Numbers 22:24

22:22-35 We must not think, that because God does not always by his providence restrain men from sin, therefore he approves of it, or that it is not hateful to him. The holy angels oppose sin, and perhaps are employed in preventing it more than we are aware. This angel was an adversary to Balaam, because Balaam counted him his adversary; those are really our best friends, and we ought so to reckon them, who stop our progress in sinful ways. Balaam has notice of God's displeasure by the ass. It is common for those whose hearts are fully set in them to do evil, to push on violently, through the difficulties Providence lays in their way. The Lord opened the mouth of the ass. This was a great miracle wrought by the power of God. He who made man speak, could, when he pleased, make the ass to speak with man's voice. The ass complained of Balaam's cruelty. The righteous God does not allow the meanest or weakest to be abused; but they shall be able to speak in their own defence, or he will some way or other speak for them. Balaam at length has his eyes opened. God has many ways to bring down the hard and unhumbled heart. When our eyes are opened, we shall see the danger of sinful ways, and how much it was for our advantage to be crossed. Balaam seemed to relent; I have sinned; but it does not appear that he was sensible of this wickedness of his heart, or willing to own it. If he finds he cannot go forward, he will be content, since there is no remedy, to go back.

But the angel of the Lord stood in a path of the vineyard,..... Which were in the field into which the ass went, and before Balaam could turn her back she got into a narrow path, between the vineyards, as the Targum of Jonathan; a footpath which lay between them, or a footpath where foxes ran and had their holes, who used to lie near vineyards and among them, see Sol 1:14 however, it was a very narrow path, and here the angel placed himself, so that there was no passage for Balaam and his ass, at least not without great difficulty and danger: a wall being on this side, and a wall on that side; and therefore there was no going out into the field, as before, to avoid the difficulty and danger; this being, as Jarchi observes, a stone wall that was on each side.

24 . The ‘Angel’ retreated and stopped the ass in an enclosed spot between two walls or, perhaps, fences, where it could not turn aside into open country. But by pressing close to the wall the ass is pictured as contriving to pass the Angel. He therefore retreated once more, and stood in a narrow place where there was no possibility of avoiding Him. The naïve anthropomorphic conception of Jehovah involved in this narrative belongs to a very early age of folklore. Numbers 22:24

In a path of the vineyards - i. e., in a path shut in by vineyard-walls on each side. The progress from the road through the open field Numbers 22:23 to that walled in, and thence to the strait place, where there was no room to turn Numbers 22:26 , shows that Balaam was approaching a city, no doubt that which was the goal of his journey.

24. the angel of the Lord stood in a path of the vineyards—The roads which lead through fields and vineyards are so narrow that in most parts a man could not pass a beast without care and caution. A stone or mud fence flanks each side of these roads, to prevent the soil being washed off by the rains.

[Reformed Biblical] 23:5; for God hath been oft and justly angry with those who have done what God bade them, when they did it in evil manner, or for evil ends, as appears from Isa_10:6 ,7 , and many other places. ## The Lord stood in the way, i.e. to oppose and terrify, if not to kill him. ## His two servants were with him; the rest of the company being probably gone before them. For in those ancient times there was more of simplicity, and less of ceremony; and therefore it is not strange that Balaam came at some distance after the rest, and attended only by his own servants. Numbers 22:23 Balaam saw not the angel because God withheld his eyes, as he did the eyes of Daniel’s companions, Dan_10:7. It is a truth, ## which mere philosophers own, that when God withdraws his concourse or help from any of his creatures, they cannot perform their natural acts and offices; the eye cannot see, as Ge 19 , nor the ear hear, nor the fire burn, as Da 3 . Numbers 22:24 Numbers 22:25 Numbers 22:26 Numbers 22:27 Numbers 22:28 i.e. ## The Lord conferred upon the ass the power of speech and reasoning for that time. Impudent are those heathens that disbelieve and scoff at the Scripture for this and some such relations contained in it, when there are examples of the same kind of prodigies, to wit, of oxen and other brute creatures speaking some few words, in the greatest and most approved writers of the Roman history as Plutarch, Polybius, Livy, an others. See the particulars in my Latin Synopsis on this place.

[Reformed Biblical] according to the prophecy, Gen_48:19 ,20 . Numbers 2:19 Numbers 2:20 Numbers 2:21 Numbers 2:22 Numbers 2:23 Numbers 2:24 Numbers 2:25 Numbers 2:26 Numbers 2:27 Numbers 2:28 Numbers 2:29 Numbers 2:30 Numbers 2:31 The strongest camp next after Judah, and therefore he comes in the rear, as Judah marched in the front, that the tabernacle might be best guarded where there was most danger. Numbers 2:32 Numbers 2:33 Because their warfare was of another kind. Numbers 2:34 ## By their standards, i.e. each of them under his principal standard. ## Numbers 3:1 NUMBERS CHAPTER 3 The genealogy of Moses, Aaron, and his sons, Nadab and Abihu, Num_3:1-4. The Levites are joined with them in the administration of the tabernacle, Num_3:5-10, instead of all the first-born, Num_3:11-13. The three families