Numbers 23

The prophet Balaam, in Numbers, was sent forth by king Balak to curse Israel, with whom he was commencing war. But at the same moment he was filled with the spirit. Instead of the curse which he came to pronounce, he uttered the blessing which the spirit at that very hour inspired him with. This is he who had previously declared to the king's messengers, and then to the king himself, that he could only speak forth that which God should put into his mouth. The novel [heretical] doctrines of the new Christ are such as the Creator's servants initiated long before!

Although the order of the readings which are recited demands rather that we speak of those things which the reader has set forth, nevertheless, since some of the brethren earnestly ask that rather those things which are written concerning the prophecy of Balaam be brought forward for the discourse of our discussion, I have thought it right to satisfy not so much the order of the readings as the desires of the hearers. First of all, then, let us inquire concerning Balaam himself, why in the Scriptures he is set forth now as blameworthy, now as praiseworthy. For he is blameworthy when, though forbidden by God to come to the king, he persists in coming, and, greedy for reward, consults God again, again inquires, until he is left to his own desires and goes in his own wishes. He is culpable when he builds altars and places victims upon them for demons and by magical apparatus seeks divine counsels. He is culpable when he gives that most wicked counsel, that the people be deceived through the Midianite women and the worship of idols. Again he is shown to be praiseworthy, when the word of God is placed in his mouth, when the Spirit of God comes upon him, when he prophesies concerning Christ, when he foretells to Jews and Gentiles the future mysteries concerning the coming of Christ, when instead of curses he bestows blessings upon the people and exalts the name of Israel above visible glory with mystical utterances. Since, then, divine Scripture indicates concerning him things so diverse and so varied, it seems very difficult to me to determine with any definiteness his person, to whom not only this diversity may suit, but to whom that also may be fitted which he himself, as though prophesying, says concerning himself: "Let my soul die among the souls of the righteous, and let my seed be as the seed of the righteous." But also through the prophet Micah the Lord gives such a testimony concerning him, where he says: "My people, what have I done to you? Answer me; for I called you back from the land of Egypt, and from the house of bondage I freed you, and I sent before your face Moses and Aaron and Miriam. My people, remember what Balak king of Moab plotted against you, and what Balaam son of Beor answered him from the ropes even to Gilgal, that the righteousness of the Lord might be known." He shows, then, through these words that, in order that the righteousness of the Lord might be recognized, for this reason Balaam son of Beor answered to king Balak all those things which are reported as written in the books. And who, do you think, will be found of such a kind as to be able to show from Balaam's very answers that the righteousness of God is made manifest in them? For truly, if the word of God has been placed in his mouth, and the Spirit of God has come upon him, and the righteousness of God is recognized and made manifest from his answers, then in every way the things which are said by him must be believed to be nothing other than prophetic and divine. And yet we scarcely read anywhere written that the Spirit of God came upon any of the prophets; but rather "the vision which he saw," or "the taking up of the word of God," or "the word of God came to" this one or that one, and certain other such things we read concerning the prophets. But that the Spirit of God came upon any of the prophets, I do not for the present recall to have read, except that concerning David I remember it thus written: "And the Spirit of God appeared," or "shone forth, upon David from that day and thereafter"—yet the Spirit of God was not "made" upon David. But concerning Saul I remember it thus written: "And the Spirit of the Lord shall fall upon you, and you shall prophesy with them, and you shall be turned into another man"; and again concerning the same it is said: "And the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the Lord confounded him"; and again: "And it came to pass, when the evil spirit was upon Saul, David took up the psaltery and played with his hands, and struck it, and it was well with him, and the evil spirit departed from him." These things I have noted because that which is written, "and the Spirit of God came upon him," can seem to be something intermediate. Wherefore we too, according to what we had understood in the earlier treatise, shall now also attempt to explain this same Balaam under the person of the Pharisees and scribes and those like them. But come now, let us look at the words of his prophecy, which he is written to have spoken when he had taken up his parable. "From Mesopotamia," he says, "Balak king of Moab has called me, from the mountains of the East." By Mesopotamia he means the land which lies between the rivers of Babylonia, concerning which it is written: "Upon the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, while we remembered Zion." If, then, anyone is among these rivers of Babylon, if anyone is flooded by the streams of lust and washed about by the heats of wantonness, he is said not to stand, but to sit; and therefore those who were caught there said: "Upon the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept, while we remembered Zion." But they cannot even weep before, except when they have remembered Zion; for the remembrance of good things makes the causes of evils to be lamented. For unless a person remembers Zion, unless he looks upon the law of God and the mountains of the Scriptures, he does not begin to weep for his own evils. From these rivers, then, Balaam is called, and from these mountains of the East he is invited. These mountains are not those holy mountains, concerning which it is written: "Its foundations are in the holy mountains," and again: "Jerusalem, which is built as a city, whose sharing is together in one": "Mountains are round about it, and the Lord is round about his people." The mountains of Mesopotamia, then, are not such, but rather those of which it is said: "dark mountains," and again, of which it is said: "Behold, I am against you, O corrupt mountain." These are the mountains in which is "every height lifting itself up against the knowledge of God." From these mountains, then, this Balaam too is summoned. And of what kind these mountains are, such also is their East; for he too who "transforms himself as an angel of light" has the rising of his own light; he has that light concerning which it is written: "The light of the ungodly shall be extinguished." And just as this light of the ungodly, and that light which "transforms itself as an angel of light," is contrary to that light which said: "I am the light of the world," so also this East is contrary to that East concerning which it is written in Jeremiah: "Behold a man, the East is his name." From the borders of that East, then, not of this one, Balaam came, illumined without doubt by that Lucifer concerning whom it is said: "How has Lucifer fallen from heaven, who rose in the morning?"

But let us see what Balak king of Moab, who summoned him from the midst of the rivers from the mountains of the East, says to him. "Come," he says, "and curse me Jacob, and come, curse me Israel." In Latin speech the repetition seems almost superfluous, which says: "Curse me Jacob, and curse me Israel." But in the Greek text, under the name of Israel, there is in the cursing an addition of a preposition, which our translators omitted, either believing it to be said less fittingly, or reckoning that no force could be added to the expression from this. But we, though contrary to custom, coin an expression, so that we may gather the sense in full; it can therefore be said: "Come, curse me Jacob, and come, over-curse me Israel." By which it is shown that the speech was repeated for this reason, that Balak seems to demand a curse upon Israel with greater force and greater intensity than upon Jacob. For as long as anyone is only Jacob, that is, placed only in acts and works, he is assailed with lesser curses. But when he has advanced and has begun to sharpen and rouse the inner man, with the eye of the mind unveiled, to see God, then he will be assailed by the enemy not only with curses, but even with over-curses, that is, with more violent darts of curses. But at that time indeed Balaam's mouth was "full of cursing and bitterness, and under his tongue was labor and pain," and "he sat in ambush with the rich"; for he was awaiting rewards from the rich king, that "in secret places he might slay the innocent." But God, "who alone always does wonders," works salvation out of enemies; for he cast a word into his mouth, although his heart could not yet receive the word of God. For there was still in his heart the greed for reward, on account of which even after the word of God, which he had in his mouth, he said to Balak: "Come, and I will give you counsel," and he taught him how he might put a stumbling-block in the sight of the children of Israel, that they might eat things sacrificed to idols and might commit fornication. On account of which the people also fell, and a great plague came upon them, until Phinehas, having slain the Israelite who was fornicating with the Midianite woman, appeased the wrath of the Lord. And after these things, it says, Phinehas led out an army against the Midianites, and they killed twelve thousand men, and Balaam son of Beor by the sword. But these things we have introduced before their time, by a kind of digression, in order to show that Balaam had the word of God not in his heart, but only in his mouth. Meanwhile, what he brings forth, what he speaks, he speaks from the word of God, and therefore what he says is the word of God.

He says, then: "What shall I curse, whom the Lord does not curse? Or what shall I over-curse, whom the Lord does not over-curse?" "Over-curses" we venture to say according to the manner of the Greek speech, desiring to show the force of the word from the addition of the preposition. What, then, shall we say? The Lord indeed does not curse Jacob, nor Israel, but does he perhaps curse some other? We read it written that the Lord says to the serpent: "Cursed are you among all the beasts of the earth"; and again to Adam: "Cursed is the earth in your works"; but also to Cain: "And now cursed are you from the earth, which opened its mouth to receive the blood of your brother from your hands"; and: "Cursed is everyone who makes a graven or molten image." But lest you think that these things are contained only in the old writings, you will find similar things also in the Gospels; for it is written that the Lord will say to those who are on the left: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire." But also when he says: "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!" and: "Woe to you rich!" and each thing of this kind, with what else than curses does he seem to press them? But what shall we say to the fact that a commandment is given through the Apostle, where he says: "Bless and do not curse"? Does he, then, himself do that which he does not wish to be done by men—he who sets an example of life for men? It is not so. For God, when he curses any, designates the desert of him who is cursed, and pronounces sentence, inasmuch as neither the quality of the sin nor the disposition of the sinner escapes him. But since a man cannot know these things—for one cannot see or know the purpose and mind of another—therefore, even if he utters a curse with the intent of one judging or pronouncing sentence, there cannot be a just cause for cursing where the disposition of the sinner is unknown, especially since human vice knows how to utter curses precisely when it is perhaps provoked by insults or injuries. Wishing to cut away this vice, that we may not provoke curses with curses and insults with insults, the Apostle lays down a necessary commandment, that we bless and do not curse; whereby the vice of reviling may be cut away, not whereby the truth of judging—which is hidden from men—and the authority of pronouncing sentence may be destroyed.

And nevertheless, what the reason is that the Lord does not curse Jacob nor Israel, let us hear more carefully from Balaam himself, or rather from the word which God placed in his mouth: "For from the peaks of the mountains," he says, "I shall behold him, and from the hills I shall understand him." Because, he says, Israel is placed upon lofty mountains and high hills, that is, in a lofty and steep life, for beholding and understanding which one does not easily become fit unless he ascends to eminent and lofty knowledge, therefore, he says, God does not curse him; for his life is high and exalted, not lowly and cast down. Yet this does not seem to me to have been said concerning that Israel which is Israel according to the flesh, but concerning that one whose conversation, as he walks upon the earth, is in heaven. Or if these words are to be referred also to that people, he rightly says with a distinction: "I shall behold and I shall understand," so as to signify a future time, that one without doubt when all Israel, coming to the faith of Christ, shall be saved and shall be beheld from the mountains and hills; from those, without doubt, who, rising together with Christ, shall have practiced a lofty and heavenly life upon the earth. But also the fact that he said concerning Jacob "I shall see," but concerning Israel "I shall understand," this too is to be taken with a most apt distinction, so that the one may be referred to visible acts, the other to invisible faith and intelligible knowledge. Or if we turn these things to the future age, that is, to the time of the resurrection, "Jacob I shall see" can be understood as said of the bodies, but "Israel I shall understand" can be understood to signify the spirits and souls of those who rise again. "Behold," he says, "the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations." This can indeed stand also according to the letter; for the people of Jacob alone is not mingled with the rest of men, nor is it reckoned among the other nations: for it had certain fixed privileges in its observances and in its ordinances, by which it was held to be set apart from the other nations. For just as the tribe of Levi is not mingled among the other tribes nor is numbered among them, in this same way all Israel too is neither mixed with the other nations nor reckoned among them. These things indeed will have been in that people according to the pattern of future good things; but the true Jacob and the spiritual Israel shall truly dwell alone among the nations. For if we have come to Mount Zion and the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and have come to the spiritual Judea, which is God's portion, and, placed on earth, have our conversation there, truly we are not reckoned among the other nations, nor are the borders of the remaining nations mingled with our borders, even if Sodom be restored to its ancient state and Egypt return to its condition, and whatever else of this kind is written in the prophets. Nevertheless, to that Jacob and spiritual Israel, when they shall have ascended to the church of the firstborn, none will be made equal, none will be mingled, even if these nations shall have been restored according to the prophetic sayings. For unless the branch of the wild olive has been grafted in and has become a partaker of the root of the olive's richness, how can it be associated and joined to Jacob or Israel, since without that root no one can be called either Jacob or Israel? Neither, then, if anyone of Jacob or Israel sins, can he be called Jacob or Israel; nor, if anyone of the nations has entered the church of the Lord, will he any longer be reckoned among the nations.

