1846.] References to the History of Balaam in Jeremiah. 739

Antiquity and Credibility of the History of Balaam.

With the arguments for the Mosaic origin of the Pentateuch in general, we have at present no concern. Recent investigations have placed it on an immovable basis. The monuments of Egypt were not constructed in vain. Ages long past lift up their voices in defence of the truth, and even its avowed enemies cannot gainsay or resist their testimony. But the particular passage with which we are at present concerned, has been the object of many and various attacks. The strangeness of many things in the narration, have been considered by some a sufficient reason for rejecting the whole account as a mythos, wholly unworthy of credence. Others think that they find sufficient internal evidence to place the authorship of the passage in an age long subsequent to that of Moses. Still others, while they acknowledge the authenticity of the narrative as a whole, or perhaps attribute it to the time of Saul, set down verses 22-24 of the twenty-fourth chapter as a vaticinium post eventum, belonging to the time of the Assyrian empire. The entire want of agreement among those who deny the Mosaic origin of this narrative, makes it evident, that they cannot at least have very tangible and positive grounds, on which to base their hypotheses. The fact is, they can find no rest for the sole of the foot, out of the Mosaic age. But it is not our intention, nor is it deemed necessary, to examine all of the theories that have been broached in reference to this matter. Most of those which have not been already, will perhaps be sufficiently confuted by a brief statement of some of the positive grounds for a Mosaic origin.

In the first place, we derive an argument for the authenticity of the passage under consideration, from references to it in subsequent books of the sacred canon: 1. The existence and authority of the prophecies of Balaam in the time of the Prophet Jeremiah are indisputable, from the comparison of chap. 48: 45 of his prophecy with Num. 24: 17. Jeremiah often refers to previous prophecies, and adopts them into his own. But the allusion is here peculiar. In the place of two uncommon and difficult words, Jeremiah uses two that are more usual, and whose meaning is more obvious. but in Jeremiah, instead of it, the following: Now it cannot be supposed that originally stood in Jeremiah, for is evidently chosen with reference to may suppose that, according to a very common usage with him,

. וְקַרְקַר כָּל־בְּנֵי־שֶׁת : In Numbers we find this phrase

; but we

the later prophet substituted a similar sounding word for the one found in the passage which he imitated. 1 is plainly a translation of . 2. In Habakkuk 1: 13 there seems to be an allusion to Numbers 23: 20. A simple comparison of the Hebrew is all that is necessary to show the similarity of the passages. In

Why“, לָמָּה הַרְאֵנִי אָוֶן וְעָמָל תַּבִּיט :the third verse the words are

dost thou show me iniquity and cause me to behold grievance?" It will be noticed, that the principal words are all from the same roots with those in Num. 23: 21. The nouns and bare identical in the two passages, and " and " in Habakkuk, answer to and in Numbers; compare also verse 13, and see Hengstenberg's Gesch. Bil. S. 112. 3. A more distinct recognition of the existence of the prophecies of Balaam, is found in Micah 6: 5, "O my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal, that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord." Even Tuch argues, that this passage implies a knowledge of the prophecies of Balaam. And further, the manner in which they are referred to, indicates that they were considered as the word of God. Otherwise their quotation would have no influence upon the people, and could not certainly be represented as teaching the "righteousness of the Lord," ning nips. 4. Obadiah also seems to allude to Num. 24: 21: "placed in a rock is thy nest," etc., in verses 3d and 4th of his prophecy: "thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high," ... “though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord." Compare also verses 17-19 of Obadiah with Num. 24: 18, 19, and see note on those verses, p. 725 above.-A similar, though less distinct reference is found in Amos 9: 12, and 6: 1.

5. We can go still farther back than the earliest of the prophets, in our proof of the existence and authority of Num. 22: 24. The similarity of language in Prov. 30: 1, and in the last words of David, 2 Sam. 23: 1, seems to be sufficient to show, that the prophecies of Balaam were not only in existence, but acknowledged as divine, and consequently of Mosaic origin. A comparison of the Hebrew shows that the last is an accurate copy from the Pentateuch, with the exception of the old form, which is supplied by the usual form of the construct, ¡2 .

1846.]

The History of Balaam of Mosaic Origin.

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741

In Ps. 60: 14, 108: 14, and 1 Sam. 14: 47, 48, we find a striking similarity in the Hebrew phraseology, to Num. 24: 18, and in 1 Sam. 15: 29, to Num. 23: 19. Finally in Judges 11: 25 there is a plain implication of the facts recorded in Num. 22: sq. Now art thou anything better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive against Israel?" etc. The examination of the antiquity of the prophecies of Balaam might be left with this incidental testimony of subsequent inspired writers; but it may not be amiss to glance at some of the internal evidences of their origin in the time of Moses.

cur.

