Numbers 24:6
כִּנְחָלִים נִטָּיוּ כְּגַנֹּת עֲלֵי נָהָר כַּאֲהָלִים נָטַע יְהוָה כַּאֲרָזִים עֲלֵי־מָֽיִם׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
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✦ The same verse in five languages
כִּנְחָלִ֣ים נִטָּ֔יוּ כְּגַנֹּ֖ת עֲלֵ֣י נָהָ֑ר כַּאֲהָלִים֙ נָטַ֣ע יְהוָ֔ה כַּאֲרָזִ֖ים עֲלֵי־מָֽיִם׃
ὡς νάπαι σκιάζουσαι, καὶ ὡσεὶ παράδεισος ἐπὶ ποταμῶν· καὶ ὡσεὶ σκηναὶ ἃς ἔπηξεν κύριος, ὡσεὶ κέδροι παρ’ ὕδατα.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
ut valles nemorosæ, ut horti juxta fluvios irrigui, ut tabernacula quæ fixit Dominus, quasi cedri prope aquas.
Se extienden como valles, como jardines junto a un río; son como áloes plantados por Yehová, como cedros junto al agua.
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
Como arroyos están extendidas, como huertos junto al río, como lináloes plantados por Jehová, como cedros junto á las aguas.
They spread out like palm groves, like gardens beside a stream, like aloes the LORD has planted, like cedars beside the waters.
✦ What the text says
Summary
Numbers 24:6 continues Balaam's oracle, describing Israel's encampment through four parallel similes drawn from water-fed vegetation: wadis, riverside gardens, aloes planted by Yehovah, and cedars by water. Each image reinforces abundance and permanence through association with flowing water.
Key words
- n'chalim ("wadis", H5158B) — plural noun denoting seasonal streambeds, paired with a niphal verb suggesting they are "stretched out" across the land.
- nitayu ("they are stretched out", H5186) — niphal (passive-reflexive) perfect; the wadis are depicted as extended or spread, an action done to them rather than by them.
- ahalim ("aloes", H0174) — plural noun for aromatic aloe trees, object of Yehovah's planting.
- nata' ("he has planted", H5193) — qal perfect, an active completed action attributed directly to Yehovah (H3068G); the only verb in the series with an explicit subject.
- arazim ("cedars", H0730) — plural noun closing the sequence, again linked to water via mayim ("waters", H4325G).
What the text says
The verse is built as four ke- ("like", H9004) comparisons in tight parallelism, each pairing a plant or plant-image with a water source: wadis (line 1), gardens by a river (line 2), aloes planted by Yehovah (line 3), and cedars by waters (line 4). Grammatically, only two verbs appear: the niphal nitayu in line 1, which lacks a named agent (the wadis are simply "stretched out"), and the qal nata' in line 3, whose agent is explicitly Yehovah. This shift from an agentless passive form to a direct active verb with Yehovah as subject creates a structural pivot: the first two images (wadis, gardens) are presented as simply existing in their extended, watered state, while the third image (aloes) is anchored to a specific divine act of planting, and the fourth (cedars) returns to an unmarked state beside water. The repetition of 'alei ("at/beside", H5921A) before "river" and "waters" frames the whole verse with the same proximity to water.
Differences between versions
The Hebrew consonants for ahalim ("aloes", H0174, line 9) are identical to those for "tents" (ohalim, H168) without vowel pointing. The LXX renders this word as σκηναὶ ("tents") and the Vulgate as tabernacula ("tents/tabernacles"), both understanding the consonantal text as "tents ... which the LORD has pitched" rather than "aloes ... which the LORD has planted." The LXX also renders n'chalim + nitayu (wadis stretched out) as νάπαι σκιάζουσαι ("shady valleys"), an interpretive rendering rather than a literal one.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.