Numbers 24:14-25

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Numbers 24:14 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.”
2. Numbers 24:14 tn For “in future days,” see the note at Gen 49:1. For more on this expression, see E. Lipiński, “באחרית הימים dans les textes préexiliques,” VT 20 (1970): 445-50.
3. Numbers 24:15 tn Heb “and he took up his oracle and said.”
4. Numbers 24:17 tn Heb “near.”
5. Numbers 24:17 sn This is a figure for a king (see also Isa 14:12) not only in the Bible but in the ancient Near Eastern literature as a whole. The immediate reference of the prophecy seems to be to David, but the eschatological theme goes beyond him. There is to be a connection made between this passage and the sighting of a star in its ascendancy by the magi, who then traveled to Bethlehem to see the one born King of the Jews (Matt 2:2). The expression “son of a star” (Aram Bar Kochba) became a title for a later claimant to kingship, but he was doomed by the Romans in a.d. 135.
6. Numbers 24:17 tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive; it is equal to the imperfect expressing the future. The verb דָּרַךְ (darakh), related to the noun “way, road,” seems to mean something like “tread on, walk, march.”
7. Numbers 24:17 sn The “scepter” is metonymical for a king who will rise to power. NEB strangely rendered this as “comet” to make a parallel with “star.”
8. Numbers 24:17 tn The word is literally “corners,” but may refer to the corners of the head, and so “skull.”
9. Numbers 24:17 tc The MT reads “shatter, devastate.” Smr reads קֹדְקֹד (qodqod, “head; crown; pate”). Smr follows Jer 48:45 which appears to reflect Num 24:17.
10. Numbers 24:17 sn The prophecy begins to be fulfilled when David defeated Moab and Edom and established an empire including them. But the Messianic promise extends far beyond that to the end of the age and the inclusion of these defeated people in the program of the coming King.
11. Numbers 24:18 sn Seir is the chief mountain range of Edom (Deut 33:2), and so the reference here is to the general area of Edom.
12. Numbers 24:19 tn Or, understanding the Hebrew word for “city” as a place name, “of Ir” (cf. NRSV, NLT).
13. Numbers 24:20 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Balaam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
14. Numbers 24:20 tn Heb “and he lifted up his oracle and said.” So also in vv. 21, 23.
15. Numbers 24:20 sn This probably means that it held first place, or it thought that it was “the first of the nations.” It was not the first, either in order or greatness.
16. Numbers 24:21 sn A pun is made on the name Kenite by using the word “your nest” (קִנֶּךָ, qinnekha); the location may be the rocky cliffs overlooking Petra.
17. Numbers 24:22 tc Heb “Nevertheless Cain will be wasted; how long will Asshur take you captive?” Cain was believed to be the ancestor of the Kenites. The NAB has “yet destined for burning, even as I watch, are your inhabitants.” Asshur may refer to a north Arabian group of people of Abrahamic stock (Gen 25:3), and not the Assyrian empire.
18. Numbers 24:23 tc Because there is no parallel line, some have thought that it dropped out (see de Vaulx, Les Nombres, 296).
19. Numbers 24:24 tc The MT is difficult. The Kittim refers normally to Cyprus, or any maritime people to the west. W. F. Albright proposed emending the line to “islands will gather in the north, ships from the distant sea” (“The Oracles of Balaam,” JBL 63 [1944]: 222-23). Some commentators accept that reading as the original state of the text, since the present MT makes little sense.
20. Numbers 24:24 tn Or perhaps “Assyria” (so NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).
21. Numbers 24:24 tn Or “it will end in utter destruction.”
22. Numbers 24:25 tn Heb “place.”