Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Balaam, intending to curse the Hebrews, blesses them contrary to his intention; then, at verse 14, he changes location in order to curse them, but again blesses them, and praises them for their religion, bravery, and the help of God, and predicts their victories; hence he changes location yet again, at verse 27.
Vulgate Text: Numbers 23:1-30
1. And Balaam said to Balak: Build me here seven altars, and prepare as many bulls and the same number of rams. 2. And when he had done according to Balaam's word, they placed a bull and a ram together on each altar. 3. And Balaam said to Balak: Stand for a while beside your burnt offering, until I go, to see if perhaps the Lord may meet me, and whatever He commands, I will speak to you. 4. And when he had gone away quickly, God met him. And Balaam, speaking to Him, said: I have erected seven altars and placed a bull and a ram on each. 5. And the Lord put a word in his mouth and said: Return to Balak, and these things you shall speak. 6. Returning, he found Balak standing beside his burnt offering, and all the princes of the Moabites. 7. And taking up his parable, he said: From Aram Balak, king of the Moabites, has brought me, from the mountains of the East: Come, he said, and curse Jacob; hasten and detest Israel. 8. How shall I curse him whom God has not cursed? How shall I detest him whom the Lord does not detest? 9. From the highest rocks I shall see him, and from the hills I shall consider him. This people shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations. 10. Who can count the dust of Jacob, and know the number of the stock of Israel? Let my soul die the death of the just, and let my last end be like theirs. 11. And Balak said to Balaam: What is this that you are doing? I summoned you to curse my enemies, and you on the contrary bless them. 12. He answered: Can I speak anything other than what the Lord has commanded? 13. Balak therefore said: Come with me to another place from which you may see part of Israel but cannot see the whole, and from there curse him. 14. And when he had led him to a high place, to the top of Mount Pisgah, Balaam built seven altars, and having placed a bull and a ram on each, 15. he said to Balak: Stand here beside your burnt offering while I go to meet Him. 16. And when the Lord had met him and put a word in his mouth, He said: Return to Balak, and these things you shall speak to him. 17. Returning, he found him standing beside his burnt offering, and the princes of the Moabites with him. Balak said to him: What has the Lord said? 18. And he, taking up his parable, said: Stand, Balak, and listen; hear, son of Zippor. 19. God is not a man that He should lie, nor a son of man that He should change. Has He said, and will He not do it? Has He spoken, and will He not fulfill it? 20. I was brought to bless; I cannot withhold the blessing. 21. There is no idol in Jacob, nor is a graven image seen in Israel. The Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king's victory is in him. 22. God brought him out of Egypt; his strength is like that of a rhinoceros. 23. There is no augury in Jacob, nor divination in Israel. In due time it shall be told to Jacob and to Israel what God has wrought. 24. Behold, the people shall rise up like a lioness, and lift itself up like a lion: it shall not lie down until it devours its prey and drinks the blood of the slain. 25. And Balak said to Balaam: Neither curse him nor bless him. 26. And he said: Did I not tell you that whatever God commands me, that I would do? 27. And Balak said to him: Come, and I will lead you to another place; if perhaps it may please God that you curse them from there. 28. And when he had led him upon the top of Mount Peor, which looks toward the desert, 29. Balaam said to him: Build me here seven altars, and prepare as many calves, and the same number of rams. 30. Balak did as Balaam had said, and placed calves and rams upon each altar.
Verse 1: Build Me Seven Altars
1. AND BALAAM SAID TO BALAK: BUILD ME HERE SEVEN ALTARS, AND PREPARE AS MANY CALVES. -- Balaam ordered these altars to be erected, first, for sacrificing, not to the true God of the Hebrews, as Eugubinus holds: for Balak would not have permitted that; but to Baal, or the demon: for these were the high places of Baal, as preceded in the previous chapter, last verse. Second, for the superstition of divination, and to seek augury through them, as will be said in the following chapter, verse 1; hence he ordered precisely seven altars to be made, and on each two victims to be burned, namely a calf and a ram, with the cooperation of Balak the idolatrous king: hence also in verse 3, he calls this his burnt offering; although in verse 4, when contrary to his expectation the angel met him, he pretends that he erected these altars in honor of the Lord, in order to conciliate the angel to himself.
Moreover he erected seven altars, either because of the seven planets: for he himself seems to have been a genethliacal astrologer, who divined from horoscopes and the inspection of the stars, says Abulensis; or because the number seven is a symbol of perfection, and therefore is used in sacred matters; hence he also ordered seven calves and rams to be sacrificed, so that he might divine from their entrails, that is, from the inspection of the viscera: for this is the office of a soothsayer, such as was this Balaam, as is evident from chapter 22, verse 5. Or finally, he did this from superstition. For magicians and sorcerers especially observe certain numbers, hence they do nothing by an even, but everything by an odd number. Hence Virgil, Eclogue 8:
These fillets first, in triple color parted, Thrice round you I wind, and thrice about these altars Your image lead: God delights in the odd number.
Allegorical Meaning: Balak and Balaam
Allegorically, Balak, which in Hebrew means the same as licking and devouring, signifies the devil; Balaam, that is, people of vanity, signifies the Scribes and Pharisees, who at the impulse of the devil wished to curse and destroy Christ and Christians, who are the true Israelites; but God converted their curse and the death of the cross into a blessing and glory. So Rabanus.
Again, the Emperor Jovian truly said that "flatterers (such as was this Balaam) worship not God, but the purple: and are very like the Euripus, which is now carried to this side, now to that;" the witness is Socrates, book III, chapter XXI.
Bion, when asked, "what was the most harmful animal of all --" most harmful of all: If you ask about wild animals, he said, the tyrant; if about tame ones, the flatterer." So Laertius, book I, chapter V.
Diogenes called a smooth and flattering speech a honeyed snare. The same man used to say, "it is better to fall in with crows than with flatterers." So Laertius.
