Commentaria in Numeros
Patrizi concludes thus: “Among the words which, from what has been argued so far, we should render thus: the star of Jacob shall advance, and the sceptre of Israel shall arise, and shall strike the sides of Moab, and shall refresh all the sons of Seth, a parallelism is detected, antithetic and inverse. For the star and the sceptre, Moab and Seth, striking and refreshing, are opposed, and as it were fight among themselves. Of the four members of the period, the fourth answers to the first, the third to the second.”
parent and type of Christ: for David subdued the Idumeans. He says, then: The Idumeans, that is, the enemies most hostile to Christ, shall be subjected to him; as if to say: Therefore much more shall all the rest be subject to him.
Tropologically, Edom is our flesh, which was taken from Adam, that is, from the earth: this is subjected to Christ and to the Spirit through the grace of Christ.
AND THE INHERITANCE OF SEIR SHALL COME TO HIS ENEMIES.—Seir, that is, Idumea. For Esau was called Seir, because hairy: he was also called Edom, because red. Whence his region was called Seir, and Edom, or Idumea. For the same is repeated in this Hebrew song in the latter hemistich which was said in the former (1).
BUT ISRAEL SHALL DO MANFULLY (2).—“Israel,” that is, David, and the other Israelites. Secondly, and rather, “Israel,” that is, Christ and Christians, as if to say: Christ, who is much stronger and more prevailing with God than the patriarch Jacob, who was therefore called Israel; Christ, I say, with his sons the Apostles and their followers, shall do manfully, and shall subdue the whole world to his faith and law. See what was said on verse 17.
19. OUT OF JACOB SHALL HE COME THAT SHALL RULE, AND SHALL DESTROY THE REMAINS OF THE CITY.—“Of the city,” that is, of Rome, which by antonomasia is called the city and the town, and which was the head of Gentilism and of the Gentile enemies of Christ, the Romans. As if to say: From Christ shall be born Constantine the Christian Emperor, and others like him, who, converted to Christ, shall overthrow the Gentilism of the Romans, and shall convert the remains of the Gentiles, and so make all Rome Christian, and subject it to Christ, and thence the remaining provinces and cities shall follow Rome as the mistress of the world and their head, and shall banish Gentilism and the Gentiles, so that almost the whole world shall adore and worship Christ. So Abulensis (3).
of the kings of the Israelites ever destroyed a chief city either of the Moabites or of the Israelites, nor consequently the people surviving in it. Therefore from this head also it must be concluded that these things are said of Christ. And if that chief city be that of the Moabites, there will be a trope in the name of the city, by which it will be signified that Christ will at last plainly destroy the remains of the empire of the demons, which survive to this day. But if, as is more pleasing, and coheres more with the whole series of these parables, that city be Jerusalem, you will have foretold by Balaam the destruction of the city and of the Israelitic nation which survived in it, and attributed to Christ as author, as being the one with respect to whom it was to be done. So nearly Patrizi.
Of the Cinites, or posterity of Jethro.
Abulensis notes the same, that here is a prophecy of Christ, but with allusion to David, and so the deeds of David are here touched on: wherefore certain things are said here which agree more particularly with David, such as: “He shall strike the chiefs of Moab,” and: “He shall possess Idumea; but Israel shall do manfully.” Others, however, belong more properly to Christ, such as: “A star shall rise out of Jacob; he shall destroy the remains of the city,” etc. See Canon 35.
20. AND WHEN HE SAW AMALEC.—Balaam was on the borders of Moab, on the very high mountain Phasga; whence he could easily see the neighbouring region of the Amalecites, at least in a confused way; whence also Moses from the same mountain saw and surveyed the whole land of Chanaan, according to its parts, that is, generally and confusedly, Deuteronomy 34:1.
TAKING UP HIS PARABLE (that is, prophecy, as if to say, prophesying), HE SAID: AMALEC THE BEGINNING OF THE NATIONS—as if to say: The most noble of the nations, or the first of those nations that dwelt at that time near the promised land, was Amalec. Others: “The beginning,” they say, “of the nations,” namely hostile to Israel, was “Amalec”; whence the Chaldee translates, the beginning of the wars of Israel was Amalec. For Amalec first met Israel coming out of Egypt in arms, Exodus chapter 17, and therefore his “latter end” shall be “destroyed,” that is, as the Septuagint, his seed shall perish. For Saul destroyed the Amalecites, 1 Kings 15 (1).
21. HE SAW ALSO THE CINITE.—The Cinites are the posterity of Jethro, as I said in chapter 10:29. Balaam therefore, as from the very high mountain Phasga he saw Amalec, Moab and Edom, so he saw also the Cinites, because they were in the camp of Israel, and at the same time saw the lot which they were to have in Chanaan in the tribe of Juda. Whence he says:
THY DWELLING PLACE INDEED IS STRONG (and shall be)—because thou now dwellest among the twelve most strong tribes of Israel, and in Chanaan thou shalt dwell in the tribe of Juda, which is the strongest.
