Numbers 22:13

22:13 So Balaam got up in the morning, and said to the princes of Balak, “Go to your land, ¹  for the Lord has refused to permit me to go ²  with you.”

Numbers 23:20

23:20 Indeed, I have received a command ³  to bless;

he has blessed, ⁴  and I cannot reverse it. ⁵ 

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!

Numbers 31:1

The Midianite War

31:1 ⁶ The Lord spoke to Moses:

Numbers 24:20

Balaam’s Final Prophecies

24:20 Then Balaam ⁷  looked on Amalek and delivered this oracle: ⁸ 

“Amalek was the first ⁹  of the nations,

but his end will be that he will perish.”

Numbers 26:2

26:2 “Take a census of the whole community of Israelites, from twenty years old and upward, by their clans, ¹⁰  everyone who can serve in the army of Israel.” ¹¹ 

Numbers 26:25

26:25 These were the families of Issachar, according to those numbered of them, 64,300. ¹² 

Revelation 2:14

2:14 But I have a few things against you: You have some people there who follow the teaching of Balaam, ¹³  who instructed Balak to put a stumbling block ¹⁴  before the people ¹⁵  of Israel so they would eat food sacrificed to idols and commit sexual immorality. ¹⁶ 

¹ tc The LXX adds “to your lord.”

² tn The main verb is the Piel perfect, “he has refused.” This is followed by two infinitives. The first (לְתִתִּי, lÿtitti) serves as a complement or direct object of the verb, answering the question of what he refused to do – “to give me.” The second infinitive (לַהֲלֹךְ, lahalokh) provides the object for the preceding infinitive: “to grant me to go.”

³ tn The Hebrew text simply has “I have received [to] bless.” The infinitive is the object of the verb, telling what he received. Balaam was not actually commanded to bless, but was given the word of blessing so that he was given a divine decree that would bless Israel.

⁴ sn The reference is probably to the first speech, where the Lord blessed Israel. Balaam knows that there is nothing he can do to reverse what God has said.

⁵ tn The verb is the Hiphil of שׁוּב (shuv), meaning “to cause to return.” He cannot return God’s word to him, for it has been given, and it will be fulfilled.

⁶ sn This lengthy chapter records the mobilization of the troops (vv. 1-5), the war itself (vv. 6-13), the death of the captive women (vv. 14-18), the purification of the nations (vv. 19-24), and the distribution of the spoils (vv. 25-54). For more detail, see G. W. Coats, “Moses in Midian,” JBL 92 (1973): 3-10; and W. J. Dumbrell, “Midian – a Land or a League?” VT 25 (1975): 323-37.

⁷ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Balaam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁸ tn Heb “and he lifted up his oracle and said.” So also in vv. 21, 23.

⁹ sn This probably means that it held first place, or it thought that it was “the first of the nations.” It was not the first, either in order or greatness.

¹⁰ tn Heb “house of their fathers.”

¹¹ tn Heb “everyone who goes out in the army in Israel.”

¹² sn The Issacharites increased from 54,400 to 64,300.

¹³ sn See Num 22-24; 31:16.

¹⁴ tn 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…”

¹⁵ tn 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).

¹⁶ tn 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.”