John Calvin Complete Commentary - Numbers 23:13 - 23:13

Online Resource Library

Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | Download

John Calvin Complete Commentary - Numbers 23:13 - 23:13


(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)

This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

13.And Balac said unto him. Balak did, as almost all superstitious persons usually do; for, because with them nothing is certain or established, they are carried about from one speculation to another, and try now this and now that expedient. But especially do they imagine that there is some magical power in the sight, as if the eyes contributed partly to the efficacy of their incantations. It appears from profane writers that this was formerly a commonly received opinion, that the gaze of the enchanter had much effect upon his art. Balak, therefore, removes his sorcerer to another place, that there he might the better exercise his divinations. There is some ambiguity in the words. Some render them thus, “ to another place, that thou mayest see from thence, (160) mayest see a part, and not the whole,” as if Balak feared that the multitude itself frightened Balaam, or diminished the power of his incantations. Their opinion, however, is the more probable, who take the verb see, where it is used the second time, in the perfect tense, so that the sense is, “ to a place where thou mayest behold them; for as yet thou hast not seen the whole, but only a part;” for we know how common a thing with the Hebrews is such an employment of one tense for another. With respect to the place to which Balaam was taken, it little matters whether we believe שדה צפים, sedeh tzophim and פסגה pis’ to be nouns proper or appellative, since it is sufficiently clear that, if they were given to the place, it was on account of its position; for it is very likely that there was a level place upon the hill, which might justly be called “ hill of the spies.”



(160) So A. V., after the LXX. and V. Marckius comes to the conclusion that there is no sufficient reason for C.’ proposed alteration of the Hebrew tense, in the latter clauses of the verse; for he thinks that Balaam’ expression in Num_23:9, “ from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him,” is rather to be understood of a more complete, than of an obscurer view.