Out of the mountains of the east, saying,

'Come, curse me Jacob, and come, defy Israel.

'"How shall I curse, whom God hath not cursed?

Or how shall I defy, whom the Lord hath not defied?

'"For from the top of the rocks I see him,

And from the hills I behold him:

Lo, the people shall dwell alone,

And shall not be reckoned among the nations.

'"Who can count the dust of Jacob,

And the number of the fourth part of Israel?

Let me die the death of the righteous,

And let my last end be like his!"' (Num. 23: 7 -10).

In the parable, Balaam looks at Israel and says of them:

'Lo, the people shall dwell alone,

And shall not be reckoned among the nations' (Num. 23:9).

In this parable Balaam is constrained to utter truth, and here emerges

a very special feature, 'the people shall dwell Alone'.  The word translated

'alone' is the Hebrew badad.  Its first occurrence suggests the most vigorous

separation, for it is used of a leper, or of one suspected of leprosy, 'he

shall dwell alone' (Lev. 13:46).  This aloneness is included in the blessing

of Moses, where, after giving special and individual blessings to the tribes,

he speaks of Israel as a whole, saying, 'Israel then shall dwell in safety

alone' (Deut. 33:28).  The root of this Hebrew word bad is translated in many

different ways, but underlying all, however seemingly remote, is this element

of separation.  For example, it means 'linen' (Exod. 28:42) because of the

separate threads (warp and weft) used in the weaving.  It occurs in the

statement, 'man doth not live by bread only' (Deut. 8:3), and when speaking

of the incomparable majesty of God, Moses said, 'There is none else beside

Him' (Deut. 4:35).  It enters into the word bedil, an alloy found in ore

mixed with silver, which is separated from it by means of fire, and called

'tin' in the Authorized Version (Isa. 1:25), and to conclude without citing

every variety of this root word, there is badal, 'separate', a distinctive

word in connection with Israel, 'Thus shalt thou separate' (Num. 8:14).  'Ye

shall therefore put difference ... which I have separated' (Lev. 20:25).

Aaron was 'separated' (1 Chron. 23:13); Levi was 'separated' (Deut. 10:8);

the whole house of Israel were a separate people unto the Lord, separated by

circumcision, by covenant, by law and by destiny from all the nations of the

Balaam supplements the word 'alone' by adding:

'And shall not be reckoned among the nations' (Num. 23:9).

When the 'count' of the nations is taken, Israel will not be included:

'Of Zion it shall be said, This and that man was born in her' (Psa.

From one point of view there is no difference between Jew and Gentile.

Both descend from Adam, both have sinned, both need salvation.  Yet on the

other hand Israel did not become a nation as did all the other nations of the

earth, Israel are, so to speak, of 'artificial' or better of 'supernatural'