Numbers 23:20

Summary

The speaker (Balaam) declares that he has received a directive to bless, that the blessing has been carried out, and that he lacks the power to reverse it. The verse combines an interjection calling attention, two verbs of blessing, and a negated verb of "turning back."

Key words

• hinneh ("here!", H2009) — an interjection that draws attention to the statement that follows, often marking a solemn declaration.
• varekh ("blessing", H1288) — piel infinitive of the root for "to bless"; paired with the following perfect verb, it emphasizes the action of blessing as the content received.
• laqachti ("I have received", H3947) — qal perfect, first person; a completed action, indicating the speaker took hold of or received something already accomplished.
• verekh ("he has blessed", H1288) — piel perfect, third person, from the same root as varekh; here it shifts from infinitive to a finished act performed by another (unnamed subject, understood as God in context).
• 'ashivennah ("I will turn back it", H7725 + H9034) — hiphil imperfect with a feminine pronominal suffix ("it," referring back to the blessing); negated by lo' ("not", H3808), expressing the speaker's inability or refusal to reverse the action.

What the text says

The verse opens with hinneh, a marker that calls the listener's attention to the declaration. The core construction pairs varekh (infinitive) with laqachti (perfect, "I have received"): the infinitive names the action ("blessing") and the perfect verb frames it as something the speaker has taken or been given — literally something like "blessing I have received," where the infinitive functions almost as a noun-like complement to the finished verb.

The next clause, u-verekh ("and he has blessed"), repeats the same root in the piel perfect but now as a finite verb with an unstated third-person subject, marking that the blessing has already been carried out as a completed act, distinct from the speaker's initial reception of it.

The final clause negates a hiphil imperfect, 'ashivennah ("I will turn/bring back it"), with the feminine suffix -nah pointing back to the blessing (grammatically feminine in Hebrew). The imperfect aspect, combined with lo', expresses an ongoing incapacity or refusal on the part of the speaker to reverse what has been done — the action is not merely denied in the past but presented as continuing incapability.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the final clause with ou mē plus subjunctive, an emphatic double negation ("certainly not turn back"), sharpening the force of impossibility beyond the single Hebrew negation lo'. The Vulgate shifts the phrasing to "benedictionem prohibere non valeo" ("I am not able to prohibit the blessing"), introducing the verb "prohibere" ("to prohibit") which does not correspond to the Hebrew root for "turning back" (shuv, H7725) found in 'ashivennah. The Spanish SBLIBRE renders verekh as "él los ha bendecido" ("he has blessed them"), supplying an object ("them") not explicit in the Hebrew verb form itself.