Numbers 24:7

7 Water will flow from his buckets, and his seed will be by abundant water. His king will be greater than Agag,[a] [b] and his kingdom will be exalted.

Numbers 24:7 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 24:7

He shall pour the water out of his buckets
That is, God shall plentifully send down rain out of the clouds upon these valleys, gardens, and trees, and make them fruitful; and this may be a figure of the grace of God, with which his churches are watered, and become fruitful by means of the word and ordinances, which is conveyed through them out of the fulness which is in Christ:

and his seed [shall be] in many waters;
the seed and offspring of Israel shall be in a place of many waters, in a land of brooks and waters, shall dwell in a well watered land, the land of Canaan, ( Deuteronomy 8:7 ) or shall be like seed sown near water, or in well watered places, which springs up and brings forth much fruit, see ( Isaiah 32:20 ) or shall become, or be over many waters, to which people, kingdoms, and nations, are sometimes compared; and so may denote the multitude of Israel, and the large extent of their dominions, see ( Revelation 17:1 Revelation 17:15 ) :

and his king shall be higher than Agag;
who might be the then present king of Amalek, reckoned one of the greatest kings on earth; and this name, some think, was common to all the kings of Amalek, as Pharaoh to the kings of Egypt; and according to Jarchi and Aben Ezra, this is a prophecy of the first king of Israel, Saul, and of his conquering Agag king of Amalek, for there was one of this name in his time, ( 1 Samuel 15:7 1 Samuel 15:8 ) :

and his kingdom shall be exalted;
that is, the kingdom of the people of Israel, as it was more especially in the days of David and Solomon; and will be abundantly more in the days of the Messiah, when his kingdom shall be from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth, and the kingdoms of this world shall become his, and he shall reign over all the earth; and so the Jerusalem Targum,

``and the kingdom of the King Messiah shall become very great;''

and so other Jewish writers F26 refer this prophecy to the days of the Messiah.


FOOTNOTES:

F26 Pesikta in Ketoreth Hassamim, fol. 27. 2. Vid. Philo. de Praemiis, p. 925. Sept. vers. & Targum Jon. in loc.

Numbers 24:7 In-Context

5 How beautiful are your tents, Jacob, your dwellings, Israel.
6 they stretch out like river valleys, like gardens beside a stream, like aloes the Lord has planted, like cedars beside the water.
7 Water will flow from his buckets, and his seed will be by abundant water. His king will be greater than Agag, and his kingdom will be exalted.
8 God brought him out of Egypt; He is like the horns of a wild ox for them. He will feed on enemy nations and gnaw their bones; he will strike [them] with his arrows.
9 He crouches, he lies down like a lion or a lioness-who dares to rouse him? Those who bless you will be blessed, and those who curse you will be cursed.

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. Sam, LXX, Sym, Theod read Gog
  • [b]. Ex 17:14-16; 1 Sm 15:8-33
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