Numbers 24:2

And Balaam lifted up his eyes ,.... Being on Mount Peor:

and he saw Israel abiding in his tents according to their tribes ; in that exact order in which they were directed to encamp under four standards, and so many tribes under each standard, Numbers 2:1 .

and the Spirit of God came upon him ; not in his grace but in his gifts; not as a spirit of sanctification, but as a spirit of prophecy, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan paraphrase it; and so sometimes the Spirit of God in this sense has come upon wicked men, as on Caiaphas and others, John 11:51 .