Discovery BoxNumbers 24:1--25:18
Context24:1 1 When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, 2 he did not go as at the other times 3 to seek for omens, 4 but he set his face 5 toward the wilderness. 24:2 When Balaam lifted up his eyes, he saw Israel camped tribe by tribe; 6 and the Spirit of God came upon him. 24:3 Then he uttered this oracle: 7
“The oracle 8 of Balaam son of Beor;
the oracle of the man whose eyes are open; 9
24:4 the oracle of the one who hears the words of God,
who sees a vision from the Almighty,
although falling flat on the ground 10 with eyes open: 11
24:5 ‘How 12 beautiful are your tents, O Jacob,
and your dwelling places, O Israel!
24:6 They are like 13 valleys 14 stretched forth,
like gardens by the river’s side,
like aloes 15 that the Lord has planted,
and like cedar trees beside the waters.
24:7 He will pour the water out of his buckets, 16
and their descendants will be like abundant 17 water; 18
their king will be greater than Agag, 19
and their kingdom will be exalted.
24:8 God brought them out of Egypt.
They have, as it were, the strength of a young bull;
they will devour hostile people 20
and will break their bones
and will pierce them through with arrows.
24:9 They crouch and lie down like a lion,
and as a lioness, 21 who can stir him?
Blessed is the one who blesses you,
and cursed is the one who curses you!’”
24:10 Then Balak became very angry at Balaam, and he struck his hands together. 22 Balak said to Balaam, “I called you to curse my enemies, and look, you have done nothing but bless 23 them these three times! 24:11 So now, go back where you came from! 24 I said that I would greatly honor you; but now the Lord has stood in the way of your honor.”
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 25 the commandment 26 of the Lord to do either good or evil of my own will, 27 but whatever the Lord tells me I must speak’? 24:14 And now, I am about to go 28 back to my own people. Come now, and I will advise you as to what this people will do to your people in the future.” 29
24:15 Then he uttered this oracle: 30
“The oracle of Balaam son of Beor;
the oracle of the man whose eyes are open;
24:16 the oracle of the one who hears the words of God,
and who knows the knowledge of the Most High,
who sees a vision from the Almighty,
although falling flat on the ground with eyes open:
24:17 ‘I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not close at hand. 31
A star 32 will march forth 33 out of Jacob,
and a scepter 34 will rise out of Israel.
He will crush the skulls 35 of Moab,
and the heads 36 of all the sons of Sheth. 37
24:18 Edom will be a possession,
Seir, 38 his enemies, will also be a possession;
but Israel will act valiantly.
24:19 A ruler will be established from Jacob;
he will destroy the remains of the city.’” 39
24:20 Then Balaam 40 looked on Amalek and delivered this oracle: 41
“Amalek was the first 42 of the nations,
but his end will be that he will perish.”
24:21 Then he looked on the Kenites and uttered this oracle:
“Your dwelling place seems strong,
and your nest 43 is set on a rocky cliff.
24:22 Nevertheless the Kenite will be consumed. 44
How long will Asshur take you away captive?”
24:23 Then he uttered this oracle:
“O, who will survive when God does this! 45
24:24 Ships will come from the coast of Kittim, 46
and will afflict Asshur, 47 and will afflict Eber,
and he will also perish forever.” 48
24:25 Balaam got up and departed and returned to his home, 49 and Balak also went his way.
25:1 50 When 51 Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to commit sexual immorality 52 with the daughters of Moab. 25:2 These women invited 53 the people to the sacrifices of their gods; then the people ate and bowed down to their gods. 54 25:3 When Israel joined themselves to Baal-peor, 55 the anger of the Lord flared up against Israel.
25:4 The Lord said to Moses, “Arrest all the leaders 56 of the people, and hang them up 57 before the Lord in broad daylight, 58 so that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel.” 25:5 So Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Each of you must execute those of his men 59 who were joined to Baal-peor.”
25:6 Just then 60 one of the Israelites came and brought to his brothers 61 a Midianite woman in the plain view of Moses and of 62 the whole community of the Israelites, while they 63 were weeping at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 25:7 When Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, 64 he got up from among the assembly, took a javelin in his hand, 25:8 and went after the Israelite man into the tent 65 and thrust through the Israelite man and into the woman’s abdomen. 66 So the plague was stopped from the Israelites. 67 25:9 Those that died in the plague were 24,000.