Epictetus used to say: "Crows pluck out the eyes of the dead; but flatterers, corrupting the minds of the living, deprive them of all sight."
Phavorinus used to say: "Just as Actaeon was destroyed by his own nurtured dogs: so parasites ruin those by whom they are fed."
"As the dog is by nature hostile to the hare, so is the flatterer to his friend," says Antonius in the Melissa, part I, sermon 52.
Hence Aristotle, book IX of the Ethics: "He who pretends to be a friend and is not, is worse than one who makes counterfeit money."
Verse 3: Stand a While, If Perhaps the Lord May Meet Me
3. STAND A WHILE, IF PERHAPS THE LORD MAY COME TO MEET ME. -- "The Lord," namely Baal, or the demon: for to him Balak with Balaam had offered this burnt offering; for Balaam here sought augury, as is said in the following chapter, verse 1, that is, divination, namely the demon himself, with whom he was accustomed to speak secretly, and from whom he would hear responses to bring back to Balak. So Cyril, book VI On Adoration, folio 113, Theodoret, Question XL, St. Augustine, sermon 103 On the Seasons, Ambrose, book VI, epistle 37, Nyssen, On the Life of Moses, near the end, Procopius and Rabanus here.
You will say: For "the Lord" the Hebrew has Jehovah, which is a Hebrew name. I respond that Balaam did not say Jehovah (for he had never heard this name), but used another name by which the Moabites were accustomed to call God (who for them was not the true God, but Baal, or the demon); but Moses, because he wrote not in Moabite but in Hebrew, substituted for it the Hebrew name Jehovah.
Verse 4: God Met Him
4. AND WHEN HE HAD GONE QUICKLY. -- Vatablus and the Hebrews translate, when he had gone to the high places; for this is also what the Hebrew word scephi signifies. Others translate, when he had gone alone.
GOD MET HIM. -- "God," that is, a good angel sent by God, or "God," not in person, but through His angel; for even though Balaam was not seeking Him but his own demon, nevertheless the good angel of his own accord presented himself and met him, and this to promote the glory both of God and of the Hebrews; just as to the Pythoness, who was consulting the demon for Saul, not an evil, but the good spirit of Samuel presented himself.
Moreover the angel met him in visible form, and, as follows, "came opposite him," in an assumed body; seeing which, Balaam first greeted him out of respect, and addressed him, saying: "I have erected seven altars;" he does not say to whom: perhaps because he doubted whether the one who met him was the demon or God; yet he tacitly implies that he had erected these altars for the one who met him, in which matter he lied. St. Augustine rightly says in Psalm LXIII: "Pretended fairness is double iniquity."
Verse 5: The Lord Put a Word in His Mouth
5. BUT THE LORD PUT A WORD IN HIS MOUTH -- that is to say, the angel suggested to him, and taught him what he was to say to Balak. Note: The angel here does not reprove the lying, hypocrisy, and idolatry of Balaam, but overlooks it, because he knew him to be an idolater, magician, wicked, and incorrigible; hence he only tells him those things that pertained to the present matter, namely to the mission of Balak and the cause of the Hebrews.
Verse 7: Taking Up His Parable
7. AND TAKING UP HIS PARABLE HE SAID. -- He calls a weighty, beautiful, and keen prophecy a parable. For the Hebrew word mashal, which our translator often renders as parable, signifies any saying that is eminent and illustrious, and, as it were, a prince among sayings, such as are the maxims, proverbs, and parables of the wise, and likewise the oracles of the Prophets. For the root mashal means to rule and be chief. Hence they are called mishle, that is, the Parables of Solomon, his weighty and moral sayings. Add that in this prophecy of Balaam many similitudes and parables properly so called are intermingled.
FROM ARAM (from Mesopotamia, which in Hebrew is called Aram Naharaim, as I said in chapter 20, verse 5) BALAK BROUGHT ME.
Verse 8: How Shall I Curse Him Whom God Has Not Cursed?
8. HOW SHALL I CURSE HIM WHOM GOD HAS NOT CURSED? -- Note that not only the tongue, but also the mind of Balaam, at least for the time during which he prophesied these things, was changed by God, so that whereas before he had wished to curse the Hebrews, he now blessed them. For Balaam here was not possessed as were the Sibyls, and the girl in the temple of Apollo at Delphi, into whom Phoebus himself, that is, the demon, would enter, and rolling her on the ground and forcing her to foam, would answer through her mouth to all the questions asked; but the girl herself understood nothing of these things, but was as if outside herself and in a frenzy, and after she ceased her frenzy, she did not remember what had been said. See Virgil, book VI of the Aeneid. But Balaam understood all these things, indeed he had already conceived and committed to memory all of them, namely when he alone heard them from the angel who met him, verse 5. For the angel is not read to have afterwards spoken to him or through him in the actual prophecy. Again, that he said these things from his mind and seriously is clear from the fact that he adds: "Let my soul die the death of the just." God therefore did not move Balaam's mouth as He moved the mouth of the speaking donkey; for Balaam was moved as a man, not as a brute animal. God therefore impelled his will and illuminated his intellect, so that he would speak these things piously and willingly, and from the heart. Abulensis, however, holds the contrary, namely that Balaam, persisting in his impious will to curse, blessed unwillingly and under compulsion, because God moved his mouth, though he was unwilling, and formed in it these words with which he blessed Israel, and he proves this from what Balaam says in verse 12: "Can I speak anything other than what the Lord has commanded?" But that does not compel: for "I cannot" there means the same as "it is not allowed," "it is not permitted." Therefore what I said earlier is truer, and it is confirmed in chapter 24, verse 1, where it says: "And when Balaam had seen that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, etc., the spirit of God rushing upon him, he said." But soon after the prophecy, Balaam returned to his nature, and sought ways to satisfy Balak and to curse the Hebrews: and this alone is what St. Gregory means, part III of the Pastoral Rule, Admonition 13, when he says Balaam changed his voice, not his mind. For in the manner I described, St. Gregory explains himself in book XXXIII of the Morals, chapter XXVII. Similarly Saul among the Prophets he prophesied and sang praises to God; but having departed from them, he returned to his nature and continued persecuting David: therefore both Saul and Balaam remained in the hardness and habitual impiety of their hearts, which each of them, when the good Spirit of God withdrew, shortly afterwards displayed just as before.
