Numbers 24:22-24

24:22 Nevertheless the Kenite will be consumed. ¹ 

How long will Asshur take you away captive?”

24:23 Then he uttered this oracle:

“O, who will survive when God does this! ² 

24:24 Ships will come from the coast of Kittim, ³ 

and will afflict Asshur, ⁴  and will afflict Eber,

and he will also perish forever.” ⁵ 

Ezra 4:2

4:2 they came to Zerubbabel and the leaders ⁶  and said to them, “Let us help you build, ⁷  for like you we seek your God and we have been sacrificing to him ⁸  from the time ⁹  of King Esarhaddon ¹⁰  of Assyria, who brought us here.” ¹¹ 

Psalms 83:8

83:8 Even Assyria has allied with them,

lending its strength to the descendants of Lot. ¹²  (Selah)

¹ tc Heb “Nevertheless Cain will be wasted; how long will Asshur take you captive?” Cain was believed to be the ancestor of the Kenites. The NAB has “yet destined for burning, even as I watch, are your inhabitants.” Asshur may refer to a north Arabian group of people of Abrahamic stock (Gen 25:3), and not the Assyrian empire.

² tc Because there is no parallel line, some have thought that it dropped out (see de Vaulx, Les Nombres, 296).

³ tc The MT is difficult. The Kittim refers normally to Cyprus, or any maritime people to the west. W. F. Albright proposed emending the line to “islands will gather in the north, ships from the distant sea” (“The Oracles of Balaam,” JBL 63 [1944]: 222-23). Some commentators accept that reading as the original state of the text, since the present MT makes little sense.

⁴ tn Or perhaps “Assyria” (so NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

⁵ tn Or “it will end in utter destruction.”

⁶ tn Heb “the heads of the fathers.” So also in v. 3.

⁷ tn Heb “Let us build with you.”

⁸ tc The translation reads with the Qere, a Qumran MS, the LXX, the Syriac Peshitta, and the Arabic version וְלוֹ (vÿlo, “and him”) rather than the Kethib of the MT, וְלֹא (vÿlo’, “and not”).

⁹ tn Heb “days.”

¹⁰ sn Esarhaddon was king of Assyria ca. 681-669 b.c.

¹¹ sn The Assyrian policy had been to resettle Samaria with peoples from other areas (cf. 2 Kgs 17:24-34). These immigrants acknowledged Yahweh as well as other deities in some cases. The Jews who returned from the Exile regarded them with suspicion and were not hospitable to their offer of help in rebuilding the temple.

¹² tn Heb “they are an arm for the sons of Lot.” The “arm” is here a symbol of military might.