Numbers 11:28

11:28 Joshua son of Nun, the servant ¹  of Moses, one of his choice young men, ²  said, ³  “My lord Moses, stop them!” ⁴ 

Numbers 21:17

21:17 Then Israel sang ⁵  this song:

“Spring up, O well, sing to it!

Numbers 23:12

23:12 Balaam replied, ⁶  “Must I not be careful ⁷  to speak what the Lord has put in my mouth?” ⁸ 

[11:28]  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.

[11:28]  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.”

[11:28]  ³ tn Heb “answered and said.”

[11:28]  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 Lord’s plan to let other share the burden of leadership.

[21:17]  ⁵ tn After the adverb “then” the prefixed conjugation has the preterite force. For the archaic constructions, see D. N. Freedman, “Archaic Forms in Early Hebrew Poetry,” ZAW 72 (1960): 101-7. The poem shows all the marks of being ancient.

[23:12]  ⁹ tn Heb “he answered and said.” The referent (Balaam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[23:12]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ 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.