BUT THOUGH THOU BUILD THY NEST IN A ROCK—as if to say: Even though thy dwelling place shall be most strong, as has gone before. He alludes to the Hebrew ken,
Rightly art thou called a Cinite, because like birds thou shalt place, very high, as in a rock, thy ken, that is, nest, namely thy dwelling place; thence, however, Assur will draw thee down.
Tropologically Gregory, Moral. XXXI, 34: “They build,” he says, “the nest of hope in steep places and rocks, who with that eagle (St. Paul) say: ‘Our conversation is in heaven.’”
22. AND THOU BE CHOSEN OUT OF THE RACE OF CIN.—The Hebrew, as the Masoretes have pointed it (for they pointed Cain for Cin), differs much here from our version. But that Cain is not to be read (for there was no mention of Cain before; nor were the Cinites descended from Cain, but from Seth), but Cin, is plain from the Septuagint and all the ancients.
Whence also Vatablus reads not Cain but Cin, and translates, for the Cinite shall be burnt, or laid waste by grazing. Again, our interpreter, by a commutation of two akin guttural letters, namely reading chet for ain, that is, for lebaher reading lebachur, rightly translates, if he be chosen Cin, that is, if Cin be chosen, as if to say: Even if the stock of Cin, or Jethro, be raised up by God above other Gentiles, and associated with the Israelites, both in the desert and in the promised land, yet it shall be taken by the Assyrians. Hence it is plain that Cin, whence the Cinites are named, was the name of the stock or family from which the Cinites were sprung (2).
FOR ASSUR SHALL TAKE THEE.—For when Salmanasar transferred the ten tribes of Israel into the land of the Medes, 4 Kings 17, he then transferred with them the Cinites, that is, the progeny of Aber the Cinite, who had withdrawn from the other Cinites and dwelt in the lot of Nephthalim. For then the Nephthalites were transferred, and consequently the Cinites dwelling among them. Other Cinites, however, dwelling in Juda, remained: for from these sprang the Rechabites, whom Jeremias praises, chapter 35.
23. ALAS, WHO SHALL LIVE?—as if to say: Alas, who will desire to live, when such slaughters of the Cinites and Amalecites, or rather of the Assyrians, Hebrews and Romans, of whom follows, shall be wrought? For these words are a new prophecy, whence they belong to what follows, not to what precedes. So Abulensis.
24. THEY SHALL COME IN GALLEYS (triremes) FROM ITALY, THEY SHALL OVERCOME THE ASSYRIANS, AND SHALL WASTE THE HEBREWS, AND AT THE LAST THEY THEMSELVES ALSO SHALL PERISH.—For “Italy” the Hebrew is kittim, or cetim, which properly signifies Cyprus. For Citium was a city of Cyprus, from which sprang Zeno the father of the Stoics: from Citium, therefore, the whole island of Cyprus seems to be called Cetim. Thence Cetim signifies any other islands whatever, and further all nations, as well island as transmarine. Whence in Hebrew it is word for word, they shall come from the side of Cetim, that is, they shall come from Italy, as the Septuagint, our version, the Chaldee, Vatablus and others translate. For Cetim, or Cyprus, and other islands lie between Judea and Italy, so that Italy, with respect to Judea, is on the side of Cyprus, or Cetim. Our Gaspar Sanchez, on Isaias chapter 2, number 21, thinks that all the islands which extend from Cyprus to the western sea as far as Gades were assigned to Cethim son of Javan, Genesis 10:4, and took their name from him, whether those islands belong to the Libyan, or the Italian, or the Greek shore: and that from these islands Italy, Macedonia and other regions adjacent to them are called Cethim, which conjecture is not without probability. The Chaldee expressly translates, ships shall come from the Romans.
Although Rome, in the time of Balaam, was not yet founded (for it was founded under Achaz king of Juda, as Eusebius teaches in the Chronicle, or, as others say, under Joatham the father of Achaz), yet that Rome and the Romans would be founded, and would wage these wars, Balaam foresaw by prophetic spirit.
He foretells here, then, the very ample power of the Romans, namely that they would subjugate the Assyrians, then lords of affairs, and consequently all other nations, and the Hebrews themselves also. These first Pompey subjugated, then Caesar Augustus, who subjected Judea to Herod of Ascalon, and after him to Tetrarchs and Governors, as is plain from Luke 3:1, and at length Titus and Vespasian, Romans, utterly destroyed the Hebrews: and finally, that the Romans themselves would perish, the empire falling, under Alaric and Genseric, kings of the Goths; but chiefly under ten kings at the end of the world, who will utterly overthrow and burn Rome; whom then Antichrist will partly slay and partly subjugate, as Daniel foretold, chapter 7, verses 8 and 24, and St. John, Apocalypse chapter 17, verses 12 and 16.