Numbers 24:23

Summary

This verse closes one of Balaam's oracles concerning future events. After the introductory formula "he lifted up his oracle and said," the text presents a short poetic exclamation: an interjection of distress followed by a rhetorical question asking who can survive when God brings about what he has set in motion.

Key words

• meshalo ("his oracle", H4912) — masculine singular noun in construct form with 3ms suffix, part of the fixed formula introducing Balaam's poetic pronouncements.
• 'oy ("woe!", H0188) — interjection expressing lament or alarm, standing alone before the question.
• yichyeh ("he will live", H2421) — qal imperfect, expressing future or potential action: "will [he] live/survive."
• sumo ("his setting/placing", H7760A) — qal infinitive with 3ms suffix, governed by the preposition mi ("from", H9006); the suffix here does not mean "his own act" in a simple possessive sense but functions with the following noun as its grammatical subject.
• 'El ("God", H0410G) — masculine singular noun, positioned immediately after sumo, supplying the subject of the infinitival action ("God's setting/appointing").

What the text says

The verse opens with the recurring narrative formula va-yissa' meshalo va-yomar ("and he lifted up his oracle and said"), identical in structure to the openings of Balaam's other oracles in this chapter. What follows is compact and grammatically dense: the interjection 'oy stands alone, then the question mi yichyeh ("who will live") is followed by a prepositional phrase built on an infinitive: mi-sumo 'El.

The construction mi-sumo 'El is unusual because the infinitive sum ("to set/place/ordain") carries a 3ms suffix (-o, "his") while also being followed by the noun 'El ("God"). In Biblical Hebrew, an infinitive construct can take a following noun as its logical subject even when a suffix is already attached, producing a sense like "from God's setting/ordaining [it]" — i.e., "when God brings [this] about." The suffix and the noun both point to the same subject, God, rather than to two different referents. This double-marking of the subject on an infinitive is part of what makes the clause difficult to render smoothly in translation.

Differences between versions

The LXX (Swete text) introduces the phrase idon Og ("seeing Og"), which has no counterpart in the Hebrew data given, where 'oy (H0188) is simply the interjection "woe." The LXX also adds tauta ("these things") after "whenever he places," specifying an object not made explicit in the Hebrew clause. The Vulgate renders sumo ("his setting/ordaining") as faciet ("he will do/make"), a broader verb of action rather than one specifically tied to setting, appointing, or ordaining.