Numbers 23:7
וַיִּשָּׂא מְשָׁלוֹ וַיֹּאמַר מִן־אֲרָם יַנְחֵנִי בָלָק מֶֽלֶךְ־מוֹאָב מֵֽהַרְרֵי־קֶדֶם לְכָה אָֽרָה־לִּי יַעֲקֹב וּלְכָה זֹעֲמָה יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיִּשָּׂ֥א מְשָׁל֖וֹ וַיֹּאמַ֑ר מִן־אֲ֠רָם יַנְחֵ֨נִי בָלָ֤ק מֶֽלֶךְ־מוֹאָב֙ מֵֽהַרְרֵי־קֶ֔דֶם לְכָה֙ אָֽרָה־לִּ֣י יַעֲקֹ֔ב וּלְכָ֖ה זֹעֲמָ֥ה יִשְׂרָאֵֽל׃
καὶ ἀναλαβὼν τὴν παραβολὴν αὐτοῦ εἶπεν Ἐκ Μεσοποταμίας μετεπέμψατό με Βαλάκ, βασιλεὺς Μωὰβ ἐξ ὀρέων ἀπ’ ἀνατολῶν, λέγων Δεῦρο ἄρασαί μοι τὸν Ἰακώβ, καὶ δεῦρο ἐπικατάρασαί μοι τὸν Ἰσραήλ;
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
assumptaque parabola sua, dixit: De Aram adduxit me Balac rex Moabitarum, de montibus orientis: Veni, inquit, et maledic Jacob; propera, et detestare Israël.
Entonces Balaam pronunció esta profecía: “Desde Aram me hizo venir Balac; el rey de Moab me trajo desde los montes del este. Me dijo: ‘Ven, maldice a Jacob por mí; ven, condena a Israel’.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Y él tomó su parábola, y dijo: De Aram me trajo Balac, rey de Moab, de los montes del oriente: ven, maldíceme á Jacob; y ven, execra á Israel.
And Balaam lifted up an oracle, saying: “ Balak brought me from Aram, the king of Moab from the mountains of the east. ‘ Come,’ he said, ‘ put a curse on Jacob for me; come and denounce Israel!’
✦ What the text says
Summary
Balaam introduces his first oracle concerning Balak's request, stating that Balak brought him from Aram to curse Jacob and denounce Israel. The verse frames Balaam's words as a formal mashal ("oracle"), then reports Balak's original instructions as embedded speech.
Key words
- meshalo ("his oracle", H4912) — masculine singular construct noun with pronominal suffix; the term applied to Balaam's speech, often rendered "proverb" or "oracle," signaling a formal poetic pronouncement rather than ordinary speech.
- yancheni ("he led me", H5148) — hiphil (causative) imperfect; the causative stem indicates Balak actively brought or caused Balaam to come, distinct from a simple "coming."
- lekhah ("come!", H1980K) — qal imperative with paragogic he (H9012), an emphatic form of the command, repeated twice in the verse to introduce each curse-request.
- arah ("curse", H0779) — qal imperative with paragogic he, the specific verb for invoking a curse against Jacob.
- zo'amah ("denounce", H2194) — qal imperative with paragogic he, a distinct verb (different root from arah) used for the parallel command concerning Israel.
What the text says
The verse opens with two narrative vav-forms — vayyisa ("and he lifted up") and vayyomer ("and he said") — marking the sequence of Balaam's action (raising the oracle) and speech. Within Balaam's own words, the text embeds Balak's original instructions without an explicit marker like "saying"; the shift from narration to quoted command is signaled only by content and the paragogic-he imperatives lekhah... arah... lekhah... zo'amah, which give the reported command a heightened, formal cadence appropriate to poetic parallelism. The two clauses "lekhah arah-li Ya'aqov" and "u-lekhah zo'amah Yisra'el" are grammatically parallel, using two different curse-verbs (arah and zo'amah) against the two names for the same people, Jacob and Israel.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders min-Aram ("from Aram") as "Ἐκ Μεσοποταμίας" ("from Mesopotamia"), an interpretive geographic expansion not present in the Hebrew toponym. Where the Hebrew has yancheni ("he led me," hiphil of a motion verb), the LXX uses μετεπέμψατό με ("he sent for me"), a verb of summoning rather than leading. The LXX also inserts λέγων ("saying") before Balak's embedded command, explicitly marking the quotation boundary that the Hebrew leaves implicit. The Vulgate's "adduxit me" ("he brought me") stays closer to the causative sense of the Hebrew yancheni than the LXX's "sent for me."
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.