Bilangan 4:18

4:18 “Do not allow the tribe of the families of the Kohathites to be cut off ¹  from among the Levites;

Bilangan 24:22

24:22 Nevertheless the Kenite will be consumed. ² 

How long will Asshur take you away captive?”

Bilangan 24:24

24:24 Ships will come from the coast of Kittim, ³ 

and will afflict Asshur, ⁴  and will afflict Eber,

and he will also perish forever.” ⁵ 

Bilangan 24:20

Balaam’s Final Prophecies

24:20 Then Balaam ⁶  looked on Amalek and delivered this oracle: ⁷ 

“Amalek was the first ⁸  of the nations,

but his end will be that he will perish.”

Bilangan 32:15

32:15 For if you turn away from following him, he will once again abandon ⁹  them in the wilderness, and you will be the reason for their destruction.” ¹⁰ 

Bilangan 33:52

33:52 you must drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images, all their molten images, ¹¹  and demolish their high places.

[4:18]  ¹ sn The verb is simply the Qal, “do not cut off.” The context calls for a permissive nuance – “do not let them be cut off.” It was a difficult task to be handling the holy things correctly; Moses and Aaron were to see to it that they did it right and did not handle the objects, that is, Moses and Aaron were to safeguard their lives by making certain that proper procedures were followed.

[24:22]  ² 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.

[24:24]  ³ 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.

[24:24]  ⁴ tn Or perhaps “Assyria” (so NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[24:24]  ⁵ tn Or “it will end in utter destruction.”

[24:20]  ⁶ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Balaam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:20]  ⁷ tn Heb “and he lifted up his oracle and said.” So also in vv. 21, 23.

[24:20]  ⁸ 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.

[32:15]  ⁹ tn The construction uses a verbal hendiadys with the verb “to add” serving to modify the main verb.

[32:15]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and you will destroy all this people.”

[33:52]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew text repeats the verb “you will destroy.”