Wherewith shall I come before the Lord
These are not the words of the people of Israel God had a
controversy with, and now made sensible of their sin, and humbled
for it; and willing to appease the Lord, and make it up with him
at any rate; for there are such things proposed by them as do by
no means suit with persons of such a character, nay, even suppose
them to be hypocritical; and much less are they what were put
into their mouths by the prophet to say, as some suggest; but
they are the words of Balak king of Moab, which, and what follow,
are questions he put to Balaam, who had told him that he could do
nothing without the Lord, nor anything contrary to his word: now
he asks what he must do to get the good will of this Lord; in
what manner, and with what he must appear before him, serve and
worship him, as the Targum; that so he might have an interest in
him, and get him to speak a word to Balaam in his favour, and
against Israel; see ( Numbers 22:8
Numbers
22:18 Numbers
22:38 ) ( Numbers
23:12 Numbers
23:15 Numbers
23:26 ) ; [and] bow myself before the high
God?
the most high God, the God of gods, whose Shechinah or Majesty is
in the high heavens, as the Targum: his meaning is, with what he
should come, or bring with him, when he paid his homage and
obeisance to him, by bowing his body or his knee before him;
being willing to do it in the most acceptable manner he could:
shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves
of a year
old?
such as he had been used to offer on the high places of Baal to
that deity. Sacrifices of this kind prevailed among the Heathens,
which they had received by tradition from the times of Adam and
Noah; see ( Numbers
22:41 ) .