Bilangan 24:14

24:14 And now, I am about to go ¹  back to my own people. Come now, and I will advise you as to what this people will do to your people in the future.” ² 

Bilangan 25:1-3

Israel’s Sin with the Moabite Women

25:1 ³ When ⁴  Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to commit sexual immorality ⁵  with the daughters of Moab. 25:2 These women invited ⁶  the people to the sacrifices of their gods; then the people ate and bowed down to their gods. ⁷  25:3 When Israel joined themselves to Baal-peor, ⁸  the anger of the Lord flared up against Israel.

Bilangan 31:8

31:8 They killed the kings of Midian in addition to those slain – Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba – five Midianite kings. ⁹  They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword. ¹⁰ 

Bilangan 31:16

31:16 Look, these people through the counsel of Balaam caused the Israelites to act treacherously against the Lord in the matter of Peor – which resulted in the plague among the community of the Lord!

Yosua 24:9

24:9 Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, launched an attack ¹¹  against Israel. He summoned ¹²  Balaam son of Beor to call down judgment ¹³  on you.

Yosua 24:2

24:2 Joshua told all the people, “Here is what the Lord God of Israel says: ‘In the distant past your ancestors ¹⁴  lived beyond the Euphrates River, ¹⁵  including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor. They worshiped ¹⁶  other gods,

Pengkhotbah 2:15

2:15 So I thought to myself, “The fate of the fool will happen even to me! ¹⁷ 

Then what did I gain by becoming so excessively ¹⁸  wise?” ¹⁹ 

So I lamented to myself, ²⁰ 

“The benefits of wisdom ²¹  are ultimately ²²  meaningless!”

Yudas 1:11

1:11 Woe to them! For they have traveled down Cain’s path, ²³  and because of greed ²⁴  have abandoned themselves ²⁵  to ²⁶  Balaam’s error; hence, ²⁷  they will certainly perish ²⁸  in Korah’s rebellion.

[24:14]  ¹ tn The construction is the particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) suffixed followed by the active participle. This is the futur instans use of the participle, to express something that is about to happen: “I am about to go.”

[24:14]  ² tn Heb “in the latter days.” For more on this expression, see E. Lipinski, “באחרית הימים dans les textes préexiliques,” VT 20 (1970): 445-50.

[25:1]  ³ sn Chapter 25 tells of Israel’s sins on the steppes of Moab, and God’s punishment. In the overall plan of the book, here we have another possible threat to God’s program, although here it comes from within the camp (Balaam was the threat from without). If the Moabites could not defeat them one way, they would try another. The chapter has three parts: fornication (vv. 1-3), God’s punishment (vv. 4-9), and aftermath (vv. 10-18). See further G. E. Mendenhall, The Tenth Generation, 105-21; and S. C. Reif, “What Enraged Phinehas? A Study of Numbers 25:8,” JBL 90 (1971): 200-206.

[25:1]  ⁴ tn This first preterite is subordinated to the next as a temporal clause; it is not giving a parallel action, but the setting for the event.

[25:1]  ⁵ sn The account apparently means that the men were having sex with the Moabite women. Why the men submitted to such a temptation at this point is hard to say. It may be that as military heroes the men took liberties with the women of occupied territories.

[25:2]  ⁶ tn The verb simply says “they called,” but it is a feminine plural. And so the women who engaged in immoral acts with Hebrew men invited them to their temple ritual.

[25:2]  ⁷ sn What Israel experienced here was some of the debased ritual practices of the Canaanite people. The act of prostrating themselves before the pagan deities was probably participation in a fertility ritual, nothing short of cultic prostitution. This was a blatant disregard of the covenant and the Law. If something were not done, the nation would have destroyed itself.

[25:3]  ⁸ tn The verb is “yoked” to Baal-peor. The word is unusual, and may suggest the physical, ritual participation described below. It certainly shows that they acknowledge the reality of the local god.

[25:3]  sn The evidence indicates that Moab was part of the very corrupt Canaanite world, a world that was given over to the fertility ritual of the times.

[31:8]  ⁹ sn Here again we see that there was no unified empire, but Midianite tribal groups.

[31:8]  ¹⁰ sn And what was Balaam doing among the Midianites? The implication is strong. This pagan diviner had to submit to the revealed will of God in the oracles, but he nonetheless could be hired. He had been a part of the attempt to destroy Israel that failed; he then apparently became part of the plan, if not the adviser, to destroy them with sexual immorality and pagan ritual.

[24:9]  ¹¹ tn Heb “arose and fought.”

[24:9]  ¹² tn Heb “sent and called.”

[24:9]  ¹³ tn Or “to curse.”

[24:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “your fathers.”

[24:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “the river,” referring to the Euphrates. This has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[24:2]  ¹⁶ tn Or “served.”

[2:15]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ 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]  ²⁰ tn Heb “So I said in my heart.”

[2:15]  ²¹ tn Heb “and also this,” referring to the relative advantage of wisdom over folly.

[2:15]  ²² tn The word “ultimately” does not appear in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[1:11]  ²³ tn Or “they have gone the way of Cain.”

[1:11]  ²⁴ tn Grk “for wages.”

[1:11]  ²⁵ tn The verb ἐκχέω (ekcew) normally means “pour out.” Here, in the passive, it occasionally has a reflexive idea, as BDAG 312 s.v. 3. suggests (with extra-biblical examples).

[1:11]  ²⁶ tn Or “in.”

[1:11]  ²⁷ tn Grk “and.” See note on “perish” later in this verse.

[1:11]  ²⁸ tn The three verbs in this verse are all aorist indicative (“have gone down,” “have abandoned,” “have perished”). Although the first and second could be considered constative or ingressive, the last is almost surely proleptic (referring to the certainty of their future judgment). Although it may seem odd that a proleptic aorist is so casually connected to other aorists with a different syntactical force, it is not unparalleled (cf. Rom 8:30).