Numbers 23:6-8 New English Translation
6 So he returned to him, and he was still[a] standing by his burnt offering, he and all the princes of Moab. 7 Then Balaam[b] uttered[c] his oracle, saying,
“Balak, the king of Moab, brought me[d] from Aram,
out of the mountains of the east, saying,
‘Come, pronounce a curse on Jacob for me;
come, denounce Israel.’[e]
8 How[f] can I curse[g] one whom God has not cursed,
or how can I denounce one whom the Lord has not denounced?
Footnotes
- Numbers 23:6 tn The Hebrew text draws the vividness of the scene with the deictic particle הִנֵּה (hinneh)—Balaam returned, and there he was, standing there.
- Numbers 23:7 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Balaam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Numbers 23:7 tn Heb “took up.”
- Numbers 23:7 tn The passage calls for a past tense translation; since the verb form is a prefixed conjugation, this tense should be classified as a preterite without the vav (ו). Such forms do occur, especially in the ancient poetic passages.
- Numbers 23:7 sn The opening lines seem to be a formula for the seer to identify himself and the occasion for the oracle. The tension is laid out early; Balaam knows that God has intended to bless Israel, but he has been paid to curse them.
- Numbers 23:8 tn The figure is erotesis, a rhetorical question. He is actually saying he cannot curse them because God has not cursed them.
- Numbers 23:8 tn The imperfect tense should here be classified as a potential imperfect.
New English Translation (NET)
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