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Numbers 22
These plains are formed by a narrow stripe of land, scarcely two leagues in breadth, lying along the eastern banks of the Jordan, opposite to the plains of Jericho. The Dead Sea lies to the south of it, Mount Pisgah on the south-east, and the mountains on the east; and towards the north, losing its specific name, this plain continues as “the valley of the Jordan,” even to the Sea of Tiberias. This plain, with that of Jericho on the opposite side, form together, in fact, an expansion of the valley of the Jordan. This side formed part of the territory which had formerly been taken by the Amorites from Moab; but, as usual in such cases, it still retained the name of the former possessors. The Moabites, who, driven from the valley, now occupied the mountains along which the Israelites passed before they entered the valley of the Jordan, were “sore afraid of the people because they were many.” They did not, however, venture to impede their course, and the Israelites passed peaceably by their territory, purchasing food for sustenance, with money.—Deu_2:28-29. They did not go though it, but kept along their outermost eastern border, until only the territory of the Amorites interposed between them and the Jordan, and through that territory, because their own, they now march to their destination. It is very certain that the Moabites had no good feeling towards the Israelites. Probably as they looked down from the mountains upon the long train of the wanderers from the desert, they regarded them as going on to certain ruin from their own redoubted conquerors, the Amorites; but when they beheld the busy encampment firmly established in their own ancient territory, and the northern kings utterly overthrown, their alarm became very great. They had no real cause for distrust or fear; for the Israelites had been forbidden to distress the Moabites or to contend with them, as they were to retain their domains in consideration of their descent from Lot.— Deu_2:9.
“Willing to wound, but yet afraid to strike,” the Moabites felt that it would be in vain to contend with them, while they so manifestly enjoyed the blessing and protection of a mighty God. But they did think that it might be possible to withdraw or neutralize the force of that advantage, by laying upon them the heavy ban of some powerful magician, and having them hence rendered weak as other men, they might be assailed with every prospect of success. It must have been a great recommendation of the design to them, that the result would enable them to recover the territory which had once been theirs, but which the Israelites now held by right of conquest from the Amorites. Indeed, could the Israelites be exterminated, or driven back into the desert, the children of Lot might well calculate on not only recovering what they had lost, but on adding the rich lands of Argob and Bashan, which the Israelites had won from Og, to their former territories—and they would thus, with some allied tribes of Abrahamic origin, become the sole possessors of the whole country east of the Jordan.
That the Moabites apprehended that the Hebrew host, large as were its numbers, might be overcome if once divested of the Divine protection, seems to evince that even they perceived wherein its great strength lay, and that apart therefrom, its intrinsic force was by no means formidable.
Their procedure, in seeking to lay the armies of Israel under a curse, that their own arms might be successful against them, is a strange notion to us. But it is not so in the East. Even at the present day, the pagan Orientals, in their wars, have always their magicians with them to curse their enemies, and to mutter incantations for their destruction. Sometimes they secretly convey a potent charm among the opposing troops, to ensure their destruction. In our own war with the Burmese, the generals of that nation had several magicians with them, who were much engaged in cursing our troops; but as they did not succeed, a number of witches were brought for the same purpose. We may, indeed, trace it as a very ancient opinion, among all people, that the maledictions and the blessings, the charms, the incantations, and the devotements of men, who were believed to be inspired by a superior spirit, good or evil, had the most marked effects not only upon individuals but upon regions and entire nations, and even upon cattle and upon the fruits of the field. Not seldom they sought, by strong enchantments, to evoke the tutelary divinities of their enemies’ cities, desiring thus to deprive them of what was regarded as their chief defence. Hence the proper name of many great cities was preserved as a great secret, that no enemy might be able to make use of it in their invocations. The names by which cities were ordinarily known, as, for instance, Troy, Rome, Carthage, were not the true and secret names of these places. Rome was called Valentia—a name known as hers by very few persons—and Valerius Soranus was severely punished for having disclosed it. Note: Plin. Hist Nat. iii. 5; xxviii. 2; Solin, cap. 2; Plat. Problem vi. The heathens had, indeed, certain solemn invocations, by means of which they devoted their enemies to certain divinities, or rather to malignant and dangerous demons. The following is the formula of one of these imprecations, as preserved by Macrobius: Note: Saturnal. iii. 9. “Dis-Pater, or Jupiter, if it better please thee to be called by that name—or by whatever name thou mayest be invoked—I conjure thee to pour upon this army (or this town) the spirit of terror and trepidation. Deprive of their sight all those who shall aim their strokes at us, our armies, or our troops. Spread darkness over our enemies, over their cities, their fields, their forces. Look upon them as accursed. Bring them under the most rigorous conditions to which any armies have ever been obliged to submit. Thus do I devote them; and I and those whom I represent—the nation and the army engaged in war, stand for witness. If this doom be accomplished, I promise a sacrifice of three black sheep to thee, O Earth, mother of all things, and to thee, great Jupiter.”