Page:Keil and Delitzsch,Biblical commentary the old testament the pentateuch, trad James Martin, volume 1, 1885.djvu/1202

 he saw the angel of the Lord with a drawn sword standing in his road, and fell upon his face before this fearful sight.

verses 32-34
To humble him deeply and inwardly, the Lord help up before him the injustice of his cruel treatment of the ass, and told him at the same time that it had saved his life by turning out of the way. “I have come out,” said the angel of the Lord, “as an adversary; for the way leads headlong into destruction before me;” i.e., the way which thou art going is leading thee, in my eyes, in my view, into destruction. ירט, to plunge, sc., into destruction, both here, and also in Job 16:11, the only other passage in which it occurs.

verses 33-35
The angel of the Lord sought to preserve Balaam from the destruction which threatened him, by standing in his way; but he did not see him, though his ass did. וגו נטתה אוּלי, “perhaps it turned out before me; for otherwise I should surely have killed thee, and let her live.” The first clause is to be regarded, as Hengstenberg supposes, as an aposiopesis. The angel does not state positively what was the reason why perhaps the ass had turned out of the way: he merely hints at it lightly, and leaves it to Balaam to gather from the hint, that the faithful animal had turned away from affection to its master, with a dim foreboding of the danger which threatened him, and yet for that very reason, as it were as a reward for its service of love, had been ill-treated by him. The traditional rendering, “if the ass had not turned aside, surely,” etc., cannot be defended according to the rules of the language; and there is not sufficient ground for any such alteration of the text as Knobel suggests, viz., into לוּלי. These words made an impression, and Balaam made this acknowledgment (Num 22:34): “I have sinned, for I knew not that thou stoodest in the way against me; and now, if it displease thee, I will get me back again.” The angel of the Lord replied, however (Num 22:35): “Go with the men; but only the word that I shall speak unto thee, that shalt you speak.” This was sufficient to show him, that it was not the journey in itself that was displeasing to God, but the feelings and intentions with which he had entered upon it. The whole procedure was intended to sharpen his conscience and sober his mind, that he might pay attention to the word which the Lord would speak to him. At the same time the impression which the appearance and words of the angel of the Lord made upon his heart, enveloped in mist as it was by the thirst for gold and honour, was not a deep one, nor one that led him to a thorough knowledge of his own heart; otherwise, after such a warning, he would never have continued his journey.

verses 36-37
Reception of Balaam by the King of the Moabites. - [[Bible_(King_James)/Numbers|Num 22: