Numbers 23:13
Balac therefore said: Come with me to another place from whence thou mayest see part of Israel, and canst not see them all: curse them from thence.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Dixit ergo Balac : Veni mecum in alterum locum unde partem Israël videas, et totum videre non possis : inde maledicito ei.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτὸν Βαλάκ Δεῦρο ἔτι μετ᾽ ἐμοῦ εἰς τόπον ἄλλον, ἐξ ὧν οὐκ ὄψῃ αὐτὸν ἐκεῖθεν, ἀλλ᾽ ἢ μέρος τι αὐτοῦ ὄψῃ, πάντας δὲ οὐ μὴ ἴδῃς· καὶ κατάρασαί μοι αὐτὸν ἐκεῖθεν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיֹּ֨אמֶר אֵלָ֜יו בָּלָ֗ק לך נָּ֨א אִתִּ֜י אֶל מָק֤וֹם אַחֵר֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר תִּרְאֶ֣נּוּ מִשָּׁ֔ם אֶ֚פֶס קָצֵ֣הוּ תִרְאֶ֔ה וְכֻלּ֖וֹ לֹ֣א תִרְאֶ֑ה וְקָבְנוֹ לִ֖י מִשָּֽׁם
Haydock's commentary
Thence. He has a mind to try a new experiment. We have observed, that the object of malediction was to be in view, chap. xxii. 41. But Balac, supposing perhaps that the multitude made too deep an impression upon the soothsayer, judged it expedient to place him in another situation, where he might see only a part of Israel. Some, however, imagine that he had only seen a fourth part, or the uttermost part of the people, who lay nearest to him before; (ver. 10, and chap. xxii. 41) and hence, would have him to take now a distinct view of the whole; and, in this sense, the Samaritan and Glassius translate from whence, &c., thus, "for thou hast seen only part of Israel, and couldst not see them all." (Calmet)
By a similar superstition, the Syrians imagined that the God of Israel was a God of the hills, and that they could more easily conquer his people on the plain country, 3 Kings xx. 23. (Menochius)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.