Numbers 24 Footnotes

24:10-14 Balak is incensed and orders Balaam to return home unrewarded. Balaam retorts that he has only done what he stated was possible from the beginning, that he could only speak what God spoke. He would begin his return but not before uttering several more oracles about the future of Israel and her enemies.

24:15-19 In a visionary encounter similar to that of the third oracle, Balaam utters predictive prophecy about the more distant future of Israel. The parallel references to “star” and “scepter” are symbols of a glorious and powerful kingship that would subdue Israel’s enemies, typified as Moab and Edom. In the early Israelite monarchy David would fulfill this prophecy in defeating and subjugating both Moab and Edom (2Sm 8:1-12). But when later Israelite kings failed to obey God’s instructions and when oppression and exile followed, this passage would be interpreted messianically to refer to a coming glorious King. This is evident in the literature of the Dead Sea Scrolls. This community whose life was dedicated to preparing for the coming messianic kingdom included Nm 24:17 in a collection of verses they considered messianic. The model of the just and righteous king was brought to ultimate fulfillment in Jesus’s establishment of the kingdom of God.