You have caused me, my brother, not to fear death, and I only would that my life might die with yours! This Balaam wished for as the greatest good for himself, when, inspired by the spirit of prophecy, he said, "Let my soul die in the souls of the righteous, and let my seed be like the seed of them." And in truth he wished this according to the spirit of prophecy, for as he saw the rising of Christ, so also he saw his triumph; he saw his death but saw also in him the everlasting resurrection of humanity and therefore feared not to die as he was to rise again. Let not then my soul die in sin or admit sin into itself, but let it die in the soul of the righteous, that it may receive his righteousness. Then too, he who dies in Christ is made a partaker of his grace in the font.

The soul is in a certain sense mortal — and blessed, if it dies for sin. It was precisely of this death that Balaam spoke, when he prophesied, praying in the Divine Spirit: "May my soul die among the souls of the righteous." It was precisely of this death that Balaam prophesied wondrously, and in a word that came from God, wished for himself the most beautiful thing, for he wished to die for sin, in order to live for God. And therefore he said: "May my soul die the death of the righteous, and may my seed be as their seed!"

"Who shall search out the seed of Jacob, and who shall number the peoples of Israel?" This is like that which is written: "God led Abraham outside and said to him: Look up to heaven and number the stars, if you can number them. And he said: So shall your seed be." "And Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him for righteousness." But Abraham indeed, and any other of men, or even of angels, and perhaps also of the higher powers, could not number the stars, nor the seed of Abraham, concerning which it is written: "So shall your seed be"; but God, concerning whom it is written: "who numbers the multitude of the stars, and calls them all by names," and who said: "I have given command to all the stars," is able to search out the seed of Jacob and to number the peoples of Israel. For he alone knows who is truly Jacob and who is truly Israel. For he does not look to him who is a Jew openly, nor to that circumcision which is openly in the flesh, but he sees him who is a Jew in secret, and who is circumcised in heart, not in flesh. He alone, then, is the one who can number and search out, and he, according to his ineffable and incomprehensible wisdom, in accordance with that heavenly pattern which he alone can know, has appointed also these numbers which we have in hand; in which he commanded that, according to their kindreds, according to the houses of their families, by name every male be numbered head by head from twenty years and upward, everyone who goes forth in the host of Israel, and there is gathered a certain sacred number of them, concerning which we have already spoken above, as the Lord granted. But this number is sacred and pleasing to God only then, when it is numbered at his own command. But if anyone should wish to number contrary to the commandment of the Lord, though he be David, though a great prophet, he acts against the law and is reproved through the prophet and suffers those things which we read written in the second book of Kingdoms. He alone, then, who numbers the multitude of the stars and who has brought forth all things by measure and number and weight, searches out the seed of Jacob and numbers the peoples of Israel.

After these things he seems to prophesy certain things as though concerning himself, when he says: "Let my soul die among the souls of the righteous, and let my seed be as the seed of the righteous." But this, as far as regards the person of that Balaam and that Israel, neither happened nor could happen; for he died not among them, but by them. Rather, then, as we have said, it will suit the person of those who, although in the present age they are held to be a vain people, because they are without the grace of the Holy Spirit, yet at the end of the age, when the fullness of the Gentiles shall have come in, and all that prophecy which is spoken concerning Israel shall have been fulfilled in the spiritual Israel, then their soul shall die with the souls of the righteous. For it will take up in itself the faith of Christ, so that they too may say: "We who were baptized in Christ were baptized in his death. For we were buried together with him through baptism into death," and again: "For if we die together, we shall also reign together." And thus it will truly be fulfilled for the intelligible Balaam, that his soul may die among the souls of the righteous. But that which he says: "and let my seed be as the seed of the righteous," could indeed be understood also of that Balaam according to this, that those magi who, coming from the East, first adored Jesus, seem to be of his seed, whether through succession of lineage or through the handing down of a teaching. For it is evidently established that they recognized the star which Balaam had foretold would arise in Israel, and that thus they came and adored the king who was born in Israel. Yet it will suit also that people according to what we said above; for not so much they themselves as their seed will become as the seed of the righteous, namely of those who, believing from among the nations, have been justified in Christ. Hence it is manifest that, as the Apostle says: "neither circumcision is anything nor uncircumcision, but faith, which works through love." And therefore let no one either boast in the antiquity of circumcision or glory in the newness of uncircumcision, but, as the Apostle says: "let each one prove his own work, and then he will have glory in himself alone." So finally the prophet too says: "Behold, the man and his work"; and the reward is said to be "in the sight of the Lord," that "he may render to each according to his works," in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

In the previous treatise we attempted, so far as was possible, to explain the first parts of Balaam's prophecy. Now we take up the beginning of the second prophecy, so that, if the Lord deigns to inspire us, we may bring forward for the assembly, to the best of our strength, whatever occurs to us concerning this one as well. For it seemed to me unfitting, although these matters appear difficult, to interrupt the treatment of them, so as not to expound the individual points that we are able to grasp. Therefore King Balak, as if astonished and stricken by those things which he saw being said by Balaam contrary to his hope — for he was hearing blessings instead of curses — no longer bearing it, interrupts his words and says: "What have you done to me? I called you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them with a blessing." The bitter king did not endure the sweetness of blessings, but seeks curses, demands curses; for he is of the kindred of that one to whom the Lord said: "Cursed are you above all the beasts of the earth."

But what did he answer him — he in whose mouth God had placed the word? "Shall I not," he says, "take care to speak whatever God puts into my mouth?"

At this Balak, thinking that Balaam had been terrified by the multitude of the Israelite people and had therefore not dared to utter curses, believed that a change of place would profit him, and says to him: "Come yet with me to another place, from which you will not see them, but you will see some part of them, though you will not see them all, and curse them for me from there." Mad man, who would believe that the grace of Israel could be concealed by the interposition of a place, and who did not know that a city set upon a mountain cannot be hidden.

