Numbers 22:28-35

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?” 22:29 And Balaam said to the donkey, “You have made me look stupid; I wish ¹  there were a sword in my hand, for I would kill you right now.” 22:30 The donkey said to Balaam, “Am not I your donkey that you have ridden ever since I was yours until this day? Have I ever attempted ²  to treat you this way?” ³  And he said, “No.” 22:31 Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his sword drawn in his hand; so he bowed his head and threw himself down with his face to the ground. ⁴  22:32 The angel of the Lord said to him, “Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? Look, I came out to oppose you because what you are doing ⁵  is perverse before me. ⁶  22:33 The donkey saw me and turned from me these three times. If ⁷  she had not turned from me, I would have killed you but saved her alive.” 22:34 Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood against me in the road. ⁸  So now, if it is evil in your sight, ⁹  I will go back home.” ¹⁰  22:35 But the angel of the Lord said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but you may only speak ¹¹  the word that I will speak to you.” ¹²  So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.

Deuteronomy 5:14

5:14 but the seventh day is the Sabbath ¹³  of the Lord your God. On that day you must not do any work, you, your son, your daughter, your male slave, your female slave, your ox, your donkey, any other animal, or the foreigner who lives with you, ¹⁴  so that your male and female slaves, like yourself, may have rest.

Psalms 104:27

104:27 All of your creatures ¹⁵  wait for you

to provide them with food on a regular basis. ¹⁶ 

Psalms 145:15-16

145:15 Everything looks to you in anticipation, ¹⁷ 

and you provide them with food on a regular basis. ¹⁸ 

145:16 You open your hand,

and fill every living thing with the food they desire. ¹⁹ 

Psalms 147:8-9

147:8 He covers ²⁰  the sky with clouds,

provides the earth with rain,

and causes grass to grow on the hillsides. ²¹ 

147:9 He gives food to the animals,

and to the young ravens when they chirp. ²² 

Jonah 4:11

4:11 Should I ²³  not be even more ²⁴  concerned ²⁵  about Nineveh, this enormous city? ²⁶  There are more than one hundred twenty thousand people in it who do not know right from wrong, ²⁷  as well as many animals!” ²⁸ 

Matthew 6:26-30

6:26 Look at the birds in the sky: ²⁹  They do not sow, or reap, or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds ³⁰  them. Aren’t you more valuable ³¹  than they are? 6:27 And which of you by worrying can add even one hour to his life? ³²  6:28 Why do you worry about clothing? Think about how the flowers ³³  of the field grow; they do not work ³⁴  or spin. 6:29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these! 6:30 And if this is how God clothes the wild grass, ³⁵  which is here today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, ³⁶  won’t he clothe you even more, ³⁷  you people of little faith?

Luke 12:24-28

12:24 Consider the ravens: ³⁸  They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn, yet God feeds ³⁹  them. How much more valuable are you than the birds! 12:25 And which of you by worrying ⁴⁰  can add an hour to his life? ⁴¹  12:26 So if ⁴²  you cannot do such a very little thing as this, why do you worry about ⁴³  the rest? 12:27 Consider how the flowers ⁴⁴  grow; they do not work ⁴⁵  or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these! 12:28 And if ⁴⁶  this is how God clothes the wild grass, ⁴⁷  which is here ⁴⁸  today and tomorrow is tossed into the fire to heat the oven, ⁴⁹  how much more ⁵⁰  will he clothe you, you people of little faith!

[22:29]  ¹ tn The optative clause is introduced with the particle לוּ (lu).

[22:30]  ² tn Here the Hiphil perfect is preceded by the Hiphil infinitive absolute for emphasis in the sentence.

[22:30]  ³ tn Heb “to do thus to you.”

[22:31]  ⁴ tn The Hishtaphel verb חָוָה (khavah) – שָׁחָה (shakhah) with metathesis – has a basic idea of “bow oneself low to the ground,” and perhaps in some cases the idea of “coil up.” This is the normal posture of prayer and of deep humility in the ancient religious world.

[22:32]  ⁵ tn Heb “your way.”

[22:32]  ⁶ tn The verb יָרַט (yarat) occurs only here and in Job 16:11. Balaam is embarking on a foolish mission with base motives. The old rendering “perverse” is still acceptable.

[22:33]  ⁷ tc Many commentators consider אוּלַי (’ulay, “perhaps”) to be a misspelling in the MT in place of לוּלֵי (luley, “if not”).

