Numbers 24:1

Summary

The verse describes Balaam's perception that Yehovah favored blessing Israel, leading him to change his usual practice. Instead of seeking omens as before, he turned his face toward the wilderness.

Key words

• va-yYar' ("and he saw", H7200G) — qal narrative form, marking the next event in the story sequence; introduces Balaam's realization.
• tov ("it was good/pleasing", H2895) — qal perfect, describing a completed state of favor; here governed by the phrase "in the eyes of."
• le-varekh ("to bless", H1288) — piel infinitive, an intensive verbal form expressing the purpose or content of what was "good in the eyes of Yehovah."
• ke-fa'am be-fa'am ("as time upon time", H6471 + H6471) — idiomatic doubling of the noun "time," conveying repetition, i.e., "as on previous occasions."
• panav ("his face", H6440H) — masculine plural construct noun with pronominal suffix; idiomatically functions as "his face/attention," object of the verb "he set."

What the text says

The sentence opens with the narrative verb va-yYar' ("and he saw," H7200G), placing Balaam as the subject who perceives a fact introduced by the particle ki ("that," H3588A). The perceived fact is expressed through the construction tov be-'einei Yehovah — literally "good in the eyes of Yehovah" (H2895, H5869I, H3068G) — an idiom describing favor or approval, followed by the piel infinitive le-varekh ("to bless," H1288) with the object marker 'et (H0853) and Yisra'el (H3478), specifying what Yehovah favored: blessing Israel.

The second clause is joined by ve-lo' ("and not," H3808) plus the qal perfect halakh ("he went," H1980G), negating a past action. The idiom ke-fa'am be-fa'am (H6471 doubled) — literally "as time on time" — indicates repeated prior behavior, rendered by most versions as "as before" or "as on previous occasions." This is followed by the infinitive li-krat ("to meet," H7122H) governing nechashim ("omens," H5173), the object of the discontinued practice.

The final clause uses another narrative verb, va-yYashet ("and he set," H7896G), with panav ("his face," H6440H plus suffix H9023) as object, directed 'el ha-midbar ("to the wilderness," H0413, H4057B). The construct plural form of panim ("face") functioning with a singular referent is a common Hebrew idiom for orientation or attention.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders nechashim ("omens," H5173) as οἰωνοῖς ("omens/birds of augury"), matching the sense of divination, while the Vulgate uses augurium ("augury"), both preserving the idea of omen-seeking present in the Hebrew. The Vulgate's dirigens... vultum suum ("directing his face") mirrors the Hebrew idiom of "setting the face" toward the wilderness, whereas the LXX's ἀπέστρεψεν τὸ πρόσωπον ("he turned back his face") shifts the verb's nuance slightly from "setting/fixing" to "turning away."