| Numbers 23:13
| Balac therefore said: Come with me to another place, from whence thou mayst see part of Israel, and canst not see them all: curse them from thence.
| Thence. He has a mind to try a new experiment. We have observed, that the object of malediction was to be in view, chap. 22:41. 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. 22:41) 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, etc., 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 20:23. (Menochius)
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