translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: NUM

label: NET translator note

text: Heb “it was good in the eyes of the Lord .”


text: Heb “as time after time.”


text: 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.


text: 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.


text: Heb “living according to their tribes.”


text: Heb “and he took up his oracle and said.”


text: 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.


text: The Greek version reads “the one who sees truly.” The word has been interpreted in both ways, “shut” or “open.”


text: 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.


text: 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.


text: Here מָה ( mah ) has an exclamatory sense: “How!” (see Gen 28:17 ).


text: Heb “as valleys they spread forth.”


text: Or “rows of palms.”


label: NET textual note

text: For this colon the LXX has “a man shall come out of his seed.” Cf. the Syriac Peshitta and Targum.


text: Heb “many.”


text: Heb “they will devour nations,” their adversaries.


text: On the usage of this word see HALOT 517 s.v. לָבִיא .


text: The construction is emphatic, using the infinitive absolute with the perfect tense for “bless.”


text: Heb “flee to your place.”


text: Heb “I am not able to go beyond.”


text: Heb “mouth.”


text: Heb “from my heart.”


text: 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.”


text: Heb “in the latter days.” For more on this expression, see E. Lipinski, “ באחרית הימים dans les textes préexiliques,” VT 20 (1970): 445-50.


text: Heb “near.”


text: 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.”


text: The word is literally “corners,” but may refer to the corners of the head, and so “skull.”


text: The MT reads “shatter, devastate.” Smr reads קֹדְקֹד ( qodqod , “head; crown; pate”). Smr follows Jer 48:45 which appears to reflect Num 24:17 .


text: Or, understanding the Hebrew word for “city” as a place name, “of Ir” (cf. NRSV, NLT).


text: Heb “he”; the referent (Balaam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.


text: Heb “and he lifted up his oracle and said.” So also in vv. 21, 23 .


text: 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.


text: Because there is no parallel line, some have thought that it dropped out (see de Vaulx, Les Nombres , 296).


text: 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.


text: Or perhaps “Assyria” (so NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).


text: Or “it will end in utter destruction.”


text: Heb “place.”