Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Numbers 22:30
And the ass said unto Balaam, [Am] not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since [I was] thine unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto thee? And he said, Nay.
30. The ass is not represented as uttering any deep teaching or giving him a message from God. She merely defends herself against the charge of making sport of him; had he ever known her do such a thing during all the years he had owned her?
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And the ass said unto Balaam,…. Made a reply to him, as if it understood what he said, and had the faculty of reasoning and discoursing, as well as of speaking, which is very amazing:
am not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever since I was thine unto this day? or rather, “ever since thou wast”; not ever since he was in being, but ever since he could ride, so Aben Ezra; according to which, it seems that this was the first he rode upon, and which he had always been used to; hence the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem paraphrase it,
“upon which thou hast rode from thy youth unto this day;”
and be it that Balaam was a man pretty well advanced in years, an ass is a creature that lives a long time: Pliny says r it lives thirty years; and an Arabic writer s makes mention of an ass that the owner of it rode on forty years:
was I ever wont to do so unto thee? to start out of the way, or lie down with him, could anyone instance be given of it? suggesting that she was a sure footed creature, and had always carefully and safely carried him, for which it appeals to him:
and he said, nay; she had never been used to serve him in such a manner as she had now, and therefore he might have concluded that something more than ordinary was the matter; and it is much his conscience had not accused him that he was wrong in coming with the princes, taking the alarm from these circumstances, had he not been an hardened creature, or, at least, had he not been so eagerly bent on riches and honour.
r Nat. Hist. l. 8. c. 43. s Algiahid in Damir. apud Bochart, ut supra, (Hierozoic. par. 1. l. 2. c. 14.) col. 195.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(30) Ever since I was thine.Literally, ever since thou livedst,i.e., all thy life long. The Targums of Jonathan and of Jerusalem paraphrase thusupon which thou hast ridden from thy youth unto this day. An Arabic writer, says Dr. Gill, in his Commentary, in loc., makes mention of an ass that the owner rode on forty years.
Unto this day.The use of these words in this place serves to throw light upon such passages as Deu. 3:14, called them after his own name . . . unto this day, and shows that they do not necessarily denote that the events to which reference is made were separated by any very long interval.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
30. Unto this day Several versions add, from thy boyhood.
Num 22:30. The ass said unto Balaam, Am not I thine ass? The same divine power which made the ass speak at first continued to form such an answer as might convince Balaam of his error: not that the ass understood what Balaam said, and thereupon returned this pertinent answer, as some doating interpreters have absurdly dreamed. Ever since I was thine, is, in the Hebrew, meodka; ex quo tu, says Houbigant; i.e. from a long time: not ever since thou wast, as it is in our margin. In the words, was I ever wont to do so unto thee? it is insinuated, that this being the case, he should have thought some extraordinary cause had now forced her to do what she had never done before. But before we quit this subject, it may be proper to obviate a little further the objections commonly made to this dumb creature’s speaking with a human voice; which certainly is not more against nature, or above the power of an almighty Agent, than any of those miracles which were wrought in Egypt, or at the Red Sea: for if it be once allowed, that God had still reserved to himself the power, for some wise and important ends, to dispense with his own laws, how can it be made appear, that it is more above the power of an almighty Being to enable a dumb animal to pronounce some few articulate words in a rational order, than to cleave the Red Sea, to rain down manna six days, and withhold it on the seventh, or to cure the deadly sting of fiery serpents by the bare looking on an artificial brazen one? And if it be further objected, that the dumb beast shewed a greater degree of wisdom than the prophet who rode it; where, even then, will be the wonder, if we consider who inspired it? And if some of the brute creation do, in many cases, display a greater sagacity in their actions than those of the human species, who value themselves so much on their superior faculties, need we be surprised here, that the most stupid of all animals, being on such a particular occasion as this endowed with a much higher degree of rationality, (which is the utmost extent that can be allowed to the miracle,) should argue more justly than its master, whose judgment was hurried away by the torrent of his boundless ambition, and the prospect of considerable advancement? If any thing seem to challenge our admiration on this occasion, it must be, one should think, the method which the Divine Being made choice of to expose the stupidity of the prophet, 2 Pet. 11. 16 and to deter both him, and those who sent for him, from pursuing their malevolent views against the Israelites; and his choosing by that means rather to forewarn them of the danger they would bring upon themselves, than to punish them for persisting in them. He might as easily have ordered the angel to put Balaam to immediate death, as barely to obstruct his career; but if he prefers the sparing him, in order to make him a more effectual instrument to convince both Moab and Midian, how vain and dangerous their efforts would prove against a people whom he had taken under his special favour, why should the singularity of the miracle be deemed a sufficient proof against the reality of it, when it is in all other respects so agreeable to the Divine goodness? See Psalmanazar’s Essays, p. 173. Bishop Newton justly observes, that the words of St. Peter, in the passage above quoted, prove that this miracle is to be understood literally; and the ass, says he, was enabled to utter such and such sounds, probably, as parrots do, without understanding them: and say what you will of the construction of the ass’s mouth, of the formation of the tongue and jaws being unfit for speaking, yet an adequate cause is assigned for this wonderful effect; for it is said expressly, that the Lord opened the mouth of the ass: and no one who believes in God can doubt of his having power to do this, and much more.
the ass said: 2Pe 2:16
upon which thou hast ridden: Heb. who hast ridden upon me, ever since I was thine. or, ever since thou wast, unto, etc. 1Co 1:27, 1Co 1:28
Reciprocal: Num 16:15 – I have not
22:30 And the ass said unto Balaam, [Am] not I thine ass, upon which thou hast ridden ever {n} since [I was] thine unto this day? was I ever wont to do so unto thee? And he said, Nay.
(n) Since you have been my master.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes