Charles Ellicott Commentary


Charles Ellicott Commentary
"Water shall flow from his buckets, And his seed shall be in many waters, And his king shall be higher than Agag, And his kingdom shall be exalted." — Numbers 24:7 (ASV)
He shall pour the water out of his buckets.— Better, Water shall flow from his buckets; or, he shall flow with water from his buckets. The nation is personified as a man carrying two buckets full of water, which was the type and leading source of blessing and prosperity in the East. This is a beautiful image, as Bishop Wordsworth has observed, of the true Israel “pouring out the living waters of salvation, the pure streams of the Spirit, and making the wilderness of the world to rejoice and be glad.”
His seed shall be in many waters.— This may mean that Israel should inhabit Canaan—a land of brooks of water (Deuteronomy 8:7; Deuteronomy 11:11); or it may mean that, like seed sown and trees planted by the waters (Isaiah 32:20; Isaiah 44:4; Isaiah 65:22–23), they should inherit the richest blessings.
His king shall be higher than Agag ... —Agag appears to have been the title (nomen dignitatis) of the Amalekite kings, as Pharaoh of the Egyptian and Abimelech of the Philistine kings. The reference does not seem to be to any particular king, but to the kingdom that should in the future be established in Israel—to the kings, generally, who should come from the loins of Abraham (Genesis 17:6; Genesis 35:11).