Komentaryo sa Mga Bilang 23:15: Rashi, Kli Yakar, Rabbeinu Bahya & Rav Hirsch

אקרה כה — This means, I WILL BE MET YONDER by the Holy One, blessed be He, for אקרה has a passive sense.

And I will encounter here/thus. Rabbenu Bachya explained [this means Balaam sought] to nullify from them the blessing of thus shall your descendants be (Genesis 15:5) and thus shall you bless the children of Israel (Numbers 6:23). With this, I can resolve what is concluded in Bamidbar Rabbah (20:7) that when he said perhaps we will strike him, he only sought to reduce them by a twenty-fourth portion of the 600,000, which is 25,000. One might ask: What benefit would this have given him if 25,000 were missing from 600,000? Also, we should examine why exactly 24,000 fell due to his counsel — not more, not less. Rather, certainly his main intention was to nullify from them the blessing of koh [thus] because through this, curses would take effect. Therefore, he only sought to reduce a twenty-fourth portion, just as one deducts a twenty-fourth portion from a se’ah measure (Bava Batra 93b). Similarly, he sought to reduce a twenty-fourth portion, namely 25,000, corresponding to the numerical value of koh (25). But he did not fully succeed, for he only caused the fall of 24,000 — until koh [thus] but not including koh. For when it came to the number twenty-five, the blessings of thus shall you bless and thus shall your descendants be stood firm for them.

התיצב כה על עלתך ואנכי אקרה כה, “stand here by your burnt-offering and I will seek a manifestation (of G’d) thus.” Bileam had reasoned that the Israelites had relied on G’d’s promise to Avraham (after the former had been taught to offer sacrifices in Genesis 15) כה יהיה זרעך, “thus will be your descendants.” They also relied on the merit of receiving the priestly blessing which G’d had introduced by telling the priests כה תברכו את בני ישראל, “thus you shall bless the Children of Israel” (Numbers 6,23). Moses, when requesting permission to traverse the land of Edom had also quoted his own people, Edom’s “brother” as saying: כה אמר אחיך ישראל, “thus said your brother Israel.” Seeing that the formula כה appears to be an appropriate formula for people to gain their objectives, Bileam used the formula כה when “inviting” divine inspiration or grace. He hoped to achieve with his wisdom what Balak would accomplish with his offerings. This is why he used the word כה both when telling Balak to stand by his sacrifices and when referring to his own part in the proceedings.