Genesis 24:60

24:60 They blessed Rebekah with these words: 1 

“Our sister, may you become the mother 2  of thousands of ten thousands!

May your descendants possess the strongholds 3  of their enemies.”

Genesis 28:1

28:1 So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed him. Then he commanded him, “You must not marry a Canaanite woman! 4 

Numbers 23:5

23:5 Then the Lord put a message 5  in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and speak what I tell you.” 6 

Numbers 23:8

23:8 How 7  can I curse 8  one whom God has not cursed,

or how can I denounce one whom the Lord has not denounced?

Numbers 23:11

Balaam Relocates

23:11 Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but on the contrary 9  you have only blessed them!” 10 

Deuteronomy 23:5

23:5 But the Lord your God refused to listen to Balaam and changed 11  the curse to a blessing, for the Lord your God loves 12  you.

Proverbs 16:7

16:7 When a person’s 13  ways are pleasing to the Lord, 14 

he 15  even reconciles his enemies to himself. 16 

1 tn Heb “and said to her.”

2 tn Heb “become thousands of ten thousands.”

3 tn Heb “gate,” which here stands for a walled city. In an ancient Near Eastern city the gate complex was the main area of defense (hence the translation “stronghold”). A similar phrase occurs in Gen 22:17.

4 tn Heb “you must not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.”

5 tn Heb “word.”

6 tn Heb “and thus you shall speak.”

7 tn The figure is erotesis, a rhetorical question. He is actually saying he cannot curse them because God has not cursed them.

8 tn The imperfect tense should here be classified as a potential imperfect.

9 tn The Hebrew text uses הִנֵּה (hinneh) here to stress the contrast.

10 tn The construction is emphatic, using the perfect tense and the infinitive absolute to give it the emphasis. It would have the force of “you have done nothing but bless,” or “you have indeed blessed.” The construction is reminiscent of the call of Abram and the promise of the blessing in such elaborate terms.

11 tn Heb “the Lord your God changed.” The phrase “the Lord your God” has not been included in the translation here for stylistic reasons to avoid redundancy. Moreover, use of the pronoun “he” could create confusion regarding the referent (the Lord or Balaam).

12 tn The verb אָהַב (’ahav, “love”) here and commonly elsewhere in the Book of Deuteronomy speaks of God’s elective grace toward Israel. See note on the word “loved” in Deut 4:37.

13 tn Heb “ways of a man.”

14 tn The first line uses an infinitive in a temporal clause, followed by its subject in the genitive case: “in the taking pleasure of the Lord” = “when the Lord is pleased with.” So the condition set down for the second colon is a lifestyle that is pleasing to God.

15 tn The referent of the verb in the second colon is unclear. The straightforward answer is that it refers to the person whose ways please the Lord – it is his lifestyle that disarms his enemies. W. McKane comments that the righteous have the power to mend relationships (Proverbs [OTL], 491); see, e.g., 10:13; 14:9; 15:1; 25:21-22). The life that is pleasing to God will be above reproach and find favor with others. Some would interpret this to mean that God makes his enemies to be at peace with him (cf. KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NLT). This is workable, but in this passage it would seem God would do this through the pleasing life of the believer (cf. NCV, TEV, CEV).

16 tn Heb “even his enemies he makes to be at peace with him.”