"And he took him," it says, "to the lookout of the field, to the top of the hewn mountain, and there he built seven altars, and placed a calf and a ram upon the altar. And Balaam said to Balak: Stand by your sacrifice, but I will go to inquire of God. And God met Balaam, and put a word into his mouth and said: Without doubt, return to Balak, and you shall speak these things. But he — that is, Balak — was standing beside his burnt offerings, and all the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him: What has the Lord spoken?" The matter indeed is carried on with profane sacrifices, and divination is sought by magical art; yet God, willing that grace should abound there where sin had superabounded, deigns to be present and does not flee from these things which were being done not according to Israelite discipline but according to the error of the gentiles. But he is present not to the sacrifices, but to the one coming to meet him, and there he gives his word and there foretells the mysteries to come, where above all the faith and wonder of the gentiles hangs, so that those who are unwilling to believe our prophets may believe their own soothsayers and seers.

"And taking up," it says, "his parable, he said." By a parable, then, Balaam says: "Rise up, Balak, and hear; give ear as a witness, son of Zippor. Not as a man is God deceived, nor as a son of man is he frightened; when he has said, shall he not do it? shall he speak, and not abide by it? Behold, I have been taken up to bless; I will bless, and I will not turn it away. There shall be no labor in Jacob, nor shall sorrow be seen in Israel. The Lord his God is with him, the glories of princes are with him. God, who led him out of Egypt, his glory is as that of a unicorn. For there shall be no augury in Jacob, nor divination in Israel. In due time it shall be told to Jacob and Israel what God will accomplish. Behold, a people shall rise up like a lion's cub, and shall exult like a lion; it shall not sleep until it devours the prey, and it shall drink the blood of the slain." This is the content of the second prophecy in the words of Balaam. Let us therefore see first this very thing which he says: "Rise up, Balak, and hear." For if he had not said above that he was standing beside his burnt offering, it would not seem greatly worth inquiring why he said: "Rise up, Balak." But now, since he urges to rise up the one whom he had just said was standing, the prophetic utterance is not to be passed over idly. Therefore, in that he said above that he was standing at his burnt offering, he indicates that he was not standing rightly. For he was standing, set in idolatry, and was standing as an enemy of God — which was rather not to stand, but to fall. So then, as one who ought to fall from that standing — nay rather, as one who had already fallen — thus now, by prophetic understanding, he commands him to rise up; inasmuch as, by the very fact that he had seemed to stand in idolatry, he had fallen. Let him therefore rise up, such a one as he is, let him rise up in mind, let him rise up in faith, and let him become a witness — if indeed he is converted, a witness of faith; but if he remains unbelieving, that he may be a witness of his own condemnation.

But let us hear what he announces to him. "Not as a man," he says, "is God deceived, nor as a son of man is he himself frightened." Do not hold, he says, this opinion about God, so as to think that he is like a man who can be thwarted in the things he speaks. For men are hindered by many occasions and vices, so that what they say is not true. For either they speak in anger, and when the anger ceases they have spoken in vain, or for the sake of fear or desire or boastfulness and other things like these; and indeed vain and empty will be everything whatsoever they have spoken while vice held sway. But God, in whom there is no passion, no frailty, says everything he says according to the merits of the causes; and therefore he can never be thwarted, because whatever is brought forth by reason cannot be devoid of reason. God, therefore, is not like a man who speaks in vain, nor is he frightened as a son of man — or, as we read in other copies: nor does he frighten as a son of man. In men, terror too sometimes changes a resolve; but God, who is above all things, by whom could he be frightened so as to change his resolve? But if we take it according to what we said is read in other copies, that is: "nor does he frighten as a son of man," this will seem to be said: that men indeed sometimes make terrors and threats out of boastfulness, even at times against those whom they cannot harm; but God does not frighten men as one who cannot punish, but even if he frightens, he frightens with reason; for he frightens in order to rebuke a man in the tribulation of the hearing, so that, deterred by the word of the threat, he who acts wickedly may amend himself, and the very punishment of his wicked deeds may not come upon him. God, therefore, does not frighten as a man does; for man, as we said, terrifies out of boastfulness, but God terrifies for the sake of amendment.