25:10 The Lord spoke to Moses: 25:11 “Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my anger away from the Israelites, when he manifested such zeal 68 for my sake among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in my zeal. 69 25:12 Therefore, announce: 70 ‘I am going to give 71 to him my covenant of peace. 72 25:13 So it will be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of a permanent priesthood, because he has been zealous for his God, 73 and has made atonement 74 for the Israelites.’”
25:14 Now the name of the Israelite who was stabbed – the one who was stabbed with the Midianite woman – was Zimri son of Salu, a leader of a clan 75 of the Simeonites. 25:15 The name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi daughter of Zur. He was a leader 76 over the people of a clan of Midian. 77
25:16 Then the Lord spoke to Moses: 25:17 “Bring trouble 78 to the Midianites, and destroy them, 25:18 because they bring trouble to you by their treachery with which they have deceived 79 you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of a prince of Midian, 80 their sister, who was killed on the day of the plague that happened as a result of Peor.”
[24:1] 1 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] 2 tn Heb “it was good in the eyes of the
[24:1] 3 tn Heb “as time after time.”
[24:1] 4 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] 5 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.
[24:2] 6 tn Heb “living according to their tribes.”
[24:3] 11 tn Heb “and he took up his oracle and said.”
[24:3] 12 tn The word נְאֻם (nÿ’um) is an “oracle.” It is usually followed by a subjective genitive, indicating the doer of the action. The word could be rendered “says,” but this translations is more specific.
[24:3] 13 tn The Greek version reads “the one who sees truly.” The word has been interpreted in both ways, “shut” or “open.”
[24:4] 16 tn The phrase “flat on the ground” is supplied in the translation for clarity. The Greek version interprets the line to mean “falling asleep.” It may mean falling into a trance.
[24:4] 17 tn The last colon simply has “falling, but opened eyes.” The falling may simply refer to lying prone; and the opened eyes may refer to his receiving a vision. See H. E. Freeman, An Introduction to the Old Testament Prophets, 37-41.
[24:5] 21 tn Here מָה (mah) has an exclamatory sense: “How!” (see Gen 28:17).
[24:6] 26 tn Heb “as valleys they spread forth.”
[24:6] 27 tn Or “rows of palms.”
[24:6] 28 sn The language seems to be more poetic than precise. N. H. Snaith notes that cedars do not grow beside water; he also connects “aloes” to the eaglewood that is more exotic, and capable of giving off an aroma (Leviticus and Numbers [NCB], 298).
[24:7] 31 tc For this colon the LXX has “a man shall come out of his seed.” Cf. the Syriac Peshitta and Targum.
[24:7] 33 sn These two lines are difficult, but the general sense is that of irrigation buckets and a well-watered land. The point is that Israel will be prosperous and fruitful.
[24:7] 34 sn Many commentators see this as a reference to Agag of 1 Sam 15:32-33, the Amalekite king slain by Samuel, for that is the one we know. But that is by no means clear, for this text does not identify this Agag. If it is that king, then this poem, or this line in this poem, would have to be later, unless one were to try to argue for a specific prophecy. Whoever this Agag is, he is a symbol of power.
[24:8] 36 tn Heb “they will devour nations,” their adversaries.
[24:9] 41 tn On the usage of this word see HALOT 517 s.v. לָבִיא.
[24:10] 46 sn This is apparently a sign of contempt or derision (see Job 27:23; and Lam 2:15).
[24:10] 47 tn The construction is emphatic, using the infinitive absolute with the perfect tense for “bless.”
[24:11] 51 tn Heb “flee to your place.”
[24:13] 56 tn Heb “I am not able to go beyond.”
[24:13] 58 tn Heb “from my heart.”
[24:14] 61 tn The construction is the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) suffixed followed by the active participle. This is the futur instans use of the participle, to express something that is about to happen: “I am about to go.”
[24:14] 62 tn Heb “in the latter days.” For more on this expression, see E. Lipinski, “באחרית הימים dans les textes préexiliques,” VT 20 (1970): 445-50.
[24:15] 66 tn Heb “and he took up his oracle and said.”
[24:17] 72 sn This is a figure for a king (see also Isa 14:12) not only in the Bible but in the ancient Near Eastern literature as a whole. The immediate reference of the prophecy seems to be to David, but the eschatological theme goes beyond him. There is to be a connection made between this passage and the sighting of a star in its ascendancy by the magi, who then traveled to Bethlehem to see the one born King of the Jews (Matt 2:2). The expression “son of a star” (Aram Bar Kochba) became a title for a later claimant to kingship, but he was doomed by the Romans in
[24:17] 73 tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; it is equal to the imperfect expressing the future. The verb דָּרַךְ (darakh), related to the noun “way, road,” seems to mean something like tread on, walk, march.”
