120 “HORMUZD RASSAM, ESQ., 
former’s mission, as we are not told that they were nick- 
named from a peculiar act they had committed. We might 
just as well imagine that there is a particular meaning to the 
names of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram (Numbers xvi) because 
they had rebelled against God, or that there is a mysterious 
signification to the name of Esau because he had sold his 
birthright for a mess of pottage (Gen. xxv, 33), whereas in 
that particular case we are plainly informed (Gen. xxv, 30) 
that Esau was nicknamed Edom (red) from the colour of the 
lentils of which the pottage was made. 
With reference to the difference between the Boodp Bosor 
mentioned by St. Peter (2nd Epistle, 11, 15) and the Hebrew 
Baaor, it can easily be explained that the former was written 
in Greek, in which alphabet there is no guttural letter y as 
exists in the Semitic languages. 
The supernatural power of Balaam has also been mis- 
understood by many commentators such as Philo, Ambrose, 
and Augustine, who have regarded him merely as a 
wizard and a worshipper of idols, compelled by God, against 
his will, to give utterance to blessings upon Israel] instead 
of curses. It is incomprehensible to me how this opinion 
was arrived at after reading the 8th verse of the 22nd 
chapter of Numbers, when Balaam tells the Princes of 
Moab that he would inform them of what the Lord (Jehovah) 
commanded him to do; and in the 18th verse that follows 
he mentions the Lord (Jehovah) as his God. Moreover, a 
wizard or false propbet would not utter the words mentioned 
in the 16th verse of the 24th chapter of Numbers, wherein 
Balaam enumerates the attributes of God Almighty, and 
ends by uttering the remarkable prophecies that follow. 
Balaam, no doubt, knew and acknowledged the Lord 
Jehovah as his God, the same as Abraham and Job, with this 
difference, that he chose the wages of sin in preference to 
placing implicit confidence in his God, as faithful Abraham 
and Job did, and sold his divine inheritance for the mammon 
of unrighteousness in leu of depending on God’s bounty, as 
his ultimate fate proved, when he preferred the enjoyment of 
voluptuous living with the Midianites for a season, rather 
than lean upon the omnipotent guidance of the Most 
High. 
I have always entertained the belief that the Arameans 
and Assyrians possessed a knowledge of the true God, but 
worshipped Him under peculiar names and attributes. This 
is proved by the Divine mission of the prophet Jonah to 
Nineveh, and the way Laban and Bethuel spoke of the 
