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 32:7

32:7 Why do you frustrate the intent ³  of the Israelites to cross over into the land which the Lord has given them?

Numbers 24:13

24:13 ‘If Balak would give me his palace full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond ⁴  the commandment ⁵  of the Lord to do either good or evil of my own will, ⁶  but whatever the Lord tells me I must speak’?

Numbers 32:9

32:9 When ⁷  they went up to the Eshcol Valley and saw the land, they frustrated the intent of the Israelites so that they did not enter ⁸  the land that the Lord had given ⁹  them.

[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.

[32:7]  ³ tn Heb “heart.” So also in v. 9.

[24:13]  ⁵ tn Heb “I am not able to go beyond.”

[24:13]  ⁶ tn Heb “mouth.”

[24:13]  ⁷ tn Heb “from my heart.”

[32:9]  ⁷ tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated to the parallel yet chronologically later verb in the next clause.

[32:9]  ⁸ tn The infinitive construct here with lamed (ל) is functioning as a result clause.

[32:9]  ⁹ tn The Lord had not given it yet, but was going to give it. Hence, the perfect should be classified as a perfect of resolve.