Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_500.lzh/6_582.TXT

Text File | 1994-11-17 | 7KB | 127 lines

land.: or it may be supplied thus, as by some, re-
member what Balak consulted {b} from Shittim to Giigal;
that is, with Balaam, and what answer and advice he
gave him; which was to send beautiful women among
the Israelites, and so tempt them to adultery, and by
that means to idolatry; and which scheme and con-
sultation took place at Shittim, by means of which
several thousands were slain; and the device was to
have continued the temptation even to Gilgal, which,
had it not been prevented, in all likelihood wotfid have
issued in the destruction of that people; and therefore
they had reason to know, own, and acknowledge the
goodness and faithfulness of God unto them: or rather,
taking the phrase from Shirtira. to Gilgal to be a pro-
verbial one {c}, of going t'rom place to place, it may have
respect to Balak's having Balaam fi'om place to place,
to take a view of the people, and curse them.; or how
he might. set the God of Israel against them, and gain
him over to him; and then the sense is this, "re-
" member how Balak consulted Balaam from place tO
"place, and what answers he returned him; all which
"was done, thathe (Balak) might know the righteous-
" hess of the Lord ;" and so the Syriac version renders
it, and it will bear to be so rendered: the thing which
Balak chiefly consulted was, how he should get the
God of Israel on Iris side; as it was usual with Heathen
princes, when at war, to attempt to get the gods of
their enemies from them, and on their side; and in-
quires of Balaam how this was to be effected; what
righteousness it was the Lord required; what duties
of religion to be performed ;-what rites or sacrifices
were acceptable to him; and the sum of his questions
on this head,. and Balaam's answer to them, are con-
tained in the following verses.
Ver. 6. Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, &c.]
These are not the words of the people of Israel God
had a controversy with, and now made sensible of
their sin, and humbled for it; and willing to appease
the Lord, and make it up with him at any rate; for
there are such things proposed by them as do by no
means suit with .persons of' such a character, nay, even
suppose them to be hypocritical; and much less are
they what were put into their mouths by the prophet
to say, as some suggest; but they are the words of
Balak king of 'Moab, which, and what follow, are
questions he put to Balaam, who had told him that
he could do nothing without the Lord, nor any thing
contrary to his word: now he asks what he must do to
get the good will of this Lord; in what manner, and
with what he must appear before him, serve and wor-
.ship him, as the Targum; that so he might have an
interest. in him, and get him to speak a word to
Balaam in his fayour, and against Israel; see Numb.
xxii. 8, 18, 38. and xxiii. l2, 15, 26: and bow myself
before the high God ? the most high God, the God of
gods, whose Shechinah or Majesty is in the high hea-
vens, as the Targum: his meaning is, with what he
should-come, or bring with him, when he paid his
homage and obeisance to him, by bowing his body
or his knee before him ;. being willing to do it in the
most acceptable manner he could:shall I come before
him with burnt-offerings, with calves of a year old ? such
as he had been used to offer on the high places of Baal
to that deity. Sacrifices of this kind prevailed among
the Heathens, which they had received by tradition
from thetimes of Adam and Noah; see Numb. xxii. 41.
Ver. 7. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of
rams, &c.] If single burnt-otferings of bullocks and
heifers will not do, will rams, and thousands of them,
be acceptable to him ? if they will, they are at his
service, even as many as he pleases; such creatures, as
well as oxen, were offered by Balak, Numb. xxiii.
1, 2, 4, 29, 30: or with ten thousands of rivers of oil ?
for meat-offerings, as Jarchi, in which oil was used:
this is a hyperbolical expression, as Kimchi rightly
observes; suggesting that he was willing to be at any
expenses, even the most extravagant, it' he could but
gain his point, and 'get the God of Israel on his side.
Some render it, ten thousands of fat valleys a; abound-
ing with corn, and wine, and oil; the produce o£
which, had he so many, he could freely part with,
could he but obtain his end; see Job xx. 17: shall I
give royfirst-born for my transgression, the fruit of my
body for the sin ofmy soul? his son, his first-born, his
own flesh and blood, to make atonement for his sins
and transgressions; this betrays the person speaking.
The people of Israel, though they were sometimes
guilty of this horrid, unnatural, and abominable sin,
in the height of their degeneracy and apostacy, as to
sacrifice their children to Moloch; yet when convinced
of their sins, and humbling themselves befbre God for
them, even though but in a hypocritical way, could
never 'be so weak and foolish, so impious and au-
dacious, as to propose that to God, which they knew
was so contrary to his will, and so abominable in his
sight, Lev. xviii..2l. hut this comes well enough from
a Heathen prince, with whom it was the,height of his
devotion and religion, and the greatest sacrifice he
thought he could offer up to God; for there is a climax,
a gradation in the words from lesser things to greater;
and this is the greatest of all, and what was done
among the Heathens, 2 Kings xvii. 31. and was after-.
wards done by .a king of Moab, 2 Kings iii. 26, 27.
Vet. 8. He hath shewed me, 0 man, what is good,
&c.] This is not the answer of the prophet to the
body of the people, or to any and every one of the
people of Israel; but of Balaam to Balak, a single
man, that consulted with him, and put questions to
him; particularly what he should do to please the
Lord, and what righteousness he required of him, that
would be acceptable to him; and though he was a
king, he. was but a man, and he would have him know
it that he was no more, and as such addresses him;
and especially when he is informing him of his duty to
God; which lay not in such things as he had proposed,
but in doing that which was good, and avoiding that
which was evil, in a moral sense: and this the Lord
had shewn hiin by the light of .nature; which is no
other than the work of the law of God written in the
hearts of the Heathens, by which they are directed to

{b} Memento quid cogitaverit contra te Balac, & quid responderit ei
Balaam a Settim, &c. Ribera; so Menochius, Tirinus.
{c} See Bishop Chandler's Defence of Christianity, p. 290.
{d} \^Nmv ylxn twbbrb\^ in decem millibus vallium pinguium, Munster,
Vatablus.