Discovery BoxNumbers 23:3 
Context23:3 Balaam said to Balak, “Station yourself 1 by your burnt offering, and I will go off; perhaps the Lord will come to meet me, and whatever he reveals to me 2 I will tell you.” 3 Then he went to a deserted height. 4
Numbers 23:13-15
Context23:13 Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from which you can observe them. You will see only a part of them, but you will not see all of them. Curse them for me from there.”
23:14 So Balak brought Balaam 5 to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, 6 where 7 he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 23:15 And Balaam 8 said to Balak, “Station yourself here 9 by your burnt offering, while I meet the Lord there.
Numbers 23:19
Context23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie,
nor a human being, 10 that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not make it happen? 11
Numbers 23:23
Context23:23 For there is no spell against 12 Jacob,
nor is there any divination against Israel.
At this time 13 it must be said 14 of Jacob
and of Israel, ‘Look at 15 what God has done!’
1 tn The verb הִתְיַצֵּב (hityatsev) means “to take a stand, station oneself.” It is more intentional than simply standing by something. He was to position himself by the sacrifice as Balaam withdrew to seek the oracle.
2 tn Heb “and the word of what he shows me.” The noun is in construct, and so the clause that follows functions as a noun clause in the genitive. The point is that the word will consist of divine revelation.
3 tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive. This clause is dependent on the clause that precedes it.
4 sn He went up to a bald spot, to a barren height. The statement underscores the general belief that such tops were the closest things to the gods. On such heights people built their shrines and temples.
5 tn Heb “he brought him”; the referents (Balak and Balaam) have been specified in the translation for clarity.
6 tn Some scholars do not translate this word as “Pisgah,” but rather as a “lookout post” or an “elevated place.”
7 tn Heb “and he built.”
8 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Balaam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
9 tn The verse uses כֹּה (koh) twice: “Station yourself here…I will meet [the
10 tn Heb “son of man.”
11 tn The verb is the Hiphil of קוּם (qum, “to cause to rise; to make stand”). The meaning here is more of the sense of fulfilling the promises made.
12 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.
13 tn The form is the preposition “like, as” and the word for “time” – according to the time, about this time, now.
14 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.”
15 tn The words “look at” are not in the Hebrew text but have been added in the translation for clarity.
