Numbers 23:29

Summary

Balaam instructs Balak to build seven altars and prepare seven young bulls and seven rams at this location. The command repeats almost verbatim the request Balaam had already made earlier in the narrative (Numbers 23:1), reinforcing the ritual pattern before a new oracle.

Key words

• bileam ("Balaam", H1109A) — proper name, subject of the speech-verb, identifies the speaker addressing Balak.
• beneh ("build", H1129) — qal imperative, masculine singular; a direct command placing the construction of the altars on Balak.
• hakhen ("prepare", H3559A) — hiphil imperative, masculine singular; the causative stem signals that Balak is to cause the animals to be made ready, distinct from the simple qal used for "build."
• shiv'ah ("seven", H7651) — cardinal number repeated three times (altars, bulls, rams), structuring the ritual through numerical parallelism.
• miz.be.chot ("altars", H4196) — feminine plural noun, the object of the building command.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative formula vayomer bil'am 'el-balaq ("and Balaam said to Balak"), a standard wayyiqtol construction that moves the story forward and introduces direct speech. The speech itself contains two parallel imperative clauses: beneh-li vazeh shiv'ah mizbechot ("build for me in this [place] seven altars") and ve-hakhen li bazeh shiv'ah farim ve-shiv'ah 'eilim ("and prepare for me in this [place] seven young bulls and seven rams"). Both imperatives carry the first-person pronominal suffix -i ("for me", H9030) attached via the preposition le- (H9005), marking Balaam as the beneficiary of the actions Balak is to perform.

The demonstrative zeh ("this", H2088) appears twice, each time preceded by the preposition be- (H9003), anchoring the ritual instructions to a specific, immediate location ("in this place"). The choice of verb stems is notable: beneh uses the qal (simple) stem for the physical act of building, while hakhen uses the hiphil (causative) stem for preparing the animals — a grammatical distinction that separates construction from provisioning, though both remain imperatives directed at Balak. The threefold repetition of shiv'ah ("seven") across altars, bulls, and rams creates a numerical symmetry that structures the entire verse as a ritual checklist rather than a narrative description.

Differences between versions

The Vulgate renders the second imperative clause more compactly: para totidem vitulos, ejusdemque numeri arietes ("prepare the same number of calves, and rams of the same number"), avoiding repetition of "seven" by using totidem ("the same number") instead of restating the numeral, where the Hebrew and LXX both repeat ἑπτὰ / shiv'ah three times explicitly.