After this he says: "When he has said, shall he not do it? shall he speak, and not abide by it?" The passage is to be read thus, as if he spoke in the manner of one asking: he — that is, God — what he says, will he not also do? and the things he has spoken, will he not abide in them? Since indeed men do not do what they say, and through the vice of human frailty do not abide in the things they speak; for man is changeable, but God is unchangeable. But someone may object and say: how then did God not abide in the things he spoke concerning Nineveh, that after three days it should be overthrown? nor in the things he spoke concerning David, where death had been promised for three days, to lay waste the people, yet within one day, up to the hour of the midday meal, it ceased? And perhaps it will seem that these things which are said by way of question are not to be taken altogether as fixed, but that there is a certain figure of speech which seems to show something intermediate, yet does not declare the force of a fixed and irrevocable statement — so that something is seen to be said more moderately in what is written, "When he has said, shall he not do it?" than if it had been written, "When he has said, he will by all means do it." But let us also review the very passages of Scripture which are set down either in Jonah or in the books of Kingdoms, lest perhaps there too, as is customary, the divine Scripture may hold something of a secret. It is written, then, in Jonah: "And the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amathi, saying: Rise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach in it, for the cry of its wickedness has ascended to me." And after the whale was commanded, and it cast Jonah out onto the land, again it is written: "And the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying: Rise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and preach in it according to the preaching which I spoke to you." And Jonah indeed preached and said: "Yet three days" — or, as the Hebrews say they have it written, "yet forty days" — "and Nineveh shall be destroyed." But the men of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and clothed themselves in sackcloth, from the least to the greatest of them. And a little later: "And God saw their works," it says, "that they were turned from their evil ways; and he repented" — or, as we read in other copies, "God was entreated concerning the evil which he had spoken to do to them, and did not do it." Observe, then, in these things which we have taken from the prophet, that it is not found said in the words of God, by which he spoke to the prophet: "Yet three days and Nineveh shall be destroyed"; but Jonah, "when he was entering," it says, "into the city about a three days' journey," himself said: "Yet three days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed," so that this word, which was spoken and was not fulfilled, appears to have been uttered by Jonah rather than by God. But let us also bring forward from the second book of Kingdoms what is written, where, when David had numbered the people, "the word of the Lord came," it says, "to Gad the seer prophet, saying: Go and speak to David: Thus says the Lord: Three things I will raise up against you; choose for yourself one of these, which I shall do to you. And Gad went in to David, and announced to him, saying: Either there shall come to you for three years famine upon your land, or for three months that you flee before your enemies who pursue you, or for three days let there be death in your land; now therefore know and see what I shall answer him who sent me. And David said to Gad: I am in very great straits on every side. But let me rather fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercies are many, and let me not fall into the hands of men. And the Lord gave death in Israel from morning until the hour of the midday meal, and there died of the people, from Dan to Beersheba, seventy thousand men. And the angel of God stretched out his hand over Jerusalem to destroy it, and the Lord was entreated concerning the evil and said to the angel who was destroying the people: It is enough, withdraw your hand." Observe, then, how not even in these three threats is God found to have said anything about a death of three days. For it is set down in the words of Gad, not in the commands of the Lord; and the things that are said through a prophet are not always received as if spoken by God. Finally, through Moses too God indeed spoke many things, yet some things Moses also commanded on his own authority; which the Lord distinguishes in the Gospels with an evident distinction, when, being asked about the divorce of a wife, he says: "For the hardness of your heart Moses wrote these things for you; but from the beginning it was not so. For he who made man made them male and female and blessed them and said: For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall be in one flesh"; and he adds: "What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate." You see, then, that here too God indeed did not command nor will that divorce be done; but that Moses, on account of the hardness of the Jews' heart, wrote that a certificate of divorce should be given. Paul too shows this in his letters, when he says of certain things: "The Lord says, and not I," and of others: "But these things I say, not the Lord," and again in others: "I have no command of the Lord, but I give counsel," and again: "What I say, I say not according to the Lord." Hence likewise in the rest of the prophets also, some things the Lord spoke and not the prophets, but other things the prophets and not the Lord; and thus the objection raised will seem to be dissolved, since the Lord recalls and changes for the better not so much his own words as the prophet's. But I rather think that the former solution agrees with the meaning of the whole of Scripture, and especially with those sayings in which God is called patient and of much mercy and repenting over evils — or most of all with those things which are generally pronounced by Jeremiah, in which it is evidently shown that, on account of his many mercies and his incomprehensible goodness, God says and does not do, speaks and does not abide by it. God therefore says through Jeremiah: "I will speak unto the end" — that is, I will speak from a fixed decree — "over a nation and over a kingdom, to take them away and destroy them; and if that nation turns from its wickednesses, I will repent of all the evils which I purposed to do to them. And I will speak unto the end over a nation and a kingdom, to rebuild them and replant them; and if they do evils in my sight, so as not to hear my voice, I will repent of all the good things which I had spoken to do to them." How then can we prefer to these things, which are said absolutely through Jeremiah, those which are said in a suspended manner through Balaam, unless because the former are to be affirmed for the negligent and the scornful, while the latter are to be attended to more secretly by the more perfect?

But after this Balaam: "Behold," he says, "I have been taken up to bless; I will bless, and I will not turn it away." Balaam was taken up to bless not by Balak, but by God, who put a word into his mouth by which he should bless the people, and this blessing he does not turn away. For a human tongue cannot, even if it wishes, turn away the word of God.

After this: "There shall be no labor," he says, "in Jacob, nor shall sorrow be seen in Israel." Openly in these words he announces the state of the life to come; for who is there who passes through this life without labor and sorrow? Not even if one be a Peter or a Paul. How is he not in labor and sorrow, when he is thrice beaten with rods, once stoned, thrice shipwrecked, is in the deep of the sea a day and a night, and endures countless other things which he writes about his labors and sorrows? But this will be fulfilled there, where it is said: "Sorrow and sadness and groaning have fled away." Yet this refers not to all, but only to those who by their merits shall have been Jacob and Israel; as was also that poor Lazarus, who indeed passed the present life in labor and sorrow, but there it is said to the rich man: "Remember, son, that you received your good things in your life, and Lazarus likewise evil things. But now he is at rest here, while you are tormented." He, then, is Israel and Jacob, into whom labor and sorrow do not come. But that rich man was indeed himself also Israel according to the flesh; for it is said to him that his brothers have the law and the prophets, let them hear them; but because he was not Israel according to the spirit, therefore labor and sorrow came upon him.

"The Lord his God is with him, the glories of princes are with him." For God never deserts his Israel. But let us see of what princes the glories are with this Israel. The glory of princes is power, principality, and kingdom. But since there are also certain princes who are to be driven from their principality, or perhaps have already been driven out, and into their place and principality are to be introduced those who are truly Israelites — all those glories which those princes had in the heavens, princes who did not keep their principality but forsook their eternal dwellings, this Israel and Jacob, who wrestled and prevailed, shall receive; and thus the glories of princes shall be with him.

This animal is called the unicorn, but I cannot say that I have seen him. But I have seen four brazen figures of him set up in the four-towered palace of the King of Ethiopia. From these figures I have been able to draw him as you see. They speak of him as a terrible beast and quite invincible, and say that all his strength lies in his horn. When he finds himself pursued by many hunters and on the point of being caught, he springs up to the top of some precipice whence he throws himself down and in the descent turns a somersault so that the horn sustains all the shock of the fall, and he escapes unhurt. And scripture in like manner speaks concerning him, saying, Save me from the mouth of lions, and my humility from the horns of unicorns. And again: And he that is beloved as the son of unicorns; and again in the blessings of Balaam wherewith he blessed Israel, he says for the second time: God so led him out of Egypt even as the glory of the unicorn; thus bearing complete testimony to the strength, audacity, and glory of the animal.

