Bilangan 24:7

24:7 He will pour the water out of his buckets, ¹ 

and their descendants will be like abundant ²  water; ³ 

their king will be greater than Agag, ⁴ 

and their kingdom will be exalted.

Bilangan 24:1

Balaam Prophesies Yet Again

24:1 ⁵ When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, ⁶  he did not go as at the other times ⁷  to seek for omens, ⁸  but he set his face ⁹  toward the wilderness.

1 Samuel 15:8

15:8 He captured King Agag of the Amalekites alive, but he executed all Agag’s people ¹⁰  with the sword.

1 Samuel 15:32

Samuel Puts Agag to Death

15:32 Then Samuel said, “Bring me King Agag of the Amalekites.” So Agag came to him trembling, ¹¹  thinking to himself, ¹²  “Surely death is bitter!” ¹³ 

1 Samuel 15:1

Saul Is Rejected as King

15:1 Then Samuel said to Saul, “I was the one the Lord sent to anoint you as king over his people Israel. Now listen to what the Lord says. ¹⁴ 

1 Tawarikh 4:43

4:43 and defeated the rest of the Amalekite refugees; ¹⁵  they live there to this very day.

Ester 3:1

Haman Conspires to Destroy the Jews

3:1 Some time later ¹⁶  King Ahasuerus promoted ¹⁷  Haman the son of Hammedatha, the Agagite, exalting him and setting his position ¹⁸  above that of all the officials who were with him.

[24:7]  ¹ tc For this colon the LXX has “a man shall come out of his seed.” Cf. the Syriac Peshitta and Targum.

[24:7]  ² tn Heb “many.”

[24:7]  ³ sn These two lines are difficult, but the general sense is that of irrigation buckets and a well-watered land. The point is that Israel will be prosperous and fruitful.

[24:7]  ⁴ sn Many commentators see this as a reference to Agag of 1 Sam 15:32-33, the Amalekite king slain by Samuel, for that is the one we know. But that is by no means clear, for this text does not identify this Agag. If it is that king, then this poem, or this line in this poem, would have to be later, unless one were to try to argue for a specific prophecy. Whoever this Agag is, he is a symbol of power.

[24:1]  ⁵ 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]  ⁶ tn Heb “it was good in the eyes of the Lord.”

[24:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “as time after time.”

[24:1]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ 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.

[15:8]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “all the people.” For clarity “Agag’s” has been supplied in the translation.

[15:32]  ¹¹ tn The MT reading מַעֲדַנֹּת (ma’adannot, literally, “bonds,” used here adverbially, “in bonds”) is difficult. The word is found only here and in Job 38:31. Part of the problem lies in determining the root of the word. Some scholars have taken it to be from the root ענד (’nd, “to bind around”), but this assumes a metathesis of two of the letters of the root. Others take it from the root עדן (’dn) with the meaning “voluptuously,” but this does not seem to fit the context. It seems better to understand the word to be from the root מעד (m’d, “to totter” or “shake”). In that case it describes the fear that Agag experienced in realizing the mortal danger that he faced as he approached Samuel. This is the way that the LXX translators understood the word, rendering it by the Greek participle τρέμον (tremon, “trembling”).

[15:32]  ¹² tn Heb “and Agag said.”

[15:32]  ¹³ tc The text is difficult here. With the LXX, two Old Latin mss, and the Syriac Peshitta it is probably preferable to delete סָר (sar, “is past”) of the MT; it looks suspiciously like a dittograph of the following word מַר (mar, “bitter”). This further affects the interpretation of Agag’s comment. In the MT he comes to Samuel confidently assured that the danger is over (cf. KJV, NASB, NIV “Surely the bitterness of death is past,” along with NLT, CEV). However, it seems more likely that Agag realized that his fortunes had suddenly taken a turn for the worse and that the clemency he had enjoyed from Saul would not be his lot from Samuel. The present translation thus understands Agag to approach not confidently but in the stark realization that his death is imminent (“Surely death is bitter!”). Cf. NAB “So it is bitter death!”; NRSV “Surely this is the bitterness of death”; TEV “What a bitter thing it is to die!”

[15:1]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “to the voice of the words of the Lord” (so KJV).

[4:43]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and struck down the remnant that had escaped belonging to Amalek.”

[3:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “after these things” (so KJV, ASV); NAB, NASB, NIV “After these events.”

[3:1]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “made great”; NAB “raised…to high rank”; NIV “honored.”

[3:1]  sn The promotion of Haman in 3:1 for reasons unexplained contrasts noticeably with 2:19-23, where Mordecai’s contribution to saving the king’s life goes unnoticed. The irony is striking.

[3:1]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “chair”; KJV, NRSV “seat”; NASB “established his authority.”