--- title: "Numbers 24 - Study King James Bible with cokes commentary on the holy bible" description: "Read Numbers 24 with cokes commentary on the holy bible commentary. 1 And when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he went not, as at other times, to seek for enchantments, but he set his face toward the w" image: "/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg" url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/cokes-commentary-on-the-holy-bible/numbers/24" --- [ Read](/kjv/numbers/24)[ Commentary](/study/numbers/24)[ Interlinear](/interlinear/numbers/24) Audio 1 And when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he went not, as at other times, to seek for enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness.* 2 And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel abiding *in his tents* according to their tribes; and the spirit of God came upon him. 3 And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said:* 4 He hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling *into a trance*, but having his eyes open: 5 How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, *and* thy tabernacles, O Israel! 6 As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river’s side, as the trees of lign aloes which the LORD hath planted, *and* as cedar trees beside the waters. 7 He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed *shall be* in many waters, and his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted. 8 God brought him forth out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn: he shall eat up the nations his enemies, and shall break their bones, and pierce *them* through with his arrows. 9 He couched, he lay down as a lion, and as a great lion: who shall stir him up? Blessed *is* he that blesseth thee, and cursed *is* he that curseth thee. 10 ¶ And Balak’s anger was kindled against Balaam, and he smote his hands together: and Balak said unto Balaam, I called thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast altogether blessed *them* these three times. 11 Therefore now flee thou to thy place: I thought to promote thee unto great honour; but, lo, the LORD hath kept thee back from honour. 12 And Balaam said unto Balak, Spake I not also to thy messengers which thou sentest unto me, saying, 13 If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond the commandment of the LORD, to do *either* good or bad of mine own mind; *but* what the LORD saith, that will I speak? 14 And now, behold, I go unto my people: come *therefore, and* I will advertise thee what this people shall do to thy people in the latter days. 15 ¶ And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said: 16 He hath said, which heard the words of God, and knew the knowledge of the most High, *which* saw the vision of the Almighty, falling *into a trance*, but having his eyes open: 17 I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.* 18 And Edom shall be a possession, Seir also shall be a possession for his enemies; and Israel shall do valiantly. 19 Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion, and shall destroy him that remaineth of the city. 20 ¶ And when he looked on Amalek, he took up his parable, and said, Amalek *was* the first of the nations; but his latter end *shall be* that he perish for ever.** 21 And he looked on the Kenites, and took up his parable, and said, Strong is thy dwellingplace, and thou puttest thy nest in a rock. 22 Nevertheless the Kenite shall be wasted, until Asshur shall carry thee away captive.** 23 And he took up his parable, and said, Alas, who shall live when God doeth this! 24 And ships *shall come* from the coast of Chittim, and shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber, and he also shall perish for ever. 25 And Balaam rose up, and went and returned to his place: and Balak also went his way. [Numbers 23](/study/numbers/23) [Numbers 25](/study/numbers/25) ## Commentary To verse 1 ***[Numbers 24:1](/kjv/numbers/24/1)*****.*****To seek for enchantments*****—** In the margin, *to the meeting of enchantments;*by which is meant the same as he calls, *meeting the Lord,*in the 3rd and 15th verses of the last chapter. It is difficult to understand what is meant by these words. "Interpreters," says Mr. Saurin, "think they have found some passages in Scripture, where the verb, from which the word *enchantment*is derived, is taken in a good sense, and denotes the knowledge of futurity. See [Genesis 5:15](/kjv/genesis/5/15). They conclude from this criticism, that the word *enchantment*signifies no more than the revelations which Balaam desired of God concerning the destiny of the Israelites. It is certain, that the sacred historian says nothing throughout his whole narration, capable of convincing us that Balaam used enchantments on the first of the two high places: I am apt to suspect that this man, abandoned to covetousness; not being able to find any thing to his purpose in the divine inspirations, would at length have betaken himself to magical arts; but that the spirit of God restrained him." Mr. Saurin here seems not to have attended with his usual accuracy to the text; from which it is plain, that Balaam only omitted to do now, what he had done before; for it is said, *he went not, as at other times, to seek*for *enchantments;*so that whatever the phrase may imply, it is unquestionable, that he had done, at his two former meetings with the Lord, what he now omitted to do, from a full persuasion that any further inquiries into the will of the Lord upon this subject would be fruitless: and I am very strongly of opinion, that the phrase implies no more, than the meeting the Lord for information as to his will; and, perhaps, it might not improperly be rendered, *He went not as before, for the meeting, or obtaining divinations: i.e.* for information into future things from the Lord; for which purpose he retired, as we have observed on ch. [Numbers 23:3](/kjv/numbers/23/3). Houbigant is of the same opinion; who says, that the word נחשׁים *nechashim,*auguries, is here understood in a good sense; for Balaam interpreted the will of the true God, not of the God of Moab, from these auguries. The meaning of the passage seems no more than this; that Balaam, convinced that it was perfectly in vain to retire any more, after the sacrifices, to meet God and receive his commands, accordingly no more retired to the high and secret place, but without any ceremony delivered the divine oracles. Le Clerc explains it briefly thus: *He judged it superfluous to inquire further into the mind of God, as God had sufficiently declared his purpose to bless the Israelites.* ***He set his face toward the wilderness*****—** We have had occasion more than once before to observe, that any large and extensive champaign country, even though it may happen to have villages in it, is called in the Scripture, *wilderness.*It is evident from the 2nd verse, that *wilderness*here means the plains of Moab, where the Israelites lay encamped, ch. [Numbers 22:1](/kjv/numbers/22/1). ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#website","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com","name":"Real Bible Believers","description":"RBB","publisher":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/search?q={search_term_string}","query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/cokes-commentary-on-the-holy-bible/numbers/24#primaryimage","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg","contentUrl":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/_app/immutable/assets/missing.C7wGMEZ6.jpg","width":672,"height":448,"caption":"Real Bible Believers"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/cokes-commentary-on-the-holy-bible/numbers/24#webpage","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/cokes-commentary-on-the-holy-bible/numbers/24","name":"Numbers 24 - Study King James Bible with cokes commentary on the holy bible","isPartOf":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/cokes-commentary-on-the-holy-bible/numbers/24#primaryimage"},"author":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509"},"description":"Read Numbers 24 with cokes commentary on the holy bible commentary. 1 And when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he went not, as at other times, to seek for enchantments, but he set his face toward the w","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/cokes-commentary-on-the-holy-bible/numbers/24#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/cokes-commentary-on-the-holy-bible/numbers/24"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/cokes-commentary-on-the-holy-bible/numbers/24#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/","name":"Home"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study","name":"Study Bible"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/cokes-commentary-on-the-holy-bible","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/cokes-commentary-on-the-holy-bible","name":"cokes commentary on the holy bible"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/cokes-commentary-on-the-holy-bible/numbers","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/cokes-commentary-on-the-holy-bible/numbers","name":"Numbers"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":5,"item":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/cokes-commentary-on-the-holy-bible/numbers/24","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/study/cokes-commentary-on-the-holy-bible/numbers/24","name":"24"}}]},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#/schema/person/e966585dde703268e7f6ae890ea98509","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/android-chrome-512x512.png","contentUrl":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/android-chrome-512x512.png","width":512,"height":512},"logo":{"@id":"https://realbiblebelievers.com/#personlogo"},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/RBiblebeliever","https://www.facebook.com/RBibleBelievers"]}]} ```