Numbers 22:33

33 et nisi asina declinasset de via dans locum resistenti te occidissem et illa viveret

Numbers 22:33 Meaning and Commentary

Numbers 22:33

And the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times
The ass saw the angel when Balaam did not, and that was the reason of its turning aside; and it was well for him it did, and therefore he should not have smote it:

unless she had turned from me;
if she had pushed on, endeavouring to make her way:

surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive;
had certainly and only slain him, and not the ass; and from hence the Jewish writers

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 gather, that the ass was now slain, lest it should be said, this is the ass that spoke, and so be made an idol of.

F20 Bemidbar Rabba, sect. 20. fol. 227. 4. Aben Ezra in loc.

Numbers 22:33 In-Context

31 protinus aperuit Dominus oculos Balaam et vidit angelum stantem in via evaginato gladio adoravitque eum pronus in terram

32 cui angelus cur inquit tertio verberas asinam tuam ego veni ut adversarer tibi quia perversa est via tua mihique contraria

33 et nisi asina declinasset de via dans locum resistenti te occidissem et illa viveret

34 dixit Balaam peccavi nesciens quod tu stares contra me et nunc si displicet tibi ut vadam revertar

35 ait angelus vade cum istis et cave ne aliud quam praecepero tibi loquaris ivit igitur cum principibus