Numbers 23 — Hebrew and Greek compared
↠Numbers 22 compared · Reading text of Numbers 23 · Numbers: all chapters · Numbers 24 compared →
Same 3 Similar 2 Different 16 Divergent 2 Disparate 7
Disparate in this chapter: 23:3, 23:7, 23:10, 23:19, 23:20, 23:21, 23:23
Each verse is rendered independently from the Hebrew (Rabbinic reading tradition) and from the Greek (Saints reading tradition). The badge classifies the relationship between the two readings; the note beneath records the source document’s comparison and attributed interpretation. Each column retains its own verse references where numbering differs.
The First Oracle
23:1 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:1 Balaam said to Balak: Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.
Greek · Saints priority
23:1 Balaam said to Balak: Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven calves and seven rams for me here.
Bulls / calves. Greek bÅmoi names these altars, rather than the sanctuary's usual thysiastÄ“rion.
23:2 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:2 Balak did as Balaam said, and Balak and Balaam offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
Greek · Saints priority
23:2 Balak did as Balaam told him, and he offered a calf and a ram on each altar.
Hebrew names both Balak and Balaam as offerers; Greek has a singular unnamed agent.
23:3 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:3 Balaam said to Balak: Stand beside your burnt offering, while I go. Perhaps YHWH will meet me; whatever He shows me, I will tell you. He went to a bare height.
Greek · Saints priority
23:3 Balaam said to Balak: Stand beside your sacrifice, while I go to see whether God will appear to meet me. Whatever He shows me, I will tell you. Balak stood beside his sacrifice, and Balaam went to inquire of God; he went straight on.
Greek expands Balak's compliance and Balaam's inquiry. Hebrew's difficult shephi is rendered a bare height; Greek has straight movement. Burnt offering / sacrifice and YHWH / God also differ.
23:4 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:4 God met Balaam, and Balaam said to Him: I have arranged the seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
Greek · Saints priority
23:4 God appeared to Balaam, and Balaam said to Him: I have prepared the seven altars and offered a calf and a ram on each altar.
Met / appeared; bulls / calves.
23:5 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:5 YHWH put a word in Balaam's mouth and said: Return to Balak and speak thus.
Greek · Saints priority
23:5 God put a word in Balaam's mouth and said: Return to Balak and speak thus.
YHWH / God; the imparted speech agrees.
23:6 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:6 He returned to him, and there he stood beside his burnt offering, with all the officials of Moab.
Greek · Saints priority
23:6 He returned to him, and there he stood beside his whole burnt offerings, with all the officials of Moab.
Singular burnt offering / plural whole burnt offerings.
23:7 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:7 He took up his oracle and said: Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains: Come, curse Jacob for me; come, denounce Israel.
Greek · Saints priority
23:7 God's Spirit came upon him, and he took up his parable and said: Balak summoned me from Mesopotamia, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains: Come, curse Jacob for me; come, call down a curse on Israel for me.
Greek adds the Spirit's coming upon Balaam, absent here in Hebrew; both have the Spirit at 24:2. Aram / Mesopotamia also differs in geographic specificity.
23:8 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:8 How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce whom YHWH has not denounced?
Greek · Saints priority
23:8 Why should I curse whom the Lord does not curse? Why should I call down a curse on whom God does not curse?
The divine designations reverse order: God–YHWH / Lord–God. Greek repeats curse language where Hebrew distinguishes cursing and denunciation.
23:9 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:9 From the tops of rocks I see them, and from the hills I behold them. Look, a people dwelling alone, not reckoned among the nations.
Greek · Saints priority
23:9 From the tops of mountains I shall see them, and from the hills I shall observe them. Look, a people who will dwell alone, not counted among the nations.
Rocks / mountains and present vision / future vision; the people's distinct status agrees.
23:10 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:10 Who can count the dust of Jacob, or number even a fourth of Israel? Let me die the death of the upright, and let my end be like theirs!
Greek · Saints priority
23:10 Who has measured Jacob's offspring exactly, and who will count Israel's clans? May I die among righteous souls, and may my offspring be like their offspring!
Dust and a fourth / offspring and clans. The Hebrew wish concerns Balaam's end; Greek explicitly concerns his descendants in the final line.
23:11 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:11 Balak said to Balaam: What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, and look, you have thoroughly blessed them!
Greek · Saints priority
23:11 Balak said to Balaam: What have you done to me? I summoned you to curse my enemies, and look, you have pronounced a blessing!
23:12 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:12 He answered: Must I not take care to speak what YHWH puts in my mouth?
Greek · Saints priority
23:12 Balaam said to Balak: Must I not take care to speak what God puts in my mouth?
YHWH / God; Greek explicitly names both speakers.
The Second Oracle
23:13 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:13 Balak said to him: Please come with me to another place from which you can see them. You will see only their outer part, not all of them. Curse them for me from there.
Greek · Saints priority
23:13 Balak said to him: Come with me to another place, from which you will not see them except for a part; you will certainly not see them all. Curse them for me from there.
Greek begins with a negative before qualifying it with partial sight; both describe a restricted view.
23:14 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:14 He took him to the field of Zophim, to the summit of Pisgah, built seven altars, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
Greek · Saints priority
23:14 He took him to a lookout in a field, to the summit of the Hewn Height, built seven altars there, and offered a calf and a ram on each altar.
Zophim and Pisgah / descriptive lookout and Hewn Height; bull / calf.
23:15 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:15 He said to Balak: Stand here beside your burnt offering, while I seek an encounter over there.
