Discovery BoxNumbers 4:19 
Context4:19 but in order that they will live 1 and not die when they approach the most holy things, do this for them: Aaron and his sons will go in and appoint 2 each man 3 to his service and his responsibility.
Numbers 14:40
Context14:40 And early 4 in the morning they went up to the crest of the hill country, 5 saying, “Here we are, and we will go up to the place that the Lord commanded, 6 for we have sinned.” 7
Numbers 20:19
Context20:19 Then the Israelites said to him, “We will go along the highway, and if we 8 or our cattle drink any of your water, we will pay for it. We will only pass through on our feet, without doing anything else.”
Numbers 22:20
Context22:20 God came to Balaam that night, and said to him, “If the men have come to call you, get up and go with them; but the word that I will say to you, that you must do.”
Numbers 22:34-35
Context22:34 Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood against me in the road. 9 So now, if it is evil in your sight, 10 I will go back home.” 11 22:35 But the angel of the Lord said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but you may only speak 12 the word that I will speak to you.” 13 So Balaam went with the princes of Balak.
Numbers 23:3
Context23:3 Balaam said to Balak, “Station yourself 14 by your burnt offering, and I will go off; perhaps the Lord will come to meet me, and whatever he reveals to me 15 I will tell you.” 16 Then he went to a deserted height. 17
Numbers 24:1
Context24:1 18 When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, 19 he did not go as at the other times 20 to seek for omens, 21 but he set his face 22 toward the wilderness.
Numbers 24:13-14
Context24:13 ‘If Balak would give me his palace full of silver and gold, I cannot go beyond 23 the commandment 24 of the Lord to do either good or evil of my own will, 25 but whatever the Lord tells me I must speak’? 24:14 And now, I am about to go 26 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.” 27
Numbers 32:17
Context32:17 but we will maintain ourselves in armed readiness 28 and go before the Israelites until whenever we have brought them to their place. Our descendants will be living in fortified towns as a protection against 29 the inhabitants of the land.
Numbers 34:4
Context34:4 and then the border will turn from the south to the Scorpion Ascent, 30 continue to Zin, and then its direction 31 will be from the south to Kadesh Barnea. Then it will go to Hazar Addar and pass over to Azmon.
1 tn The word order is different in the Hebrew text: Do this…and they will live. Consequently, the verb “and they will live” is a perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive to express the future consequence of “doing this” for them.
2 tn The perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive continues the instruction for Aaron.
3 tn The distributive sense is obtained by the repetition, “a man” and “a man.”
4 tn The verb וַיַּשְׁכִּמוּ (vayyashkimu) is often found in a verbal hendiadys construction: “They rose early…and they went up” means “they went up early.”
5 tn The Hebrew text says literally “the top of the hill,” but judging from the location and the terrain it probably means the heights of the hill country.
6 tn The verb is simply “said,” but it means the place that the
7 sn Their sin was unbelief. They could have gone and conquered the area if they had trusted the
8 tn The Hebrew text uses singular pronouns, “I” and “my,” but it is the people of Israel that are intended, and so it may be rendered in the plural. Similarly, Edom speaks in the first person, probably from the king. But it too could be rendered “we.”
9 sn Balaam is not here making a general confession of sin. What he is admitting to is a procedural mistake. The basic meaning of the word is “to miss the mark.” He now knows he took the wrong way, i.e., in coming to curse Israel.
10 sn The reference is to Balaam’s way. He is saying that if what he is doing is so perverse, so evil, he will turn around and go home. Of course, it did not appear that he had much of a chance of going forward.
11 tn The verb is the cohortative from “return”: I will return [me].
12 tn The imperfect tense here can be given the nuance of permission.
13 tn The Hebrew word order is a little more emphatic than this: “but only the word which I speak to you, it you shall speak.”
14 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.
15 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.
16 tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive. This clause is dependent on the clause that precedes it.
17 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.
18 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).
19 tn Heb “it was good in the eyes of the
20 tn Heb “as time after time.”
21 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.
22 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.
23 tn Heb “I am not able to go beyond.”
24 tn Heb “mouth.”
25 tn Heb “from my heart.”
26 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.”
27 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.
28 tn The MT has חֻשִׁים (khushim); the verbal root is חוּשׁ (khush, “to make haste” or “hurry”). But in light of the Greek and Latin Vulgate the Hebrew should probably be emended to חֲמֻשִׁים (hamushim), a qal passive participle meaning “in battle array.” See further BDB 301 s.v. I חוּשׁ, BDB 332 s.v. חֲמֻשִׁים; HALOT 300 s.v. I חושׁ, חישׁ; HALOT 331 s.v. I חמשׁ.
29 tn Heb “from before.”
30 tn Or “the Ascent of Scorpions” (עַקְרַבִּים [’aqrabbim] means “scorpions” in Hebrew).
31 tn Heb “its going forth,” or the way it runs.
