"27 And Balak said to Balaam, “Come now, I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.” 28 So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the desert. 29 And Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me here seven altars and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.” 30 And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
24 When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he did not go, as at other times, to look for omens, but set his face toward the wilderness. 2 And Balaam lifted up his eyes and saw Israel camping tribe by tribe. And the Spirit of God came upon him, 3 and he took up his discourse and said,
“The oracle of Balaam the son of Beor,
the oracle of the man whose eye is opened,
4 the oracle of him who hears the words of God,
who sees the vision of the Almighty,
falling down with his eyes uncovered:
5 How lovely are your tents, O Jacob,
your encampments, O Israel!
6 Like palm groves that stretch afar,
like gardens beside a river,
like aloes that the Lord has planted,
like cedar trees beside the waters.
7 Water shall flow from his buckets,
and his seed shall be in many waters;
his king shall be higher than Agag,
and his kingdom shall be exalted.
8 God brings him out of Egypt
and is for him like the horns of the wild ox;
he shall eat up the nations, his adversaries,
and shall break their bones in pieces
and pierce them through with his arrows.
9 He crouched, he lay down like a lion
and like a lioness; who will rouse him up?
Blessed are those who bless you,
and cursed are those who curse you."
Numbers 23:27-24:9
The first part of the vision (57) presents an impressive picture of, so to speak, an 'ideal' Israel Israel as seen in the mind and purpose of God. It is a picture of beauty and prosperity, of a land that God was bountifully to bless, and it reminds us of another moving description, given in Deuteronomy 11:11,12 of 'a land which the Lord thy God careth for'. The words in 7 are particularly graphic: the nation is personified as a man carrying two buckets of water
'that leading source of all blessing and prosperity in the burning East' (Delitzsch) a beautiful picture of the true Israel 'pouring out the living waters of salvation, the pure streams of the Spirit, and making the wilderness of the world rejoice and be glad' (Wordsworth). This is fulfilled in Christ the true Israel of God, in and through whom rivers of living water flow out to mankind. In the second part of the blessing (8, 9), it is the power of Israel that is described. As Delitzsch says, 'the fulness of power that dwells in the people of Israel was apparent in the force and prowess with which their God brought them out of Egypt' (cf 23:22), not only the unicorn, however, but also the lion figures in the metaphor describing the strength of Israel. It is almost as if Balaam were rebuking the temerity of Balak for presuming to want to curse such a people. 'You are treading on perilous ground, Balak', he seems to say, 'and you had better watch out. If you rouse the lion, it will be to your cost.'