"God, who led him out of Egypt, his glory is as that of a unicorn." That Israel indeed was led out of this earthly Egypt, but this spiritual Israel out of the Egypt of the world and out of the power of darkness, and his glory is as that of a unicorn. The unicorn is said to be an animal formed in that shape which the very indication of its name signifies. We read this animal frequently set down in the divine Scriptures, but especially in Job its might and power are set forth by the words of God himself, in which — as in very many places — Christ is understood to be signified. And in the divine Scriptures we have often found a horn set down for a kingdom, just as the prophet also says: "The four horns are four kingdoms." Under the name of the unicorn, therefore, this seems to be shown in Christ: that everything which is, is his one horn, that is, his one kingdom. For the Father has subjected all things under his feet, until even the last enemy, death, is destroyed, and Christ, as a unicorn, holds the one kingdom of all, because, as it is written: "Of his kingdom there shall be no end." There shall be, then, he says, to him — that is, to that spiritual Israel — glory, as is the glory of the unicorn. For so the Lord himself also says in the Gospel: "Father, grant to them that, just as I and you are one, so these also may be one in us." And therefore a glory like the glory of the unicorn will be given to Israel, especially when he will transform the body of our lowliness to be conformed to the body of his glory.

"There shall be no augury in Jacob, nor divination in Israel; in due time it shall be told to Jacob and Israel what God will accomplish." Therefore, since it has now seemed good to us to discuss each single thing more carefully, it does not seem absurd if we also inquire what augury or divination is — since indeed it pleased Scripture to make mention of these, lest anyone perhaps ignorantly fall into them. It seems to me, then, that the foreknowledge of things to come, so far as concerns the thing itself, is something intermediate — that is, neither properly good nor properly evil; since sometimes even from the side of the devil a foreknowledge of things to come can reach the knowledge of men. But without doubt, when the time and occasion demand and it is the will of God, foreknowledge is also given by God to men through the prophets; and therefore we said that it cannot properly be called good, since it sometimes comes from evil, nor properly evil, since it sometimes descends from God. And although examples of this abundantly supply themselves even from the divine Scriptures, yet we believe it suffices if we use that which we read written in the books of Kingdoms, where the ark of God was captured by the Philistines and brought down to Azotus, and there "they brought it," it says, "into the house of Dagon, and Dagon was found to have fallen prone to the ground before the ark of the Lord's covenant. And the hand of the Lord was heavy upon the men of Azotus and scattered them, and struck them in the buttocks." After this, it says, the ark entered into Accaron, and the men of Accaron sent and gathered all the satraps of the Philistines and gathered their priests and diviners, saying: "What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Show us how we shall send it back to its place." The priests and diviners answered: "If you send back the ark of the Lord God of Israel, do not send it away empty, but you shall surely give it a gift for your trespass, and then you shall be healed, and it shall be made known to you. But if not, his hand will not depart from you." And a little later: "And now," it says, "make a new cart, and take two cows that have calved, on which no yoke has been placed, and yoke the cows to the cart, and lead their calves back home away from them. And take the ark of the Lord, and place it upon the cart, and the golden vessels which you have offered to it for your trespass, place together upon the cart, and all its holy things; and send it away, and let it go; and see: if indeed it goes by its own way and ascends to its own borders, to Bethsamis, it is this that has done us these great evils; but if it does not go thither, we shall know that his hand has not touched us, but that these things happened to us by chance." Observe, then, in these things, how the priests and diviners consider by set signs the cause of the evils which had happened to the Philistines — whether it came from the hand of God and on account of the injury to the ark, or happened by chance — saying: "If it ascends by its own way and to its own borders, to Bethsamis, it is this that has done us these evils." Finally, in what follows it is reported: "And when they had placed the ark of the Lord upon the cart," it says, "they set the oxen straight on the way, over against the way that leads to Bethsamis, and they did not turn aside to the right or to the left." Who then, in these things, if he examines carefully, would say that this foreknowledge, which was foretold about the direction of the oxen, was either fortuitous or composed by some art, and not administered by a certain operation of demons — who greatly feared the power of the ark of the Lord, by which not only were the Philistines afflicted and punished, but the very worship of the demons was destroyed, since their images and temples fell down at the entrance of the ark of the Lord? There is, then, in the ministry of foreknowledge a certain operation of demons of this sort, which is gathered by certain arts by those who have handed themselves over to demons, and which seems to be grasped and understood now through those things which they call lots, now through those which they call auguries, now also from the inspection of entrails, which they call extispicy, and by other deceptions like these. These arts have advanced so far toward deceiving the human race that even Manasseh, the son of the most just Hezekiah, deceived by this error, built, as Scripture says, an altar to all the host of heaven in both houses of the Lord. But I judge this host of heaven to be what Paul writes of as the spiritual wickednesses set in the heavenly places. Unless, then, there were much of deception and error in these arts, I do not think the son of so great a man, brought up in the law of the Lord, could have fallen into those impieties which are recorded written about him in the fourth book of Kingdoms. For it says: "And he practiced lots and augury, and made a burnt offering, and led his sons through the fire, and made soothsayers to abound, to do evil in the eyes of the Lord and to provoke him." Such, then, were the things he sinned in, of which it could be said that they were done "with all power, with lying signs and wonders, so that even the elect were deceived." For through him the people also was deceived, to do evil in the sight of the Lord above those nations which God had destroyed from before the face of the children of Israel. But in the second book of Chronicles as well, similar things are written about Manasseh: "And he made groves," it says, "and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. And he built altars in the house of the Lord, where the Lord had said: In Jerusalem shall my name be forever. And there he set up altars to all the magnificence of heaven in both houses of the Lord. And he himself led his sons through the fire in Gehennon; and he practiced lots and did sorceries and augury, and made ventriloquists and enchanters, and multiplied them, to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke him." All these things, then — that is, whether augury, or extispicy, or any sacrifice whatever, or even the casting of lots, or any motions of birds or of beasts, and any inspection of entrails, so as to seem to show something about the future — I do not doubt are done by the operation of demons, who direct the motions of birds or beasts or entrails, or of lots, according to those signs which the same demons taught to be observed by those to whom they handed down the knowledge of this art. From all of which he who is a man of God and is numbered in God's portion ought to be utterly a stranger, and to have nothing in common with these things which demons work by hidden contrivances; lest perhaps through these he be again associated with demons and be filled with their spirit and power and be restored anew to the worship of idols. For our divine and heavenly religion abjures all these things, indicating it in Leviticus by an open law and saying: "You shall not divine, nor practice augury," and a little later: "You shall not follow ventriloquists," it says, "nor join yourselves to enchanters, to be defiled by them; I am the Lord your God." And again in Deuteronomy: "But if you," it says, "enter into the land which the Lord your God will give you, you shall not learn to do according to the abominations of those nations. Let there not be found in you one who purifies his son or his daughter in the fire, nor one divining divination, nor one casting lots, nor a sorcerer, nor an enchanter, nor a ventriloquist, nor an inspector of portents, nor one questioning the dead. For everyone who does these things is an abomination to the Lord; for on account of these abominations the Lord your God overthrows these nations from before you." In all of which he seems to show that everyone who is occupied in these things does nothing else than question the dead. For they are dead, because they are not partakers of life. But our God is the God of the living and not of the dead. But to all these laws this too is added: that he who wishes to be perfect should learn from no one else except from him who by the power of God has been chosen a prophet, to minister to the people. It says, therefore: "Be perfect in the sight of the Lord your God; for these nations, whose inheritance you have received, they hearken to soothsayers and diviners; but to you the Lord your God has not so given. For the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet from your midst, from your brothers; him you shall hear. According to all that you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb in the day of the assembly, when you said: We will not continue to hear the voice of the Lord our God, and we will not see this great fire any more, lest we die." God does not wish us to become hearers and disciples of demons, nor does he wish that, if we want to learn anything, we learn it from demons. For it is better to be ignorant than to learn from demons, and it is better not even to learn from a prophet than to inquire of diviners. For divination is not, as some think, given divinely, but rather, as it seems to me, has received its name by antiphrasis, that is, by the contrary, as being something that happens through men filled with a demon. But the rite of the gentiles believed everything to be divine that is brought forth through any spirit whatsoever; yet God commands us to learn nothing from these, lest we become their associates and fall into the things which Isaiah says: "And your words shall be humbled to the earth, and your speech shall be sunk beneath the earth; and your voice shall be as of one speaking from the earth, and your voice shall be weakened to the ground." For this reason our Lord Jesus too does not deign to receive testimony from demons, but says: "Be silent and come out of him." His own apostle Paul too, imitating him, "grieving," it says, "turned and said to the spirit of Python: I command you in the name of Jesus Christ; depart from her." In which you may perhaps ask why Paul, grieving, rebukes the spirit of Python. Had it said anything blasphemous? For "a woman," it says, "having a spirit of Python followed Paul and those who were with him, and cried out, saying: These men are servants of the Most High God, who announce to you the way of salvation. And she did this for many days." Whence it is shown that Paul grieved not because of blasphemy, but because he judged it unworthy that testimony be given to his preaching by a spirit of Python. But if Paul does not allow it to give testimony to him, but grieves over this: how much more ought we to grieve, when at any time we see souls being deceived by those who believe, as though in some divine spirit, in a spirit of Python or a ventriloquist or a diviner or an augur or any other demons of this kind? For this reason, then, "there shall be," it says, "no augury in Jacob, nor divination in Israel." But what is added to these things? "In due time," it says, "it shall be told to Jacob and Israel what God will accomplish." What does "in due time it shall be told" mean? When it is fitting and when it is expedient — that is "in due time." If, then, it is expedient for us to foreknow the future, it will be told by God through the prophets of God, through the Holy Spirit; but if these things are not told nor announced, know that it is not expedient for us to foreknow what is to come. But if they are not told us for this reason, because it is not expedient for us to know them, those who by various arts and invocations of demons are eager to foreknow the future do nothing else than desire to learn the things which it is not expedient for them to know. But "Jacob" in these words is to be understood as everyone whose struggle is against the principalities and powers and against the rulers of this world; and understand "Israel" as everyone who, through the purity of faith and the cleanness of mind, sees God. But someone may say: if we ought to learn about the future from God alone and to receive neither a diviner nor an augur nor any other of these, then not even this Balaam himself is to be received by us; for he is one of those whom the divine judgment forbids to be received. But attend more carefully and remember what we read above, where it is said of him that the Lord put his word into his mouth; therefore we now learn these things not from Balaam, but from the word of God which is placed in his mouth. For unless they were the words of the Lord, he would surely not have revealed them to his servant Moses; and these things, since he was set far away when they were being spoken by him to King Balak, it is certain that Moses could not have known unless they had been revealed to him by God. But further, to destroy divination or augury and other such things utterly, we will also fittingly add this: that all these people use the ministry of birds or animals — but of such as are both written as unclean in the law and are found always to be lying in wait against the human race, from which fact they are indeed judged suitable and worthy for the ministry of demons. For dragons and other serpents are said to minister to spirits of Python; and to augurs and to those who are thought to catch auspices for divining from chance occurrences, either wolves bring omens, or foxes, or hawks, or ravens, or eagles, or other such creatures — which in the law Moses, for these reasons I believe, marked as unclean.

