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 23:12

23:12 Balaam replied, ⁵  “Must I not be careful ⁶  to speak what the Lord has put in my mouth?” ⁷ 

Numbers 23:26

23:26 But Balaam replied ⁸  to Balak, “Did I not tell you, ‘All that the Lord speaks, ⁹  I must do’?”

Numbers 22:18

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.

[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.

[23:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “he answered and said.” The referent (Balaam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

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

[23:12]  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.

[23:26]  ⁹ tn Heb “answered and said.”

[23:26]  ¹⁰ tn This first clause, “all that the Lord speaks” – is a noun clause functioning as the object of the verb that comes at the end of the verse. It is something of an independent accusative case, since it is picked up with the sign of the accusative: “all that the Lord speaks, it I must do.”

[22:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “answered and said.”

[22:18]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “mouth.”

[22:18]  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.