Of the numerous paradoxes which we find in this strange mixture of a man,' as Bishop Newton terms him, not the least striking is that with the practice of an art expressly forbidden to the Israel ites (' there shall not be found among you one that useth divination mop, Dent. xviii. so), for all that clo these things are an abomination to the Lord'—ver. 12), he united the knowledge and wor ship of Jehovah, and was in the habit of receiving intimations of his will : I will bring you word again as the Lord (Jehovah) shall speak unto me' (Num. xxii. 8). The inquiry naturally arises, by what means did he become acquainted with the true religion ? Dr. Hengstenberg suggests that he was led to renounce idolatry by the reports that reached him of the miracles attending the Exodus ; and that having experienced the deceptive nature of the soothsaying art, he hoped by becoming a wor shipper of the God of the Hebrews, to acquire fresh power over nature, and a clearer insight into futu rity. In the absence of more copious and precise information, we may reasonably conjecture that Jacob's residence for twenty years in Mesopotamia contributed to maintain some just ideas of religion, though mingled with much superstition. To this source and the existing remains of Patriarchal reli gion, Balaam was probably indebted for that truth which he unhappily held in unrighteousness' (Rom. i. 18).
On the narrative contained in Numbers xxii. 22-35 a difference of opinion has long existed, even among those who fully admit its authenticity. The advocates for a literal interpretation urge, that in a historical work and a narrative bearing the same character, it would be unnatural to regard any of the occurrences as taking place in vision, unless expressly so stated ;—that it would be difficult to determine where the vision begins, and where it ends ;—that Jehovah's opening the mouth of the ass' (Num. xxii. 23) must have been an external act ; and, finally, that Peter's language is decidedly in favour of the literal sense : The dumb ass, speaking with man's voice, forbad the madness of the Prophet' (2 Pet. ii. 16). Those who conceive that the speaking of the ass and the appearance of the Angel occurred in vision to Balaam (among whom are Maimonides, Leibnitz, and Hengsten berg) insist upon the fact that dreams and visions were the ordinary methods by which God made himself known to the Prophets (Num. xii. 6) ; they
remark that Balaam, in the introduction to his third and fourth prophecies (xxiv. 3, 4, 15), speaks of himself as the man who had his eyes shut' (orn:.= nrity and DID, v. Lam. iii. 8), and who, on falling down in prophetic ecstasy, had his eyes opened ; that he expressed no surprise on hearing the ass speak ; and that neither his servants nor the Moabitish princes who accompanied him appear to have been cognizant of any supernatural appear ance. Dr. Jortin supposes that the Angel of the Lord suffered himself to be seen by the beast, but not by the Prophet ; that the beast was terrified, and Balaam smote her, and then fell into a trance, and in that state conversed first with the beast and then with the Angel. The Angel presented these objects to his imagination as strongly as if they had been before his eyes, so that this was still a miracu lous or preternatural operation. In dreaming, many singular incongruities occur without exciting our astonishment ; it is therefore not wonderful if the Prophet conversed with his beast in vision, without being startled at KO, a phenomenon (v. Jortin's 'Dissertation on Balaam,' pp. Balaam's prophecies, as Herder remarks (Geist der Ebrdischen Poesie, ii. 220, distinguished for dignity, compression, vividness, and fulness of imagery: there is scarcely anything equal to them in the later Prophets, and' (he adds, what few readers, probably, of Deut. xxxii., xxxiii., will be disposed to admit) nothing in the discourses of Moses.' Dr. Hengstenberg has ably discussed the doubts raised by Dr. de Wette and other German critics respecting the antiquity and genuineness of this portion of the Pentateuch. (Dr. Jortin's Sin Dissertations, Lond. 1755, pp. t 71-194 ; Bishor Butler's Sermons at the Rolls Chapel, Serm. vii. Bishop Newton On the Prophecies, vol. i. ch. 5, Disconrs Ifistoriq2ees, etc., par. M. Saurin, Amst. 172o, tome ii. Disc. 64; Die Geschichte Bileams and seine Weissagungen erldutert, von E. W. Heng stenberg, 1842, translated by J. E. Ryland, Edin. 1348 ; Blunt's Undesigned Coincidences in the Writings both of the Old and New Testa in ent, Lond. 1859, pp. 82-87 ; Origenis Opera, Bert 1840, tom. x. pp. 168-258.)—J. E. R.