As the valleys, &c.— Struck with the beauty and regularity of the Israelitish camp, Balaam elegantly compares them to spacious vallies, stretching out to a great length; and to beautiful gardens laid out along the banks of a river, and adorned with rows of stately trees. "The expression of Balaam," says the celebrated Scheuchzer, "will appear natural to those, who have ever seen a fine extent of country from the top of a mountain. The prophet, from the summit of mount Peor, beheld the whole camp of the Israelites, arranged according to the disposition which had been made of them by the command of God himself, and separated into what might be called streets. He discovered, as in perspective, the tribes in general, and each one in particular, disposed in the most beautiful order; and he very justly compares the spectacle to those rivers which spread themselves through a province, and have gardens upon their banks: a plan not only useful and pleasant, but even sometimes necessary. Hence, it happens, that in the hottest countries of Europe, and even in those which are temperate, we see along the sides of lakes and rivers an agreeable scene of gardens, vineyards, verdant meadows, nay, and often fine houses, which are usually inhabited in the summer-time, in order to the being less incommoded by the heat. In these sweet spots the water continually sprinkles the plants, and you always breathe a refreshing air. If we transport ourselves in idea into the Asiatic regions, we shall see that this situation becomes more necessary, in proportion as we advance towards the equator. The road which Balaam had taken along the Euphrates was, doubtless, one of these fine long chains of gardens, such as that which one sees betwixt Padua and Venice." The expression, as the vallies are they spread forth, may be rendered, as streams of water are they extended. We have before observed, that the original word נחל nachal, is used both for a valley, and a stream; (see chap. Numbers 13:23.) but the context clearly gives the preference to vallies. Houbigant, in order to keep up what he justly calls the correspondence of the sentences, renders it after the Samaritan, Such are the shady vallies; such the gardens by the river side; such the trees, &c. Balaam, says he, compares the camp of Israel to pleasant vallies and delightful groves, an appearance of which the orderly disposition of the tents exhibited.
As the trees of lign-aloes which the Lord hath planted— There were two sorts of aloes; one an odoriferous tree growing in India and Arabia, called by Pliny Ξυλαλοης, the lign, or wood-aloes: this is that which is often joined with myrrh in Scripture; as it was of a fragrant smell, and, as Calmet has observed, frequently used in the East as a perfume. The other is a purgative plant. Parkhurst says, the אהלים ahalim, are trees or plants of the aromatic kind, so called from their wide shadowing branches or leaves for אהל ohel signifies a tent. See Proverbs 7:17. Song of Solomon 4:14. Which the Lord hath planted, means only which grew of themselves; without culture, without art, solo Dei nutu, as Bochart expresses it: so Psalms 104:16. The cedars of Lebanon are said to be planted by God, because they grew there most stately, without the art of man; nullis hominum cogentibus, as Virgil speaks; see Georg. 2: Numbers 24:10. These, in common speech, we call the productions of nature; but what we vulgarly ascribe to nature, the Scripture language, with more truth and propriety, ascribes to God; for the productions of nature are nothing else than the effects of the Divine power and energy, operating either immediately, or by the mediation of inferior agents, in a certain uniform order which he himself has established. With respect to the cedars, every one knows the esteem in which they were held by the ancients, as well for their fragrancy, as on other accounts. Salmasius assures us, that the Greeks always made it a point to burn this wood upon their altars. All these metaphors Balaam makes use of to celebrate the present and future prosperity of the Israelites: a prosperity, the same of which was about to spread itself among all the neighbouring nations, as the perfume of these odoriferous plants is everywhere disseminated by the winds.