Numbers 17:9

17:9 So Moses brought out all the staffs from before the Lord to all the Israelites. They looked at them, ¹  and each man took his staff.

Numbers 21:8

21:8 The Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous snake and set it on a pole. When anyone who is bitten looks ²  at it, he will live.”

Numbers 24:20

Balaam’s Final Prophecies

24:20 Then Balaam ³  looked on Amalek and delivered this oracle: ⁴ 

“Amalek was the first ⁵  of the nations,

but his end will be that he will perish.”

[17:9]  ¹ tn The words “at them” are not in the Hebrew text, but they have been added in the translation for clarity.

[21:8]  ² tn The word order is slightly different in Hebrew: “and it shall be anyone who is bitten when he looks at it he shall live.”

[24:20]  ³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Balaam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he lifted up his oracle and said.” So also in vv. 21, 23.

[24:20]  ⁵ sn This probably means that it held first place, or it thought that it was “the first of the nations.” It was not the first, either in order or greatness.