אראנו ולא עתה אשורנו ולא קרוב דרך כוכב מיעקב וקם שבט מישראל ומחץ פאתי מואב וקרקר כל־בני־שת Er’ennū wə-lō ‘attāh, ’ăšūrennū wə-lō qārōḇ; dāraḵ kōḵāḇ mî-Ya‘ăqōḇ, wəqām šêḇeṭ mî-Yiśrā’êl, ū-māḥaṣ pa’ăṯê Mō’āḇ, wə-qarqar kāl-bənê-Šêṯ.
[1]I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.The prophecy was often employed during the troubled years that led up to the Jewish Revolt, the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem (70 CE) and the suicidal last stand of the Sicarii at Masada in 73 CE.
"This was the prophecy that was of such importance to all resistance groups in this period, including those responsible for the documents at Qumran and the revolutionaries who triggered the war against Rome, not to mention the early Christians".
[2] The Star Prophecy was applied to the coming Messiah himself in contemporary radical Jewish documents, such as the apocalyptic War Scroll found at Qumran.
In a pesher applied to the text from Numbers, the War Scroll's writer gives the following exegesis: …by the hand of the Poor whom you have redeemed by Your Power and the peace of Your Mighty Wonders… by the hand of the Poor and those bent in the dust, You will deliver the enemies of all the lands and humble the mighty of the peoples to bring upon their heads the reward of the Wicked and justify the Judgement of Your Truth on all the sons of men.Some have speculated that the Romanized Jewish historian Josephus, applied the prophecy to Vespasian, who was campaigning against the Jewish Zealots in Palestine, and "who was to come out of Israel and rule the world."