And the LORD put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, Return unto Balak, and thus thou shalt speak.
Ver. 5. And the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth.] The words thus put into his mouth, do but pass from him; they are not polluted by him, because they are not his! as the trunk through which a man speaks is not more eloquent for the speech uttered through it. Balaam did not "eat" God's word as Jeremiah did, Jer 15:16 nor believe what he had spoken, as David, and after him St Paul did. Psalms 116:10 2Co 4:13 No more did Plato, Seneca, and other heathens, in their divine sentences.