Numbers 22:32

Summary

The angel of Yehovah confronts Balaam, asking why he struck his donkey three times. The angel states that he came out as an adversary because Balaam's way is "precipitate" or twisted before him.

Key words

• mal'akh ("angel of / messenger of", H4397H) — construct noun, grammatically bound to Yehovah, producing the fixed phrase "messenger of Yehovah."
• hikkita ("you struck", H5221) — hiphil (causative) perfect, second person masculine: a completed causative action, "you caused [the donkey] to be struck."
• yatzati ("I went out", H3318G) — qal perfect, first person: marks the angel's action as already accomplished before the confrontation.
• satan ("an adversary", H7854) — bare noun without the definite article, indicating a function or role ("as an adversary") rather than a proper name.
• yarat ("it is precipitate", H3399A) — qal perfect, third person masculine, describing the state of ha-derekh ("the way", H1870G): the way itself is the grammatical subject of this unusual verb.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative va- prefix on yo'mer ("he said", H0559), continuing the story sequence. The angel's question is built with 'al-mah ("concerning what", H5921A + H4100), a common interrogative construction, followed by hikkita in the hiphil: the causative stem signals that Balaam did not merely act but forced an effect onto the donkey ("you caused [her] to be struck"), reinforced by 'et-'atonekha ("your donkey", H0860) as the marked direct object. The phrase zeh shalosh regalim ("this three feet/times", H2088 + H7969 + H7272) is an idiomatic way of marking repetition, using "feet" (H7272) to count occurrences.

The second half shifts to first-person qal perfects: hineh 'anokhi yatzati ("here, I have gone out", H2009 + H0595 + H3318G) emphasizes the angel's own initiative, syntactically fronted with hineh for immediacy. The purpose clause le-satan ("for an adversary/opposition", H7854) uses the bare noun (no article) to denote a role rather than naming a supernatural figure. The causal clause introduced by ki ("for/because", H3588A) attributes the confrontation to the state of ha-derekh ("the way", H1870G), described by the rare verb yarat ("it is precipitate", H3399A) — a form whose exact semantic range is debated, glossed here literally as "precipitate."

Differences between versions

The LXX renders mal'akh Yehovah ("angel of Yehovah") as "ὁ ἄγγελος τοῦ θεοῦ" (the angel of God), substituting a generic divine title for the Hebrew's specific name. Where the Hebrew yarat ("precipitate") describes the way, the LXX has "οὐκ ἀστεία" ("not fair/becoming") and the Vulgate has "perversa" ("perverse"), both interpretive renderings of a verb whose literal Hebrew sense is less common in translation. The Hebrew le-satan ("for an adversary", role-based, no article) appears in the LXX as "εἰς διαβολήν" ("for opposition/accusation") and in the Vulgate as "ut adversarer" ("that I might oppose"), both expressing the function rather than treating satan as a proper name.