Commentary for Numbers 23:9

כי מראש צורים אראנו FOR FROM THE TOP OF THE ROCKS I SEE HIM — I look at their origin and at the beginning of their root (descent), and I behold them strongly founded as younder rocks and mountains through their ancestors and ancestresses (Rashi translates thus: For (כי) starting from their very beginning (מראש) I behold them firm as rocks) (Midrash Tanchuma, Balak 12).

FOR FROM THE TOP OF THE ROCKS I SEE HIM. The meaning of this is that since Balak had brought him up to Bamoth-baal¹²⁸Above, 22:41. [which was a high place] to see Israel, Balaam said: “From the top of the rocks and from the hills I look and I see him, for he [is a people that] shall dwell alone, and there is no other nation with him that can be counted together with him, in the way that many [different] peoples and various nations gather together to become one camp — for these [people of Israel] all have one law and one ordinance,¹²⁹Ibid., 15:16. and are one nation, dwelling alone by the name of Jacob and Israel.” Therefore he [Balaam] mentioned, Come, curse me Jacob, and come defy Israel,¹³⁰Above, Verse 7. referring to them [both] by their name of honor [Israel] and by the name of their ancestor [Jacob], meaning to say that they are a people alone, and have names befitting them from their ancestors. For Balak did not tell him [Balaam] the name “Israel,” but merely said, Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt,¹³¹Above, 22:5. as if he was a stranger to them and did not know them, and he was not grateful for the favor that their father had done.¹³²This refers to Abraham risking his life in order to save his nephew Lot — who was the ancestor of the Moabites (Genesis 14:12-16; 19:36-37). And the meaning of Balaam’s words is that “just as I see him now dwelling alone, so will he forever dwell in safety, the fountain of Jacob alone,¹³³Deuteronomy 33:28. and he will always be at the head, for no nation will [ever] prevail over him [and cause him to perish], and he will never become assimilated to them [i.e., other nations].

הן עם לבדד ישכון, in the final analysis, they are the only people who will eventually populate the earth. This concept is repeated by Moses in Deuteronomy 32,12 ה' בדד ינחנו, “the Lord will guide only them alone.” It will be impossible to destroy them.