Numbers 16:28

16:28 Then Moses said, “This is how ¹  you will know that the Lord has sent me to do all these works, for I have not done them of my own will. ² 

Numbers 24:13

24:13 ‘If Balak would give me his palace full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond ³  the commandment ⁴  of the Lord to do either good or evil of my own will, ⁵  but whatever the Lord tells me I must speak’?

[16:28]  ¹ tn Heb “in this.”

[16:28]  ² tn The Hebrew text simply has כִּי־לֹא מִלִּבִּי (ki-lo’ millibbi, “for not from my heart”). The heart is the center of the will, the place decisions are made (see H. W. Wolff, Anthropology of the Old Testament). Moses is saying that the things he has done have not come “from the will of man” so to speak – and certainly not from some secret desire on his part to seize power.

[24:13]  ³ tn Heb “I am not able to go beyond.”

[24:13]  ⁴ tn Heb “mouth.”

[24:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “from my heart.”