Commentaria in Numeros
But Marcus Paulus the Venetian, book III, chapter 15, Gesner on the monoceros, and other learned men, call this taming of the monoceros by a virgin a fable, and Gesner asserts that it arose from the fact that the monoceros, though most savage, grows gentle only when it is mingled with its female; whence Pliny, Aelian, Aristotle and others in the history of animals make no mention of this taming. Rosenmüller affirms the same: “By this image,” he says, “is set forth the people of Israel, before oppressed under the servitude of the Egyptians, but now asserted into liberty, and raised to a happier state.”
Andrew Bacci the physician, treatise On the Halicorn, page 67, where from Aelian he teaches that the halicorn is so fierce that it even hates its own female, and so, withdrawing from her, wanders solitary through the deserts, until, growing warm with love, when it is time of generating, its fierceness laid aside, it gently approaches her, and feeds and is mingled with her. But presently, when it perceives that she has conceived, and that her womb is swelling, it returns to its former fierceness, aversion and solitude.
Finally Theodoret, Question 44, thinks that the very people of the Hebrews is here called monoceros, because it worshipped one God, and was therefore strengthened by Him, and made strong as the monoceros.
Better, however, Procopius, Rabanus, Rupert and others hold that God is here called the rhinoceros or monoceros, according to the sense which I gave a little before. For elsewhere also Scripture measures the strength of God by the strength of the rhinoceros, as is plain from Job 39:12. But God communicated, and communicates, this His strength, and consequently the name of rhinoceros, to the Hebrews and to others His clients.
23. THERE IS NO SOOTHSAYING IN JACOB, NOR DIVINATION IN ISRAEL.—Under these he understands all incantation and sorcery, as a genus under its most common species. Balaam therefore here praises Israel, that as it worships no idols, so neither has it auguries (1); but because it worships the true God, it therefore receives from Him true prophecies and responses, both through Moses and through the Pontiff Eleazar clothed with the Urim and Thummim, and through other Prophets, and that God protects Israel and fights for it; whence he adds: “In their times (that is, in the following ages) it shall be told to Jacob and to Israel (that is, to the posterity of the Israelites) what (and how great things) God hath wrought for him.” 24. BEHOLD THE PEOPLE SHALL RISE UP AS A LIONESS, AND LIFT ITSELF UP AS A LION.—He compares Israel to a lion and a lioness, who, when she suckles and hungers for her cubs, is fiercer and more savage than the lion. See what was said on Genesis 49:9.
HE SHALL NOT LIE DOWN TILL HE DEVOUR THE PREY, AND DRINK THE BLOOD OF THE SLAIN.—He persists in the metaphor of the lion; as if to say: Israel shall not rest until it has trodden down the Chanaanite enemies, and from them divided the prey, and taken their land promised to it and
ANOTHER PLACE, TO TRY IF PERHAPS IT MAY PLEASE GOD THAT THOU MAYST CURSE THEM FROM THENCE.—This is the second change of place, by which Balac superstitiously hoped that Balaam would curse the Hebrews: whence three times from three different places Balaam in turn blessed the Hebrews, namely first, from mount Abarim and the temple of Baal, chapter 22:41; secondly, from the top of Phasga, chapter 23:14; thirdly, here from mount Phogor, as is plain from the following verses. Moreover Phogor or Phegor was an idol, from which Beelphegor is named, as is also this mountain, of which in chapter 25:3.
to be born in Israel; likewise of Amalec, of the Cinites, of the kingdom of the Romans and their overthrow.
