Numbers 21:4

Fiery Serpents

21:4 Then they traveled from Mount Hor by the road to the Red Sea, ¹  to go around the land of Edom, but the people ²  became impatient along the way.

Numbers 21:22

21:22 “Let us ³  pass through your land; ⁴  we will not turn aside into the fields or into the vineyards, nor will we drink water from any well, but we will go along the King’s Highway until we pass your borders.”

Numbers 22:31

22:31 Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way with his sword drawn in his hand; so he bowed his head and threw himself down with his face to the ground. ⁵ 

Numbers 9:10

9:10 “Tell the Israelites, ‘If any ⁶  of you or of your posterity become ceremonially defiled by touching a dead body, or are on a journey far away, then he may ⁷  observe the Passover to the Lord.

Numbers 22:22-23

God Opposes Balaam

22:22 Then God’s anger was kindled ⁸  because he went, and the angel of the Lord stood in the road to oppose ⁹  him. Now he was riding on his donkey and his two servants were with him. 22:23 And the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road with ¹⁰  his sword drawn in his hand, so the donkey turned aside from the road and went into the field. But Balaam beat the donkey, to make her turn back to the road.

Numbers 22:34

22:34 Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood against me in the road. ¹¹  So now, if it is evil in your sight, ¹²  I will go back home.” ¹³ 

[21:4]  ¹ tn The “Red Sea” is the general designation for the bodies of water on either side of the Sinai peninsula, even though they are technically gulfs from the Red Sea.

[21:4]  ² tn Heb “the soul of the people,” expressing the innermost being of the people as they became frustrated.

[21:22]  ³ tn The Hebrew text uses the singular in these verses to match the reference to “Israel.”

[21:22]  ⁴ tc Smr has “by the King’s way I will go. I will not turn aside to the right or the left.”

[22:31]  ⁵ tn The Hishtaphel verb חָוָה (khavah) – שָׁחָה (shakhah) with metathesis – has a basic idea of “bow oneself low to the ground,” and perhaps in some cases the idea of “coil up.” This is the normal posture of prayer and of deep humility in the ancient religious world.

[9:10]  ⁷ tn This sense is conveyed by the repetition of “man” – “if a man, a man becomes unclean.”

[9:10]  ⁸ tn The perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive functions as the equivalent of an imperfect tense. In the apodosis of this conditional sentence, the permission nuance fits well.

[22:22]  ⁹ sn God’s anger now seems to contradict the permission he gave Balaam just before this. Some commentators argue that God’s anger is a response to Balaam’s character in setting out – which the Bible does not explain. God saw in him greed and pleasure for the riches, which is why he was so willing to go.

[22:22]  ¹⁰ tn The word is שָׂטָן (satan, “to be an adversary, to oppose”).

[22:23]  ¹¹ tn The word has the conjunction “and” on the noun, indicating this is a disjunctive vav (ו), here serving as a circumstantial clause.

[22:34]  ¹³ sn Balaam is not here making a general confession of sin. What he is admitting to is a procedural mistake. The basic meaning of the word is “to miss the mark.” He now knows he took the wrong way, i.e., in coming to curse Israel.

[22:34]  ¹⁴ sn The reference is to Balaam’s way. He is saying that if what he is doing is so perverse, so evil, he will turn around and go home. Of course, it did not appear that he had much of a chance of going forward.

[22:34]  ¹⁵ tn The verb is the cohortative from “return”: I will return [me].