kness and
gentleness, which are the virtues characteristic of the subjects of the
kingdom of God. In ver. 18, the particular is likewise followed by the
general. But while ver. 17 and 18 contain, in each of the two
particular features, a previous short allusion to the general, ver. 19
most expressly and intentionally reduces the particular to the general.
The absolute elevation above the world's power, attributed by Balaam to
the Israelitish kingdom, leads not only beyond the idea of a single
king of the ordinary stamp, but also beyond that of the entire ordinary
kingdom.

The objections urged against the Messianic interpretation are based
either on a misunderstanding, or upon a superficial view of the
passage. They who maintain that the judging activity of [Pg 103]the
Messiah is here brought forward in a manner too one-sided, forget that
this part only could here be treated of. As Balaam's discourse formed
the answer to Balak's message--"Come, curse me this people;
peradventure we shall prevail to smite them and drive them out of the
land,"--its natural subject was: _Israel's position towards their
enemies_; and Balaam had expressly stated, in ver. 14, that he would
treat of that subject. Balaam had to do with an enemy of Israel, and
his chief aim was to represent to him the vanity of all his hostile
efforts. The partial view arises, therefore, from the nature of the
case; and only _in that case_ could doubts arise as to the ultimate
reference to the Messiah, if the other view were altogether _denied_.
But such is by no means the case; for the words in ver. 9, "Blessed is
he that blesseth thee," distinctly point it out. They who object to the
Messianic interpretation on the ground that, at the time of Christ, the
Moabites had disappeared from the stage of history, overlook the
circumstance, that the Moabites here, as well as in Is. xi., where the
complete destruction of Moab is likewise assigned to the times of the
Messiah, are viewed only in their character as enemies to the
congregation of God. If the prophecy were fulfilled upon the Moabites,
even at the time when they still existed as a nation, not as Moabites,
but as the enemies of the people of God; then the limit of their
national existence cannot be the limit of the fulfilment of the
prophecy. A case quite analogous is found in Mic. v. 4, 5, where the
prophet characterizes the enemies of the kingdom of God at the time of
the Messiah by the name of Asshur, alth