Ulangan 23:4

23:4 for they did not meet you with food and water on the way as you came from Egypt, and furthermore, they hired ¹  Balaam son of Beor of Pethor in Aram Naharaim to curse you.

Yosua 13:22

13:22 The Israelites killed Balaam son of Beor, the omen reader, ²  along with the others. ³ 

Yosua 24:9

24:9 Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, launched an attack ⁴  against Israel. He summoned ⁵  Balaam son of Beor to call down judgment ⁶  on you.

Nehemia 13:1-2

Further Reforms by Nehemiah

13:1 On that day the book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing ⁷  of the people. They found ⁸  written in it that no Ammonite or Moabite may ever enter the assembly of God, 13:2 for they had not met the Israelites with food ⁹  and water, but instead had hired Balaam to curse them. (Our God, however, turned the curse into blessing.)

Mikha 6:5

6:5 My people, recall how King Balak of Moab planned to harm you, ¹⁰ 

how Balaam son of Beor responded to him.

Recall how you journeyed from Shittim to Gilgal,

so you might acknowledge that the Lord has treated you fairly.” ¹¹ 

Mikha 6:2

6:2 Hear the Lord’s accusation, you mountains,

you enduring foundations of the earth!

For the Lord has a case against his people;

he has a dispute with Israel! ¹² 

Pengkhotbah 2:15-16

2:15 So I thought to myself, “The fate of the fool will happen even to me! ¹³ 

Then what did I gain by becoming so excessively ¹⁴  wise?” ¹⁵ 

So I lamented to myself, ¹⁶ 

“The benefits of wisdom ¹⁷  are ultimately ¹⁸  meaningless!”

2:16 For the wise man, like ¹⁹  the fool, will not be remembered for very long, ²⁰ 

because ²¹  in the days to come, both will already have been forgotten. ²² 

Alas, ²³  the wise man dies – just like ²⁴  the fool!

[23:4]  ¹ tn Heb “hired against you.”

[13:22]  ² tn Or “diviner.”

[13:22]  ³ tn Heb “Balaam son of Beor, the omen-reader, the Israelites killed with the sword, along with their slain ones.”

[24:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “arose and fought.”

[24:9]  ⁵ tn Heb “sent and called.”

[24:9]  ⁶ tn Or “to curse.”

[13:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “ears.”

[13:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “it was found.” The Hebrew verb is passive.

[13:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “bread.” The Hebrew term is generic here, however, referring to more than bread alone.

[6:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “remember what Balak…planned.”

[6:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “From Shittim to Gilgal, in order to know the just acts of the Lord.” Something appears to be missing at the beginning of the line. The present translation supplies the words, “Recall how you went.” This apparently refers to how Israel crossed the Jordan River (see Josh 3:1; 4:19-24).

[6:2]  ¹² tn This verse briefly interrupts the Lord’s statement (see vv. 1, 3) as the prophet summons the mountains as witnesses. Because of this v. 2 has been placed in parentheses in the translation.

[2:15]  ¹³ tn The emphatic use of the 1st person common singular personal pronoun אֲנִי (’ani, “me”) with the emphatic particle of association גַּם (gam, “even, as well as”; HALOT 195–96 s.v. גַּם) appears to emphasize the 1st person common singular suffix on יִקְרֵנִי (yiqreni) “it will befall [or “happen to”] me” (Qal imperfect 3rd person masculine singular + 1st person common singular suffix from קָרָה, qarah, “to befall; to happen to”); see GKC 438 §135.e. Qoheleth laments not that the fate of the wise man is the same as that of the fool, but that even he himself – the wisest man of all – would fare no better in the end than the most foolish.