[24:17] 74 sn The “scepter” is metonymical for a king who will rise to power. NEB strangely rendered this as “comet” to make a parallel with “star.”
[24:17] 75 tn The word is literally “corners,” but may refer to the corners of the head, and so “skull.”
[24:17] 76 tc The MT reads “shatter, devastate.” Smr reads קֹדְקֹד (qodqod, “head; crown; pate”). Smr follows Jer 48:45 which appears to reflect Num 24:17.
[24:17] 77 sn The prophecy begins to be fulfilled when David defeated Moab and Edom and established an empire including them. But the Messianic promise extends far beyond that to the end of the age and the inclusion of these defeated people in the program of the coming King.
[24:18] 76 sn Seir is the chief mountain range of Edom (Deut 33:2), and so the reference here is to the general area of Edom.
[24:19] 81 tn Or, understanding the Hebrew word for “city” as a place name, “of Ir” (cf. NRSV, NLT).
[24:20] 86 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Balaam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
[24:20] 87 tn Heb “and he lifted up his oracle and said.” So also in vv. 21, 23.
[24:20] 88 sn This probably means that it held first place, or it thought that it was “the first of the nations.” It was not the first, either in order or greatness.
[24:21] 91 sn A pun is made on the name Kenite by using the word “your nest” (קִנֶּךָ, qinnekha); the location may be the rocky cliffs overlooking Petra.
[24:22] 96 tc Heb “Nevertheless Cain will be wasted; how long will Asshur take you captive?” Cain was believed to be the ancestor of the Kenites. The NAB has “yet destined for burning, even as I watch, are your inhabitants.” Asshur may refer to a north Arabian group of people of Abrahamic stock (Gen 25:3), and not the Assyrian empire.
[24:23] 101 tc Because there is no parallel line, some have thought that it dropped out (see de Vaulx, Les Nombres, 296).
[24:24] 106 tc The MT is difficult. The Kittim refers normally to Cyprus, or any maritime people to the west. W. F. Albright proposed emending the line to “islands will gather in the north, ships from the distant sea” (“The Oracles of Balaam,” JBL 63 [1944]: 222-23). Some commentators accept that reading as the original state of the text, since the present MT makes little sense.
[24:24] 107 tn Or perhaps “Assyria” (so NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).
[24:24] 108 tn Or “it will end in utter destruction.”
[25:1] 116 sn Chapter 25 tells of Israel’s sins on the steppes of Moab, and God’s punishment. In the overall plan of the book, here we have another possible threat to God’s program, although here it comes from within the camp (Balaam was the threat from without). If the Moabites could not defeat them one way, they would try another. The chapter has three parts: fornication (vv. 1-3), God’s punishment (vv. 4-9), and aftermath (vv. 10-18). See further G. E. Mendenhall, The Tenth Generation, 105-21; and S. C. Reif, “What Enraged Phinehas? A Study of Numbers 25:8,” JBL 90 (1971): 200-206.
[25:1] 117 tn This first preterite is subordinated to the next as a temporal clause; it is not giving a parallel action, but the setting for the event.
[25:1] 118 sn The account apparently means that the men were having sex with the Moabite women. Why the men submitted to such a temptation at this point is hard to say. It may be that as military heroes the men took liberties with the women of occupied territories.
[25:2] 121 tn The verb simply says “they called,” but it is a feminine plural. And so the women who engaged in immoral acts with Hebrew men invited them to their temple ritual.
[25:2] 122 sn What Israel experienced here was some of the debased ritual practices of the Canaanite people. The act of prostrating themselves before the pagan deities was probably participation in a fertility ritual, nothing short of cultic prostitution. This was a blatant disregard of the covenant and the Law. If something were not done, the nation would have destroyed itself.
[25:3] 126 tn The verb is “yoked” to Baal-peor. The word is unusual, and may suggest the physical, ritual participation described below. It certainly shows that they acknowledge the reality of the local god.
[25:4] 131 sn The meaning must be the leaders behind the apostasy, for they would now be arrested. They were responsible for the tribes’ conformity to the Law, but here they had not only failed in their duty, but had participated. The leaders were executed; the rest of the guilty died by the plague.
