Nombres 22:3

3 Et Moab eut une grande peur de ce peuple, parce qu'il était nombreux; et Moab fut effrayé en face des enfants d'Israël.

Nombres 22:3 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 22:3

And Moab was sore afraid of the people
Lest they should enter into their country and do to them as they had done to Sihon and Og, and their countries; on this account the king of Moab, his nobles, and the people of the land, were in an exceeding great panic, which was a fulfilling of the prophecy of Moses in ( Exodus 15:15 ) :

because they were many
the number of them taken a little after in this place, where they now were, in the plains of Moab, even after 24,000 had died of the plague, was 601,730, ( Numbers 25:9 ) ( 26:51 ) :

and Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel;
though they had no reason for it, had they considered their relation to them, being the descendants of Abraham, the uncle of Lot, whose posterity they were; and that the Israelites had done them service in delivering them from such bad neighbours, who had taken much of their country from them, and were doubtless making continual encroachments on them; and especially had they known the orders the Israelites had from the Lord not to distress them, nor contend with them in battle, ( Deuteronomy 2:9 ) , but this they were ignorant of, and being of a different religion from the Israelites, had them in abhorrence, or loathed them, as the word signifies; though the meaning rather seems to be, that they had a nausea, a loathing in their stomachs, and could not eat their food, because of the dread of the Israelites that was upon them; or they were weary of their lives, as Jarchi interprets it, and as the word is used, ( Genesis 27:46 ) .

Nombres 22:3 In-Context

1 Puis, les enfants d'Israël partirent, et campèrent dans les plaines de Moab, au delà du Jourdain de Jérico.
2 Or Balak, fils de Tsippor, vit tout ce qu'Israël avait fait à l'Amoréen.
3 Et Moab eut une grande peur de ce peuple, parce qu'il était nombreux; et Moab fut effrayé en face des enfants d'Israël.
4 Moab dit donc aux anciens de Madian: Maintenant cette multitude va tout dévorer autour de nous, comme le bœuf broute l'herbe des champs. Or, en ce temps-là, Balak, fils de Tsippor, était roi de Moab.
5 Et il envoya des messagers à Balaam, fils de Béor, à Pethor, située sur le fleuve, au pays des enfants de son peuple, pour l'appeler, en disant: Voici, un peuple est sorti d'Égypte; voici, il couvre la face de la terre, et il s'est établi vis-à-vis de moi.
The Ostervald translation is in the public domain.