Commentaria in Numeros
Again, the same Gregory, Moral. XXVII, chapter 1: “As an irrational animal,” he says, “uttered the words of reason, yet did not thereby pass over to a change of rational nature, so often one who is unworthy receives, by the Spirit of prophecy, holy words; but yet does not attain to the deserving of the glory of sanctity, so that he is eminent above himself in speaking, and sluggish beneath himself in living.”
29. I WOULD I HAD A SWORD THAT I MIGHT KILL THEE!—See here the arrogance and madness of Balaam and of wicked men, by which they assail their monitors and authors of their salvation with words and blows.
So Herod killed his monitor John the Baptist. So Alexander the Great, drunk, ran through Clitus, his most faithful friend and monitor. Here is true that saying of the Comic poet: “Compliance wins friends, truth hatred.” So “Cambyses, as Seneca writes, book III On Anger, chapter 14, being given to wine, Prexaspes, his dearest friend, admonished him to drink more sparingly, saying that drunkenness is shameful in a king, whom the eyes and ears of all follow. To this the king: ‘That thou mayest know,’ he said, ‘that I never am out of myself, I will prove at once that both my eyes and my hands do their office after wine.’ Then he drank more freely than at other times; and now heavy and in his cups, he orders the son of his reprover to go forth beyond the threshold, and stand with his left hand raised above his head. Then he bent his bow and pierced the very heart of the young man, and, having cut open the breast, showed the arrow sticking in the heart itself; and looking at the father, asked whether he had a hand sure enough.” So that barbarian. Truly said the Wise Man, Proverbs 15:12: “A corrupt man loveth not one that reproveth him, nor will he go to the wise”; and chapter 29, verse 1: “The man that with a stiff neck despiseth him that reproveth him, shall suddenly be destroyed.” So Cambyses a little afterward was deprived of life and kingdom; so also Balaam a little afterward was slain by the Hebrews in battle, chapter 31:8.
30. TELL ME IF I EVER DID THE LIKE THING TO THEE. BUT HE SAID: NEVER.—Hence Balaam was convicted of having struck the ass without reason, and that she had not wished to mock him, but had been compelled by the angel: whence the angel presently, revealing himself to Balaam, clearly convicted his blindness as well as his impiety. For wonderful was the blindness and fury of Balaam, that, hearing by a miracle the ass speaking, he was not afraid, was not astonished, nor inquired into the cause and meaning of the miracle; but, stirred with anger, threatens the ass with death, thinking, from the fact that she spoke with a human voice, that she, as a being possessed of reason, had wished to mock him.
The Talmudists relate, nay fable, that God created ten things on the sixth day of the world, at sunset, the sabbath beginning, namely first, the mouth of the earth, which devoured Core, Dathan and Abiron, of which in chapter 16; secondly, the mouth of the well, which always accompanied the Hebrews, was given to the Jews, in the lifetime of Maria the sister of Moses, and went before the Hebrews, of which chapter 20, verse 1. Thirdly, the mouth of Balaam’s ass to speak, of which here. The fourth was the rainbow, or heavenly arch, of which Genesis 9:13. The fifth was the ram which he sacrificed for Isaac, Genesis 22:13. The sixth was the rod of Moses, which divided the Red Sea, Exodus 14:21. The seventh was the manna. The eighth were the first tables of the law, which God both gave and inscribed with the Decalogue. The ninth are the demons themselves, appearing to men. The tenth are tongs; for they say that the first tongs came down from heaven, nor could they have been otherwise made, and so they resolve that question of the common people, whether the hammer or the tongs came first. Abulensis, Question 10, recounts these things and fully refutes them: for they are mere fables.
31. FORTHWITH THE LORD OPENED THE EYES OF BALAAM, AND HE SAW THE ANGEL—as if to say: God caused Balaam to see the angel, and that because He took away either the blindness with which He had struck him, or a cloud or other obstacle which He had set before his eyes; or because the angel, who had at first impressed his appearance on the ass alone, now impressed the same on the eyes of Balaam also, terrible and threatening with the flashing sword.