After this: "Behold," it says, "a people shall rise up like a lion's cub, and shall exult like a lion." In these words he seems to me to describe the confidence of the people believing in Christ, and the freedom which it has in faith, and the exultation which it bears in hope. For it is compared to a lion's cub while it presses toward perfection, glad and swift; but it is likened to a lion when it now obtains the things that are perfect. For just as the lion and the lion's cub fear no animal, no beast, but all things are subjected to them, so also to the perfect Christian, who takes up his cross and follows Christ, who can say: "For to me the world is crucified, and I to the world," all things are subjected, all things are trodden underfoot. For he despises and scorns all things that are in this world, and imitates him who is called the lion of the tribe of Judah and the lion's cub, because, just as he himself is the light of the world and gave to his disciples that they too should be the light of the world, so also, since he himself is a lion and a lion's cub, he ascribes to those who believe in him the name of lion and lion's cub. But see that these things are evidently said not about that people which existed then, but about this people which was to be; for it says: "Behold, a people shall rise up like a lion's cub, and shall exult like a lion." He says the people that was to be would rise up. For if he were speaking of the one he was seeing, he would doubtless have said: "Behold, a people has risen up like a lion's cub." But it is certain that he speaks of that people, of which it is also written in the Psalms: "And they shall announce his righteousness to a people that shall be born, whom the Lord has made." This people, then, is a lion's cub while, still like newly born infants, they desire the reasonable and guileless milk; but a lion exulting, when, having become a man, it has put away the things that were of a little child.

