Discovery BoxNumbers 23:11-21
Context23:11 Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but on the contrary 1 you have only blessed them!” 2 23:12 Balaam replied, 3 “Must I not be careful 4 to speak what the Lord has put in my mouth?” 5 23:13 Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from which you can observe them. You will see only a part of them, but you will not see all of them. Curse them for me from there.”
23:14 So Balak brought Balaam 6 to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, 7 where 8 he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 23:15 And Balaam 9 said to Balak, “Station yourself here 10 by your burnt offering, while I meet the Lord there. 23:16 Then the Lord met Balaam and put a message 11 in his mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and speak what I tell you.” 23:17 When Balaam 12 came to him, he was still standing by his burnt offering, along with the princes of Moab. And Balak said to him, “What has the Lord spoken?”
23:18 Balaam 13 uttered 14 his oracle, and said,
“Rise up, 15 Balak, and hear;
Listen to me, son of Zippor:
23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie,
nor a human being, 16 that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not make it happen? 17
23:20 Indeed, I have received a command 18 to bless;
he has blessed, 19 and I cannot reverse it. 20
23:21 He 21 has not looked on iniquity in Jacob, 22
nor has he seen trouble 23 in Israel.
The Lord their God is with them;
his acclamation 24 as king is among them.
[23:11] 1 tn The Hebrew text uses הִנֵּה (hinneh) here to stress the contrast.
[23:11] 2 tn The construction is emphatic, using the perfect tense and the infinitive absolute to give it the emphasis. It would have the force of “you have done nothing but bless,” or “you have indeed blessed.” The construction is reminiscent of the call of Abram and the promise of the blessing in such elaborate terms.
[23:12] 3 tn Heb “he answered and said.” The referent (Balaam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[23:12] 4 tn The verb שָׁמַר (shamar) means “to guard, watch, observe” and so here with a sense of “be careful” or even “take heed” (so KJV, ASV). The nuance of the imperfect tense would be obligatory: “I must be careful” – to do what? to speak what the
[23:12] 5 tn The clause is a noun clause serving as the direct object of “to speak.” It begins with the sign of the accusative, and then the relative pronoun that indicates the whole clause is the accusative.
[23:14] 5 tn Heb “he brought him”; the referents (Balak and Balaam) have been specified in the translation for clarity.
[23:14] 6 tn Some scholars do not translate this word as “Pisgah,” but rather as a “lookout post” or an “elevated place.”
[23:14] 7 tn Heb “and he built.”
[23:15] 7 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Balaam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[23:15] 8 tn The verse uses כֹּה (koh) twice: “Station yourself here…I will meet [the
[23:17] 11 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Balaam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[23:18] 13 tn Heb “he.” The antecedent has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
[23:18] 15 tn The verb probably means “pay attention” in this verse.
[23:19] 15 tn Heb “son of man.”
[23:19] 16 tn The verb is the Hiphil of קוּם (qum, “to cause to rise; to make stand”). The meaning here is more of the sense of fulfilling the promises made.
[23:20] 17 tn The Hebrew text simply has “I have received [to] bless.” The infinitive is the object of the verb, telling what he received. Balaam was not actually commanded to bless, but was given the word of blessing so that he was given a divine decree that would bless Israel.
[23:20] 18 sn The reference is probably to the first speech, where the
[23:20] 19 tn The verb is the Hiphil of שׁוּב (shuv), meaning “to cause to return.” He cannot return God’s word to him, for it has been given, and it will be fulfilled.
[23:21] 19 tn These could be understood as impersonal and so rendered “no one has discovered.”
[23:21] 20 sn The line could mean that God has regarded Israel as the ideal congregation without any blemish or flaw. But it could also mean that God has not looked on their iniquity, meaning, held it against them.
[23:21] 21 tn The word means “wrong, misery, trouble.” It can mean the idea of “disaster” as well, for that too is trouble. Here it is parallel to “iniquity” and so has the connotation of something that would give God reason to curse them.
[23:21] 22 tn The people are blessed because God is their king. In fact, the shout of acclamation is among them – they are proclaiming the