32. THY WAY IS PERVERSE, AND CONTRARY TO ME.—Namely, on account of the perverse intention with which thou goest to Balac, to wit, that thou mayest curse the Hebrews. Note: this vision and conversation with the angel befell Balaam alone; for the princes of Balac had gone before, who, as they had summoned him, so also conducted him; and Balaam himself followed not far behind them, who accordingly alone saw the angel and spoke with him.
33. AND UNLESS THE ASS HAD TURNED OUT OF THE WAY, GIVING PLACE TO ME WHO STOOD AGAINST THEE (the angel standing against me), I HAD SLAIN THEE, AND SHE SHOULD HAVE LIVED.—In Hebrew it is, I would have made her live. Whence the Hebrews gather that this ass, as soon as she had spoken, was dead, and that to the honour not of Balaam but of the human race, lest the ass should survive which by reason had convicted a man. But this cannot be gathered from these words: for the angel only signifies by them that he would have slain Balaam, but not the ass, unless she had turned aside. For to make live among the Hebrews is often the same as to preserve in life, or not to take away life but to spare. For an act is signified not begun but continued, as if to say: By slaying thee I would not have slain the ass, but would have preserved her in life; for thine alone, as the fault was, so would the punishment have been.
38. SHALL I HAVE POWER TO SPEAK ANY OTHER THING BUT THAT WHICH GOD SHALL PUT IN MY MOUTH?—That is, which God shall have revealed to me and commanded me to utter. He forestalls Balac, lest perchance he prophesy against his wish and desire.
39. THEY CAME INTO A CITY, WHICH WAS IN THE UTTERMOST BORDERS OF HIS KINGDOM.—In Hebrew, they came into the city Chusot, as if to say: into a city which was situate outside, or beyond the kingdom, on its borders. Secondly, Oleaster translates, they came into a city of divisions, that is, which was the boundary of the kingdom, dividing it from its neighbours. Thirdly, Vatablus thinks Chusot to be the proper name of the city.
40. AND WHEN BALAC HAD KILLED OXEN AND SHEEP, he made, on account of the joyful coming of Balaam, feasts, sacrifices and banquets, and thence sent gifts and portions for feasting to Balaam himself and to his princes who had accompanied him; for the Gentiles on festivals, triumphs and joyful occasions instituted sacred banquets, in which they first sacrificed victims to their gods; then of these they made a solemn feast, and as it were sacred, and finally sent a portion of this feast to absent friends.
41. AND WHEN MORNING WAS COME, HE BROUGHT HIM TO THE HIGH PLACES OF BAAL, AND HE BEHELD THE UTTERMOST PART OF THE PEOPLE—as if to say: In the morning Balac led Balaam to the high places, that is, to places, namely to the mountain containing the temple or shrine in which Baal was worshipped, and that in order that Balaam from this mountain, seeing the camp of Israel, and sacrificing to the idol Baal, might receive from him strength, spirit, and as it were enthusiasm to curse Israel. For on this account he built seven altars there, and on them Balaam sacrificed, as will be said in the next chapter, verse 4. So Abulensis. This mountain was therefore (that is, Baal’s), where the camp of Israel was placed, in the level places, which are therefore commonly called the plains of Moab; this was the mountain Abarim, which divided the Moabites from the kingdoms of Sehon and Og, one part of which was called Phasga, another Nebo, on which Moses died, as is plain from Deuteronomy 32:49, and chapter 34, verses 1 and 5. From this mountain Balaam surveyed the camp of Israel, and, prophesying, blessed them beyond his intention.
Balaam, about to curse the Hebrews, blesses them beyond his intention; thence, verse 14, he changes the place to curse, but again blesses them, and praises them for their religion, fortitude and the help of God, and foretells their victories; hence he again changes the place, verse 27.