Comentario sobre Números 23:23

כי לא נחש ביעקב FOR THERE IS NO ENCHANTMENT IN JACOB — For they are worthy of blessing since there are no enchanters or diviners amongst them.

FOR THERE IS NO ENCHANTMENT IN JACOB. “They do not need an enchanter or a diviner to tell Jacob and Israel what hath G-d wrought and what are His decrees on high. They practice neither enchantment nor divination [in order to know such matters], because they are told through the word of the prophets the decree of G-d, or the Urim and Thummim¹⁵⁹See Vol. II, pp. 480-484. declare it to them.” This is Rashi’s language.
The correct interpretation appears to me to be that since Balaam [himself] was a diviner, and Balak sent to him saying, for I know that he whom thou blessest through thy means of divination is blessed, and he whom thou cursest through them is cursed,¹⁶⁰Above, 22:6. and he sent him the tools of divination,¹⁶¹Ibid., Verse 7: And the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed ‘u’ksamim’ (and the implements of magic) in their hand. therefore Balaam said to Balak: “There is no enchantment in Jacob which can do them evil or good, neither is there any divination in Israel to harm them or to benefit them, for at all times it shall be said to Jacob and to Israel: ‘What hath G-d wrought for them?’” For out of the mouth of the Most High proceedeth to them evil and good,¹⁶²Lamentations 3:38. It should be noted that the verse is actually stated in the negative: “proceedeth not.” But it is actually a rhetorical question — (see J.P.S. translation), and Ramban therefore quotes it in paraphrase, in a positive form. meaning to say that the portion of the Eternal is His people,¹⁶³Deuteronomy 32:9. and they are not under the rule of the [celestial] princes and the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof,¹⁶⁴Isaiah 13:10. so that one should be able to harm them by means of divination and enchantment, as [one can harm] other nations. This is similar to that which Moses said: [… all the host of heaven …] which the Eternal thy G-d hath allotted unto all the peoples under the whole heaven. But you hath the Eternal taken and brought forth out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be unto Him a people of inheritance,¹⁶⁵Deuteronomy 4:19-20. as I have explained in Seder Acharei Moth.¹⁶⁶Leviticus 18:25. See Vol. III, pp. 268-270.

כי לא נחש ביעקב, the reason why G’d took the Jewish people out of Egypt and expels other nations in their wake by providing them with the horns of a wild ox is that they are a generation of people looking for G’d and His proximity instead of relying on all kinds of demonically inspired methods of divining the future. Moses spelled out this stark contrast between the Jewish people and their gentile neighbours in Deuteronomy 18,14 when he said: “for these nations that you are about to dispossess do indeed resort to soothsayers and augurs; to you however, the Lord your G’d has not assigned the like.”