of this, which
was the only honest part in these circumstances that lay before him, he
desires the princes of Moab to tarry that night with him also; and for
the sake of the reward deliberates, whether by some means or other he
might not be able to obtain leave to curse Israel; to do that, which had
been before revealed to him to be contrary to the will of God, which yet
he resolves not to do without that permission. Upon which, as when this
nation afterwards rejected God from reigning over them, He gave them a
king in His anger; in the same way, as appears from other parts of the
narration, He gives Balaam the permission he desired: for this is the
most natural sense of the words. Arriving in the territories of Moab,
and being received with particular distinction by the king, and he
repeating in person the promise of the rewards he had before made to him
by his ambassadors, he seeks, the text says, by _sacrifices_ and
_enchantments_ (what these were is not to our purpose), to obtain leave
of God to curse the people; keeping still his resolution, not to do it
without that permission: which not being able to obtain, he had such
regard to the command of God as to keep this resolution to the last. The
supposition of his being under a supernatural restraint is a mere fiction
of Philo: he is plainly represented to be under no other force or
restraint than the fear of God. However, he goes on persevering in that
endeavour, after he had declared that _God had not beheld iniquity in
Jacob_, _neither had he seen perverseness in Israel_; {20} _i.e._, they
were a people of virtue and piety, so far as not to have drawn down by
their iniquity that curse which he was soliciting leave to pronounce upon
them. So that the state of Balaam's mind was this: he wanted to do what
he knew to be very wicked, and contrary to the express command of God; he
had inward checks and restraints which he could not entirely get over; he
therefore casts about for ways to reconcile this wickedness with his
duty. How great a paradox soever this may appear, as it is indeed a
contradiction in terms, it is the very account which the Scripture gives
us of him.

But there is a more surprising piece of iniquity yet behind. Not daring
in his religious character, as a prophet, to assist the king of Moab, he
considers whether there might not be found some other means of assisting
him against that very people, whom he himself by the fear of God was
restraine