Which have forsaken the right way
The right way of the Lord, the way of truth, the Gospel of truth;
or Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life; the true way
to eternal life, and which is the right way to eternal happiness;
the way of life, righteousness, and salvation by Christ, the
Christian faith, and the doctrine of it, which they once
professed, but now relinquished:
and are gone astray;
from the right way, the way of truth and holiness, into the paths
of error and profaneness:
following the way of Balaam [the son] of Bosor;
which Jude calls his error, ( Jude 1:11 ) , and is the
path of covetousness, uncleanness, and idolatry, sins which he
was either guilty of himself, or taught, advised, and seduced
others to; see ( Revelation
2:14 ) . The Vulgate Latin version reads "Balaam [out of]
Bosor", taking "Bosor" for the name of a place, of which "Balaam"
was; but not "Bosor", but "Pethor", was the place of Balaam's
residence, ( Numbers 22:5
) . The Arabic and Ethiopic versions supply, as we do, "the son
of Bosor"; and the Syriac version reads, "the son of Beor", as in
( Numbers
22:5 ) ; for Beor and "Bosor" are the same names; the "sheva"
being pronounced by "o", as it is by "oa" in "Boanerges", and the
"ain" by "s". Moreover, the letters (u) and (e) are
sometimes used for one another, as in (Nau) and (Nae) , (Ura)
and (era) , and so
(e) and (v) , especially in the Chaldean
dialect; and Peter now being at Babylon in Chaldea, see (
1 Peter
5:13 ) ; it is no wonder that he so pronounced.
Who loved the wages of unrighteousness:
which were the rewards of divination, ( Numbers 22:7
) ; which were brought him for his divining or soothsaying, and
may well be called unrighteous wages, since it was for doing
unrighteous things, or things in an unrighteous manner; and these
he loved, desired, and greedily coveted, and fain would he have
taken Balak's gold and silver, and have cursed Israel, but was
restrained by the Lord: he showed a good will to it, in going
along with the messengers, and in building altars, and offering
sacrifice in one place after another, in which there was a great
resemblance between him and the men here spoken of.