Greek · Saints priority
23:15 Balaam said to Balak: Stand beside your sacrifice, while I go to inquire of God.
Greek explicitly names God as the object of inquiry where Hebrew leaves the encounter's object unstated; burnt offering / sacrifice also differs.
23:16 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:16 YHWH met Balaam, put a word in his mouth, and said: Return to Balak and speak thus.
Greek · Saints priority
23:16 God met Balaam, put a word in his mouth, and said: Return to Balak and speak these words.
YHWH / God.
23:17 Divergent
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:17 He came to him, and there he stood beside his burnt offering, with the officials of Moab. Balak said to him: What did YHWH say?
Greek · Saints priority
23:17 He returned to him, and there he stood beside his whole burnt offering, with all the officials of Moab. Balak said to him: What did the Lord say?
Greek adds “all†to the officials; the question and sacrificial setting agree.
23:18 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:18 He took up his oracle and said: Rise, Balak, and hear! Listen to me, son of Zippor!
Greek · Saints priority
23:18 He took up his parable and said: Rise, Balak, and hear! Listen as a witness, son of Zippor!
“To me†/ “as a witness†changes Balak's stated role in hearing the oracle.
23:19 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:19 God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Has He said, and will He not do it? Has He spoken, and will He not fulfill it?
Greek · Saints priority
23:19 God is not like a human being, to be deceived, or like a son of man, to be threatened. Having spoken, will He not act? Will He speak and not stand by it?
Hebrew denies divine lying and change of mind; Greek denies being deceived or threatened. Both affirm reliable divine speech, but the first two assertions differ substantially.
Rabbinic reception: Rashi connects God’s truthfulness with His promise to bring Israel into the land: Balaam cannot destroy the people in the wilderness and thereby overturn that promise.
Source: Rashi, Numbers 23:19
23:20 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:20 Look, I have received a command to bless. He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it.
Greek · Saints priority
23:20 Look, I have been taken up to bless. I will bless and certainly will not reverse it.
Hebrew attributes the blessing to “He,†understood as God; Greek says “I will bless.†The impossibility / refusal to reverse also differs.
23:21 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:21 He has not looked upon iniquity in Jacob or seen trouble in Israel. YHWH their God is with them, and the acclamation of a king is among them.
Greek · Saints priority
23:21 There shall be no toil in Jacob, nor shall distress be seen in Israel. The Lord their God is with them; the glories of rulers are among them.
Hebrew describes not observing iniquity or trouble and a king's acclamation; Greek predicts absence of toil and distress and names rulers' glories. Hebrew 'awen and 'amal can also denote misfortune and hardship; the moral reading is not the only lexical possibility.
23:22 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:22 God brings them out of Egypt; for them there is strength like a wild ox's.
Greek · Saints priority
23:22 God is the One who brought them out of Egypt; for them there is glory like that of a one-horned beast.
Strength / glory; wild ox / one-horned beast. MonokerÅs literally means one-horned; this is not a claim about the later European unicorn image.
23:23 Disparate
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:23 There is no omen-taking in Jacob and no divination in Israel. At the appointed time it shall be said of Jacob and Israel: What God has done!
Greek · Saints priority
23:23 There is no omen-taking in Jacob and no divination in Israel. At the appointed time it shall be said to Jacob and Israel what God will accomplish.
Hebrew celebrates accomplished divine action; Greek announces future accomplishment. Hebrew “in†can also be understood “against†in the first line; that alternative is not silently imposed.
23:24 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:24 Look, a people rises like a lioness and lifts itself up like a lion. It will not lie down until it eats prey and drinks the blood of the slain.
Greek · Saints priority
23:24 Look, a people will rise like a lion cub and exult like a lion. It will not sleep until it eats prey and drinks the blood of the slain.
Lioness / cub and lifting up / exulting differ. The lion’s consumption of prey supports slain for Greek traumatiai; both preserve the violent image.
23:25 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:25 Balak said to Balaam: Do not curse them at all, and do not bless them at all!
Greek · Saints priority
23:25 Balak said to Balaam: Neither curse them for me nor bless them at all!
23:26 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:26 Balaam answered Balak: Did I not tell you that I must do everything YHWH says?
Greek · Saints priority
23:26 Balaam answered Balak: Did I not tell you that I must do the word that God speaks?
YHWH / God; the obligation agrees.
Preparation for the Third Oracle
23:27 Same
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:27 Balak said to Balaam: Please come; I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will be right in God's eyes for you to curse them for me from there.
Greek · Saints priority
23:27 Balak said to Balaam: Come; I will take you to another place. If it pleases God, curse them for me from there.
23:28 Similar
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:28 Balak took Balaam to the summit of Peor, overlooking the wasteland.
Greek · Saints priority
23:28 Balak took Balaam to the summit of Peor, which extends toward the wilderness.
Overlooking / extending toward describes the summit's relation to the wilderness differently.
23:29 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:29 Balaam said to Balak: Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.
Greek · Saints priority
23:29 Balaam said to Balak: Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven calves and seven rams for me here.
Bulls / calves.
23:30 Different
Hebrew · Rabbinic priority
23:30 Balak did as Balaam said and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
Greek · Saints priority
23:30 Balak did as Balaam told him and offered a calf and a ram on each altar.
Bull / calf.
↠Numbers 22 compared · Reading text of Numbers 23 · Numbers: all chapters · Numbers 24 compared →
Saints Translation · Companion comparison edition · working draft awaiting specialist review.