he puts such words as he pleases in our mouths, and such
discourses as we are not ourselves conscious of. I well remember
by what entreaties both you and the Midianites so joyfully
brought me hither, and on that account I took this journey. It
was my prayer, that I might not put any affront upon you, as to
what you desired of me; but God is more powerful than the
purposes I had made to serve you; for those that take upon them
to foretell the affairs of mankind, as from their own abilities,
are entirely unable to do it, or to forbear to utter what God
suggests to them, or to offer violence to his will; for when he
prevents us and enters into us, nothing that we say is our own. I
then did not intend to praise this army, nor to go over the
several good things which God intended to do to their race; but
since he was so favorable to them, and so ready to bestow upon
them a happy life and eternal glory, he suggested the declaration
of those things to me: but now, because it is my desire to oblige
thee thyself, as well as the Midianites, whose entreaties it is
not decent for me to reject, go to, let us again rear other
altars, and offer the like sacrifices that we did before, that I
may see whether I can persuade God to permit me to bind these men
with curses." Which, when Balak had agreed to, God would not,
even upon second sacrifices, consent to his cursing the
Israelites. (9) Then fell Balaam upon his face, and foretold what
calamities would befall the several kings of the nations, and the
most eminent cities, some of which of old were not so much as
inhabited; which events have come to pass among the several
people concerned, both in the foregoing ages, and in this, till
my own memory, both by sea and by land. From which completion of
all these predictions that he made, one may easily guess that the
rest will have their completion in time to come.