I shall see him, but not now
Meaning not Israel, for he now saw him encamped, and at no great
distance; but one that should descend from him, a famous and
excellent person, and who is no other than the Messiah, as
appears by what follows; him he should see, not spiritually with
an eye of faith, nor corporeally with his bodily eyes in his
state of incarnation, but at the day of judgment; and now,
indeed, he saw him by a spirit of prophecy:
I shall behold him, but not nigh;
signifying, that the coming of this illustrious Person, who
should smite the borders of Moab, was not near, and therefore
Balak had no reason to indulge any present fears; and that when
he was come either into the world to save men, or to judgment,
Balaam would have no nearness to him, nor interest in him; he
would see him at the last day, but not for himself, as Job says
he should, ( Job
19:25-27 )
there shall come a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall
rise out of
Israel;
which Aben Ezra interprets of David, though he says many
interpret it of the Messiah; and there are some writers, both
Jewish and Christian, that understand it partly of David, and
partly of Christ, and chiefly of him, and of David as a type of
him; the fulfilment of which was only in part in David, but
principally and completely in Christ. Maimonides F3 parts
the prophecy between them: the whole undoubtedly agrees with
Christ, and belongs unto him: the "star" and "sceptre" may be
considered as names and titles of the Messiah; he is called the
"morning star", ( Revelation
22:16 ) for his glory, brightness, and splendour, and for the
light that comes by him, and the influence of his grace, and the
blessings of it on the sons of men; and hence a false Messiah
took the name of Bar Cochab, the son of a star, to answer to this
prophecy; and he may be called a "sceptre", that is, a sceptre
bearer, because of his royalty; he not only has the name of a
king, but has a kingdom, both of nature, providence, and grace,
and rules with a sceptre of grace, mercy, and righteousness; and
as he was to spring from Jacob or Israel, so he did, being a son
of Abraham, a descendant of Jacob, of the tribe of Judah, and
family of David, ( Matthew 1:1 ) (
Romans 1:4 ) (
Romans 9:4
Romans 9:5 ) ,
but I rather think that the star is to be considered as a sign
and circumstance of his coming, and that the words may be
rendered, "when a star steers its course from Jacob", or "unto
Jacob, then a sceptre", or "sceptre bearer",
shall rise out of Israel,
or "rise up unto Israel"; for the particle (m) sometimes signifies "unto"
F4; and that the appearance of a star
in Israel was a sign of the Messiah's coming is certain from (
Matthew 2:1
Matthew 2:2 )
of which the Magi were informed by Zoroastres F5 their
founder, who, being of Jewish extract, had got it from this
prophecy of Balaam; and it is as evident that the Jews expected
the appearance of an extraordinary star at the time of the
Messiah's coming; for so they say more than once, in an ancient
book of theirs F6, that when the
``Messiah shall be revealed, a bright and shining star shall arise in the east;''which expectation must be founded on this prophecy:
and shall smite the corners of Moab;
not only the corners of their houses and cities, but the extreme
parts and borders of the land, even all the sides, and the whole
of it; or the princes and great men of the land, sometimes called
"corners", see ( Zechariah
10:4 ) and so the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan,
and shall kill the princes of Moab
or the mighty ones of Moab, as the Jerusalem Targum; this was
literally fulfilled in David, ( 2 Samuel 8:2
) ( Psalms
60:1-12 ) and figuratively and mystically in Christ, by
subduing his enemies, signified by Moabites, as being the enemies
of Israel; either by reducing them through the power of his grace
to obedience to him, or by smiting and breaking them in pieces
with a rod of iron; and which will be more plainly and fully
accomplished when he shall destroy those Moabites, the
antichristian nations, ( Revelation
19:15-21 )
and destroy all the children of Sheth;
some take Sheth to be the name of some famous king among the
Moabites, as Grotius; others, the name of some city of Moab,
which David utterly destroyed, as R. Nathan F7; others
suppose some particular nations are meant, as either the
Edomites, so called because they put confidence in their
foundations, and fortified places, so Vitringa F8; or the
Egyptians, from Seth or Sethos, one of their kings, who was known
by the name Egyptus, as a late learned writer F9 of ours
conjectures; but rather by the children of Seth are meant all
nations, as Jarchi observes, for all come from Seth, the son of
the first man; and so the words may be rendered, as they are by
Onkelos,
``he shall rule over all the children of men;''which will be fulfilled in Christ, when he shall have put down all rule and authority, and all will be subject to him, and his kingdom be from sea to sea, and his dominion from the river to the ends of the earth; unless rather by the children of Seth are meant the special people of God, in distinction from others, and in allusion to the distinction between the Sethites and Cainites, the one being the people of God, the other not; and so it may be interpreted of Christ's gathering them to him, by clucking as it were for them, as a hen gathers her chickens; so the word is used in Jewish writings, and of God himself; for it is said
F3 Hilchot Melachim, c. 11. sect. 1.
F4 Vid. Nold. Concord. Ebr. part. p.
545.
F5 Abulpharag. Hist. Dynast. p. 54.
F6 Zohar in Exod. fol. 3. 3, 4. & in Numb
fol. 85. 4. & 86. 1.
F7 Apud Lyram in loc.
F8 Comment. in Isa. xxii. 5.
F9 Clayton's Chronology of the Hebrew
Bible p. 445.
F11 T. Bab. Taanith, c. 4. in En Jacob,
par. 1. fol. 143. 4.
F12 Debarim Rabba, fol. 234. 4. Pesikta in
Kettoreth Hassammim in Numb. fol. 27. 3. & 28. 1.
F13 Abarbinel. Mashmiah Jeshuah, fol. 4.
2, 3. Abendana in loc. R. Isaac Chizzuk Emunah, p. 71, 72.