Numbers 24
v.7
Water will flow from their buckets; their seed will have abundant water. “Their king will be greater than Agag; their kingdom will be exalted.
v.17-18
“I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel. He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the sons of Sheth. 18Edom will be conquered; Seir, his enemy, will be conquered, but Israel will grow strong.
While a star is a common metaphor for kings in the ancient Near East, it is seldom used in the Bible (Is 14:12; Ezek 32:7). Its association here with a scepter, the symbol of royal power (Ps 45:6), however, makes this identification more certain. Balaam’s *oracle thus predicts the rise of the monarchy in Israel and the extension of its power (like the waving of the scepter) over the lands of Transjordan. As in the Egyptian inscription of Tuthmoses III (c. 1504-1450 B.C.), the scepter is also used as a mace to crush the heads of enemy nations.