The use of i as a suffix in a Num. 23: 18, 24: 3 and 15, and of n for the later and smoother forms, on and on, have already been noticed in remarks upon the verses in which they ocThe designation of the country on the east side of Jordan opposite Jericho as the "Plains of Moab," ini, is indicative of the time of the composition of our passage. This designation is found out of the Pentateuch only in Josh. 13: 32, and there with reference to the narrative in the Pentateuch. So

7, the land of Moab, is used for this region only by the author of the Pentateuch. This usage in the age of Moses, and its subsequent neglect, are entirely in accordance with the circumstances of the time. It will be remembered, that this country, when the Israelites arrived in that region, had just been wrested from Moab. The remembrance of its previous possessors, for a time after their subjugation by the Amorites, was natural; but the fact of their possession would in process of time be obliterated, or at least lose its significance and consequently cease to be designated. Accordingly we find in Judges 11: 12 sq., that the same country is called the Land of the Amorites.-The word Jericho is written in, in the Pentateuch; and so it occurs in Num. 22: 1, but is subsequently, except once, in 2 Sam. 10: 5, written

, until after the exile, when the original form is again resumed. This would seem to indicate that Num. xxii. sq. did not belong at least to the middle ages of Hebrew Literature.

There are several particulars which form the basis of the narrative respecting Balaam, which belong only to the Mosaic age. The enemies of Israel whose destruction is threatened in 24: 1721, are the very nations which had shown themselves hostile at the close of the wanderings of the Israelites. First, the Moabites who dwelt eastward of the Plains of Moab are mentioned. Then, the more eastern of their southern enemies, the Edomites, and next the more western, the Amalekites and Kenites. These tribes

were not only hostile, but they seem to comprise all who had at the time shown themselves as hostile. But this could not have been said in any later age. In the time of Saul and David, the relations of the Israelites to the surrounding nations, were materially changed. In 1 Sam. 14: 47, 8 we have a summary of the tribes with which the Israelites were then at enmity: "So Saul ... fought against all his enemies on every side, against Moab, and against the children of Ammon, and against Edom, and against the king of Zobah, and against the Philistines; and whithersover he turned himself he vexed them." It seems from this passage that the Philistines at the close of the period of the Judges of Israel, had become their most powerful enemies. The thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of 1 Samuel are wholly taken up with an account of the struggles of Saul with them. “And there was sore war against the Philistines" not only during " all the days of Saul," but the beginning of David's reign, was signalized by a victory over this same nation, 2 Sam. 5: 17 sq. An examination of the history of the subsequent wars of David, shows, that the enemies enumerated in Num. 24: 17 sq. acted but a subordinate part. The great struggle was with the Aramaean nations,1 and the Ammonites. The designation of Amalek as the chief of the nations, is as appropriate in the age of Moses as it would be inapposite in any subsequent age.2 So Calvin accounts for the mention made of Amalek by saying: quia tunc celeberrimae erant eorum opes; and Le Clerc also says: oportuisse Hamalekitarum res eo tempore floruisse, quandoquidem quasi eximium quid Israelitarum rex major Hamalekitarum rege futurus dicitur.

Several other particulars might be dwelt upon as indicating the Mosaic origin of our passage, such as the mingling of heathen and Israelitish religious rites and practices, differences between the oracles of Balaam and subsequent prophecies, accuracy of geographical details in regard to that period, and an incidental allusion to the arrangement of the Israelites in their passage through the wilderness; but we hasten to notice in conclusion, the proof of authenticity, from the actual declaration of future events that we find in 24: 24. That there is a manifest foresight of what will happen in a subsequent age, cannot, we think, be denied. And the declaration that a power shall come from the west and subjugate the Babylonians, is as really beyond the bounds of merely human knowledge or foresight, when made in the time of Saul or David or even of the Assyrian dominion, as in the age of Moses. 1 See 2 Sam. 8: 3 seq. 10: 6 sq. 12. 26 sq.

2 See Exodus xvii.

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On Fulfilling the Ministry.

743

But if there is real prophecy here, we need no further proof of its authenticity. For we cannot suppose that God would vouchsafe his prophetic spirit to one in a later age, who was endeavoring to palm himself off upon the world, as a contemporary with Moses. This would be to give countenance to deception, and at least to approve of evil for the sake of a good result. Not so have we understood the character of him who is "not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should repent."

ARTICLE V.

ON FULFILLING THE MINISTRY.

By Rev. N. Adams, Boston, Mass.

As we look back on those who in different generations and ages of the world have constituted the ministry of the true religion, we are struck with two things which preeminently characterize them. One is, that those of them who have fulfilled their ministry, have been earnest men. If we may speak of Moses as a minister of Israel, we have in him, a powerful example of earnestness. The faithful prophets were eminently earnest men; it is like the sudden sound of a trumpet to meet the name of Elijah, Samuel and Daniel; while the lives and sufferings, or the unequalled utterances of the other men of God in the Old Testament, and the histories of the Apostles, make this great impression on the mind, that each of them had his special work to do; and how was he straitened till it was accomplished! The tide that was set in motion by the Apostles, imparted its vigor to the early Christian fathers, till it lost itself in the great sea of human philosophy, and became for a time only one of the cross currents in the ocean of human thought. But see the Reformers of the sixteenth century, French, German and English, of any one of whom, Satan might have started and said, as Herod did of Christ, "It is John the Baptist whom I beheaded." The English Puritans were earnest men; the fathers of New England were baptized with fire. Wherever we find a ministry exerting a decided influence upon their generation, we find men of strong impulses, consecrating themselves wholly to their work.

With this earnestness we notice another peculiarity in them. The thoughts and labors of a faithful and able ministry are always