Nevertheless the LORD thy God would not hearken unto Balaam; but the LORD thy God turned the curse into a blessing unto thee, because the LORD thy God loved thee.
Ver. 5. Nevertheless the Lord, &c., ] q.d., No thanks to the wicked Moabites, that Balaam blasted thee not; as neither to Balaam, whose tongue was merely overruled by the Almighty, and made to bless those whom he would gladly have cursed. And thus still the Lord orders the world's disorders, turning dross into gold by a stupendous alchymy, and directing men's evil actions to a good end. Hence it is that they fulfil - though they intend no such thing, but the satisfying of their own lusts - neither Isa 10:5-7 more nor less than "what the hand and counsel of God hath determined." Acts 4:28 ; Act 13:27 Howbeit the hands that nailed Christ to the cross were "wicked hands." Act 2:23 And Judas the traitor received strangling and shedding of bowels, as a "reward of his iniquity, for being guide to them that took Jesus." Act 1:16-18 It was not without God that the kingdom was rent from Rehoboam, 2Ki 12:19-20 and yet he flatly renounceth it, as well he might, all the evil that was in it. Hos 8:4