He sent messengers therefore unto Balaam the son of Beor to Pethor, which is by the river of the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying, Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt: behold, they cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against me:
He sent messengers therefore unto Balaam the son of Beor. х Bil`aam (H1109) is a name compounded, according to Gesenius of bal (H1077) and `aam (H5971), not of the people - i:e., a foreigner; according to Hengstenberg, who follows Simonis' 'Onomast.,' of baala` (H1104), to swallow up, to devour, and `aam (H5971), the people; and to Furst, who, taking the final letter as added merely for the sake of euphony, considers Balaam as signifying destroyer, vanquisher.] The name might have been given to him at birth, as the descendant of a family tinguished for their skill in magical arts, as in the East conjurors transmit the secret of incantations to their sons for generations; or it might have been bestowed on him, according to Oriental custom, after he had risen to distinction.
"The son of Beor" х ben (H1121) Bª`owr (H1160)]. х bª`owr (H1160), a torch, or lamp, according to Gesenius; But 'destroyer,' to Henstenberg, after Simonis from baa`aar (H1197), to eat to consume, in allusion to the destructive influence of his maledictions; and Kurtz, who adopts this view, thinks that it imparts great significance to the common way of designating him "the son of Beor" (or in the Chaldee form, Bosor) (2 Peter 2:15) - i:e., the famous son of a famous father.] Lord Arthur Hervey ('Genealogies,' p. 275), who thinks it highly probable that Balaam, the son of Beor, was contemporary with the first king of Edom, "Bela, the son of Beor," suggests that they must have been near relatives, 'perhaps brothers, if not one and the same individual.'
To Pethor. The Vulgate renders this word 'ariolum, soothsayer.' But a place is evidently meant.
Which is by the river ... of the children of his people. This is a literal rendering of the present Hebrew text; but the description it gives of Balaam's abode is too vague and indefinite to afford any clue toward ascertaining the locality of Pethor. [The Septuagint has Phathoura.] Though in the opinion of the most eminent Biblical geographers this city is unknown, it has long been considered, on the authority of Deuteronomy 23:4, to have been situated in Mesopotamia; and Mr. Birch ('Select Papyri,' 56:, b. 46) has identified it with a town, designated in Assyrian characters Pet. r. t.; which he considers Pethor on the Murnaa = the Euphrates.
Dr. Kennicott mentions that out of fourteen Hebrew MSS. of great authority, he had examined twelve, all of which supplied the final Hebrew letter, nun (n) to `amow (H5971); so that the clause would stand thus-`Pethor, which is near the river of the children of Ammon.' This reading, which is supported by the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Syriac and the Vulgate versions, determines Balaam's place of residence to have been much nearer Moab than is generally imagined; because its site would be among the eastern mountains, whence issues "the river of the children of Ammon" - i:e., either Wady Zerka, or the Moiet-Amman. But as that soothsayer is said (Numbers 23:7) to have come from "Aram," which we have shown (see the notes at Genesis 10:23; Genesis 24:10) to denote the country between the upper Tigris and the Euphrates, we adhere to the old opinion, which, following the Septuagint, takes Aram to be Mesopotamia.
In further support of this view, it may be mentioned that the notion extensively prevailed among the pagan that Mesopotamia was the birthplace of prophets (Cicero, 'De Divinatione,' 11:, 174, 175); and as Balaam, though a bad man, was really a prophet, professedly acknowledging himself a servant of that God who had so remarkably blessed Israel, it was in accordance with this traditional belief that the king of Moab sent to that region to enlist the services of a man whose fame for prophetic gifts had spread far and wide. Osburn ('Monumental History,' vol. 2:, p. 532) states (we quote without endorsing the statement) that a treaty had been secretly formed between Sesostris, the Egyptian monarch, and Moab, to crush Israel, and that the fears of Balak originated in a guilty consciousness that 'Israel had sustained a deep wrong from Moab, and one very likely to bring down terrible national retribution upon the descendants of the perpetrators. We submit there is no extravagance in our conjecture that it was this treaty whereby, as settlers in Egypt, the Israelites were betrayed into bondage for three generations, which constituted the wrong, the consequences of which were dreaded by Balak.'