Numbers 20:15

20:15 how our ancestors went down into Egypt, and we lived in Egypt a long time, ¹  and the Egyptians treated us and our ancestors badly. ² 

Numbers 24:7

24:7 He will pour the water out of his buckets, ³ 

and their descendants will be like abundant ⁴  water; ⁵ 

their king will be greater than Agag, ⁶ 

and their kingdom will be exalted.

[20:15]  ¹ tn Heb “many days.”

[20:15]  ² tn The verb רָעַע (ra’a’) means “to act or do evil.” Evil here is in the sense of causing pain or trouble. So the causative stem in our passage means “to treat wickedly.”

[24:7]  ³ tc For this colon the LXX has “a man shall come out of his seed.” Cf. the Syriac Peshitta and Targum.

[24:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “many.”

[24:7]  ⁵ sn These two lines are difficult, but the general sense is that of irrigation buckets and a well-watered land. The point is that Israel will be prosperous and fruitful.

[24:7]  ⁶ sn Many commentators see this as a reference to Agag of 1 Sam 15:32-33, the Amalekite king slain by Samuel, for that is the one we know. But that is by no means clear, for this text does not identify this Agag. If it is that king, then this poem, or this line in this poem, would have to be later, unless one were to try to argue for a specific prophecy. Whoever this Agag is, he is a symbol of power.