Numbers 22:3

3 And that the Moabites were in great fear of him, and were not able to sustain his assault,

Numbers 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 ) .

Numbers 22:3 In-Context

1 And they went forward and encamped in the plains of Moab, over against where Jericho is situate beyond the Jordan.

2 And Balac the son of Sephor, seeing all that Israel had done to the Amorrhite,

3 And that the Moabites were in great fear of him, and were not able to sustain his assault,

4 He said to the elders of Madian: So will this people destroy all that dwell in our borders, as the ox is wont to eat the grass to the very roots. Now he was at that time king in Moab.

5 He sent therefore messengers to Balaam the son of Beor, a soothsayer, who dwelt by the river of the land of the children of Ammon, to call him, and to say: Behold a people is come out of Egypt, that hath covered the face of the earth, sitting over against me.