Similar to Balaam and Saul are those Christians who live in concubinage, hatreds, drunkenness, the possession of unjustly acquired goods, and at Easter or at the point of death are contrite and resolve to amend; but soon, once free from the feast or from danger, they return to their concubines, hatreds, cups, and unjust possessions: let these fear for themselves and expect an end and catastrophe such as Saul and Balaam had.
Verse 9: The People Shall Dwell Alone
9. FROM THE TOPMOST ROCKS I SHALL SEE HIM -- that is to say, from this steep mountain I shall survey the camps of Israel, and I shall delight in gazing upon them as the beautiful camps of God, beautifully distributed and arranged by their tribes, battle lines, and standards, and I shall pleasantly enjoy them.
THE PEOPLE SHALL DWELL ALONE -- that is to say, Israel will be separated, both in dominion and in association, from all other peoples, as being Gentiles and idolaters, and alone truly will serve its own laws and rites, because they are entirely different from the laws and customs of all other peoples; whence "and among" them "it will not be reckoned," that is, it will not be counted, because it will not be numbered among the Gentiles, nor considered among them. The Chaldean (who here and elsewhere frequently Judaizes) translates: behold, the people alone shall possess the age; for the Jews expect this under the Messiah, that they alone will rule over the whole earth.
Verse 10: Who Can Count the Dust of Jacob?
10. WHO CAN COUNT THE DUST OF JACOB (that is, as the Chaldean translates: Who will be able to count the little children of the house of Jacob? of whom it was said in Genesis 13:16, that "they will be multiplied as the dust of the earth;" whence explaining he adds) AND KNOW THE NUMBER OF THE STOCK OF ISRAEL? -- In Hebrew it is, and know the number of the fourth part of Israel. For in this poem, as in others, in Hebrew fashion, the same thing is repeated and explained in the latter hemistich that was said in the former.
Let My Soul Die the Death of the Just
LET MY SOUL DIE THE DEATH OF THE JUST, AND LET MY LAST END BE LIKE THEIRS. -- "My soul," that is, I myself: for the soul is taken for the person, as the part for the whole, by synecdoche. So also it is understood of Samson, when he says: "Let my soul die with the Philistines;" for the soul in itself cannot die, but yet it seems as it were to die to the body and to the person, when it is separated from him. So it is said in I Maccabees 2:38: "They struck down a thousand souls," that is, a thousand men, and in III Kings, chapter 1:11: "Save your soul," that is, yourself, and your life, so that you may preserve your soul in your body. There are many similar passages in Scripture.
Note: The camps of Israel are called the camps of the just, from the better and worthier part, although in them there were more wicked than just people. In a similar way the Church is called holy, although in it there are more wicked people. The meaning, therefore, is this, as Balaam says: Would that it might happen to me to die so joyful and happy a death as the faithful and just Israelites will die, knowing that they are passing to a better life, namely to blessed immortality!
The wicked, atheists, and politicians say the same today, when they seriously and sincerely consider the present and future state of man; so great is the force of truth. All the wicked, therefore, desire a good death, but flee from a good life, because dying well is happiness, but living well is laborious: yet one without the other is not granted. Eternity depends on death, and death on a good or evil life; choose: to have perished once is eternal.
Recently a certain heretical prince, or rather a Politician, of good nature and intelligence nonetheless, when asked what he thought of Catholics and Calvinists, and which faith was truer, answered cleverly that he preferred to live with Calvinists, but to die with Catholics, because the death of the latter is more joyful and secure, while the life of the former is more licentious and pleasurable. But he would have spoken more soundly and more suitably for his salvation had he said: Since I prefer to die with Catholics, I also prefer to live with them; for a good death depends on a good life, and it is impossible for one who lives heretically or wickedly to die well and happily. More wisely, therefore, and more usefully for himself, Balaam would have said: "Let my soul live the life of the just, so that it may die the death of the just." For whoever lives the life of the pious will certainly die the death of the pious: and whoever lives the life of the wicked will certainly die the death of the wicked, and that once and for all.
The centurion Lamachus was rebuking a soldier for a fault committed; and when the man acknowledged his blame and said he would henceforth do nothing of the sort, he replied: "In war it is not permitted to err twice." So Plutarch in the Laconica. But in death it is not permitted to err even once. For this error is irrevocable: once you have died, you are dead forever; once you have died badly, you are damned; for all eternity this death you will not be able to correct, this damnation you will not be able to shake off. Iphicrates used to say to the same effect that the most shameful word for a general is: "I did not think!" For a Christian this saying is imprudent and foolish: "I did not think" there was such a great difference between a good and an evil life and death; I did not think that so great an eternity depended on it; I did not think that I would die in such a way and so quickly.
Tropologically, St. Bernard, sermon 52 on the Song of Songs: "Would that I might frequently fall by this death, so as to escape the snares of death, so as not to feel the blandishments of a luxurious life, so as not to be stupefied by the sense of lust, by the heat of avarice, by the stings of anger and impatience, by the anxieties of worries and the troubles of cares! Let my soul die the death of the just, and let no fraud ensnare it, let no iniquity delight it. Good is the death that does not take away life, but transfers it to something better. Good, in which the body does not fall, but the soul is raised up. But this is the death of men. But let my soul die also the death (if it may be said) of angels, so that, going beyond the memory of present things, it may strip itself not only of the desires but also of the likenesses of lower and corporeal things, and may have a pure conversation with those with whom it has a likeness of purity. Such an ecstasy, as I believe, is called contemplation, either exclusively or principally. For not to be held by the desires of things while living is a matter of human virtue: but not to be entangled by the likenesses of bodies while contemplating is a matter of angelic purity. Yet both are a divine gift."
