Numbers 24:19

Out of Jacob - Out of Jacob's loins. He that shall have dominion - David, and especially Christ. Of the city - Or from or out of this city, that is, the cities, the singular number for the plural.

Destroy him that remaineth of the city - i. e., shall destroy those of every city that had previously escaped. The phrase tersely describes a conqueror who first defeats his enemies in battle, and then hunts out the fugitives until he has cut off all of every place (compare 1Ki 11:16). The victories of David were a partial accomplishment of the predictions Num 24:14, Num 24:18, but did not exhaust them.

Out of Jacob shall come he that shall have dominion--David, and particularly Christ. that remaineth of the city--those who flee from the field to fortified places (Ps 60:9).

Out of Jacob shall come, etc. - This is supposed to refer to Christ, because of what is said Gen 49:10. It is exceedingly difficult to fix the true sense of this prophecy in all its particulars. Probably the star, Num 24:17, is only an emblem of kingly power. Among the Egyptians a star is said to have been the symbol of the Divine Being. The scepter refers to the kingly power in exercise. The corners or outskirts may mean the petty Moabitish governments, as the Chaldee has understood the term. If karkar, which we translate utterly destroy, be not the name of a place here, as it is in Jdg 8:10, (which is not very likely), it may be taken in one of those senses assigned to it, (see on Num 24:17 (note)), and signify the blending together the children of Sheth, that is, all the inhabitants of the earth; for so the children of Sheth must necessarily be understood, unless we consider it here as meaning some king of the Moabites, according to Grotius, or a city on the borders of Moab, according to Rabbi Nathan. As neither Israel nor the Messiah ever destroyed all the children of men, we must (in order to leave the children of Sheth what they are generally understood to be, all the inhabitants of the world) understand the whole as a prophecy of the final universal sway of the scepter of Christ, when the middle wall of partition shall be broken down, and the Jews and Gentiles become one united, blended fold, under one shepherd and bishop of their souls. I cannot think that the meteoric star which guided the wise men of the east to Bethlehem can be intended here; nor do I think that Peter refers to this prophecy when he calls Christ the day star, 2Pe 1:19; nor that Rev 2:28, where Christ is called the morning star, nor Rev 22:16, where he is called the bright and morning star, refers at all to this prophecy of Balaam. […]