Bilangan 11:18
Konteks11:18 “And say to the people, ‘Sanctify yourselves 1 for tomorrow, and you will eat meat, for you have wept in the hearing 2 of the Lord, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat, 3 for life 4 was good for us in Egypt?” Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat.
Bilangan 24:1
Konteks24:1 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.
[11:18] 1 tn The Hitpael is used to stress that they are to prepare for a holy appearance. The day was going to be special and so required their being set apart for it. But it is a holy day in the sense of the judgment that was to follow.
[11:18] 2 tn Heb “in the ears.”
[11:18] 3 tn Possibly this could be given an optative translation, to reflect the earlier one: “O that someone would give….” But the verb is not the same; here it is the Hiphil of the verb “to eat” – “who will make us eat” (i.e., provide meat for us to eat).
[11:18] 4 tn The word “life” is not in the text. The expression is simply “it was for us,” or “we had good,” meaning “we had it good,” or “life was good.”
[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
[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.
