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Num_24:17 I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.
Ver. 17. I shall see him.] So shall "every eye, and those also that pierced him," {Rev_1:7} but not as "Abraham saw him, and rejoiced"; nor as Job. {Job_19:25; Job_19:27} "The pure in heart" only "shall see him" to their comfort, as pure glass or crystal lets in the light of the sun. Some wicked men have greater common gifts than the godly; as many metals are brighter and more orient than the heavens. Yet as those metals are not so fit, either to receive or convey the light of the sun, so neither are the wicked so fit, either to take or give to others, "the knowledge of salvation by the remission of their sins."
A Star out of Jacob.] Jesus Christ the true Morning Star. {Rev_22:16 Joh_1:9} That those wise men {Mat_2:1} had heard of, probably, either from the Chaldean sybils, or from the Jews in the Babylonish captivity, or from this prophecy of Balaam; for he was an east countryman, and uttereth here a very clear and comfortable prophecy of the Messiah, by whom himself received no benefit. Thus the Church, Christ’s "garden enclosed," {Son_4:12} may be watered through a wooden gutter; the sun give comfortable light through a sluttish window; the field may be well sowed with a dirty hand; the bell calls us to the church, though it never enter itself but by the sound; the well may yield excellent water, though it have much mud, &c.
And destroy all the children of Seth.] Heb., Unwall; that is, conquer and subdue. Christ by those ram’s horns, by the foolishness of preaching, pulls down strongholds. {2Co_10:4-5}