Numbers 23:16

Summary

Yehovah meets Balaam a second time, places a word in his mouth, and instructs him to return to Balak and deliver a specific message. The verse repeats the pattern already used earlier in the narrative for Balaam's previous oracle.

Key words

• yi.Kar ("he met", H7136A) — niphal (passive/reflexive) verb with narrative vav; describes Yehovah's encounter with Balaam as something that happens to Balaam rather than an action Balaam initiates.
• Yah.weh ("Yehovah", H3068G) — the divine name used as the subject of the encounter; the LXX renders this subject as ho theos ("the God") rather than transliterating or using a divine-name equivalent.
• da.Var ("a word", H1697G) — masculine singular noun, indefinite in the Hebrew ("a word," not "the word"), the content placed in Balaam's mouth.
• Fi ("mouth", H6310G) — construct form ("mouth of...") combined with the suffix -o ("his"), producing "his mouth"; the construct chain ties the placed word directly to the organ of speech.
• te.da.Ber ("you will speak", H1696G) — piel imperfect, second person masculine singular; the intensive stem plus imperfect aspect frames the command as an ongoing or future act of speaking, not a single utterance.

What the text says

The verse is built from three narrative clauses joined by the vav-narrative construction (va-, H9001), each advancing the story in sequence: Yehovah "met" Balaam, "put" a word in his mouth, and "said" the instruction. The first verb, yi.Kar (H7136A), is niphal, casting the meeting as something that happens to Balaam — grammatically distinct from an active verb where Balaam would be the initiator. This mirrors the structure of Balaam's earlier encounter with Yehovah, reinforcing the repetitive pattern of the oracle sequence in this chapter.

The noun da.Var ("a word", H1697G) is indefinite, and it is placed "in his mouth" via the construct phrase be-Fi-o ("in the mouth of him"). The instruction that follows shifts into direct speech: an imperative, shuv ("return", H7725G), naming the destination ba.Lak ("Balak", H1111), followed by the adverb Khoh ("thus", H3541) and the piel imperfect te.da.Ber ("you will speak", H1696G). The imperfect aspect here indicates an action extending into the future — Balaam is to speak in a manner yet to unfold, rather than repeat a single fixed line already given to him.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew subject of the encounter is Yah.weh (H3068G), the divine name. The LXX renders this as ho theos ("the God"), a generic divine title rather than the name itself. The Vulgate uses Dominus ("the Lord"), also a title rather than a name-transliteration. The LXX additionally adds a clause not present in the Hebrew word-list given here — kai apestraphē pros auton ("and he turned back to him") — extending the verse beyond the instruction to speak.