Numbers 23:2

23:2 So Balak did just as Balaam had said. Balak and Balaam then offered on each ¹  altar a bull and a ram.

Numbers 23:14

23:14 So Balak brought Balaam ²  to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, ³  where ⁴  he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

Numbers 23:30

23:30 So Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

Genesis 31:54

31:54 Then Jacob offered a sacrifice ⁵  on the mountain and invited his relatives to eat the meal. ⁶  They ate the meal and spent the night on the mountain.

Proverbs 1:16

1:16 for they ⁷  are eager ⁸  to inflict harm, ⁹ 

and they hasten ¹⁰  to shed blood. ¹¹ 

[23:2]  ¹ tn The Hebrew text has “on the altar,” but since there were seven of each animal and seven altars, the implication is that this means on each altar.

[23:14]  ² tn Heb “he brought him”; the referents (Balak and Balaam) have been specified in the translation for clarity.

[23:14]  ³ tn Some scholars do not translate this word as “Pisgah,” but rather as a “lookout post” or an “elevated place.”

[23:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he built.”

[31:54]  ⁵ tn The construction is a cognate accusative with the verb, expressing a specific sacrifice.

[31:54]  ⁶ tn Heb “bread, food.” Presumably this was a type of peace offering, where the person bringing the offering ate the animal being sacrificed.

[1:16]  ⁷ tn Heb “their feet.” The term “feet” is a synecdoche of the part (= their feet) for the whole person (= they), stressing the eagerness of the robbers.

[1:16]  ⁸ tn Heb “run.” The verb רוּץ (ruts, “run”) functions here as a metonymy of association, meaning “to be eager” to do something (BDB 930 s.v.).

[1:16]  ⁹ tn Heb “to harm.” The noun רַע (ra’) has a four-fold range of meanings: (1) “pain, harm” (Prov 3:30), (2) “calamity, disaster” (13:21), (3) “distress, misery” (14:32) and (4) “moral evil” (8:13; see BDB 948-49 s.v.). The parallelism with “swift to shed blood” suggests it means “to inflict harm, injury.”

[1:16]  ¹⁰ tn The imperfect tense verbs may be classified as habitual or progressive imperfects describing their ongoing continual activity.

[1:16]  ¹¹ tc The BHS editors suggest deleting this entire verse from MT because it does not appear in several versions (Codex B of the LXX, Coptic, Arabic) and is similar to Isa 59:7a. It is possible that it was a scribal gloss (intentional addition) copied into the margin from Isaiah. But this does not adequately explain the differences. It does fit the context well enough to be original.