Bilangan 14:35

14:35 I, the Lord, have said, “I will surely do so to all this evil congregation that has gathered together against me. In this wilderness they will be finished, and there they will die!”’”

Bilangan 24:1

Balaam Prophesies Yet Again

24:1 ¹ When Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, ²  he did not go as at the other times ³  to seek for omens, ⁴  but he set his face ⁵  toward the wilderness.

Bilangan 26:65

26:65 For the Lord had said of them, “They will surely die in the wilderness.” And there was not left a single man of them, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

Bilangan 35:2

35:2 “Instruct the Israelites to give ⁶  the Levites towns to live in from the inheritance the Israelites ⁷  will possess. You must also give the Levites grazing land around the towns.

[24:1]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “it was good in the eyes of the Lord.”

[24:1]  ³ tn Heb “as time after time.”

[24:1]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ 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.

[35:2]  ⁶ tn The verb is the perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive: “command…and they will give,” or “that they give.”

[35:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “they”; the referent (the Israelites) has been specified in the translation for clarity.