"It shall not sleep until it devours the prey, and drinks the blood of the slain." In these words, who will be so contentious a champion of the historical narrative — nay rather, who will be found so brutish — as not to flee, shuddering at the sound of the letter, by very necessity to the sweetness of allegory? For how will this people, so praiseworthy, so magnificent, of which the discourse recounts such great praises, come to this, that it should drink the blood of the slain — when the eating of blood is forbidden by God with such strong precepts, so that even we who have been called from the gentiles are necessarily commanded to abstain, just as from the things sacrificed to idols, so also from blood? Let them tell us, then, who is this people that has the practice of drinking blood. These were the things which, hearing them in the Gospel also, those who followed the Lord from among the Jews were scandalized and said: "Who can eat flesh and drink blood?" But the Christian people, the faithful people, hears these things and embraces them and follows him who says: "Unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you will not have life in yourselves; for my flesh is truly food, and my blood is truly drink." And indeed, he who said these things was wounded for men; for "he himself was wounded for our sins," as Isaiah says. But we are said to drink the blood of Christ not only by the rite of the sacraments, but also when we receive his words, in which life consists, just as he himself says: "The words which I have spoken are spirit and life." He himself, then, is the wounded one, whose blood we drink — that is, whose words of doctrine we receive. But those too were no less wounded who preached his word to us; for when we read the words of them also — that is, of his apostles — and gain life from them, we drink the blood of the slain. "It shall not," it says, "sleep until it devours the prey." For this people, which is compared to a lion's cub or a lion, will not rest nor sleep until it seizes the prey — that is, until it plunders the kingdom of heaven, because "from the days of John the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent plunder it." But that you may more evidently recognize that these things are written about our people, which is confederated in the sacraments of Christ, hear how Moses too pronounces similar things elsewhere, saying: "Butter of cattle and milk of sheep with the fat of lambs and rams, of the young of bulls and of goats, with the fat of the kidneys of wheat; and they shall drink the blood of the grape as wine." And this blood, then, which is named "of the grape," is of that grape which is born from that vine of which the Savior says: "I am the true vine, but the disciples are the branches, and the Father is the vinedresser, who prunes them, that they may bring forth much fruit." You, then, are the true people of Israel, who know how to drink blood, and know how to eat the flesh of the Word of God and to drink the blood of the Word of God, and to draw the blood of that grape which is from the true vine and from those branches which the Father prunes. The fruit of these branches will rightly be called the blood of the slain, which we drink from their words and doctrine, if only we are like lion cubs rising up, and like a lion exulting. Let these things, said meanwhile about the second vision of Balaam, suffice. But let us pray the Lord that he may deign to open to us, for understanding the rest of the things prophesied by him, still clearer meanings and ones nearest to the truth, so that, considering in the spirit the things that were written through the spirit, and comparing spiritual things with spiritual, we may expound worthily of God and of the Holy Spirit, who inspired these things that are written, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

We now have in hand the third prophecy of those which the Word of God brought forth through Balaam, so that concerning it too we may discuss some things, as the Lord shall grant. For that unhappy Balak, supposing that what had been lacking to Balaam for cursing by divine leave was the favorable position of the place rather than the will, and judging it more advantageous if he changed the place, says, "Come and I will lead you to another place, if it please God, and you shall curse it from there." And Balak took Balaam himself to the top of Mount Peor, which looks out over the desert. Those indeed whom God calls, He sets upon the top of Mount Sinai; but this Balak, who is contrary to God, sets Balaam on the top of Mount Peor. Now Peor is interpreted "delight"; upon the top, therefore, of delight and lust this Balak sets men. For he is a lover of pleasure rather than of God, and therefore he places them on the summit and top of pleasure, that he may shut them out from God; for Balak is interpreted "one who shuts out" and "devouring." And so for this reason too Peor looks toward the wilderness, that is, toward those affairs which are wilderness and desert to God. And Balaam said to Balak, "Build me here seven altars, and prepare me here seven calves and seven rams." And Balak did as Balaam had told him, and he offered a calf and a ram upon the altar. The saying of the Apostle is indeed plain, when he says, "For the things which the nations sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God"; but the prophet likewise says, "They sacrificed to demons and not to God." Yet since the law of God also gives commandment concerning sacrifices and hands down the rite of sacrificing to the sons of Israel, perhaps it may be asked why these things, though they seem dedicated to demons, are also commanded to be offered to God. And there will indeed be a simple and ready answer: that just as in other matters we have shown that the giving of the bill of divorce was not of the will of God — who did not wish that which He had joined to be separated — but Moses wrote these things properly for the hardness of the heart of the Jews, so also concerning this it can be seen that God, as He says through another prophet, "does not eat the flesh of bulls nor drink the blood of goats," and likewise as it is written elsewhere, "For I gave no command there concerning sacrifices and victims in the day when I led you out of the land of Egypt," but that Moses commanded these things to them for the hardness of their heart, on account of the wicked custom with which they had been imbued in Egypt, so that those who could not abstain from sacrificing might at least sacrifice to God and not to demons. Yet it must be considered whether perhaps there is also some more hidden and more secret reason for sacrificing to God. Perhaps, I say, the sacrifices which are offered to God are made for the destruction of those sacrifices which are immolated to demons, so that, because through the latter souls are wounded, through the former they may be healed. Just as those also confirm who possess skill in medicine; for they report that the poisons of serpents are nonetheless driven off by medicines compounded from serpents. So then, too, the venom of the demonic sacrifices is driven off through the sacrifices offered to God, just as the death of Jesus does not permit the death of sin to hold dominion over believers. And indeed, while the time allowed it, sacrifices were set against sacrifices; but when there came the perfect victim and the spotless lamb, who would take away the sin of the whole world, those sacrifices which were offered one by one to God now seemed superfluous, since by one victim all worship of demons was driven away. But this Balaam, whether according to the purpose of his heart, which he had not amended, or according to that figure by which we said that he holds the person of the teachers and Pharisees of the unbelieving people, still sets up victims anew and orders sacrifices to be prepared. For in these things all their hope is borne by those whose heart does not receive the faith of Christ.