Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 22:27
And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she fell down under Balaam: and Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff.
And when the ass saw the angel of the Lord,…. The third time; for it seems that he was not always in sight, but disappeared as he removed from place to place, and at every new place where he stood the ass saw him, though her master did not:
she fell down under Balaam; upon her knees on the ground, not being able to go backwards nor forwards, nor to turn out of the way to the right or left:
and Balaam’s anger was kindled; he was displeased and out of humour before, when it turned into the field, and when it squeezed his foot against the wall, and therefore he smote it; but now falling down with him, he was in a fume and fury, quite enraged:
and he smote the ass with a staff; which he rode with, perhaps his divining staff, see Ho 4:12, it is not said what he smote it with before but probably with the same: Aben Ezra says, at the first and second time he smote it with a small stick, or with a thong.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
27. Balaam’s anger was kindled Although he was saved from instant death by the falling down of the ass, (Num 22:33,) like all unbelievers restrained from the pit of woe by divine chastisements, he is enraged at the means of his own deliverance.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Num 22:27 And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD, she fell down under Balaam: and Balaam’s anger was kindled, and he smote the ass with a staff.
Ver. 27. She fell down under Balaam. ] And so “condemned” her master’s “madness.” 2Pe 2:16 Polybius in his history saith, Whereas man is held the wisest of all sublunary creatures, to me he seemeth the most foolish of all. For whereas other creatures, when they have once smarted, will come no more there, – as the fox returns not rashly to the snare, the wolf to the pitfall, the dog to the club, the horse to the hole where he hath been stalked, &c., – solus homo ab aevo ad aevum peccat fere in iisdem; man only falls into the same offence and mischief from day to day, and will not be warned till he be utterly ruined, as it befell Balaam.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
and Balaam’s anger: Pro 14:16, Pro 27:3, Pro 27:4