Numbers 22:18-21

22:18 Balaam replied¹ to the servants of Balak, “Even if Balak would give me his palace full of silver and gold, I could not transgress the commandment² of the Lord my God³ to do less or more. 22:19 Now therefore, please stay⁴ the night here also, that I may know what more the Lord might say to me.”⁵ 22:20 God came to Balaam that night, and said to him, “If the men have come to call you, get up and go with them; but the word that I will say to you, that you must do.” 22:21 So Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went with the princes of Moab.

Numbers 22:23

22:23 And the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with⁶ his sword drawn in his hand, so the donkey turned aside from the road and went into the field. But Balaam beat the donkey, to make her turn back to the road.

Numbers 22:28

22:28 Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you that you have beaten me these three times?”

Numbers 31:16

31:16 Look, these people through the counsel of Balaam caused the Israelites to act treacherously against the Lord in the matter of Peor – which resulted in the plague among the community of the Lord!

Deuteronomy 23:4-5

23:4 for they did not meet you with food and water on the way as you came from Egypt, and furthermore, they hired⁷ Balaam son of Beor of Pethor in Aram Naharaim to curse you. 23:5 But the Lord your God refused to listen to Balaam and changed⁸ the curse to a blessing, for the Lord your God loves⁹ you.

Micah 6:5

6:5 My people, recall how King Balak of Moab planned to harm you,¹⁰

how Balaam son of Beor responded to him.

Recall how you journeyed from Shittim to Gilgal,

so you might acknowledge that the Lord has treated you fairly.”¹¹

Jude 1:11

1:11 Woe to them! For they have traveled down Cain’s path,¹² and because of greed¹³ have abandoned themselves¹⁴ to¹⁵ Balaam’s error; hence,¹⁶ they will certainly perish¹⁷ in Korah’s rebellion.

Revelation 2:14

2:14 But I have a few things against you: You have some people there who follow the teaching of Balaam,¹⁸ who instructed Balak to put a stumbling block¹⁹ before the people²⁰ of Israel so they would eat food sacrificed to idols and commit sexual immorality.²¹

¹tn Heb “answered and said.”

²tn Heb “mouth.”

³sn In the light of subsequent events one should not take too seriously that Balaam referred to Yahweh as his God. He is referring properly to the deity for which he is acting as the agent.

⁴tn In this case “lodge” is not used, but “remain, reside” (שְׁבוּ, shÿvu).

⁵tn This clause is also a verbal hendiadys: “what the Lord might add to speak,” meaning, “what more the Lord might say.”

⁷tn The word has the conjunction “and” on the noun, indicating this is a disjunctive vav (ו), here serving as a circumstantial clause.

¹⁰tn Heb “hired against you.”

¹³tn 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).

¹⁴tn 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.

¹⁶tn Heb “remember what Balak…planned.”

¹⁷tn Heb “From Shittim to Gilgal, in order to know the just acts of the Lord.” Something appears to be missing at the beginning of the line. The present translation supplies the words, “Recall how you went.” This apparently refers to how Israel crossed the Jordan River (see Josh 3:1; 4:19-24).

¹⁹tn Or “they have gone the way of Cain.”

²⁰tn Grk “for wages.”

²¹tn The verb ἐκχέω (ekcew) normally means “pour out.” Here, in the passive, it occasionally has a reflexive idea, as BDAG 312 s.v. 3. suggests (with extra-biblical examples).

²²tn Or “in.”

²³tn Grk “and.” See note on “perish” later in this verse.

²⁴tn The three verbs in this verse are all aorist indicative (“have gone down,” “have abandoned,” “have perished”). Although the first and second could be considered constative or ingressive, the last is almost surely proleptic (referring to the certainty of their future judgment). Although it may seem odd that a proleptic aorist is so casually connected to other aorists with a different syntactical force, it is not unparalleled (cf. Rom 8:30).

²²sn See Num 22-24; 31:16.

²³tn That is, a cause for sinning. An alternate translation is “who instructed Balak to cause the people of Israel to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols…”

²⁴tn Grk “sons,” but the expression υἱοὶ ᾿Ισραήλ (Juioi Israhl) is an idiom for the people of Israel as an ethnic entity (see L&N 11.58).

²⁵tn Due to the actual events in the OT (Num 22-24; 31:16), πορνεῦσαι (porneusai) is taken to mean “sexual immorality.” BDAG 854 s.v. πορνεύω 1 states, “engage in illicit sex, to fornicate, to whore…W. φαγεῖν εἰδωλόθυτα ‘eat meat offered to idols’ Rv 2:14, 20.”