Bilangan 23:3

23:3 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 

Kejadian 30:27

30:27 But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, please stay here, ⁵  for I have learned by divination ⁶  that the Lord has blessed me on account of you.”

Bilangan 24:1

Balaam Prophesies Yet Again

24:1 ⁷ When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, ⁸  he did not go as at the other times ⁹  to seek for omens, ¹⁰  but he set his face ¹¹  toward the wilderness.

[23:3]  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.

[23:3]  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.

[23:3]  ³ tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive. This clause is dependent on the clause that precedes it.

[23:3]  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.

[30:27]  ⁵ tn The words “please stay here” have been supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.

[30:27]  ⁶ tn Or perhaps “I have grown rich and the Lord has blessed me” (cf. NEB). See J. Finkelstein, “An Old Babylonian Herding Contract and Genesis 31:38f.,” JAOS 88 (1968): 34, n. 19.

[24:1]  ⁷ 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).

[24:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “it was good in the eyes of the Lord.”

[24:1]  ⁹ tn Heb “as time after time.”

[24:1]  ¹⁰ 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.

[24:1]  ¹¹ 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.