¹ tn Heb “he added to beat her,” another verbal hendiadys.

² 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).

³ tn Heb “it was good in the eyes of the Lord.”

⁴ tn Heb “as time after time.”

⁵ 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.

⁶ 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.

⁷ tn The preterite with vav (ו) consecutive is here subordinated to the parallel yet chronologically later verb in the next clause.

⁸ tn The infinitive construct here with lamed (ל) is functioning as a result clause.

⁹ tn The Lord had not given it yet, but was going to give it. Hence, the perfect should be classified as a perfect of resolve.