1. And when Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord that he should bless Israel, he went not as he had gone before, to seek divination: but setting his face toward the desert, 2. And lifting up his eyes, he saw Israel abiding in their tents by their tribes: and the spirit of God rushing upon him, 3. He took up his parable, and said: Balaam the son of Beor said: the man whose eye is stopped up hath said: 4. The hearer of the words of God hath said, who beheld the vision of the Almighty, who falleth, and thus his eyes are opened: 5. How beautiful are thy tabernacles, O Jacob, and thy tents, O Israel! 6. As woody valleys, as watered gardens near the rivers, as tabernacles which the Lord hath pitched, as cedars by the waterside. 7. Water shall flow out of his bucket, and his seed shall be in many waters. For Agag his king shall be removed, and his kingdom shall be taken away. 8. God hath brought him out of Egypt, whose strength is like to the rhinoceros. They shall devour the nations that are his enemies, and break their bones, and pierce them with arrows. 9. Lying down he hath slept as a lion, and as a lioness, whom none shall dare to rouse. He that blesseth thee, shall also himself be blessed: he that curseth thee shall be reputed accursed. 10. And Balac being angry against Balaam, clapped his hands together, and said: I called thee to curse my enemies, and thou on the contrary hast three times blessed them: 11. Return to thy place. I had resolved indeed to honour thee greatly, but the Lord hath deprived thee of the honour designed. 12. Balaam answered Balac: Did I not tell thy messengers whom thou sentest to me: 13. If Balac would give me his house full of gold and silver, I cannot transgress the word of the Lord my God, to say either more or less than what the Lord saith? 14. Nevertheless going to my people, I will give thee counsel what thy people may do to this people in the latter days. 15. Therefore taking up his parable again, he said: Balaam the son of Beor said: the man whose eye is stopped up hath said: 16. The hearer of the words of God hath said, who knoweth the doctrine of the Highest, and seeth the visions of the Almighty, who falling hath his eyes opened: 17. I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not near. A STAR shall rise out of Jacob and a sceptre shall spring up from Israel: and shall strike the chiefs of Moab, and shall waste all the children of Seth. 18. And he shall possess Idumea: the inheritance of Seir shall come to their enemies, but Israel shall do manfully. 19. Out of Jacob shall he come that shall rule, and shall destroy the remains of the city. 20. And when he saw Amalec, he took up a parable, and said: Amalec the beginning of the nations, whose latter end shall be destroyed. 21. He saw also the Cinite, and taking up his parable, he said: Thy dwelling place indeed is strong: but though thou build thy nest in a rock, 22. And thou be chosen out of the race of Cin, how long wilt thou be able to continue? for Assur shall take thee. 23. And taking up his parable again, he said: Alas, who shall live when God shall do these things? 24. They shall come in galleys from Italy, they shall overcome the Assyrians, and shall waste the Hebrews, and at the last they themselves also shall perish. 25. And Balaam rose up, and returned to his place: Balac also went home by the way that he came.
1. AND WHEN BALAAM SAW THAT IT PLEASED THE LORD THAT HE SHOULD BLESS ISRAEL.—He saw, that is, Balaam knew, by an inward illumination of God. For God, before Balaam, according to his custom, went to seek divination, forestalled him, impelling his will and illuminating his intellect, so that he saw clearly what manner of people Israel was, and how acceptable to God, and how worthy of blessing: whence he did not go to his auguries, but at once blessed the people.
TO SEEK DIVINATION.—The Septuagint have “to meet the omens,” that is, to meet with birds. For augury is that divination which is taken from the flight, song or feeding of birds, and is called augury as though avigerium, because it was drawn from the bearing of birds; thence, however, it is transferred to any divination, as I said on Genesis 44:5. Whether, then, Balaam was accustomed to seek augury, that is, his divination, from birds, or from the entrails of victims, or from his familiar demon alone, is not certain: this is certain, that he was truly an augur and a sorcerer, as I showed
2. THE SPIRIT OF GOD RUSHING UPON HIM.—“The Spirit of God” here is the spirit of prophecy, or the supernatural light infused into the intellect of the Prophet to understand hidden things; for because that light is as it were something living, it is therefore called the spirit of God, that is, breathed by God. For spirit is so called from breathing and moving: whence everything that has life and motion is said to be spirit, or to have spirit; this light, then, is nothing other than an illumination and revelation put into the mind of the Prophet: and this illumination is a vital act, as is plain.
prophecy, as if to say, prophesying. See what was said on chapter 21,
3. HE TOOK UP HIS PARABLE, AND SAID: BALAAM SAID: THE MAN WHOSE EYE IS STOPPED UP—that is, who has lost one or both eyes, says Rabbi Solomon. For he thinks that Balaam himself was one-eyed, or blind. But his inventions are frivolous. Secondly, others by the eye understand the practical intellect. For although Balaam, in prophecy, had the eye of the speculative intellect open, to discern things to come, yet he had closed the practical eye, which should direct him to act well and rightly: for he was an impious man. Whence Rabanus: “The eye of Balaam,” he says, “was stopped up, for correcting his error and for venerating the author of prophecy itself; while an eye was open to him for perceiving the mysteries of prophecy.” But this sense seems rather mystical than literal.