Numbers 24:7

He shall pour the water out of his buckets,.... That is, God shall plentifully send down rain out of the clouds upon these valleys, gardens, and trees, and make them fruitful; and this may be a

He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters, and his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted.

He, i.e. God, will abundantly water the valleys, gardens, and trees, is which represent the Israelites, , i.e. he will wonderfully bless his people, not only with outward blessings, of which a chief one in those parts was plenty of water, but also with higher gifts and graces, with his word and Spirit, which are often signified by waters, 7:38,39, and at last with eternal life, the contemplation whereof made Balaam desire to die the death of the righteous. Others thus, God shall make his posterity numerous; for the procreation of children is oft signified by waters, fountains, cisterns, &c., as ,18 9:17 . But there is no necessity of flying to metaphors here, and therefore the other being the literal and proper sense, is by the laws of good interpretation to be preferred before it. In many waters: this also may be literally understood of their seed, which shall be sown in waterish ground, and therefore bring forth a better increase, . Others thus, His seed shall be so numerous, that it shall branch forth into many people, the several tribes being reckoned and sometimes called several people. Or, his seed shall rule over many people or nations, which are sometimes signified by many waters, as . But here also the literal sense seems best. His king, i.e. the king of Israel; either God, who was in a peculiar manner their King or Ruler, ; or their chief governor or governors, whether king or others; for Moses called their king, , and the judges were in a manner kings. Than Agag, i.e. than the king of the Amalekites, which king and people were famous and potent in that age, , as may be guessed by their bold attempt upon so numerous a people as Israel was. And it is probably thought by the Jewish and other interpreters, that the Amalekitish kings, as Abimelech was of the Philistines, and Pharaoh of the Egyptians, and Caesar of the Romans. But though this king only be instanced in, yet other kings, to wit, such as did or should border upon the Israelites, are doubtless to be understood, above whom the kings and people of Israel sometimes were advanced, and oftener should have been, if they had not been their own hinderance by their sins. Some make this a prophecy of Saul’ s conquering Agag and his people, ,8. But the words seem to be more general, and to signify a greater honour and advantage to Israel than that was.

Numbers 24:7 He shall pour the water out of his buckets, and his seed [shall be] in many waters, and his king shall be higher than Agag, and his kingdom shall be exalted.Ver. 7. His seed shall be in many waters.] He shall sow in locis irriguis; as men are bid to cast their bread, their alms, upon the waters, upon the poor; as upon a well-watered soil. Such is the land of Egypt, watered by Nile; which makes the ground so fruitful, that they do but throw in the seed, and have four rich harvests in less than four months, - saith one that had been there. He shall be higher than Agag.] King of the Amalekites, who was then the greatest monarch of those parts, and did haply think as highly of himself as that proud prince of Tyre, or as the great Cham of Cataia, of whom it is reported that every day, after he had dined, he caused the trumpets to be sounded, by that sign giving leave to other princes of the earth to go to dinner. Blunt’ s Voyage into Levant.

(7) 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 which should hereafter be established in Israel—to the kings, generally, which should come out of the loins of Abraham (Genesis 17:6; Genesis 35:11).

Verse 7. He shall pour the water out of his buckets, &c.] Here is a very plain allusion to their method of raising water in different parts of the East. By the well a tall pole is erected, which serves as a fulcrum to a very long lever, to the smaller end of which a bucket is appended. On the opposite end, which is much larger, are many notches cut in the wood, which serve as steps for a man, whose business it is to climb up to the fulcrum, in order to lower the bucket into the well, which, when filled, he raises by walking back on the opposite arm, till his weight brings the bucket above the well's mouth: a person standing by the well empties the bucket into a trench, which communicates with the ground intended to be watered. His seed shall be in many waters] Another simple allusion to the sowing of rice. The ground must not only be well watered, but flooded, in order to serve for the proper growth of this grain. The rice that was sown in many waters must be the most fruitful. By an elegant and chaste metaphor all this is applied to the procreation of a numerous posterity. His king shall be higher than Agag] This name is supposed to have been as common to all the Amalekitish kings as Pharaoh was to those of Egypt. But several critics, with the Septuagint, suppose that a small change has taken place here in the original word, and that instead of מאגג meagag, than Agag, we should read מגוג miggog, than Gog. As Gog in Scripture seems to mean the enemies of God's people, then the promise here may imply that the true worshippers of the Most High shall ultimately have dominion over all their enemies.

7. The first two lines are difficult and perhaps corrupt. Some explain them as a description of the luxuriance of Israel’s future home. Israel is pictured as a man carrying buckets to water his crop; and his seed, i.e. his corn, will be grown in well-watered ground. Cf. Psalms 65:9 f. And may his king be higher than Agag] Numbers 24:20 seems to shew that in Heb. tradition the Amalekites were once a mighty nation of the first rank, though there is no historical evidence that they ever were so. Agag their king would thus be a symbol of might. If Agag is the man who was captured by Saul, the present poem must be at least as late as the monarchy. Some indeed have supposed, from the present passage, that Agag was a title applied to all Amalekite kings, like the title Pharaoh in Egypt. But the text may be corrupt. LXX. and Samar. read ‘Gog,’ which is found only in Ezekiel 38 f., as a name belonging to the region north of Assyria. Cheyne suggests Og. The passage is at present an unsolved problem.

Balaam’s native soil was ordinarily irrigated by water fetched from the neighboring Euphrates, and carried in buckets suspended from the two ends of a pole.

7. His buckets — Israel is poetically portrayed as a water-carrier with two overflowing pails, such as irrigated Balaam’s native soil with water carried from the Euphrates.