John Gill Commentary Numbers 22

And the children of Israel set forward
From the country of Bashan, where we read of them last, after they had conquered Og the king of it, and also Sihon king of the Amorites, and settled some of their tribes in both kingdoms; the particular place from which they came hither, according to the account of their journeys, were the mountains of Abarim, (Numbers 33:48):

and pitched in the plains of Moab
the part of them they encamped in reached from Bethjesimoth to Abelshittim, (Numbers 33:49),

on this side Jordan by Jericho ;
or Jordan of Jericho, as the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan; a river that flowed near to Jericho, running between the plains of Moab and the plains of Jericho; according to Josephus ^F21 it was sixty furlongs, or seven miles and a half from Jericho; but, according to Jerome ^F23 , it was but five miles: or rather, as some versions render it, "over against Jericho" ^F24 ; for Jericho was on the other side of the river Jordan, and the plains of Moab, or that part of them where Israel now pitched, were right against that city; and so Josephus says ^F25 .

FOOTNOTES:

• F21: Antiqu. l. 5. c. 1. sect. 4.
• F23: De locis Heb. fol. 87. G.
• F24: (kata iericw) Sept. "ex opposito Heiricho", Tigurine version.
• F25: Antiqu. l. 4. c. 6. sect. 1.

And Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel has done to
the Amorites .
] The word "Amorites" being particularly pointed, shows, as Aben Ezra observes, that Sihon and Og are both meant, and that there were not among the kings of the land of Canaan any so great as they; So when Balak, who was the present king of Moab, saw what Israel had done to them, that they had conquered them, and seized upon their kingdoms:

He reasoned within himself, and said, as Jarchi represents him, that if they could not stand before Israel, much less could he and his people; and the rather, since those kings Israel had subdued were too powerful for the king of Moab, and had taken part of his country from him, and yet Israel was too strong for them.

And Moab was sore afraid of the people
Lest they should enter into their country and do to them as they had done to Sihon and Og, and their countries; on this account the king of Moab, his nobles, and the people of the land, were in an exceeding great panic, which was a fulfilling of the prophecy of Moses in (Exodus 15:15) :

because they were many
the number of them taken a little after in this place, where they now were, in the plains of Moab, even after 24,000 had died of the plague, was 601,730, (Numbers 25:9) (26:51) :

and Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel ;
though they had no reason for it, had they considered their relation to them, being the descendants of Abraham, the uncle of Lot, whose posterity they were; and that the Israelites had done them service in delivering them from such bad neighbours, who had taken much of their country from them, and were doubtless making continual encroachments on them; and especially had they known the orders the Israelites had from the Lord not to distress them, nor contend with them in battle, (Deuteronomy 2:9) ,

but this they were ignorant of, and being of a different religion from the Israelites, had them in abhorrence, or loathed them, as the word signifies; though the meaning rather seems to be, that they had a nausea, a loathing in their stomachs, and could not eat their food, because of the dread of the Israelites that was upon them; or they were weary of their lives, as Jarchi interprets it, and as the word is used, (Genesis 27:46) .

And Moab said unto the elders of Midian
Whom the king of Moab sent for to consult with what to do in the present case, for the good and safety of both people; for, according to the Targum of Jonathan, they were one people and one kingdom unto this time, at least had been confederates, by what is said (Genesis 36:35) though Jarchi thinks there was always a mutual hatred of each other, and that Midian now came against Moab to war, but for fear of Israel a peace was made between them, just as it was with Herod and Pontius Pilate in another case, (Luke 23:12) .

However, they were friends as well as neighbours now; and by which it appears, that this Midian was not that where Jethro lived, which was on the Red sea, near Mount Sinai, in Arabia Felix; this was near the river Arnon, and the Moabites in Arabia Petraea; and though both the one and the other descended from Midian, the son of Abraham by Keturah, yet they had spread themselves, or the one was a colony from the other, and might be distinguished into southern and northern Midianites; the latter were those near Moab; and these elders of Midian, addressed by the king of Moab, being now at his court, whether sent for or not, are the same with the five kings or princes of Midian, as they are called, (Numbers 31:8) (Joshua 13:21) as Aben Ezra observes.

now shall this company lick up all [that are] round about us ;
consume us, and all our people, and all adjoining to us, and depending on us:

as the ox licketh up the grass of the field ;
as easily, and as soon, and as completely and entirely; nor are we any more able to oppose them than the grass of the field is to resist and hinder the ox from devouring it:

and Balak the son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at that time ;
according to the Targum of Jonathan, Midianites and Moabites reigned by turns so long a time; and that Balak was a Midianite, and so says Jarchi, and unfit for the kingdom, and was set over them through necessity for a time: but it seems rather that he was king in succession after his father Zippor; and the design of the expression is only to show, that he who was before mentioned, (Numbers 22:2) was the then reigning prince when this affair happened.

He sent messengers therefore to Balaam the son of Beor
In consequence of the consultation held by the king of Moab with the elders of Midian; and very probably through a motion of theirs, and by advice they gave, Balak dispatched messengers of both people to the person here described by his name and parentage; but who he was is not easy to say: the Jews sometimes make him to be a magician in Pharaoh's court, at the time when Moses was born ^F26 , which is not probable; and it is still more improbable that he should be Laban the Syrian, as the Targum of Jonathan here, and the Targum on (1 Chronicles 1:44) though others say ^F1

to Pethor, which is by the river of the land of the children of his
people ;
the land of his people, of his birth or habitation, was Aram or Syria, (Numbers 23:7) that is, Aram Naharaim, which lay between the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates, or what is sometimes called Mesopotamia, as is clear from (Deuteronomy 23:4) , and the river of that land, which was eminently so called, is the river Euphrates, as the Targum of Jonathan expresses it here, and by that river was Pethor, where Balaam now lived; and is by some thought to be the same with the Pacoria of Ptolemy ^F3 , which was by that river: the messengers were sent.

to call him :
to invite him to Balak's court: saying, behold, there is a people come out from Egypt ;
Balak speaks of them, as if he knew not who they were, only that they were come from Egypt, and were seeking a new habitation to settle in, and so were in danger from them, lest they should invade his country, and settle there.

behold, they cover the face of the earth ;
not the face of the whole earth, unless an hyperbolical expression is supposed, to set forth the greatness of their numbers; but a large part of the earth, all within sight almost, even the plains of Moab:

and they abide over against me ;
were very near him, lay encamped before his country, and his metropolis, and so he thought himself in great danger, and threatened with an invasion, as the pitching of their tents so near made him surmise.

FOOTNOTES:

• F26: Dibre Hayamim Shekmoaseh, fol. 3. 2.
• F1: he was the son of Beor, the son of Laban, and so was the grandson of Laban; and with as little probability is he said to be Elihu, that answered Job according to a tradition of the Jews, mentioned by Jerom {b}; nor is there any reason to believe that he was ever a good man, and a true prophet of the Lord; he is expressly said to be a diviner or a soothsayer, (Joshua 13:22) , a sort of men abhorred of God, and not to be suffered to be among his people, (Deuteronomy 18:10) but were of great credit and esteem among the Heathens, for their pretensions to foretell things to come, or to discover lost goods, and the like; and by their enchantments to drive away evils, or bring on curses, for which Balaam was famous: and therefore, by the advice of the Midianites, Balak sent for him
• F3: Geograph. l. 5. c. 18.