Numbers 22:30

Summary

The donkey, having been struck by Balaam, speaks and asks him a double rhetorical question: whether she is not his own donkey, ridden all his life, and whether she has ever been in the habit of treating him this way. Balaam answers with a single word, lo' ("no", H3808).

Key words

• 'aTon ("donkey", H0860) — feminine singular noun, here with the definite article (ha, H9009), marking her as "the donkey" already known from the narrative; the same root reappears in construct form ('atone-kha, "your donkey") when she names her relationship to Balaam.
• 'anokhi ("I", H0595) — an independent personal pronoun used for emphasis; Hebrew does not need a separate pronoun for "I am," so its presence stresses the identity of the speaker against Balaam's accusation.
• me'odekha ("from your duration/youth", H5750 construct) — a noun in construct with the suffix -kha ("your"), literally "from the duration of you," rendered idiomatically as "all your life" or "since you have had me."
• has-ken... his-kanti ("really... have I had the habit", H5532) — the same verbal root appears twice: first as an infinitive absolute (has-ken), then as a finite perfect (his-kanti, "I have habitually done"). This doubling is a common Hebrew intensifying construction, underscoring the exceptional, unprecedented nature of the action being questioned.
• ha (interrogative particle, H9008) — prefixed twice in this verse (once before lo', once before has-ken), turning each clause into a direct question; Hebrew marks questions this way rather than through word order alone.

What the text says

The verse is built on two parallel rhetorical questions, both introduced by the interrogative ha. The first, halo' 'anokhi 'atonekha ("am I not your donkey"), uses the emphatic pronoun 'anokhi together with the negation lo' to press an obvious affirmative answer. The phrase 'asher rakhavta 'alay me'odekha 'ad hayyom hazzeh ("which you have ridden upon me from your youth until this day") uses the qal perfect rakhavta ("you have ridden") to describe a habitual completed action spanning Balaam's whole life. The second question centers on the doubled root sakan (H5532): the infinitive absolute has-ken placed before the finite perfect his-kanti intensifies the verb, producing something like "have I ever really made a habit of doing this to you?" This grammatical doubling has no simple one-word English equivalent; translations must supply words like "ever" or "before" to capture the intensification the Hebrew achieves through repetition of the same root. Balaam's reply is the single negative particle lo' ("no", H3808), matching the negation used earlier in the donkey's first question.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew intensifying construction has-ken his-kanti ("have I ever habitually done") is rendered in the LXX as μὴ ὑπεροράσει ὑπεριδοῦσα ("have I ever disregarded/overlooked you"), using a verb of "looking down on" rather than one of "habit," which shifts the semantic focus from repeated behavior to disregard. The Vulgate paraphrases this same clause as "dic quid simile umquam fecerim tibi" ("tell me if I have ever done anything similar to you"), losing the infinitive-absolute intensification entirely and turning the rhetorical question into a request for confirmation. The opening question also varies stylistically: the Vulgate renders 'atonekha ("your donkey") as "animal tuum" ("your animal"), a broader term than the Hebrew's specific noun for "donkey."