Numbers 23:7-8

23:7 Then Balaam ¹  uttered ²  his oracle, saying,

“Balak, the king of Moab, brought me ³  from Aram,

out of the mountains of the east, saying,

‘Come, pronounce a curse on Jacob for me;

come, denounce Israel.’ ⁴ 

23:8 How ⁵  can I curse ⁶  one whom God has not cursed,

or how can I denounce one whom the Lord has not denounced?

Numbers 24:9

24:9 They crouch and lie down like a lion,

and as a lioness, ⁷  who can stir him?

Blessed is the one who blesses you,

and cursed is the one who curses you!’”

Genesis 12:3

12:3 I will bless those who bless you, ⁸ 

but the one who treats you lightly ⁹  I must curse,

and all the families of the earth will bless one another ¹⁰  by your name.”

Genesis 27:29

27:29 May peoples serve you

and nations bow down to you.

You will be ¹¹  lord ¹²  over your brothers,

and the sons of your mother will bow down to you. ¹³ 

May those who curse you be cursed,

and those who bless you be blessed.”

Deuteronomy 23:4

23:4 for they did not meet you with food and water on the way as you came from Egypt, and furthermore, they hired ¹⁴  Balaam son of Beor of Pethor in Aram Naharaim to curse you.

Joshua 24:9

24:9 Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, launched an attack ¹⁵  against Israel. He summoned ¹⁶  Balaam son of Beor to call down judgment ¹⁷  on you.

Joshua 24:1

Israel Renews its Commitment to the Lord

24:1 Joshua assembled all the Israelite tribes at Shechem. He summoned Israel’s elders, rulers, judges, and leaders, and they appeared before God.

Joshua 17:1

17:1 The tribe of Manasseh, Joseph’s firstborn son, was also allotted land. ¹⁸  The descendants of Makir, Manasseh’s firstborn and the father of Gilead, received land, for they were warriors. ¹⁹  They were assigned Gilead and Bashan. ²⁰ 

Nehemiah 13:2

13:2 for they had not met the Israelites with food ²¹  and water, but instead had hired Balaam to curse them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into blessing.)

Psalms 109:17-18

109:17 He loved to curse ²²  others, so those curses have come upon him. ²³ 

He had no desire to bless anyone, so he has experienced no blessings. ²⁴ 

109:18 He made cursing a way of life, ²⁵ 

so curses poured into his stomach like water

and seeped into his bones like oil. ²⁶ 

[23:7]  ¹ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Balaam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[23:7]  ² tn Heb “took up.”

[23:7]  ³ tn The passage calls for a past tense translation; since the verb form is a prefixed conjugation, this tense should be classified as a preterite without the vav (ו). Such forms do occur, especially in the ancient poetic passages.

[23:7]  ⁴ sn The opening lines seem to be a formula for the seer to identify himself and the occasion for the oracle. The tension is laid out early; Balaam knows that God has intended to bless Israel, but he has been paid to curse them.

[23:8]  ⁵ tn The figure is erotesis, a rhetorical question. He is actually saying he cannot curse them because God has not cursed them.

[23:8]  ⁶ tn The imperfect tense should here be classified as a potential imperfect.

[24:9]  ⁷ tn On the usage of this word see HALOT 517 s.v. לָבִיא.

[12:3]  ⁸ tn The Piel cohortative has as its object a Piel participle, masculine plural. Since the Lord binds himself to Abram by covenant, those who enrich Abram in any way share in the blessings.

[12:3]  ⁹ tn In this part of God’s statement there are two significant changes that often go unnoticed. First, the parallel and contrasting participle מְקַלֶּלְךָ (mÿqallelkha) is now singular and not plural. All the versions and a few Masoretic mss read the plural. But if it had been plural, there would be no reason to change it to the singular and alter the parallelism. On the other hand, if it was indeed singular, it is easy to see why the versions would change it to match the first participle. The MT preserves the original reading: “the one who treats you lightly.” The point would be a contrast with the lavish way that God desires to bless many. The second change is in the vocabulary. The English usually says, “I will curse those who curse you.” But there are two different words for curse here. The first is קָלַל (qalal), which means “to be light” in the Qal, and in the Piel “to treat lightly, to treat with contempt, to curse.” The second verb is אָרַר (’arar), which means “to banish, to remove from the blessing.” The point is simple: Whoever treats Abram and the covenant with contempt as worthless God will banish from the blessing. It is important also to note that the verb is not a cohortative, but a simple imperfect. Since God is binding himself to Abram, this would then be an obligatory imperfect: “but the one who treats you with contempt I must curse.”

[12:3]  ¹⁰ tn Theoretically the Niphal can be translated either as passive or reflexive/reciprocal. (The Niphal of “bless” is only used in formulations of the Abrahamic covenant. See Gen 12:2; 18:18; 28:14.) Traditionally the verb is taken as passive here, as if Abram were going to be a channel or source of blessing. But in later formulations of the Abrahamic covenant (see Gen 22:18; 26:4) the Hitpael replaces this Niphal form, suggesting a translation “will bless [i.e., “pronounce blessings on”] themselves [or “one another”].” The Hitpael of “bless” is used with a reflexive/reciprocal sense in Deut 29:18; Ps 72:17; Isa 65:16; Jer 4:2. Gen 12:2 predicts that Abram will be held up as a paradigm of divine blessing and that people will use his name in their blessing formulae. For examples of blessing formulae utilizing an individual as an example of blessing see Gen 48:20 and Ruth 4:11.

[27:29]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and be.” The verb is an imperative, which is used rhetorically in this oracle of blessing. It is an invitation to exercise authority his brothers and indicates that he is granted such authority by the patriarch of the family. Furthermore, the blessing enables the recipient to accomplish this.

[27:29]  ¹² tn The Hebrew word is גְבִיר (gevir, “lord, mighty one”). The one being blessed will be stronger and therefore more powerful than his brother. See Gen 25:23. The feminine form of this rare noun means “mistress” or “queen-mother.”

[27:29]  ¹³ tn Following the imperative, the prefixed verbal form (which is either an imperfect or a jussive) with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose or result.

[23:4]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “hired against you.”

[24:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “arose and fought.”

[24:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “sent and called.”

[24:9]  ¹⁷ tn Or “to curse.”

[17:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “and the lot belonged to the tribe of Manasseh, for he was the firstborn of Joseph.”

[17:1]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “to Makir, the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, for he was a man of war.”

[17:1]  ²⁰ tn Heb “Gilead and Bashan belonged to him.”

[13:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “bread.” The Hebrew term is generic here, however, referring to more than bread alone.

[109:17]  ²² sn A curse in OT times consists of a formal appeal to God to bring judgment down upon another. Curses were sometimes justified (such as the one spoken by the psalmist here in vv. 6-19), but when they were not, the one pronouncing the curse was in danger of bringing the anticipated judgment down upon himself.

[109:17]  ²³ tn Heb “and he loved a curse and it came [upon] him.” A reference to the evil man experiencing a curse seems premature here, for the psalmist is asking God to bring judgment on his enemies. For this reason some (cf. NIV, NRSV) prefer to repoint the vav (ו) on “it came” as conjunctive and translate the verb as a jussive of prayer (“may it come upon him!”). The prefixed form with vav consecutive in the next line is emended in the same way and translated, “may it be far from him.” However, the psalmist may be indicating that the evil man’s lifestyle has already begun to yield its destructive fruit.

[109:17]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and he did not delight in a blessing and it is far from him.”

[109:18]  ²⁵ tn Heb “he put on a curse as [if it were] his garment.”

[109:18]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and it came like water into his inner being, and like oil into his bones.” This may refer to this individual’s appetite for cursing. For him cursing was as refreshing as drinking water or massaging oneself with oil. Another option is that the destructive effects of a curse are in view. In this case a destructive curse invades his very being, like water or oil. Some who interpret the verse this way prefer to repoint the vav (ו) on “it came” to a conjunctive vav and interpret the prefixed verb as a jussive, “may it come!”