Numbers 14:14

14:14 then they will tell it to the inhabitants ¹  of this land. They have heard that you, Lord, are among this people, that you, Lord, are seen face to face, ²  that your cloud stands over them, and that you go before them by day in a pillar of cloud and in a pillar of fire by night.

Numbers 24:1

Balaam Prophesies Yet Again

24:1 ³ When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, ⁴  he did not go as at the other times ⁵  to seek for omens, ⁶  but he set his face ⁷  toward the wilderness.

[14:14]  ¹ tn The singular participle is to be taken here as a collective, representing all the inhabitants of the land.

[14:14]  ² tn “Face to face” is literally “eye to eye.” It only occurs elsewhere in Isa 52:8. This expresses the closest communication possible.

[24:1]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “it was good in the eyes of the Lord.”

[24:1]  ⁵ tn Heb “as time after time.”

[24:1]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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.