[25:4] 132 sn The leaders who were guilty were commanded by God to be publicly exposed by hanging, probably a reference to impaling, but possibly some other form of harsh punishment. The point was that the swaying of their executed bodies would be a startling warning for any who so blatantly set the Law aside and indulged in apostasy through pagan sexual orgies.
[25:4] 133 tn Heb “in the sun.” This means in broad daylight.
[25:5] 136 tn Heb “slay – a man his men.” The imperative is plural, and so “man” is to be taken collectively as “each of you men.”
[25:6] 141 tn The verse begins with the deictic particle וְהִנֵּה (vÿhinneh), pointing out the action that was taking place. It stresses the immediacy of the action to the reader.
[25:6] 142 tn Or “to his family”; or “to his clan.”
[25:6] 143 tn Heb “before the eyes of Moses and before the eyes of.”
[25:6] 144 tn The vav (ו) at the beginning of the clause is a disjunctive because it is prefixed to the nonverbal form. In this context it is best interpreted as a circumstantial clause, stressing that this happened “while” people were weeping over the sin.
[25:7] 146 tn The first clause is subordinated to the second because both begin with the preterite verbal form, and there is clearly a logical and/or chronological sequence involved.
[25:8] 151 tn The word קֻבָּה (qubbah) seems to refer to the innermost part of the family tent. Some suggest it was in the tabernacle area, but that is unlikely. S. C. Reif argues for a private tent shrine (“What Enraged Phinehas? A Study of Numbers 25:8,” JBL 90 [1971]: 200-206).
[25:8] 152 tn Heb “and he thrust the two of them the Israelite man and the woman to her belly [lower abdomen].” Reif notes the similarity of the word with the previous “inner tent,” and suggests that it means Phinehas stabbed her in her shrine tent, where she was being set up as some sort of priestess or cult leader. Phinehas put a quick end to their sexual immorality while they were in the act.
[25:8] 153 sn Phinehas saw all this as part of the pagan sexual ritual that was defiling the camp. He had seen that the
[25:11] 156 tn Heb “he was zealous with my zeal.” The repetition of forms for “zeal” in the line stresses the passion of Phinehas. The word “zeal” means a passionate intensity to protect or preserve divine or social institutions.
[25:11] 157 tn The word for “zeal” now occurs a third time. While some English versions translate this word here as “jealousy” (KJV, ASV, NASB, NRSV), it carries the force of God’s passionate determination to defend his rights and what is right about the covenant and the community and parallels the “zeal” that Phinehas had just demonstrated.
[25:12] 162 tn Here too the grammar expresses an imminent future by using the particle הִנְנִי (hinni) before the participle נֹתֵן (noten) – “here I am giving,” or “I am about to give.”
[25:12] 163 tn Or “my pledge of friendship” (NAB), or “my pact of friendship” (NJPS). This is the designation of the leadership of the priestly ministry. The terminology is used again in the rebuke of the priests in Mal 2.
[25:13] 166 tn The motif is reiterated here. Phinehas was passionately determined to maintain the rights of his God by stopping the gross sinful perversions.
[25:13] 167 sn The atonement that he made in this passage refers to the killing of the two obviously blatant sinners. By doing this he dispensed with any animal sacrifice, for the sinners themselves died. In Leviticus it was the life of the substitutionary animal that was taken in place of the sinners that made atonement. The point is that sin was punished by death, and so God was free to end the plague and pardon the people. God’s holiness and righteousness have always been every bit as important as God’s mercy and compassion, for without righteousness and holiness mercy and compassion mean nothing.
[25:14] 171 tn Heb “a father’s house.” So also in v. 15.
[25:15] 177 sn The passage makes it clear that this individual was a leader, one who was supposed to be preventing this thing from happening. The judgment was swift and severe, because the crime was so great, and the danger of it spreading was certain. Paul refers to this horrible incident when he reminds Christians not to do similar things (1 Cor 10:6-8).
[25:17] 181 tn The form is the infinitive absolute used in place of a verb here; it clearly is meant to be an instruction for Israel. The idea is that of causing trouble, harassing, vexing Midian. The verb is repeated as the active participle in the line, and so the punishment is talionic.
[25:18] 186 tn This is the same word as that translated “treachery.”
[25:18] 187 sn Cozbi’s father, Zur, was one of five Midianite kings who eventually succumbed to Israel (Num 31:8). When the text gives the name and family of a woman, it is asserting that she is important, at least for social reasons, among her people.
