22:18 Balaam replied 10 to the servants of Balak, “Even if Balak would give me his palace full of silver and gold, I could not transgress the commandment 11 of the Lord my God 12 to do less or more.
1 tn The form is the Piel participle מְשָׁרֵת (mÿsharet), meaning “minister, servant, assistant.” The word has a loftier meaning than the ordinary word for slave.
2 tn The verb is בָּחַר (bakhar, “to choose”); here the form is the masculine plural participle with a suffix, serving as the object of the preposition מִן (min). It would therefore mean “[one of] his chosen men,” or “[one of] his choice men.”
3 tn Heb “answered and said.”
4 sn The effort of Joshua is to protect Moses’ prerogative as leader by stopping these men in the camp from prophesying. Joshua did not understand the significance in the
5 tn Heb “he answered and said.” The referent (Balaam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
6 tn The verb שָׁמַר (shamar) means “to guard, watch, observe” and so here with a sense of “be careful” or even “take heed” (so KJV, ASV). The nuance of the imperfect tense would be obligatory: “I must be careful” – to do what? to speak what the
7 tn The clause is a noun clause serving as the direct object of “to speak.” It begins with the sign of the accusative, and then the relative pronoun that indicates the whole clause is the accusative.
9 tn Heb “answered and said.”
10 tn This first clause, “all that the
13 tn Heb “answered and said.”
14 tn Heb “mouth.”
15 sn 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.