And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said:
Balaam the son of Beor hath said -
`Balaam the son of Beor prophesies, And the man, unclosed of (as to) the eye prophesies: The hearer of the words of God, Who sees a vision of the Almighty, Lying (in sleep), but with eyes unveiled:
How beautiful are thy tents, O Jacob! And thy tabernacles (habitations), O Israel! Like valleys are they extended,
Like gardens along a river, Like lign aloes, which Yahweh planted, Like cedars beside waters. Waters shall flow from his buckets,
And his seed is in many waters, And his king shall be higher than Agag, And his kingdom shall be exalted. God leading him forth from Egypt,
His is like the speed of the reem: He shall devour nations, his enemies, And shall craunch their bones, And shake his arrows (in their blood). He couches, he lies down like a lion. And like a lioness: who shall rouse him Blessed be he who blesseth thee! And cursed be he who curseth thee!'
Balaam the son of Beor hath said, х nª'um (H5002) Bil`aam (H1109)] - the saying (oracle) of Balaam;
i.e., revelation made to Balaam by inspiration, the genitive being, as Gesenius says, to be taken passively (cf. 2 Samuel 23:1; Psalms 36:1; Proverbs 30:1). It is a special term, expressive exclusively of solemn prophetic utterances, and equivalent to "the Word of God," or the formula, "Thus saith the Lord." The speaker prefaces his communication by a description of himself, first telling his name and parentage, and then proceeding to an enumeration of the special qualities that fitted him to be the recipient of the following revelation, which he was the humble medium of communicating.
The man whose eyes are open - i:e., whose mental eyes are opened-from whose limited powers of perception the veil is removed which conceals from mortals the will and the undeveloped purposes of God. This is the view taken by the majority of commentators, and by the Septuagint, ho anthroopos ho aleethinoos horoon. But others, as Hengstenberg ('Balaam,' pp. 447, 448), render thee words, 'the man with closed eyes,' from the verb [saacham, or catam], to stop, to shut (Lamentations 3:9), referring it to the eyes of his body, which are actually shut in sleep, or virtually closed in a trance, the eyes, though open, as well as the other powers of sensation, being suspended; and this interpretation he supports, not only for philological reasons, but for the purpose of avoiding an ungraceful tautology in the next verse.