The Death of the Just
Do you wish to know what the death of the just is like? Listen and marvel. St. Nicholas of Tolentino, as his Life relates in chapters XI and XIII, for six full months before his death, shortly before the night prayers, every single night heard the sweetest concert of angels, which offered him as it were a foretaste of the future life. And so with what desire for that life do we believe he burned, to whose delight he was so pleasantly invited? He himself declared it, who frequently had on his lips that saying of the Apostle: "I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ." Indeed, when the time of his dissolution was at hand, in his final breath he began to pour forth the words of one rejoicing and exulting: and when the Brothers who were present asked the cause of his unusual joy, he, astonished and scarcely in possession of himself before the greatness of the thing, said: "My Lord, Jesus Christ, leaning on His most holy Mother and on our father Augustine, says to me: Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord;" and with these words he expired.
St. Arnulph, Bishop of Soissons, predicted the day of his death, and the day before, his cell was shaken three times with a great crash; while the others were frightened, he said he was being called to heaven. "For at the first shaking," he said, "Blessed Peter the Apostle came to me, signifying to me that my sins were forgiven and that the gate of life lay open; there was present a numerous company of the Blessed, continuously singing divine praises. At the second shaking, St. Michael visited me with many angelic spirits, promising that, with him as guide, I would enter into the blessed life. At the third shaking, Our Lady, true mother of mercy, attended by many ranks of holy virgins, with a most kindly voice assured me that my soul was to be transferred to heaven amid the joys of her Assumption." So it happened; for dying on the very day of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin, he went to heaven, as the Martyrology records; so John Lisiard, the third of his successors, relates in his Life, and from him Baronius, volume XI, year of Christ 1087.
St. Gregory, book IV of the Dialogues, chapter XI, describing the death of the priest Ursinus, speaks thus: "With great joy he began to cry out, saying: Welcome, my lords, welcome, lords; why have you deigned to come to so small a servant? I am coming, I am coming. I give thanks, I give thanks. And when he repeated this with reiterated voice, his acquaintances who stood around him asked to whom he was saying this; to whom he replied with wonder, saying: Do you not see the holy Apostles assembled here? Do you not behold blessed Peter and Paul, the chief of the Apostles? And turning again to them, he said: behold, I come, behold, I come; and amid these words he gave up his soul. And because he truly saw the holy Apostles, he testified to it also by following them. This commonly happens to the just, that in their death they behold visions of the most excellent Saints, lest they dread the penal sentence of their own death; but while the fellowship of the citizens within is shown to their minds, they are released from the bond of their flesh without the weariness of pain and fear."
In the same place, chapter X, he relates of the Abbot Spes, that after having been blind for 40 years, shortly before death he recovered his sight, and that, giving his followers counsels of salvation, receiving communion, singing psalms, and praying, he gave up his soul to God, which the Brothers saw being carried to heaven in the form of a dove.
In chapter XII, he narrates of Probus, Bishop of Rieti, that St. Juvenal and St. Eleutherius the Martyrs, clothed in white, came to him as he was dying and invited him to the heavenly banquet.
In chapter XIII, he narrates of St. Galla, who seeing St. Peter asked: "Are my sins forgiven?" to whom St. Peter replied: "Forgiven; come." Whence on the third day she died together with another sister whom St. Peter had named.
In chapter XIV, he narrates the wondrous life and death of the holy Servulus, a poor and paralyzed man, who as he was dying heard the angels singing, inviting him and leading him to heaven, leaving behind him a wondrous fragrance.
In chapter XV, he narrates the passing of St. Romula and the heavenly funeral rites; for at her death there was openly heard a chorus of men and women singing psalms, which led her soul to heaven; and the higher the choirs of singers ascended, the more gently the psalmody was heard.
In chapter XVI, he narrates the passing of his aunt, the virgin Tarsilla, who, summoned by her great-great-grandfather St. Felix into heaven, fell ill, and dying she cried out: "Depart, Jesus comes."
The Death of the Wicked
On the contrary, do you wish to know what the death of the wicked is like? Listen and shudder. The wicked Jezebel, by the command of Jehu, was thrown from the window, trampled by the hooves of horses, and devoured by dogs, IV Kings 9:33. Belshazzar, drinking excessively, saw a hand writing: Mane, tekel, phares, and was terrified; and that very night he was stripped of life and kingdom by Cyrus, Daniel 5. Antiochus, who had tortured many, suffering a dire pain of the bowels, stench and worms, died a miserable death in the mountains, II Maccabees 9:9. Similar was the death of Herod of Ascalon.
Huneric, king of the Vandals and most wicked persecutor of Catholics, says Victor of Utica, book III of the Vandals, "held the rule of the kingdom for seven years and ten months, consummating the death of his merits; for it was not the body, but the parts of his body, putrefied and swarming with worms, that seemed to be buried." Gregory of Tours, book II of The Deeds of the Franks, chapter III, says he was seized by a demon and tore himself with his own bites, and the sun appeared dark, so that scarcely a third of it shone: thus the wretched Huneric died in the year of Christ 484.
