As the valleys, or, "as the torrents" ( נְחָלִים), which pour down in parallel courses from the upper slopes. As gardens by the river's side. The river ( נָהָר), as in Numbers 22:5) means the Euphrates.
Balaam combines the pleasant imagery of his own cultivated land with that of the wilder scene amidst which he now stood. As the trees of lign aloes. אָהָלִים. Aloe trees, such as grew in the further east, where Balaam had perhaps seen them.
Which the Lord hath planted, or, "the Lord's planting," a poetical,way of describing their beauty and rarity (cf. Psalms 1:3; Psalms 104:16).