Numbers 23:7

BALAAM’S FIRST PROPHECY, Numbers 23:7-12.

7. Parable Hebrew mashal, a simile. Hengstenberg makes the use of this word in reference to the prophecies of Balaam an indication of the difference between them and real prophecy. All these oracular speeches of Balaam are, in the Hebrew, in a highly poetic form. They are dignified and sublime productions immediately caused by the Spirit of God. The mental eye of the speaker was fixed only upon what he saw, and this he uttered without the least regard to the expectations and desires of his hearers. The very first utterance must have extinguished all hope in the mind of the Moabite king. Aram literally signifies the high land. The Seventy render it Mesopotamia. See Numbers 22:5, note; Deuteronomy 23:4; Genesis 29:1, note. When Aram is used alone it generally denotes Western Syria, and when Mesopotamia is designated the word naharayim, of the two rivers, is added. This high land swarmed with soothsayers.

Of the east The exact direction was northeast. The Hebrews were accustomed to specify only the four principal points of the compass.

Defy Rather detest, with angry threats and fierce indignation. See Daniel 11:30.