³ tn Heb “They say about them.” Another possible rendering for the line is: “It is said of them—those men who sacrifice, ‘They kiss calves!’” The phrase זֹבְחֵי אָדָם (zovkhe ʾadam, “those men who sacrifice”) functions either (1) as the subject of the verb יִשָּׁקוּן (yishaqun, “they kiss”) in the quotation in the direct discourse: “It is said of them, ‘Those men who sacrifice kiss calves!’” or (2) in apposition to the indirect object third person masculine plural suffix לָהֶם (lahem, “about them”): “It is said of them, that is, those men who sacrifice….”

² tn Heb “they go out to seek the Lord”; cf. NCV “to worship the Lord,” NLT “to offer sacrifices to the Lord.”

¹ tn The phrase “they sacrifice” is not repeated in the Hebrew text here but is implied by parallelism; it is provided in the translation for the sake of clarity.

² tn Heb “and on the mountains they eat within you.” The mountains mentioned here were the site of pagan sacrifices. See 18:6.

¹ sn The sacrifice of children was prohibited in Lev 18:21; 20:2; Deut 12:31; 18:10.

² tn Heb “one who sacrifices a lamb, one who breaks a dog’s neck.” Some understand a comparison, but see the previous note.

² sn The point is that not even the Lebanon forest could supply enough wood and animals for an adequate sacrifice to the Lord.

³ tn Heb “ones who cause [sacrifices] to go up in smoke.” The Hiphil form of קָטַר (qatar) can refer specifically to offering incense (e.g. 2 Chr 26:19; 32:12), but it may also be a general word for making sacrifices (e.g. 1 Chr 6:49). If it refers to burning incense, then the altar of incense in the Holy place of the tabernacle may be in view. Otherwise it is more general (they sacrifice animals later in this chapter, 2 Chr 29:21-24) and includes making sacrifices as well as offering incense.

² tn Heb “to hold the burnt sacrifice, the grain offering, and the fat portions.” Because this is redundant, the translation employs a summary phrase: “all these offerings.”

³ tn Heb “and he offered up [sacrifices] on the altar; he did this in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves which he had made.”

¹ sn The understanding is that Balak was making a sacrifice for a covenant relationship, and so he gave some of the meat to the men and to the seer.

² tn The imperative is from the verb “to do; to make,” but in the sentence it clearly means to sacrifice the animals.

³ tn Heb “which is under the peace offering.” The verse does not mean that the hair had to be put under that sacrifice and directly on the fire.

³ tn The burnt offering (Lev 1) reflects the essence of atonement: By this sacrifice the worshiper was completely surrendering to God, and God was completely accepting the worshiper.

² sn The idea of “service” is maintenance and care of the sanctuary and its service, meaning the morning and evening sacrifices and the other elements to be used.

¹ tn The article on this word identifies this as the altar, meaning the main high altar on which the sacrifices would be made.

³ tn The form is the perfect tense with a vav (ו) consecutive; it follows in the sequence: we must go…and then [must] sacrifice.”

¹ tn Heb “And it happened at the end of days.” The clause indicates the passing of a set period of time leading up to offering sacrifices.

² tn BDAG 524 s.v. καταπαύω 2.b gives both “restrain” and “dissuade someone fr. someth.,” but “they scarcely dissuaded the crowds from offering sacrifice,” while accurate, is less common in contemporary English than saying “they scarcely persuaded the crowds not to offer sacrifice.” Paganism is portrayed as a powerful reality that is hard to reverse.

² sn Jesus looked to a celebration in the kingdom to come when the Passover is fulfilled. This reference could well suggest that some type of commemorative sacrifice and meal will be celebrated then, as the antecedent is the Passover sacrifice. The reference is not to the Lord’s supper as some argue, but the Passover.