23:4 Then God met Balaam, who 8 said to him, “I have prepared seven altars, and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.”
23:23 For there is no spell against 9 Jacob,
nor is there any divination against Israel.
At this time 10 it must be said 11 of Jacob
and of Israel, ‘Look at 12 what God has done!’
23:27 Balak said to Balaam, “Come, please; I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God 13 to let you curse them for me from there.” 14
1 tn The vav (ו) conjunction at the beginning of the clause specifies the cases of corpses that are to be avoided, no matter how painful it might be.
2 tn The construction uses the infinitive construct with the preposition and the suffixed subjective genitive – “in the dying of them” – to form the adverbial clause of time.
sn The Nazirite would defile himself, i.e., ruin his vow, by contacting their corpses. Jesus’ hard saying in Matt 8:22, “let the dead bury their own dead,” makes sense in the light of this passage – Jesus was calling for commitment to himself.
3 tn The word “separation” here is metonymy of adjunct – what is on his head is long hair that goes with the vow.
4 tn The genitive could perhaps be interpreted as possession, i.e., “the vow of his God,” but it seems more likely that an objective genitive would be more to the point.
5 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?”
6 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.
7 tn The imperfect tense is here taken as an obligatory imperfect.
8 tn The relative pronoun is added here in place of the conjunction to clarify that Balaam is speaking to God and not vice versa.
9 tn Or “in Jacob.” But given the context the meaning “against” is preferable. The words describe two techniques of consulting God; the first has to do with observing omens in general (“enchantments”), and the second with casting lots or arrows of the like (“divinations” [Ezek 21:26]). See N. H. Snaith, Leviticus and Numbers (NCB), 295-96.
10 tn The form is the preposition “like, as” and the word for “time” – according to the time, about this time, now.
11 tn The Niphal imperfect here carries the nuance of obligation – one has to say in amazement that God has done something marvelous or “it must be said.”
12 tn The words “look at” are not in the Hebrew text but have been added in the translation for clarity.
13 tn Heb “be pleasing in the eyes of God.”
14 sn Balak is stubborn, as indeed Balaam is persistent. But Balak still thinks that if another location were used it just might work. Balaam had actually told Balak in the prophecy that other attempts would fail. But Balak refuses to give up so easily. So he insists they perform the ritual and try again. This time, however, Balaam will change his approach, and this will result in a dramatic outpouring of power on him.
15 tn Heb “living according to their tribes.”
16 tn The motif is reiterated here. Phinehas was passionately determined to maintain the rights of his God by stopping the gross sinful perversions.
17 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.