He took up his parable, and said, “Balaam the son of Beor says, the man whose eyes are open says;
Parallel Translations
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He took up his parable, and said, “Balaam the son of Beor says, the man whose eyes are open says;
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And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said:
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And he took up his parable, and said: The saying of Balaam the son of Beor, and the saying of the man whose eye is opened;
Cross-references (5)
Passages linked to Numbers 24:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Numbers 23:7 He took up his parable, and said, “From Aram has Balak brought me, the king of Moab from the mountains of the East. Come, curse Jacob for me. Come, defy Israel.
- Numbers 24:16 he says, who hears the words of God, knows the knowledge of the Most High, and who sees the vision of the Almighty, Falling down, and having his eyes open:
- Numbers 22:31 Then Yahweh opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw Yahweh’s angel standing in the way, with his sword drawn in his hand; and he bowed his head, and fell on his face.
- Numbers 24:4 he says, who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty, falling down, and having his eyes open:
- Numbers 23:18 He took up his parable, and said, “Rise up, Balak, and hear! Listen to me, you son of Zippor.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (14 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain His eyes were shut up before in respect of…
His eyes were shut up before in respect of the clear visions which he saw after: some read, were open.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Num 24:3 And he took up his parable, and…
Num 24:3 And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said:
Ver. 3. Whose eyes are open.] And therefore can speak it of a certainty: for what is more sure than sight? q.d., Israel shall be blessed, and I will stand to it. He is blessed, "yea, and he shall be blessed." {Gen 27:33}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain The eyes, either,
The eyes, either,
1. Of his body, as in the following verse; or,
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2. Of his mind, which God had opened in a peculiar and prophetical manner, whence prophets are called seers, 1Sa 9:9. He implies that before he was blind and stupid, having eyes, but not seeing nor understanding. Some render the words having his eyes shut, as the Hebrew verb satham signifies, the letters schin and samech being frequently exchanged; and so the meaning is, that he received this revelation either in a dream, when men’s eyes are simply shut; or in an ecstasy or trance, when men’s eyes, though open, are in a manner shut, to wit, as to the use and exercise of them.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And he took up his parable,.... His parable of…
And he took up his parable,.... His parable of prophecy, as the Targums, his prophetic speech, which, with a loud voice, he expressed in the hearing of Balak and his nobles:
and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said; the preface to his prophecy is pompous, and seems to be full of pride and vanity, and so the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem represent him;"the man who is more excellent than his father hath said, to whom hidden secrets, even what was hidden from the prophets is revealed to him;''and the Jews have a saying (t) that he that has an evil eye, a haughty spirit, and a large soul, or is covetous, is one of the disciples of Balaam the wicked:
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and the man whose eyes are open hath said; or, as some (u) render it, whose eyes were shut, but now open; either the eyes of his body, which were shut when the angel met him, and the ass saw him and not he, but afterwards were open, and he saw him also; or the eyes of his understanding blinded with ambition and covetousness, but were open to see his mistake, at least so far as to be sensible that he could never prevail upon God to allow him to curse Israel; or rather open, by the spirit of prophecy coming on him, whereby he saw and foretold things to come.
(t) Pirke Abot, c. 5. sect. 19. (u) So V. L. Montanus, Tigurine version, &c.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Whose eyes are open - Hebrew. Who had his…
Whose eyes are open - Hebrew. Who had his eyes shut, but now open. The eyes of his mind, which God had opened in a peculiar and prophetical manner, whence prophets are called Seers, 1 Sam. ix, 9. It implies that before he was blind and stupid, having eyes, but not seeing nor understanding.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 3. He took up his parable] His prophetic…
Verse 3. He took up his parable] His prophetic declaration couched in highly poetic terms, and in regular metre, as the preceding were.
The man whose eyes are open] I believe the original שתם shethum, should be translated shut, not open; for in the next verse, where the opening of his eyes is mentioned, a widely different word is used, גלה galah, which signifies to open or reveal. At first the eyes of Balaam were shut, and so closely too that he could not see the angel who withstood him, till God opened his eyes; nor could he see the gracious intentions of God towards Israel, till the eyes of his understanding were opened by the powers of the Divine Spirit. This therefore he mentions, we may suppose, with humility and gratitude, and to the credit of the prophecy which he is now about to deliver, that the Moabites may receive it as the word of God, which must be fulfilled in due season. His words, in their meaning, are similar to those of the blind man in the Gospel: "Once I was blind, but now I see."
