Numbers 24:5-6

24:5 ‘How ¹  beautiful are your tents, O Jacob,

and your dwelling places, O Israel!

24:6 They are like ²  valleys ³  stretched forth,

like gardens by the river’s side,

like aloes ⁴  that the Lord has planted,

and like cedar trees beside the waters.

[24:5]  ¹ tn Here מָה (mah) has an exclamatory sense: “How!” (see Gen 28:17).

[24:6]  ² tn Heb “as valleys they spread forth.”

[24:6]  ³ tn Or “rows of palms.”

[24:6]  ⁴ sn The language seems to be more poetic than precise. N. H. Snaith notes that cedars do not grow beside water; he also connects “aloes” to the eaglewood that is more exotic, and capable of giving off an aroma (Leviticus and Numbers [NCB], 298).