And Balak said unto him, Come, I pray you, with me unto another place, from which you may see them: you shall see but the outer part of them, and shall not see them all: and curse them for me from there.
All Commentaries on Numbers 23:13 Go To Numbers 23
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Thence. He has a mind to try a new experiment. We have observed, that the object of malediction was to be in view, chap. xxii. 41. But Balac, supposing perhaps that the multitude made too deep an impression upon the soothsayer, judged it expedient to place him in another situation, where he might see only a part of Israel. Some, however, imagine that he had only seen a fourth part, or the uttermost part of the people, who lay nearest to him before; (ver. 10, and chap. xxii. 41) and hence, would have him to take now a distinct view of the whole; and, in this sense, the Samaritan and Glassius translate from whence, thus, "for thou hast seen only part of Israel, and couldst not see them all. "(Calmet)
By a similar superstition, the Syrians imagined that the God of Israel was a God of the hills, and that they could more easily conquer his people on the plain country, 3 Kings xx. 23. (Menochius)
