Numbers 23:2

Summary

Balak carries out the instructions Balaam had given him, and the two men together offer a young bull and a ram on the altar. The verse reports both the compliance with the prior instruction and the specific offering act.

Key words

• va-ya'as ("and he did", H6213A) — qal narrative form of "to do/make," marking the next sequential event in the story: Balak's action of compliance.
• ka'asher ("as", H0834D + H9004) — relative particle with preposition, introducing the comparison clause "just as," linking Balak's action to Balaam's prior speech.
• diber ("he had spoken", H1696G) — piel perfect, an intensive verbal stem indicating completed, emphatic speech; the perfect aspect marks this as prior to Balak's action.
• va-ya'al ("and he offered up", H5927I) — hiphil narrative form, causative stem of "to go up," here meaning to cause an offering to ascend (on the altar); continues the narrative chain.
• ba-mizbeach ("on the altar", H4196 + H9003) — noun with preposition and definite article, "the altar" (singular, definite), naming the location of the offering.

What the text says

The verse is built as two narrative clauses joined by the sequential va- prefix, both using verb forms in the qal/hiphil narrative pattern that mark consecutive past events: "and he did... and he offered up." The first clause, va-ya'as Balak ka'asher diber Bil'am ("and Balak did as Balaam had spoken", H6213A, H0834D, H1696G), places Balak as subject of the action, with the piel perfect diber marking Balaam's speech as an antecedent, completed event relative to Balak's compliance.

The second clause shifts to a compound subject, Balak u-Bil'am ("Balak and Balaam", H1111, H1109A), both now acting as subjects of the hiphil verb va-ya'al ("and he offered up", H5927I), literally "caused to go up," the standard causative verb for presenting an offering. The direct objects are par ("a young bull", H6499) and ayil ("a ram", H0352A), joined by the conjunction va- ("and", H9002), specifying the two animals offered. The prepositional phrase ba-mizbeach ("on the altar", H4196) uses the definite article, indicating a specific, singular altar as the location.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew ba-mizbeach ("on the altar", H4196) is singular and definite ("the altar"). The LXX renders this with ἐπὶ τὸν βωμόν ("upon the altar"), also singular, matching the Hebrew number. The BSB and SBLIBRE translations, however, render this phrase as plural ("on each altar" / "en cada uno de los altares"), introducing a plural sense not present in the singular Hebrew noun or the singular Greek and Latin (super aram, "upon the altar," singular) renderings.