Commentaire sur Les Nombres 24:7

מדליו means OUT OF HIS SPRINGS, and its explanation is as given in the Targum (“The king appointed from amongst his sons shall be great”).

AND HIS KING SHALL BE HIGHER THAN AGAG. “Their first king [Saul] will conquer Agag²⁰⁸I Samuel 15:8. king of the Amalekites. Agag is here called by his name before he was born.²⁰⁹This whole paragraph — from “Agag is here called” until “…before they were born” — is not found in our texts of Rashi. Similar cases are [the expressions]: to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden;²¹⁰Isaiah 45:1. Behold, a son shall be born unto the house of David, Josiah by name.²¹¹I Kings 13:2. So also were the names of Isaac,²¹²Genesis 17:19. Ishmael,²¹³Ibid., 16:11. and Solomon²¹⁴I Chronicles 22:9. [given before they were born]. AND HIS KINGDOM — that is, Jacob’s — SHALL BE EXALTED more and more, because David and his son Solomon will come after him [Saul].” This is Rashi’s language, and he has explained it well.
It is possible that every king of the Amalekite people was called Agag, because the first king whom they set up over them was so called [Agag], and thus all his descendants who occupied his throne were called by his name,²¹⁵Thus there is no need to say, as Rashi did, that Agag here refers to the specific Amalekite king of King Saul’s days, and that his name is foretold a few hundred years before he was born, as Scripture would not foretell the birth of a wicked man. as are most kings even nowadays, who are called by the name of those who [originally] seized the kingdom. So also Haman the Agagite²¹⁶Esther 3:1. [was so called] because he was a descendant of that royal family. For it is unlikely that the prophet [Balaam] would cite the name of a wicked man [Agag] even before he was formed in the womb.²¹⁷See Jeremiah 1:5. So also [the name] Gog²¹⁸Ezekiel 39:1. was one by which all the princes of Magog were called.
Thus Balaam added with this third prophecy of his [to his previous two prophecies] by telling Balak that Jacob’s tents are goodly,²¹⁹Verse 5. referring to the period from the time that they were dwellers in tents until they would inherit the land [of Canaan], and the dwellings of Israel²¹⁹Verse 5. after the conquest and division of the Land will also be good, meaning that they will dwell therein in safe habitations. And [Balaam further informed Balak that] Israel’s land will be full of all goodly things, like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not,²²⁰Isaiah 58:11. and that Israel will conquer Amalek because he attacked him, and will destroy his memory; and that the kingdom of Israel will be even more exalted,²²¹Verse 7. because they will have afterwards mighty kings, who will be exceedingly elevated. And he further told him that Israel would eat up his adversaries and break their bones in pieces,²²²Verse 8. referring to their wealth and all their belongings. And [finally, in Verse 9] he told him that Israel would dwell in the Land safely, fearing no people, as a lion, and as a lioness that does not fear any ravenous beast.²²³Isaiah 35:9. And so now Balak despaired of [ever fighting] Israel, for [he realized that] if he would fight against him, he would be truly destroyed, for Israel would eat up all his adversaries²²²Verse 8. in the same way that he would destroy Amalek because he attacked him. Therefore Balak now told Balaam to flee to his place,²²⁴Verse 11. for he has no more desire for him [and his counsel].

יזל מים מדליו, "Water will flow from his buckets, etc." We have a tradition expressed in Shemot Rabbah 28,6 that every Israelite received his personal share in the Torah [some insight not revealed to someone else at the revelation at Mount Sinai; this was why all the souls who had not yet been assigned bodies were present at that time. Rabbi Moshe Alshich elaborates on this. Ed.] This is the reason Moses called the Torah מורשה in Deut. 33,4 (compare Pessachim 49). The Talmud suggests that the word Morashah could be read as Me-orassah, "betrothed." The "bucket" Bileam speaks about is the common source from which all the Torah insights are derived. Moses is considered as the one who filled this "bucket" with water originally, i.e. that all these insights have been alluded to in the written Torah.