Numbers 23:9

Summary

This verse is part of Balaam's first oracle, describing his vision of Israel from a mountaintop. He states that he perceives this people from the heights of rocks and hills, characterizing them as a people who dwell separately and do not reckon themselves among the other nations.

Key words

• Rosh ("[the] top of", H7218I) — construct noun forming a genitive chain with "rocks," literally "top/head of the rocks," indicating the elevated vantage point.
• 'er'ennu ("I see him", H7200G) — qal imperfect first person with third-person masculine suffix ("him/it"), suggesting an ongoing or repeated act of seeing directed at a singular collective referent.
• 'ashurennu ("I observe him", H7789) — qal imperfect, parallel to the previous verb, again with the third-person suffix, reinforcing the visual/perceptual act from a second angle (hills).
• levadad ("alone", H0910 with preposition H9005) — noun functioning adverbially, "to/in aloneness," modifying how the people dwells.
• yitchashav ("it reckons itself", H2803H) — hithpael (reflexive/passive-reflexive) imperfect, meaning the people is not counted/does not count itself — the hithpael stem points to a reflexive or estimative nuance not present in a simple qal "to count."

What the text says

The verse opens with the causal/explanatory particle ki ("for", H3588A), linking this statement to what precedes in the oracle. The first half contains two parallel clauses, each built on a prepositional phrase of elevation (me-Rosh tzurim, "from the top of the rocks"; u-mi-geva'ot, "and from the hills") followed by a first-person qal imperfect verb with a third-person masculine singular suffix ('er'ennu, 'ashurennu). Both verbs — "to see" (H7200G) and "to observe/watch" (H7789) — take the same suffix -nu ("him", H9033), referring to a singular entity, even though the referent is the collective 'am ("a people", H5971A) mentioned afterward; Biblical Hebrew commonly treats a collective noun with a singular pronoun.

The second half opens with the interjection hen ("there!", H2005), introducing a declarative description. The noun 'am ("a people") is characterized by two verbal clauses in parallel structure: le-vadad yishkon ("it dwells alone/apart") and u-va-goyim lo yitchashav ("and among the nations it does not reckon itself"). The second clause uses the hithpael stem of chashav (H2803H), which carries a reflexive or self-directed sense distinct from a simple counting action — the form describes how the people relates to being counted among the goyim ("nations", H1471A), rather than simply stating a numerical fact.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders levadad yishkon as κατοικήσει μόνος ("will dwell alone"), keeping the sense of separateness. The Vulgate's solus habitabit ("will dwell alone") is similarly close. For the final clause, the Hebrew hithpael yitchashav ("it reckons itself") is rendered by the LXX as συλλογισθήσεται (a passive form, "will be reckoned/counted") and by the Vulgate as reputabitur (also passive, "will be reckoned"), both shifting the Hebrew's reflexive/middle nuance toward a passive construction.