Numbers 24:21

Summary

Balaam sees the Kenites and delivers a short oracle about them, describing their dwelling as enduring and their nest as set in a rock. The verse is structured as two parallel statements about security of place: the dwelling and the nest.

Key words

• va-yaR' ("and he saw", H7200G) — qal narrative verb, continuing the sequence of Balaam's oracles introduced by the vav-consecutive chain.
• ha-qqeiNi ("the Kenite", H7017) — definite gentilic noun, naming the people-group Balaam observes, marked as object by 'et (H0853).
• meshaL-o ("his oracle", H4912) — construct noun with 3rd person suffix, meaning literally "oracle of him," paired with va-yiSa' ("he lifted up", H5375N), the idiomatic verb for pronouncing a mashal.
• 'eiTan ("enduring/firm", H0386) — masculine singular adjective functioning as predicate, describing moshaVe-kha ("your dwelling", H4186 + H9021).
• Sim ("is set/placed", H7760A) — qal passive participle, describing the state of qinne-kha ("your nest", H7064 + H9021) as already positioned ba-Se.la' ("in the rock", H5553H).

What the text says

The verse opens with three narrative vav-consecutive verbs — va-yaR', va-yiSa', va-yoMar — forming the standard formula introducing each of Balaam's oracles in this chapter: "and he saw... and he lifted up... and he said." The object of sight is ha-qqeiNi, "the Kenite," marked with the definite article and the object marker 'et, indicating a specific known group rather than an indefinite one.

The oracle itself consists of two short nominal clauses without an explicit verb "to be," a common feature of Hebrew poetic and proverbial speech. The first clause, 'eiTan moshaVekha, places the adjective 'eiTan ("enduring," "firm") before the construct-suffixed noun moshaVekha ("your dwelling"), producing the sense "firm is your dwelling." The second clause, introduced by ve- ("and"), uses the passive participle Sim ("[is] set/placed") with the prepositional phrase ba-Sela' ("in the rock") and the noun qinnekha ("your nest"), yielding "and set in the rock [is] your nest." The passive participle Sim conveys a resultant state — the nest already positioned — rather than an ongoing action, a nuance not always distinguishable in translations that render it as an imperative ("place your nest") or as a simple present ("is set").

Differences between versions

The LXX renders Sim as a conditional construction, "ἐὰν θῇς" ("if you place/set"), turning the Hebrew's stative description into a hypothetical action performed by the addressee. The Vulgate similarly uses "si... posueris" ("if you will have placed"), matching the LXX's conditional sense rather than the Hebrew passive participle's descriptive state. The BSB and SBLIBRE translations follow the Hebrew more closely, rendering Sim as a completed state ("is set" / "has puesto"), though SBLIBRE shifts to second-person active ("has puesto tu nido," "you have put your nest") rather than the Hebrew's passive form.