Well known is the death of Chrysaorius crying out: "A truce until morning," as St. Gregory testifies, homily 12 on the Gospels. Hear of another similar one, which Gregory of Tours relates, book V of the History of the Franks, chapter 36, and from him Baronius, in the year of Christ 583: "By a grievous death, Nantinus, Count of Angouleme, was snatched from this life, who, having perpetrated many evils against holy places and God's ministers, was seized by disease: consumed by excessive fever, he cried out, saying: Alas, alas, I am burned by Bishop Heraclius; I am tortured by him; I am summoned by him to judgment. I acknowledge my crime, I remember that I unjustly inflicted injuries on the Bishop; I pray for death, lest I be tortured longer by this torment. While he cried out these things in the greatest fever, his bodily strength failing, he poured out his wretched soul, leaving undoubted traces that this had come upon him as vengeance for the blessed man; for the lifeless body turned so black that you would think it had been placed upon coals and burned. Therefore let all be astonished at this, marvel and fear, lest they inflict injuries on priests, because the Lord is the avenger of His servants who hope in Him."
Calvin, wretchedly tormented by various diseases, as Beza testifies, was moreover consumed by lice, as Jerome Bolsec, a physician of Lyon and his former disciple, relates in his Life, chapter 22. Where note that those who persecute the Church are, by the just judgment of God, devoured by worms. For so it happened to Huneric, Herod, Antiochus, the Emperor Maximian, the Emperor Arnulf, successor of Charles the Fat, and Calvin.
Learn to Die
Now do you wish to die the death not of the wicked, but of the just? "Learn to die;" constantly reflect that you will die: while you are healthy, prepare yourself for death.
So St. Bernard counsels Pope Eugenius, in his letter 237: "In all your works remember that you are a man, and let the fear of Him who takes away the spirit of princes always be before your eyes. And let the brief time of their rule announce to you the fewness of your own days. Therefore by constant meditation amid the blandishments of this present glory, remember your last things, because those whom you succeeded in the seat, you will without doubt follow to death."
When an Emperor was formerly crowned, four or five builders of sepulchres would bring to him pieces of marble of various colors, asking from which he wished his sepulchre to be built: by which he was reminded of his mortality, and to govern wisely. So Leontius relates in the Life of St. John the Almsgiver, where he likewise narrates that St. John had a sepulchre made for himself, but left it unfinished, and while he sat at table ordered his servants to suggest to him: "Your tomb is still unfinished to this day, Lord; therefore command that it be completed; for it is uncertain at what hour the thief will enter," namely death.
St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, as Nyssen testifies in his Life, so learned to die, since throughout his whole life he considered himself to be a pilgrim here, nor did he wish to be the possessor of any place: indeed, even in death he did not wish to have his own sepulchre, but desired to be buried in another's.
St. Augustine, as Possidius testifies, prepared himself for death by constantly reading the Penitential Psalms, weeping abundantly, praying unceasingly, so that during the last ten days of his life he would admit no one to himself except a physician or someone bringing refreshment; and he used to say that even praised Christians ought not to depart from the body without worthy and fitting penance.
So St. Fulgentius prepared himself for death by mortifying himself, weeping, refusing baths, and praying in his illnesses: "Lord, give me now patience, and afterwards pardon."
Ferdinand, the Catholic and chaste king of Castile and Leon, in the year of the Lord 1065, as Lucas of Tuy relates and from him Baronius, sensing that he was failing, was carried by bishops and religious men to the church in royal attire; there, on bended knees at the altar, he said: "Yours is the power, O Lord, Yours is the kingdom. The kingdom which, with You as its master, I received, and which, as long as it pleased Your will, I governed -- behold, I return to You: only I pray that You receive my soul, snatched from the whirlpool of this world." And saying these things, he took off the royal cloak with which his body was clothed, and laid aside the bejeweled crown which encircled his head, and with tears, prostrate on the ground, he more earnestly besought the Lord for pardon of his offenses. Then, having received penance from the bishops and been anointed with the sacrament of Extreme Unction, he was clothed in a hair shirt in place of royal ornament, and was sprinkled with ashes in place of the golden diadem; to him, remaining alive in penance before the aforesaid altar, two days were given by God to live. On the following day, however, which was the feast of St. John the Evangelist, between the hands of the bishops, he delivered his spirit to heaven, in the year of Christ 1065.
Emperor Charles V, mindful of his human condition, long before his death voluntarily removed himself from the administration of the state; and having transferred his cares to his son, now strong in age and spirit, he withdrew to Spain, and in the monastery of St. Justus, seven miles from Placentia, he secluded himself with only twelve companions, to devote himself to God and quiet; he forbade, moreover, that he be called anything other than Charles, stripping from his mind the names of Caesar and Augustus along with the realities, and despising all such being honored. Indeed, they relate even more: that long before his abdication of the empire, he had ordered a sarcophagus to be built for himself, to be carried about with funeral furnishings, though secretly, wherever he went, which he had kept with him for five years, wherever he might be. Some of those around him believed that some treasure was kept and preserved there; others thought it contained some ancient books of history; others something else of great value: but Caesar, conscious of the purpose for which he carried it with him, keeping silent, used to say he carried it for the use of something most dear to him of all; thus he constantly set death before his eyes, and always wished to have a funeral bier near him, so that the perpetual thought of death might remove from his heart the vain pomp of this world, and might remind him to perform holy actions while he lived. So among others, Lipsius relates, book II of Admonitions, chapter 14.
The same did Charles's grandfather, Emperor Maximilian I, who moreover provided in his testament that his lifeless body, wrapped in rough linen, without any embalming, should be placed in the sarcophagus which he had ordered prepared four years before his death, with his nostrils, mouth, and ears filled with quicklime. Why this? He wanted to have that monument constantly before his eyes, which would say: Maximilian, think of dying; why do you delay and extend yourself? He whom so many kingdoms cannot contain, this small coffin will contain. But why do you wish to be preserved not with spices, but with lime? So that I may return more quickly to the earth from which I was taken. "Remember, O man, that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." So Lipsius relates in the same place.
St. Gregory on Perseverance
AND LET MY LAST END BE LIKE THEIRS. -- From this example of Balaam, St. Gregory beautifully teaches, book XXXIII of the Morals, chapter 27, that "prayer has no weight of virtue, which perseverance of continual love by no means sustains. For Balaam, when the time of compunction had passed, gave counsel against the life of those to whom he had asked to be made similar even in dying, and when he found an occasion for avarice, he immediately forgot whatever he had wished for himself regarding innocence."
