Israel was holiness unto the Lord, and the firstfruits of His increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the Lord. JEREMIAH ii. 3. PREFACE THE aim of the present work is to give, to the best of our abilities, a satisfactory explanation of a small portion of the Holy Scriptures, taken from chapters xxii.-xxv. of the Book of Numbers. The substance and importance of the events described in these chapters, and the characters of the persons who play a prominent part in the narrative, form a problem, the solution of which is both difficult and interesting.1 The personality of Balaam himself, and the question of the authenticity of his parables, constitute the scientific problem of the narrative. The character of the Mesopotamian Soothsayer Balaam, to whose counsel the Moabites had recourse, his policy and his particular magical capacities, are equally interesting both from a moral and a psychological point of view. His prophecies serve, by their form and contents, as one of the most convincing proofs of the authenticity of the Pentateuch, an opinion which has been corroborated by the most trustworthy theologians. Nevertheless, it was only in modern times (about the middle of the seventeenth century) that the attention of Bible students was attracted by the history of Balaam and the contents of his prophecies; for it was then that the interpretation of the Holy Scriptures was first founded on a historical and philological basis, a form of study until then unknown. It happened at the same period that some of the Protestant religious communities became imbued with a spirit of denial as to the authenticity of some of the narratives of the Bible. However, all scientific researches, whether affirmative or negative, concerning this portion of the Book 1 See De Geer, Dissertatio de Bileamo, Preface. |