Numbers 23:12-13

23:12 Balaam replied, ¹  “Must I not be careful ²  to speak what the Lord has put in my mouth?” ³  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.”

Numbers 22:18

22:18 Balaam replied ⁴  to the servants of Balak, “Even if Balak would give me his palace full of silver and gold, I could not transgress the commandment ⁵  of the Lord my God ⁶  to do less or more.

Numbers 22:38

22:38 Balaam said to Balak, “Look, I have come to you. Now, am I able ⁷  to speak ⁸  just anything? I must speak ⁹  only the word that God puts in my mouth.”

Numbers 24:12-13

24:12 Balaam said to Balak, “Did I not also tell your messengers whom you sent to me, 24:13 ‘If Balak would give me his palace full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond ¹⁰  the commandment ¹¹  of the Lord to do either good or evil of my own will, ¹²  but whatever the Lord tells me I must speak’?

Numbers 24:1

Balaam Prophesies Yet Again

24:1 ¹³ When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, ¹⁴  he did not go as at the other times ¹⁵  to seek for omens, ¹⁶  but he set his face ¹⁷  toward the wilderness.

Numbers 22:14

22:14 So the princes of Moab departed ¹⁸  and went back to Balak and said, “Balaam refused to come with us.”

Numbers 22:2

22:2 Balak son of Zippor saw all that the Israelites had done to the Amorites.

Numbers 18:13

18:13 And whatever first ripe fruit in their land they bring to the Lord will be yours; everyone who is ceremonially clean in your household may eat of it.

Acts 4:19-20

4:19 But Peter and John replied, ¹⁹  “Whether it is right before God to obey ²⁰  you rather than God, you decide, 4:20 for it is impossible ²¹  for us not to speak about what we have seen and heard.”

Acts 5:29

5:29 But Peter and the apostles replied, ²²  “We must obey ²³  God rather than people. ²⁴ 

[23:12]  ¹ tn Heb “he answered and said.” The referent (Balaam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[23:12]  ² 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 Lord has put in my mouth. The infinitive construct “to speak” is therefore serving as the direct object of שָׁמַר.

[23:12]  ³ 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.

[22:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “answered and said.”

[22:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “mouth.”

[22:18]  ⁶ sn In the light of subsequent events one should not take too seriously that Balaam referred to Yahweh as his God. He is referring properly to the deity for which he is acting as the agent.

[22:38]  ⁷ tn The verb is אוּכַל (’ukhal) in a question – “am I able?” But emphasizing this is the infinitive absolute before it. So Balaam is saying something like, “Can I really say anything?”

[22:38]  ⁸ tn The Piel infinitive construct (without the preposition) serves as the object of the verb “to be able.” The whole question is rhetorical – he is saying that he will not be able to say anything God does not allow him to say.

[22:38]  ⁹ tn The imperfect tense is here taken as an obligatory imperfect.

[24:13]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “I am not able to go beyond.”

[24:13]  ¹¹ tn Heb “mouth.”

[24:13]  ¹² tn Heb “from my heart.”

[24:1]  ¹³ sn For a thorough study of the arrangement of this passage, see E. B. Smick, “A Study of the Structure of the Third Balaam Oracle,” The Law and the Prophets, 242-52. He sees the oracle as having an introductory strophe (vv. 3, 4), followed by two stanzas (vv. 5, 6) that introduce the body (vv. 7b-9b) before the final benediction (v. 9b).

[24:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “it was good in the eyes of the Lord.”

[24:1]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “as time after time.”

[24:1]  ¹⁶ tn The word נְחָשִׁים (nÿkhashim) means “omens,” or possibly “auguries.” Balaam is not even making a pretense now of looking for such things, because they are not going to work. God has overruled them.

[24:1]  ¹⁷ tn The idiom signifies that he had a determination and resolution to look out over where the Israelites were, so that he could appreciate more their presence and use that as the basis for his expressing of the oracle.

[22:14]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “rose up.”

[4:19]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “answered and said to them.”

[4:19]  ²⁰ tn Grk “hear,” but the idea of “hear and obey” or simply “obey” is frequently contained in the Greek verb ἀκούω (akouw; see L&N 36.14).

[4:20]  ²¹ tn Grk “for we are not able not to speak about what we have seen and heard,” but the double negative, which cancels out in English, is emphatic in Greek. The force is captured somewhat by the English translation “it is impossible for us not to speak…” although this is slightly awkward.

[5:29]  ²² tn Grk “apostles answered and said.”

[5:29]  ²³ sn Obey. See 4:19. This response has Jewish roots (Dan 3:16-18; 2 Macc 7:2; Josephus, Ant. 17.6.3 [17.159].

[5:29]  ²⁴ tn Here ἀνθρώποις (anqrwpoi") has been translated as a generic noun (“people”).