[22:34]  ⁸ sn Balaam is not here making a general confession of sin. What he is admitting to is a procedural mistake. The basic meaning of the word is “to miss the mark.” He now knows he took the wrong way, i.e., in coming to curse Israel.

[22:34]  ⁹ sn The reference is to Balaam’s way. He is saying that if what he is doing is so perverse, so evil, he will turn around and go home. Of course, it did not appear that he had much of a chance of going forward.

[22:34]  ¹⁰ tn The verb is the cohortative from “return”: I will return [me].

[22:35]  ¹¹ tn The imperfect tense here can be given the nuance of permission.

[22:35]  ¹² tn The Hebrew word order is a little more emphatic than this: “but only the word which I speak to you, it you shall speak.”

[5:14]  ¹³ tn There is some degree of paronomasia (wordplay) here: “the seventh (הַשְּׁבִיעִי, hashÿvi’i) day is the Sabbath (שַׁבָּת, shabbat).” Otherwise, the words have nothing in common, since “Sabbath” is derived from the verb שָׁבַת (shavat, “to cease”).

[5:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “in your gates”; NRSV, CEV “in your towns”; TEV “in your country.”

[104:27]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “All of them.” The pronoun “them” refers not just to the sea creatures mentioned in vv. 25-26, but to all living things (see v. 24). This has been specified in the translation as “all of your creatures” for clarity.

[104:27]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “to give their food in its time.”

[145:15]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “the eyes of all wait for you.”

[145:15]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and you give to them their food in its season” (see Ps 104:27).

[145:16]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “[with what they] desire.”

[147:8]  ²⁰ tn Heb “the one who covers.”

[147:8]  ²¹ tn Heb “hills.”

[147:9]  ²² tn Heb “which cry out.”

[4:11]  ²³ tn The emphatic use of the independent pronouns “you” and “I” (אַתָּה, ’attah, and אֲנִי, ’ani) in vv. 10 and 11 creates an ironic comparison and emphasizes the strong contrast between the attitudes of Jonah and the Lord.

[4:11]  ²⁴ tn Heb “You…Should I not spare…?” This is an a fortiori argument from lesser to greater. Since Jonah was “upset” (חוּס, khus) about such a trivial matter as the death of a little plant (the lesser), God had every right to “spare” (חוּס) the enormously populated city of Nineveh (the greater). The phrase “even more” does not appear in Hebrew but is implied by this a fortiori argument.

[4:11]  ²⁵ tn Heb “Should I not spare?”; or “Should I not show compassion?” The verb חוּס (khus) has a basic three-fold range of meanings: (1) “to be troubled about,” (2) “to look with compassion upon,” and (3) “to show pity, to spare (someone from death/judgment)” (HALOT 298 s.v. חוס; BDB 299 s.v. חוּס). In v. 10 it refers to Jonah’s lament over the death of his plant, meaning “to be upset about” or “to be troubled about” (HALOT 298 s.v. 1.c). However, here in v. 11 it means “to show pity, spare” from judgment (BDB 298 s.v. b; HALOT 298 s.v. 1.a; e.g., 1 Sam 24:11; Jer 21:7; Ezek 24:14). It is often used in contexts which contemplate whether God will or will not spare a sinful people from judgment (Ezek 5:11; 7:4, 9; 8:19; 9:5, 10; 20:17). So this repetition of the same verb but in a different sense creates a polysemantic wordplay in vv. 10-11. However, the wordplay is obscured by the appropriate translation for each usage – “be upset about” in v. 10 and “to spare” in v. 11 – therefore, the translation above attempts to bring out the wordplay in English: “to be [even more] concerned about.”

[4:11]  ²⁶ tn Heb “the great city.”

[4:11]  ²⁷ tn Heb “their right from their left.” Interpreters wonder exactly what deficiency is meant by the phrase “do not know their right from their left.” The expression does not appear elsewhere in biblical Hebrew. It probably does not mean, as sometimes suggested, that Nineveh had 120,000 small children (the term אָדָם, ’adam, “people,” does not seem to be used of children alone). In any case, it refers to a deficiency in discernment that Jonah and the initial readers of Jonah would no doubt have considered themselves free of. For partial parallels see 2 Sam 19:35; Eccl 10:2; Ezek 22:26; 44:23.

[4:11]  ²⁸ tn Heb “and many animals.”