The Efficacy of Divine Grace
Note here the wondrous efficacy of divine grace and inspiration, which, as long as it was present, changed the soul of Balaam, and made him superior to earth and heaven. For, as St. Cyprian says, in his letter to Donatus, book II, letter 2: "As the sun radiates of its own accord, as the day illuminates, as the fountain waters, as the rain bedews: so the heavenly spirit pours itself in, after the soul, looking up to heaven, has recognized its Author; higher than the sun, and more sublime than all this power, it begins to be what it believes itself to be." Whence he infers: "Let there be for you either constant prayer or reading; now speak with God, now let God speak with you; let Him instruct you with His precepts, let Him direct you: he whom He has made rich and satisfied, no one will make poor or hungry;" and earlier: "He who is greater than the world can no longer desire or want anything from the world."
See here, then, how suddenly the Holy Spirit converts the heart and tongue of a wicked man. Truly St. Gregory says: "I consider the fathers of the New and Old Testament, David, Daniel, Amos, Peter, Paul, and Matthew, and with the eyes of faith opened I behold: for the Holy Spirit fills a boy who plays the harp, and makes him a psalmist: He fills an abstinent boy, and makes him a judge of the elders: He fills a herdsman shepherd, and makes him a Prophet: He fills a fisherman, and makes him the prince of the Apostles: He fills a persecutor, and makes him the Doctor of the Gentiles: He fills a tax collector, and makes him an Evangelist; how insane we are, then, who do not seek this Spirit!"
The Threefold Death
Symbolically, the death of the just is the mortification of the passions, which they acquire through contemplation and the heavenly life. This St. Bernard desired, sermon 52 on the Song of Songs, saying: "When the soul departs, if not from life, certainly from the sense of life, it is necessary also that the temptation of life not be felt. Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly, and I will rest? Would that by this death I might frequently fall, and escape the snares of death, so that I might not feel the deadly blandishments of a luxuriant life, so that I might not be stupefied by the sensation of lust, by the heat of avarice, by the stings of anger and impatience, by the anguish of anxieties, and the troubles of cares! Let my soul die the death of the just, so that no deceit may ensnare it, no iniquity delight it. Good is the death which does not take away life, but transfers it to something better."
"There is a threefold death," says Hugh the Cardinal: "of nature, of guilt, and of grace; in the first the flesh dies; in the second, the soul; in the third, the whole man. The first separates the soul from the flesh; the second divides grace from the mind; the third separates the whole man from the cares of the world. The first belongs to all; the second to the wicked; the third to the good. Those dead by the first death are buried in the world; those by the second in hell with the rich feaster; those by the third in heaven with Lazarus. Of the first it is said, Sirach 41: O death, how bitter is the memory of you! Of the second: The death of sinners is the worst. Of the third: Let my soul die the death of the just."
Verse 13: Come with Me to Another Place
13. THEREFORE BALAK SAID: COME WITH ME TO ANOTHER PLACE, FROM WHICH YOU MAY SEE A PART OF ISRAEL, AND CANNOT SEE THE WHOLE: FROM THERE CURSE HIM. -- Balak superstitiously attributed Balaam's blessing of Israel to the place and to the broader view, as if he had blessed Israel because he had seen its whole people, or that that place was more fortunate than others, either from the influence of the heavens and stars, or from some other cause. Similarly the Syrians, defeated by the Israelites, said: "Their gods are gods of the mountains, therefore they have overcome us; but it is better that we fight against them on the plains, and we will defeat them," III Kings 20:33.
Verse 14: The Top of Mount Pisgah
14. AND WHEN HE HAD LED HIM TO A HIGH PLACE. -- In Hebrew, into a field, that is, a place of watchers, that is, a lookout.
BALAAM BUILT SEVEN ALTARS -- similar to those about which it was said in verse 1.
Verses 18-19: God Is Not as a Man, That He Should Lie
18 and 19. STAND, BALAK, AND LISTEN, ETC.: GOD IS NOT AS A MAN, THAT HE SHOULD LIE; NOR AS THE SON OF MAN, THAT HE SHOULD CHANGE -- that is to say: Do not think, O Balak, that I will retract the former blessing of Israel which I received from God: for God, who governs my mind and tongue, is not one who changes. In Hebrew, there is none who repents, that is, who revokes and changes His words and promises. For He is by His very essence immutable, "and remaining stable gives all things their motion," as Boethius says. Whence it follows: HAS HE SAID, THEREFORE (namely, God, that I should not curse Israel), AND WILL HE NOT DO IT? -- that is to say: He will certainly do what He said, namely He will bring it about that I do not curse Israel.
Note: A man usually denies a promise for four reasons: first, when he deceitfully promises something and lies; second, when he repents of the promise itself; third, when he is offended by the one to whom he promised something; fourth, when it is not in his power to fulfill the promise. These are most remote from God. For first, He does not lie as a man; second, He does not repent as the son of man; third, He does not look at man's merit or demerit, but at His own goodness and His promise and faithfulness; fourth, He has the strength of a rhinoceros, therefore He can perform what He promises; and because He can, He in fact performs it.
Verse 20: I Have Been Brought to Bless
20. I HAVE BEEN BROUGHT TO BLESS, I CANNOT WITHHOLD THE BLESSING. -- He rightly says, not "I came," but "I was brought"; for he himself was coming with the intention of cursing. But God was bringing him to bless. Our translator reads, as do the Septuagint, passively in the Pual lukachti, that is, I have been taken, brought; while in the Qal they read lacachti, that is, I received. Whence Vatablus translates literally: behold, I have received a blessing, and He blessed, namely God, He will not revoke it, namely the blessing, but the meaning comes to the same thing.
