Numbers 24:16

Summary

Numbers 24:16 is part of Balaam's self-introduction to his oracle, describing himself through a chain of participles as one who hears divine speech, possesses divine knowledge, and receives visions while in a particular physical state. The verse builds a four-part parallel structure naming God by different epithets ('El, Elyon, Shaddai) and culminates in a description of the seer's condition during the vision.

Key words

• ne.'Um ("the utterance of", H5002) — construct noun opening the oracle formula, grammatically binding the whole verse as "the utterance of [the one who hears...]."
• sho.Me.a' ("the one who hears", H8085G) — qal participle in construct, presenting the speaker's identity as an ongoing state ("hearer") rather than a one-time past action.
• yo.De.a' ("the one who knows", H3045) — parallel qal participle, joined to the previous one by ve ("and", H9002), continuing the same descriptive chain about the speaker.
• ye.che.Zeh ("he sees", H2372) — qal imperfect, marking a shift from participial description to a finite verb expressing the actual seeing of the vision.
• ge.Lui ("uncovered of", H1540I) — qal passive participle in construct with 'einayim ("eyes", H5869A), describing a physical state accompanying the fall mentioned in no.Fel ("falling", H5307G).

What the text says

The verse is built almost entirely on construct chains headed by participles: sho.me.a' 'imrei 'El ("hearer of the words of God"), yo.dea' da'at 'Elyon ("knower of the knowledge of the Most High"). These two phrases run in tight grammatical parallel, each pairing a participle with a construct noun and a divine epithet. This repetition of participial constructs (rather than finite verbs) frames the speaker's identity as a settled, ongoing role — one who characteristically hears and knows — rather than describing a single past event.

The syntax then shifts: machazeh Shaddai yecheZeh ("the vision of the Almighty he sees") moves from participle to a finite qal imperfect verb, yecheZeh, marking the actual act of seeing as distinct from the general capacities named before. The final two words, nofel ("falling", a qal participle) and gelui 'einayim ("uncovered of eyes", a qal passive participle in construct with the dual noun "eyes"), are asyndetically juxtaposed (joined only by ve, "and") to describe the physical posture — falling — combined with open eyes, during the reception of the vision.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders Shaddai (H7706) not as a distinct title but again as θεοῦ ("God"), the same word used for 'El earlier in the verse, so the Hebrew's three distinct divine epithets ('El, Elyon, Shaddai) are reduced to two in Greek. The Vulgate preserves three distinct terms: Dei, Altissimi, Omnipotentis. For nofel ("falling", H5307G), the LXX reads ἐν ὕπνῳ ("in sleep"), while the Hebrew participle and the Vulgate's cadens ("falling") both describe a fall rather than sleep.