Genesis 10:4-5

10:4 The sons of Javan were Elishah, ¹  Tarshish, ²  the Kittim, ³  and the Dodanim. ⁴  10:5 From these the coastlands of the nations were separated into their lands, every one according to its language, according to their families, by their nations.

Numbers 24:24

24:24 Ships will come from the coast of Kittim, ⁵ 

and will afflict Asshur, ⁶  and will afflict Eber,

and he will also perish forever.” ⁷ 

Numbers 24:1

Balaam Prophesies Yet Again

24:1 ⁸ When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, ⁹  he did not go as at the other times ¹⁰  to seek for omens, ¹¹  but he set his face ¹²  toward the wilderness.

Numbers 1:7

1:7 from Judah, Nahshon ¹³  son of Amminadab;

Numbers 23:1

Balaam Blesses Israel

23:1 ¹⁴ Balaam said to Balak, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.”

Numbers 23:12

23:12 Balaam replied, ¹⁵  “Must I not be careful ¹⁶  to speak what the Lord has put in my mouth?” ¹⁷ 

Psalms 120:5

120:5 How miserable I am! ¹⁸ 

For I have lived temporarily ¹⁹  in Meshech;

I have resided among the tents of Kedar. ²⁰ 

Ezekiel 27:6

27:6 They made your oars from oaks of Bashan;

they made your deck ²¹  with cypresses ²²  from the Kittean isles. ²³ 

Daniel 11:30

11:30 The ships of Kittim ²⁴  will come against him, leaving him disheartened. ²⁵  He will turn back and direct his indignation against the holy covenant. He will return and honor ²⁶  those who forsake the holy covenant.

[10:4]  ¹ sn The descendants of Elishah populated Cyprus.

[10:4]  ² sn The descendants of Tarshish settled along the southern coast of what is modern Turkey. However, some identify the site Tarshish (see Jonah 1:3) with Sardinia or Spain.

[10:4]  ³ sn The name Kittim is associated with Cyprus, as well as coastlands east of Rhodes. It is used in later texts to refer to the Romans.

[10:4]  ⁴ tc Most of the MT mss read “Dodanim” here, but 1 Chr 1:7 has “Rodanim,” perhaps referring to the island of Rhodes. But the Qere reading in 1 Chr 1:7 suggests “Dodanim.” Dodona is one of the most ancient and revered spots in ancient Greece.

[24:24]  ⁵ 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.

[24:24]  ⁶ tn Or perhaps “Assyria” (so NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[24:24]  ⁷ tn Or “it will end in utter destruction.”

[24:1]  ⁸ sn For a thorough study of the arrangement of this passage, see E. B. Smick, “A Study of the Structure of the Third Balaam Oracle,” The Law and the Prophets, 242-52. He sees the oracle as having an introductory strophe (vv. 3, 4), followed by two stanzas (vv. 5, 6) that introduce the body (vv. 7b-9b) before the final benediction (v. 9b).

[24:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “it was good in the eyes of the Lord.”

[24:1]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “as time after time.”

[24:1]  ¹¹ tn The word נְחָשִׁים (nÿkhashim) means “omens,” or possibly “auguries.” Balaam is not even making a pretense now of looking for such things, because they are not going to work. God has overruled them.

[24:1]  ¹² tn The idiom signifies that he had a determination and resolution to look out over where the Israelites were, so that he could appreciate more their presence and use that as the basis for his expressing of the oracle.

[1:7]  ¹³ sn Nahshon was an ancestor of Boaz and David, and therefore of Christ (Luke 3:32-33).

[23:1]  ¹⁴ sn The first part of Balaam’s activity ends in disaster for Balak – he blesses Israel. The chapter falls into four units: the first prophecy (vv. 1-10), the relocation (vv. 11-17), the second prophecy (vv. 18-24), and a further location (vv. 25-30).

[23:12]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “he answered and said.” The referent (Balaam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[23:12]  ¹⁶ 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 Lord has put in my mouth. The infinitive construct “to speak” is therefore serving as the direct object of שָׁמַר.

[23:12]  ¹⁷ 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.

[120:5]  ¹⁸ tn Or “woe to me.” The Hebrew term אוֹיָה (’oyah, “woe”) which occurs only here, is an alternate form of אוֹי (’oy).

[120:5]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “I live as a resident alien.”

[120:5]  ²⁰ sn Meshech was located in central Anatolia (modern Turkey). Kedar was located in the desert to east-southeast of Israel. Because of the reference to Kedar, it is possible that Ps 120:5 refers to a different Meshech, perhaps one associated with the individual mentioned as a descendant of Aram in 1 Chr 1:17. (However, the LXX in 1 Chr 1:17 follows the parallel text in Gen 10:23, which reads “Mash,” not Meshech.) It is, of course, impossible that the psalmist could have been living in both the far north and the east at the same time. For this reason one must assume that he is recalling his experience as a wanderer among the nations or that he is using the geographical terms metaphorically and sarcastically to suggest that the enemies who surround him are like the barbarians who live in these distant regions. For a discussion of the problem, see L. C. Allen, Psalms 101-150 (WBC), 146.

[27:6]  ²¹ tn Or “hull.”

[27:6]  ²² tc The Hebrew reads “Your deck they made ivory, daughter of Assyria.” The syntactically difficult “ivory” is understood here as dittography and omitted, though some construe this to refer to ivory inlays. “Daughter of Assyria” is understood here as improper word division and the vowels repointed as “cypresses.”

[27:6]  ²³ tn Heb “from the coastlands (or islands) of Kittim,” generally understood to be a reference to the island of Cyprus, where the Phoenicians had a trading colony on the southeast coast. Many modern English versions have “Cyprus” (CEV, TEV), “the coastlands of Cyprus” (NASB), “the coasts of Cyprus” (NIV, NRSV), or “the southern coasts of Cyprus” (NLT).

[11:30]  ²⁴ sn The name Kittim has various designations in extra-biblical literature. It can refer to a location on the island of Cyprus, or more generally to the island itself, or it can be an inclusive term to refer to parts of the Mediterranean world that lay west of the Middle East (e.g., Rome). For ships of Kittim the Greek OT (LXX) has “Romans,” an interpretation followed by a few English versions (e.g., TEV). A number of times in the Dead Sea Scrolls the word is used in reference to the Romans. Other English versions are more generic: “[ships] of the western coastlands” (NIV, NLT); “from the west” (NCV, CEV).

[11:30]  ²⁵ sn This is apparently a reference to the Roman forces, led by Gaius Popilius Laenas, which confronted Antiochus when he came to Egypt and demanded that he withdraw or face the wrath of Rome. Antiochus wisely withdrew from Egypt, albeit in a state of bitter frustration.

[11:30]  ²⁶ tn Heb “show regard for.”