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Whose eyes are open - i. e., opened in…
Whose eyes are open - i. e., opened in inward vision, to discern things that were hidden from ordinary beholders.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Up. The same term only occurs again, (Lamentations iii.…
Up. The same term only occurs again, (Lamentations iii. 8,) where it may have the same sense, though the Septuagint &c., give it here a quite opposite meaning, "the man whose eyes are open," the prophet. But Balaam alludes to his not being able to see the angel as soon as his ass, as he does, ver. 4., and chap. xxii. 31. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain the man whose eyes are open--that is, a seer…
the man whose eyes are open--that is, a seer (Sa1 9:9), a prophet, to whom the visioned future was disclosed--sometimes when falling into a sleep (Gen 15:12-15), frequently into "a trance."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 3. Parable — See Num_23:7, note.
3. Parable — See Num_23:7, note.
Whose eyes are open — Thus, says Furst, the Syriac and several rabbins read; but Keil, the Vulgate, the Revised Version, and others say that the Hebrew means whose eyes are closed, that is, seeing only with the inner eye. The Seventy say the man who truly sees. “Balaam describes himself as the man with closed eyes with reference to his state of ecstasy, in which the closing of the outer senses went hand in hand with the opening of the inner.” — Hengstenberg.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 3, 4. The opening triplet is as follows:
3, 4. The opening triplet is as follows:
The oracle of Balaam son of Beor.
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The oracle of the man whose eye is (?) closed.
The oracle of one that heareth the words of God.
The form of it should be compared with 2Sa_23:1, where the same word ‘oracle’ is used. The text appears to be corrupt. The word rendered ‘closed’ is very doubtful; and ‘opened’ (R.V. marg.) is no less questionable. With the former rendering the reference is to the eyes closed in a trance; with the latter, to the eyes of the mind opened to receive the vision.
3–9. Balaam’s first prophetic message. In its present form this consists of nine couplets and two triplets. But the text has undergone corruption, and perhaps there were originally eleven couplets.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (3) Balaam the son of Beor hath said.—The Hebrew…
(3) Balaam the son of Beor hath said.—The Hebrew word (neum) is imperfectly rendered by hath said. It is the word which is commonly used in the prophetical books of Scripture to denote a Divine saying, and is rarely used when a human author is named. It occurs in the Pentateuch only in Gen_22:16, Num_14:28, and in this chapter, where it is found in Num_24:3-4; Num_24:15-16.
The man whose eyes are open.—There is great diversity of opinion respecting the meaning of the word which is here rendered open, and which, as it is here written, occurs in no other place. If shatham is identified with satham, it means to close, not to open. The meaning, however, of this verse is sufficiently explained by that which follows, whichever rendering of the word shethum is adopted. Balaam appears to have been thrown into an ecstatic state, as was Saul, and as were many of the ancient prophets; and whilst the eye of the outer senses was closed, the eye of the inner senses was preternaturally opened.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Balaam...hath said. Rather, "the utterance of Balaam." is constantly…
Balaam...hath said. Rather, "the utterance of Balaam." is constantly used, as in Num_14:28, for a Divine utterance, effatum Dei, but it does not by itself, apart from the context, claim a superhuman origin. The man whose eyes are open. yih rbGh. The authorities are divided between the rendering in the text and the opposite rendering given in the margin. is used in Dan_8:26, and in Lam_3:8, in the sense of "shut;" but, on the other hand, a passage in the Mishnah distinctly uses and in opposite senses. The Vulgate, on the one hand, has obturatus; the Septuagint, on the other, has o alhyinwv orwn , and this is the sense given by the Targums. Strange to say, it makes no real difference whether we read "open" or "shut," because in any case it was the inward vision that was quickened, while the outward senses were closed.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 24:3-9 The third oracle contains another description of God’s…
24:3-9 The third oracle contains another description of God’s plan to bless Israel.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.