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1. He pronounceth them safe, and out of the reach of his envenomed darts.

(1) He owns the design was to curse them (ver 7).

(2) He owns the design defeated, and his own inability to accomplish it. He could not so much as give them an ill word or an ill wish (ver. 8).

(a) The weakness and impotency of his magic skill, for which others valued him so much, and doubtless he valued himself no less. He was the most celebrated man of that profession, and yet owns himself baffled. God had warned the Israelites not to use divination (Leviticus 19:31), and this providence gave them a reason for that law by showing them the weakness and folly of it. As they had seen the magicians of Egypt befooled, so here the great conjuror of the East (Isaiah 47:12, 13, 14).

(b) It is a confession of the sovereignty and dominion of the Divine power. He owns that he could do no more than God would suffer him to do; for God could overrule all his purposes and turn his counsels headlong.

(c) It is a confession of the inviolable security of the people of God.Note —

1. God's Israel are owned and blessed of Him. He has not cursed them, for they are delivered from the curse of the law; He has not abandoned them, though mean and vile.

2. Those that have the good-will of heaven have the ill-will of hell; the serpent and his seed have an enmity to them.

3. Though the enemies of God's people may prevail far against them, yet they cannot curse them: that is, they cannot do them any real mischief, much less a ruining mischief, for they cannot separate them from the love of God (Romans 8:39).

2. He pronounceth them happy — in three things.

(1) Happy in their peculiarity, and distinction from the rest of the nations (ver. 9). It is the duty and honour of those that are dedicated to God to be separated from the world, and not to walk according to the course of it. Those who make conscience of peculiar duties may take the comfort of peculiar privileges, which it is likely Balaam has an eye to here; God's Israel shall not stand upon a level with other nations, but be dignified above them all, as a people near to God and set apart for Him.

(2) Happy in their numbers; not so few and despicable as they were represented to Him, but an innumerable company which made them both honourable and formidable (ver. 10). Balak would have him see the utmost part of the people (Numbers 22:41), hoping the more he saw of them the more would he be exasperated against them, and throw out his curses with the more keenness and rage; but it proved quite contrary; instead of being angry at their numbers he admired them. The better we are acquainted with God's people the better opinion we have of them. He takes notice of the number —

(a) Of the dust of Jacob, i.e., the people of Jacob, concerning whom it was foretold that they should be as the dust for number (Genesis 28:14). Thus he owns the fulfilling of the promise made to the fathers, and expects that it should be yet further accomplished.

(b) Of the fourth part of Israel; alluding to the form of their camp which was cast into four squadrons under four standards. Note, God's Israel is a very great body; His spiritual Israel is so, and they will appear to be so, when they shall all be gathered together unto Him in the great day (Revelation 7:9).

(3) Happy in their last end. Let me die the death of the righteous Israelites, that are in covenant with God, and let my last end, or future state, be like theirs, or my recompense, viz., in the other world. Here —

(a) It is taken for granted that death is the end of all men; the righteous themselves must die; and it is good for each of us to think of this with application, as Balaam himself doth here, speaking of his own death.

(b) He goes upon the supposition of the soul's immortality, and a different state on the other side death, to which this is a noble testimony, and an evidence of its being anciently known and believed. For how could the death of the righteous be more desirable than the death of the wicked upon any other account, but that of a happiness in another world, since in the manner and circumstances of dying we see all things come alike to all?

(c) He pronounceth the righteous truly blessed, not only while they live, but when they die; which makes their death not only more desirable than the death of others, but even more desirable than life itself; for in that sense his wish may be taken. Not only when I do die, let me die the death of the righteous; but I could even now be willing to die, on that condition that I might die the death of the righteous and take my end this moment provided it might be like his.

( Matthew Henry, D. D..)

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KJV: And the LORD put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, Return unto Balak, and thus thou shalt speak.

WEB: Yahweh put a word in Balaam's mouth, and said, "Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak."