Numbers 24:14

Summary

Balaam tells Balak that he is about to return to his own people, but before leaving he will give him advice about what "this people" (Israel) will do to "your people" (Moab) in a future time called "the end of the days." The verse functions as an introduction to Balaam's final oracle.

Key words

• hoLekh ("about to go", H1980G) — qal participle, paired with the interjection hinNi ("here I am") to express an imminent, almost present action: "I am [in the process of] going."
• leKha ("come!", H1980K) — qal imperative with paragogic he (H9012), which adds emphasis to the command, making it more forceful than a plain imperative.
• 'ia'Atzekha ("I will advise you", H3289) — qal imperfect first person, indicating a future/ongoing action Balaam commits to before departing.
• ya'aSeh ("it will do", H6213A) — qal imperfect third person masculine, governing the relative clause that describes the future action of "this people."
• 'achaRit hayaMim ("end of the days", H0319 + H3117G) — construct phrase, feminine singular noun "end/latter part" governing "the days," marking the temporal scope of the coming events.

What the text says

The verse opens with ve-'attah ("and now", H6258), a discourse marker signaling a transition in Balaam's speech. The construction hinneni holekh ("here I am going", H2005 + H1980G) uses the participle after the interjection hinneh to present the action of departure as already underway rather than merely planned — a common Hebrew idiom for imminent action lacking a direct one-word English equivalent.

The verse contains a deliberate contrast built on the repeated noun 'am ("people", H5971A): 'ammi ("my people") refers to Balaam's own people, ha'am hazzeh ("this people") refers to Israel, and 'ammekha ("your people") refers to Balak's people (Moab). The relative clause 'asher ya'aseh ha'am hazzeh le'ammekha ("that which this people will do to your people") places Israel grammatically as the subject acting upon Moab, the object marked by the preposition le ("to", H9005).

The closing phrase be'acharit hayamim ("in the end of the days") uses the construct noun 'acharit ("end of", H0319) governing hayamim ("the days", H3117G), a temporal expression pointing to a future period without further specification in this verse.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders le'ammi ("to my people", H5971A) as "εἰς τὸν τόπον μου" ("to my place"), differing from the Hebrew's reference to "people" and from the Vulgate's "ad populum meum" ("to my people"), which follows the Hebrew more closely.

The Vulgate reverses the grammatical roles found in the Hebrew clause: where the Hebrew has "this people [Israel] will do to your people [Moab]" (ha'am hazzeh le'ammekha), the Vulgate reads "populus tuus populo huic faciat" ("your people will do to this people"), inverting agent and patient compared to both the Hebrew and the LXX ("ὁ λαὸς οὗτος τὸν λαόν σου" — "this people [to] your people").