Numbers 23:2
And when he had done according to the word of Balaam, they laid together a calf and a ram upon every altar.
Open Numbers 23:2 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Cumque fecisset juxta sermonem Balaam, imposuerunt simul vitulum et arietem super aram.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἐποίησεν Βαλὰκ ὃν τρόπον εἶπεν αὐτῷ Βαλαάμ, καὶ ἀνήνεγκεν μόσχον καὶ κριὸν ἐπὶ τὸν βωμόν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיַּ֣עַשׂ בָּלָ֔ק כַּאֲשֶׁ֖ר דִּבֶּ֣ר בִּלְעָ֑ם וַיַּ֨עַל בָּלָ֧ק וּבִלְעָ֛ם פָּ֥ר וָאַ֖יִל בַּמִּזְבֵּֽחַ
Haydock's commentary
Altar. They both join in sacrificing to Chamos or the devil, whom Balaam styles his lord, Yehovah: but the true God was pleased to hinder the idol from interfering at present, and answered Balaam, in order that he might see the folly of his conduct, and repent; and that others, who are more willing to listen to him, than to the servants of God, might be instructed by his declaration. (Haydock)
"God's voice is heard sounding from a profane mouth." (St. Jerome, de 42. mans.) (Worthington)
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.
The Fathers on this verse
St Ambrose Letter XLI: To Marcellina on the Same
24. You see how ready to teach the Lord is, that He may by His own example provoke you to piety, for He is ready to teach when He rebukes. So when accusing the Jews, He says: “O My people, what have I done to thee, or wherein have I troubled thee, or wherein have I wearied thee? Answer Me. Is it because I brought thee out of the land of Egypt, and delivered thee from the house of bondage?” adding: “And I sent before thy face Moses and Aaron and Miriam.” Remember what Balaam conceived against thee, seeking the aid of magic art, but I suffered him not to hurt thee. Thou wast indeed weighed down an exile in foreign lands, thou wast oppressed with heavy burdens. I sent before thy face Moses and Aaron and Miriam, and he who spoiled the exile was first spoiled himself. …
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).