I CANNOT WITHHOLD THE BLESSING. -- Not as if Balaam had said these things under compulsion, against his will, and God had formed these words in his mouth against his wishes, as Abulensis holds; but because his mind was so illuminated by God, and his will so moved to the praise and blessing of Israel, that he could scarcely and with difficulty curse them; indeed, he could hardly not bless them. See what was said at verse 7.
Verse 21: No Idol in Jacob
21. THERE IS NO IDOL IN JACOB, ETC., THE LORD HIS GOD IS WITH HIM, AND THE SHOUT OF VICTORY OF THE KING IS IN HIM. -- Beautifully and clearly the Chaldean renders this: I see that there are no servants of idols in the house of Jacob, nor workers of falsehood (false gods, that is, images of false gods) in Israel. The word of the Lord their God is for their help, and the majesty of their king is among them. Note: Idols and images are here in the Hebrew, as often by the Prophets, called aven and amal, that is, pain and labor, or iniquity and labor, because they are the cause of the greatest labors and sorrows to their worshipers. From this passage it is clear that the Hebrews at this time, namely in the fortieth year after the departure from Egypt, did not worship idols, at least publicly. For that they had previously worshiped idols in Egypt and in the desert -- the golden calf and other idols -- is clear from Amos 5:25 and Acts 7:42 and 43.
The Shout of Victory of the King
AND THE SHOUT OF VICTORY OF THE KING IS IN HIM. -- He alludes to the two silver trumpets made by the Lord's command, at whose sounding God had commanded the Hebrews to go to war, and had promised to be present with them and to give them victory, chapter 10, verse 9, as if to say: Israel is unconquerable and invincible, inasmuch as he carries victory with him; for he has God as leader, in the leader a king, in the king a mighty one, in the mighty one victory. God therefore is their king, who at the sounding of the trumpets gives them victory.
See here how God scatters the counsels of wicked princes, and turns them back upon their own heads, and that through the very persons whom they have tried to draw into their wickedness. For those who are unfaithful to God are also unfaithful to men. Wherefore wisely did Theodoric, king of the Goths, although an Arian, when he loved a certain orthodox deacon and that man, to please the king more, had become an Arian, soon order him to be beheaded, saying: "If you have not kept faith with God, how will you keep a sincere conscience toward a man?" So Theodorus Lector relates in his Collections, book II. So by the will of God, Balaam, solicited by Balak to infidelity, was unfaithful and an adversary to him, and prophesied victory against him for his enemies, the Hebrews.
Verse 22: God Brought Him Out of Egypt -- The Rhinoceros
22. GOD BROUGHT HIM OUT OF EGYPT, WHOSE STRENGTH IS LIKE THAT OF A RHINOCEROS. -- The Chaldean, R. Solomon, and Eugubinus translate: whose strength is high and exalted. For they read ram, that is, high, not reem; but our translator with the Septuagint here and elsewhere reads reem, that is, rhinoceros; or, as the Septuagint translate, monoceros, that is, as our translator elsewhere renders it, unicorn. And although both Tertullian, book Against the Jews, chapter 10, St. Gregory, XXXI Morals 13, Isidore, XII Etymologies II, and Bede on Job 39, teach that both these animals are the same, and say it is an animal having one horn in the middle of its forehead, four feet, so sharp and strong that whatever it strikes with it, it either tosses or pierces through, nevertheless it is more true that the rhinoceros, or nose-horn, is to be distinguished from the monoceros or unicorn.
For Pliny distinguishes them, and from him the naturalists generally; for the rhinoceros, as Pliny teaches, book VIII, chapter 20, is box-colored, and has a horn projecting from its nose, not straight, but curved and hooked, and hence it is called rhinoceros from the Greek for nose and horn, and by it is most powerful, and fights with the elephant, to which it is almost equal in length, but with much shorter legs; having sharpened its horn on rocks it prepares itself for battle, and in it especially attacks the belly, which it understands to be softer, and having pierced it, it quickly overcomes the elephant. Thus Emmanuel, king of Portugal, in the year 1515, gave at Lisbon a remarkable spectacle of an elephant fighting with a rhinoceros, in which the elephant was defeated. Hence the rhinoceros is a symbol of strength, and consequently of God, who is the strongest. Again, the rhinoceros is a symbol of slow but terrible anger. For it needs great provocation, but once it begins to be angry, it is most ferocious: so also God compensates the slowness of punishment with its severity; whence the proverb: The gods have woolen feet, but iron hands. For this reason, the first who brought a rhinoceros into the arena against a bull and bear, the Emperor Domitian at the dedication of the amphitheater, ordered a coin to be struck with the image of the rhinoceros, to signify that he, like the rhinoceros, was, first, magnanimous and endowed with royal strength; second, slow to anger but, once aroused, implacable. This was explained in a double epigram by Martial, who was a favorite of Domitian. In the first he explains the incomparable strength of the rhinoceros, tossing a bull like a ball in a duel, and says:
The rhinoceros, displayed in the whole arena for you, O Caesar, Performed the battles it had not promised. Oh how terribly it flared up, rushing forward in anger! How great was its horn, for which the bull was a ball!
In the other epigram he teaches that it is slow to anger, but when it becomes angry, that it is most furious, and strikes the enemy not with one, but with two horns. For he says:
While the trembling trainers provoke the rhinoceros, And the anger of the great beast gathers itself for long, The promised battles of Mars were despaired of: But yet that fury, known before, returned. For with its twin horn it so lifted the heavy bear, As a bull tosses balls placed upon it to the stars.
