What Does Numbers 23:9 Mean?

(9) **For from the top of** **the rocks I see him . . . —**From the summit of the rocky mountain on which Balak had erected his seven altars, Balaam, according to one interpretation (see Numbers 22:41, and Note), had a full view of the outstretched camps of Israel. **Lo, the people shall dwell alone . . . —**Better, *Lo, it is a people that dwelleth alone, and that is not numbered, &c. *In the fact that the host of Israel dwelt by itself in a separate encampment, Balaam discerned a type of the essential separation of Israel from the surrounding nations. When Israel adopted the ways of the heathen nations it speedily lost its external independence. Hengstenberg observes upon the last clause of this verse as follows:—“How truly Balaam said that Israel ‘did not reckon itself with the heathen’ appears from the fact that while all the powerful empires of the ancient world—the Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and others—have utterly perished, Israel (which even under the Old Covenant was rescued from so many dangers that threatened its entire destruction, particularly in being brought back from exile) flourishes anew in the Church of the New Covenant, and continues also to exist in that part of it which, though at present rejected, is destined to restoration at a future period.” (*History of Balaam, *&c., p. 409.)