[2:15]  ¹⁴ tn The adjective יוֹתֵר (yoter) means “too much; excessive,” e.g., 7:16 “excessively righteous” (HALOT 404 s.v. יוֹתֵר 2; BDB 452 s.v. יוֹתֵר). It is derived from the root יֶתֶר (yeter, “what is left over”); see HALOT 452 s.v. I יֶתֶר. It is related to the verbal root יתר (Niphal “to be left over”; Hiphil “to have left over”); see HALOT 451–52 s.v. I יתר. The adjective is related to יִתְרוֹן (yitron, “advantage; profit”) which is a key-term in this section, creating a word-play: The wise man has a relative “advantage” (יִתְרוֹן) over the fool (2:13-14a); however, there is no ultimate advantage because both share the same fate, i.e., death (2:14b-15a). Thus, Qoheleth’s acquisition of tremendous wisdom (1:16; 2:9) was “excessive” because it exceeded its relative advantage over folly: it could not deliver him from the same fate as the fool. He had striven to obtain wisdom, yet it held no ultimate advantage.

[2:15]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “And why was I wise (to) excess?” The rhetorical question is an example of negative affirmation, expecting a negative answer: “I gained nothing!” (E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 949).

[2:15]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “So I said in my heart.”

[2:15]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “and also this,” referring to the relative advantage of wisdom over folly.

[2:15]  ¹⁸ tn The word “ultimately” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[2:16]  ¹⁹ tn The preposition עִם (’im, “with”) may occasionally function in a comparative sense, meaning “together with; even as; like” (e.g., Eccl 1:11; 2:16; 7:11; Job 9:26; 1 Chr 14:10: 20:6; 25:8; see HALOT 839 s.v. עִם 2). When used to describe a common lot, it connotes “together with” (Gen 18:23, 25; 1 Chr 24:5; Job 3:14, 15; 30:1; Pss 26:9; 28:3; 69:29; Isa 38:11), hence “like” (Pss 73:5; 106:6; Eccl 2:16; see BDB 767–68 s.v. עִם 1.e).

[2:16]  ²⁰ tn As HALOT 798–99 s.v. עוֹלָם and BDB 762-64 s.v. עוֹלָם note, עוֹלָם (’olam) has a wide range of meanings: (1) indefinite time: “long time; duration,” (2) unlimited time: “eternal; eternity,” (3) future time: “things to come,” and (4) past time: “a long time back,” that is, the dark age of prehistory. The context here suggests the nuance “a long time.”

[2:16]  ²¹ tn The preposition בְּ (bet) on בְּשֶׁכְּבָר (bÿshekkÿvar, the adverb כְּבָר [kÿvar,“already”] + relative pronoun שֶׁ [she] + preposition בְּ) is probably best classified as causal: “Because…already.”

[2:16]  ²² tn The verb נִשְׁכָּח (nishkakh) is a future perfect – it describes an event that is portrayed as a past event from the perspective of the future: “they will have been forgotten.” The emphasis of the past perfect is not simply that the future generations will begin to forget him, but that he will already have been forgotten long ago in the past by the time of those future generations. This past perfect situation is brought out by the emphatic use of the temporal adverb כְּבָר (kÿvar) “already” (HALOT 459 s.v. I כְּבָר; BDB 460 s.v. I כְּבָר); see, e.g., Eccl 1:10; 2:12, 16; 3:15; 4:2; 6:10; 9:6-7.

[2:16]  ²³ tn The particle אֵיךְ (’ekh, “Alas!”) is an exclamation of lamentation and mourning (e.g., 2 Sam 1:19; Isa 14:4, 12; Jer 2:21; 9:18; Ezek 26:17; Mic 2:4); see HALOT 39 s.v. אֵיךְ 5; BDB 32 s.v. אֵיךְ 2; also E. W. Bullinger, Figures of Speech, 955.

[2:16]  ²⁴ tn The preposition עִם (’im, “with”) may occasionally function in a comparative sense, meaning “together with; even as; like” (e.g., Eccl 1:11; 2:16; 7:11; Job 9:26; 1 Chr 14:10: 20:6; 25:8); see HALOT 839 s.v. עִם 2. When used to describe a common lot, it connotes “together with” (Gen 18:23, 25; 1 Chr 24:5; Job 3:14, 15; 30:1; Ps 26:9; 28:3; 69:29; Isa 38:11), hence “like” (Pss 73:5; 106:6; Eccl 2:16); see BDB 767–68 s.v. עִם 1.e.