The Monoceros or Unicorn
The monoceros indeed, says Pliny, book VIII, chapter 21, is a most fierce beast, in the rest of its body similar to a horse, in head to a deer, in feet to an elephant, in tail to a boar, with a deep bellow, with one black horn projecting from the middle of its forehead, two cubits long; they say this beast cannot be taken alive. Aelianus has similar things, book XVI On Animals, chapter 20, and book XVII, chapter 44, who makes the monoceros dark-maned and dark-haired, swift of foot, with a black horn, gentle toward other beasts, but fierce with those of its own herd. Pierius in his hieroglyph of the rhinoceros calls it halicorn, and thinks it is the one which the Septuagint here translate as monoceros, and our translator elsewhere as unicorn. For the Hebrew word reem signifies both the monoceros and the rhinoceros, just as many other animal names among the Hebrews are common to several animals.
The monoceros therefore, say St. Gregory and Isidore above, is of such great strength that it cannot be captured by any skill of hunters; but, as the naturalists assert, a virgin maiden is placed before it, who opens her lap to the approaching beast: it, laying aside all ferocity, lays down its head, and thus lulled to sleep, is captured as if unarmed.
Rupertus and Pierius above, and Albertus Magnus, book XXII On Animals, hand down the same thing, and if this story is true, the monoceros will fittingly represent Christ; whence Rupertus says: "God, the strongest of spirits, as a unicorn, that is, of singular power, God incomprehensible and of unconquered virtue, drawn by the scent of a virgin's womb, was enclosed in it, and from it alone could be seized and slain." Hence also Tertullian, Against the Jews, book X, and Justin, Against Trypho, page 71, take those words of Deuteronomy 33:17: "The horns of the monoceros (for so the Septuagint have it instead of rhinoceros), his horns," as said of the horns of the cross of Christ, namely allegorically; for the horns of Christ, that is, the strength and power with which He scattered the devil and pierced through sin and death, was the cross.
But Marco Polo of Venice, book III, chapter 15, Gesner on the monoceros, and other learned men, call this story about the taming of the monoceros through a virgin a fable, and Gesner asserts it arose from the fact that the monoceros, although it is most fierce, only becomes gentle when it mates with its female. Andreas Bacci the physician, in his treatise On the Halicorn, page 67, where from Aelian he teaches that the halicorn is so fierce that it even hates its own female, and thus withdrawing from her wanders solitary through deserts, until, growing warm with love when it is time for mating, having set aside its fierceness, it gently approaches her, and feeds and mates with her. But soon, when it senses that she has conceived and her belly is swelling, it returns to its former fierceness, aversion, and solitude.
Finally Theodoret, Question XLIV, thinks that the Hebrew people themselves are here called the monoceros, because they worshiped one God, and therefore were strengthened by Him, and became strong as the monoceros. Better, however, Procopius, Rabanus, Rupertus, and others judge that God is here called the rhinoceros or monoceros, according to the meaning I gave a little earlier. For also elsewhere Scripture measures the strength of God from the strength of the rhinoceros, as is clear from Job 39:12. God indeed communicated and communicates this His strength, and consequently also the name of the rhinoceros, to the Hebrews and His other followers.
Verse 23: No Augury in Jacob
23. THERE IS NO AUGURY IN JACOB, NOR DIVINATION IN ISRAEL. -- Under these he understands all incantation and sorcery, as a genus under the most common species. Balaam here praises Israel, that just as it does not worship idols, so neither does it have auguries; but because it worships the true God, it therefore receives true prophecies and responses from Him, both through Moses, and through the Pontiff Eleazar, vested with the Urim and Thummim, and through other Prophets, and that God protects Israel and fights for it; whence he adds: "In their times (namely in the following ages), it shall be said to Jacob and to Israel (that is, to the posterity of the Israelites), what (and how great things) God has wrought for him."
Verse 24: The People Shall Rise Up as a Lioness
24. BEHOLD THE PEOPLE SHALL RISE UP AS A LIONESS, AND SHALL LIFT ITSELF UP AS A LION. -- He compares Israel to a lion and a lioness, which when she nurses and is hungry for her cubs, is fiercer and more savage than a lion. See what was said on Genesis 29:9.
HE SHALL NOT LIE DOWN UNTIL HE DEVOURS THE PREY AND DRINKS THE BLOOD OF THE SLAIN. -- He persists in the metaphor of the lion, as if to say: Israel will not rest until it crushes the Canaanite enemies, divides the spoil from them, and seizes and apportions their land promised to it; indeed, until like a lion it drinks the blood of the slain: not as if this were literally to happen, or as if Israel actually did something like this afterwards, but that it will win a perfect and most joyful victory over the Canaanites and other enemies, in which it will shed their blood so easily, so pleasantly, and without slaughter of its own, as if it were draining and drinking a cup; or rather, that in that victory it will shed such copious blood of the enemy that it, flowing like a torrent, could provide drink for the victors, and thus abundantly satiate their desire, and as it were, their thirst. For this only is what these and similar phrases signify by catachresis and metalepsis, as in Psalm 57:10: "He shall wash his hands in the blood of the sinner;" Isaiah 63:3: "I have trodden them in my fury, and their blood is sprinkled upon my garments;" Psalm 67:24: "That your foot may be dipped in blood;" Psalm 109, last verse: "He shall drink of the torrent in the way." For all these signify nothing other than a remarkable, full, and perfect victory over enemies.
Verse 27: Come to Another Place -- Mount Peor
27. AND BALAK SAID TO HIM: COME, AND I WILL LEAD YOU TO ANOTHER PLACE, IF PERHAPS IT MAY PLEASE GOD THAT FROM THERE YOU CURSE THEM. -- This is the second change of place, by which the superstitious Balak hoped Balaam would curse the Hebrews: whence three times from three different places, Balaam on the contrary blessed the Hebrews, namely: first, from Mount Abarim and the temple of Baal, chapter 22:41; second, from the summit of Pisgah, chapter 23:14; third, here from Mount Peor, as is clear from the following verses. Moreover, Phogor or Peor was an idol, from which Beelpeor was named, as well as this mountain, about which see chapter 25:3.