Through some or other of the channels of information enumerated in the last paragraph, Balak, King of Moab, is aware of the existence of a Prophet at Pethor, and sends for him. It is not unlikely, indeed, that the Moabites, who were the children of Lot, should have still maintained a communication with the original stock of all which continued to dwell in Aram or Mesopotamia.
Neither is it unlikely that Pethor, which was in that country (Numbers 23:7), the country whence Abraham emigrated, and where Nahor and that branch of Terah’s family remained, should possess a Prophet of the true God.
Nor is it unlikely again, that, living in the midst of idolaters, Balaam should in a degree partake of the infection, as Laban had done before him in the same country; and that whilst he acknowledged the Lord for his God, and offered his victims by sevens (as some patriarchal tradition perhaps directed him (See Job 42:8)), he should have had recourse to enchantments also—mixing the profane and sacred, as Laban did the worship of his images with the worship of his Maker. All this is in character.
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Author: John James Blunt
Keywords: Pethor, Moab, Midian, Midianites, Moabites, Balaam, Balak, King of Moab, death of Balaam, matter of Peor, Peor, Balaam and Balak, Balak king of Moab, king of the Moabites, Balak king of the Moabites
Bible reference(s): Numbers 23, Numbers 22, Numbers 24, Numbers 31:8, Num 31:16, Deu 23:4, Deu 23:5, Jos 13:22, Jos 24:9-10, Neh 13:2, Mic 6:5, 2Pe 2:15, Jde 1:11, Rev 2:14
Source: Undesigned Coincidences in the Writings of the Old & New Testament (London: John Murray, 1869).
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