[6:26]  ²⁹ tn Grk “the birds of the sky” or “the birds of the heaven”; the Greek word οὐρανός (ouranos) may be translated either “sky” or “heaven,” depending on the context. The idiomatic expression “birds of the sky” refers to wild birds as opposed to domesticated fowl (cf. BDAG 809 s.v. πετεινόν).

[6:26]  ³⁰ tn Or “God gives them food to eat.” L&N 23.6 has both “to provide food for” and “to give food to someone to eat.”

[6:26]  ³¹ tn Grk “of more value.”

[6:27]  ³² tn Or “a cubit to his height.” A cubit (πῆχυς, phcu") can measure length (normally about 45 cm or 18 inches) or time (a small unit, “hour” is usually used [BDAG 812 s.v.] although “day” has been suggested [L&N 67.151]). The term ἡλικία (Jhlikia) is ambiguous in the same way as πῆχυς (phcus). Most scholars take the term to describe age or length of life here, although a few refer it to bodily stature (see BDAG 436 s.v. 3 for discussion). Worry about length of life seems a more natural figure than worry about height. However, the point either way is clear: Worrying adds nothing to life span or height.

[6:28]  ³³ tn Traditionally, “lilies.” According to L&N 3.32, “Though traditionally κρίνον has been regarded as a type of lily, scholars have suggested several other possible types of flowers, including an anemone, a poppy, a gladiolus, and a rather inconspicuous type of daisy.” In view of the uncertainty, the more generic “flowers” has been used in the translation.

[6:28]  ³⁴ tn Or, traditionally, “toil.” Although it might be argued that “work hard” would be a more precise translation of κοπιάω (kopiaw) here, the line in English reads better in terms of cadence with a single syllable.

[6:30]  ³⁵ tn Grk “grass of the field.”

[6:30]  ³⁶ tn Grk “into the oven.” The expanded translation “into the fire to heat the oven” has been used to avoid misunderstanding; most items put into modern ovens are put there to be baked, not burned.

[6:30]  ³⁷ sn The phrase even more is a typical form of rabbinic argumentation, from the lesser to the greater. If God cares for the little things, surely he will care for the more important things.

[12:24]  ³⁸ tn Or “crows.” Crows and ravens belong to the same family of birds. English uses “crow” as a general word for the family. Palestine has several indigenous members of the crow family.

[12:24]  ³⁹ tn Or “God gives them food to eat.” L&N 23.6 has both “to provide food for” and “to give food to someone to eat.”

[12:25]  ⁴⁰ tn Or “by being anxious.”

[12:25]  ⁴¹ tn Or “a cubit to his height.” A cubit (πῆχυς, phcu") can measure length (normally about 45 cm or 18 inches) or time (a small unit, “hour” is usually used [BDAG 812 s.v.] although “day” has been suggested [L&N 67.151]). The term ἡλικία (Jhlikia) is ambiguous in the same way as πῆχυς. Most scholars take the term to describe age or length of life here, although a few refer it to bodily stature (see BDAG 435-36 s.v. 1.a for discussion). Worry about length of life seems a more natural figure than worry about height. However, the point either way is clear: Worrying adds nothing to life span or height.

[12:26]  ⁴² tn This is a first class condition in the Greek text.

[12:26]  ⁴³ tn Or “why are you anxious for.”

[12:27]  ⁴⁴ tn Traditionally, “lilies.” According to L&N 3.32, “Though traditionally κρίνον has been regarded as a type of lily, scholars have suggested several other possible types of flowers, including an anemone, a poppy, a gladiolus, and a rather inconspicuous type of daisy.” In view of the uncertainty, the more generic “flowers” has been used in the translation.

[12:27]  ⁴⁵ tn Traditionally, “toil.” Although it might be argued that “work hard” would be a more precise translation of κοπιάω (kopiaw) here, the line in English scans better in terms of cadence with a single syllable.

[12:28]  ⁴⁶ tn This is a first class condition in the Greek text.

[12:28]  ⁴⁷ tn Grk “grass in the field.”

[12:28]  ⁴⁸ tn Grk “which is in the field today.”

[12:28]  ⁴⁹ tn Grk “into the oven.” The expanded translation “into the fire to heat the oven” has been used to avoid misunderstanding; most items put into modern ovens are put there to be baked, not burned.

[12:28]  ⁵⁰ sn The phrase how much more is a typical form of rabbinic argumentation, from the lesser to the greater. If God cares for the little things, surely he will care for the more important things.