or the Ammonites and Moabites, n derived from ; or 'men of might,' n taken as equivalent to nine foundations; or all the strong walls,' ' supposed to be equivalent to j', etc. Some propose to read ny, identical with (comp. Job xli. 16), in the sense of haughtiness or presumption (so Vater, Pentat. iii. 147; Ewald, Gesch. i. 145, and others); but there is, as we have shown, no occasion for abandoning the Masoretic reading. 15. SUPPLEMENTS. XXIV. 18-24. Nothing can be conceived that seems wanting to the absolute completeness or the fullest comprehensiveness of the composition. After blessings had been pronounced upon Israel in threefold gradation, the prophet proposed to reveal how, in due time, God's chastisement would overwhelm the Moabites on account of their malignant hostility to His chosen people. He has not only carried out this object, but, in order to enforce once more Israel's universal power and ascendancy, he has included in his admonition and menace 'all the children of tumult.' What else remained but simply to record that thenceforth the paths of Balaam and Balak were for ever separate— that the one 'returned to his place,' and the other also 'went his way'? Here, if anywhere, it was a sacred duty to obey the command, 'You shall not add to it, nor shall you diminish ought from it,' as else the beautiful harmony of the Book was certain to be destroyed. And yet the strict limits which the author had imposed upon himself, might appear to later readers unsatisfactory and even inexplicable. Scarcely less brilliant or less gratifying to the nation than Saul's and David's victories over Moab, were their triumphs and those of their successors over the Edomites; and the wars against Moab and Edom, c See infra, on vers. 18, 19. a Ver. 14. b Ver. 25. two neighbouring and kindred tribes, are by Hebrew writers constantly and closely coupled. Those, therefore, who, disregarding the art and mastership in the form of the composition, looked upon the Book mainly as a national document, might consider it an unaccountable omission that the annihilation of the powerful Edomites, which was of much greater importance to the Hebrews than that of the Moabites, was not specially proclaimed. They felt, therefore, induced to supply this supposed defect, and added significant words concerning Edom, not as a distinct prophecy, introduced, like the other oracles, by the formula, 'And Balaam took up his parable,' but in direct conjunction with the speech against Moabstrangely forgetful of Balaam's clear announcement to Balak, 'I will tell thee what this people is destined to do to thy people. When thus the unity of the work was once deranged, the way was smoothed for further enlargements. It was considered that the admired and popular work offered a convenient framework for the glorification of Israel as a conquering people in general ; and one by one, such predictions were appended as, by the side of oracles on Moab and Edom, and in the mouth of an earlier prophet, appeared suitable or desirable. The total difference between these additions and Balaam's genuine vaticinations ought to be felt and recognised, it might be thought, even by the common instincts of literary taste and judgment. That difference extends alike to the spirit and the language. Where is, in these supplements, that lucid simplicity a Comp. 1 Sam. xiv. 47; 2 Sam. viii. 12-14; 1 Chron. xviii. 11; Ps. lx. 10; lxxiii. 7; cviii. 10; Isa. xi. 14; Jer. ix. 26; xxv. 21; Ezek. xxv. 8; Dan. xi. 41. We find them also combined in Sennacherib's Inscription on the 'Taylor Cylinder' (col. ii., lines 53, 54): 'Kammuz (Chemosh)-natbi, king of Moab, and : a which is never impaired by profoundness or sublimity? Where is that natural splendour or beauty of imagery, which, in every touch, reveals the genius and the poet? Throughout the four speeches of Balaam there is hardly a single obscurity or real difficulty in the Hebrew expression obscurity and difficulty abound in these last few verses. The former display transparency of plan in the whole and every individual utterance; the latter consist of a disconnected and almost monotonous enumeration of facts scarcely adorned or veiled, and yet so dim and shadowy that they sound like Sibylline mysteries. In the one, we find depth and wealth of the most fruitful ideas; in the others, there is hardly a new idea of moment. From noon-day brightness we pass to indistinct and clouded twilight. And yet even these verses are not without their own interest. Though deficient as efforts of prophecy and poetry, they possess a high value as history. While destroying the picture of Davidic times in its rounded and finished completeness, they expand it to an almost panoramic view comprising eventful centuries; and while they exhibit youth's soaring elevation and aspiring vigour lowered and weakened, they offer in compensation the maturity, though alas! also the bitterness, of manly experience. PHILOLOGICAL REMARKS.