Numbers Chapter 23 verse 9 Holy Bible
For from the top of the rocks I see him, And from the hills I behold him: lo, it is a people that dwelleth alone, And shall not be reckoned among the nations.
read chapter 23 in ASV
From the top of the rocks I see him, looking down on him from the hills: it is a people made separate, not to be numbered among the nations.
read chapter 23 in BBE
For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: Lo, [it is] a people that shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations.
read chapter 23 in DARBY
For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.
read chapter 23 in KJV
For from the top of the rocks I see him, and from the hills I behold him: lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.
read chapter 23 in WBT
For from the top of the rocks I see him, From the hills I see him: behold, it is a people that dwells alone, And shall not be reckoned among the nations.
read chapter 23 in WEB
For from the top of rocks I see it, And from heights I behold it; Lo a people! alone it doth tabernacle, And among nations doth not reckon itself.
read chapter 23 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 9. - The people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned. Rather, "It is a people that dwelleth apart, and is not numbered." It was not the outward isolation on which his eye was fixed, for that indeed was only temporary and accidental, but the religious and moral separateness of Israel as the chosen people of God, which was the very secret of their national greatness.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(9) For from the top of the rocks I see him . . . --From the summit of the rocky mountain on which Balak had erected his seven altars, Balaam, according to one interpretation (see Numbers 22:41, and Note), had a full view of the outstretched camps of Israel.Lo, the people shall dwell alone . . . --Better, Lo, it is a people that dwelleth alone, and that is not numbered, &c. In the fact that the host of Israel dwelt by itself in a separate encampment, Balaam discerned a type of the essential separation of Israel from the surrounding nations. When Israel adopted the ways of the heathen nations it speedily lost its external independence. Hengstenberg observes upon the last clause of this verse as follows:--"How truly Balaam said that Israel 'did not reckon itself with the heathen' appears from the fact that while all the powerful empires of the ancient world--the Egyptian, Assyrian, Babylonian, and others--have utterly perished, Israel (which even under the Old Covenant was rescued from so many dangers that threatened its entire destruction, particularly in being brought back from exile) flourishes anew in the Church of the New Covenant, and continues also to exist in that part of it which, though at present rejected, is destined to restoration at a future period." (History of Balaam, &c., p. 409.)
