered in favour of the Israelitish people might have been imputed either to his want of skill, to a sudden inward fear of bringing some heavy resentment from them upon his head, or to any other cause, rather than to such a divine and irresistible impulse. See Psalmanazar's Essays. It seems less strange, that God should employ such a man as Balaam, than that Balak should trust so little to his own gods at home, as to send so far as Mesopotamia for a prophet. Certainly Balaam's reputation must have run very high, or there must have been some very peculiar reason for that uncommon method of proceeding. Perhaps they imagined, that the gods of their own country were not able to defend them against the God of Israel, having so lately seen what the Israelites had done to the Amorites their neighbours; or they might fancy that Balaam had an interest with all kinds of gods, and might engage them all to come in to their assistance. Or rather, I incline to think, says Dr. Waterland, that they knew Balaam to be a prophet of the same God whom the Israelites worshipped, and that, therefore, by his means, they hoped to draw off the God of Israel, whom they were so much afraid of, from assisting the Israelites, and to incline him to favour the Moabites and those who were joined with them.
Our notes on these Chapter s have been extended to so great a length, that we cannot subjoin, as we proposed, any practical reflections, The reader will find many such either in Bp. Butler's or Dr. Waterland's Sermons on the subject, or in Dr. Jortin's Diss. 5: to which we refer; concluding with Mr. Saurin,—"Happy is the man whose mind is enlightened by God! but more happy the man whose heart God purifies, and whom he inspires with sentiments of piety; without which the most sublime knowledge will only aggravate the miseries of those who have been so enlightened." Incline my heart, O Lord! unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.