-The numerous and singular attempts that have been made to vindicate an organic connection between these verses and the preceding portions, prove sufficiently the hopelessness of the task. Some contend that Balaam's words, 'I will tell thee, what this people is destined to do to thy people' (ver. 14), are intended a potiori, that is, that Balaam indeed restricted his announcement to Moab alone, as the people of the greatest immediate importance, but that he really, at the same time, had other a J. D. Michaelis writes: 'I honestly confess, that from the 18th to the 24th verse, the Hebrew text is not only difficult, but seems partly not to have come down to us in correct transcriptions' - yet there is n no reason to doubt the general accuracy of the received readings. enemies of Israel in his mind. But is it likely that the author should, with a rude hand, destroy a finely drawn plan, which he had carried out from the beginning with such thoughtful care? The king of Moab dares to oppose Israel and their God, and must, therefore, hear the prediction of his ruin; no other people is directly concerned; the conclusion 'and he shattereth all the children of tumult' is not so much meant to depict the annihilation of the heathen world, as to extol the victorious Israelites, and thus once more to condense, in a few emphatic words, a chief idea of the three preceding speeches.—It is, therefore, hardly necessary to refute the vague opinion that the narrative aims at delineating 'Israel's relations to their enemies in general,' or to announce 'the downfall of all the empires of the world,' which theme, it is asserted, the fourth prophecy carries out in detail, and in special applications (Hengstb., Bil., p. 150, etc.). But if so, why are the Ammonites not mentioned? Why not the Philistines and Midianites, nor the powerful Syrians, nor any other people in Canaan or Gilead, with whom the Hebrews exchanged constant and bitter feuds? and why not Egypt? It is, of course, not difficult to put forth specious reasons for all these omissions, but they do violence both to the sense and the words of the text. For who will find acceptable an expedient like this: 'Balaam, standing on the height of Peor, has turned round to the south, in order to cast his eye upon Moab; he then looks farther southward and southwestward, in which posture he does not behold Ammon and Aram, and therefore, delivers about them no prophecies (Knob., Numer. p. 145). It is very questionable whether Balaam must not have seen Ammon from the point and in the position described (see p. 214). But supposing he saw no part of their territory, could he not turn round a little more eastward if he desired or was able to make a prophetic announcement on their future career? And was it indeed indispensable for him to behold those concerning whom he prophesied? This was certainly necessary according to the plan of the main or genuine narrative; but in these additions Balaam speaks of the Cyprians and Assyrians, whom he surely could not see from an eminence in the east of the Jordan-which constitutes an other notable divergence (see p. 18; about Amalek, on ver. 20). If even an approximately systematic series of prophecies had been intended, in accordance with the events narrated in the Book of Numbers, it would have been impossible to exclude the Midianites. These were in alliance with the Moabites in their contemplated execration of Israel (xxii. 4, 7), and lived in their immediate vicinity; they were soon afterwards attacked by the Hebrews and routed with fearful slaughter (xxxi. 1-20), and for a long time they never ceased, either alone or in conjunction with other enemies, to annoy and to harass the Israelites in Canaan (pp. 85, 86). But why, in spite of all this, are they not introduced? Because, after having been completely overwhelmed by Gideon, the Judge, they had, in David's time, lost all power and importance. This one point alone ought to lead to correct inferences, and it will serve to show the weakness of the assertion that the Ammonites are passed over because, unlike Moab, Edom, or Amalek, they had 'till then' come into no contact whatever with the Hebrews, whether of a friendly or a hostile nature (so Keil, Num. p. 323). But without insisting that the same might be said of the Cyprians and Assyrians, who are yet noticed (vers. 23, 24), what does 'till then' mean? The author takes regard throughout of his own time, not of that of Balaam; and the Ammonites were, like the Moabites, defeated by Saul and David, were by the latter most rigorously treated, and required the continued vigilance of Hebrew kings (1 Sam. xi. 11; xiv. 47; 2 Sam. viii. 12; x. 14; xi. 1; xii. 26-31; xxiv. 2; 2 Chr. xxvii. 5; Ezek. xxv. 2-7, etc.). Or if it is urged, on the other hand, that in these prophecies Balaam ‘ surveys the time from David to Hezekiah' (Knobel, Num. p. 144), it is permitted to ask, why in all the four preceding oracles no allusion is found, however faint or indirect, which leads beyond the time of David? For if Balaam, represented as prophesying in the age of Moses, did not hesitate to describe events reaching to the reign of David, why should he have shrunk from hinting at subsequent facts, if they lay within the circle of his knowledge or experience? How little, therefore, is gained by the remark: 'As the historical events which unroll themselves before the prophet's spirit become more |