Numbers 24:7

Summary

The verse describes abundant water flowing from someone's "buckets" and irrigating his "offspring," followed by a statement that "his king" will rise above Agag and that "his kingdom" will be exalted. The Hebrew text uses agricultural/water imagery to introduce a comparison of royal power.

Key words

• yizal ("it will flow", H5140) — qal imperfect, describing an ongoing or future flowing action, subject "water."
• dalyav ("his buckets", H1805) — masculine dual noun construct with 3ms suffix, indicating a pair of vessels belonging to the referent.
• zar'o ("his offspring", H2233) — masculine singular construct with 3ms suffix, "seed" as recipient of the water.
• yarom ("he may be high", H7311) — qal jussive, expressing a wish or potential ("let him be exalted") rather than a flat future.
• tinnase ("it may be exalted", H5375) — hithpael imperfect with vav, reflexive stem conveying self-elevation, continuing the jussive sense of the previous clause.

What the text says

The verse divides into two parallel statements. The first (yizal mayim mi-dalyav ve-zar'o be-mayim rabbim, "water will flow from his buckets and his offspring [will be] in many waters") uses irrigation imagery: water flowing from dalyav ("his buckets", H1805, dual construct) waters zar'o ("his offspring", H2233, construct), which is then said to be "in many waters" (mayim rabbim, H4325/H7227), an adjectival phrase intensifying the sense of abundance.

The second half shifts to royal language. Yarom (H7311) is a jussive form, grammatically expressing "let him be high" or "may he be high," rather than a simple future statement. The comparison is me-Agag malko — "more than Agag, his king" — where malko ("his king", H4428 with 3ms suffix) is the subject of the jussive verb, not a construct chain to Agag despite the construct-marked grammar tag; the suffix -o attaches "king" to the referent of the whole oracle. The final clause repeats the jussive/reflexive pattern with tinnase (H5375, hithpael), "and may his kingdom exalt itself," using malkuto ("his kingdom", H4438 with 3ms suffix) as subject.

Differences between versions

The LXX (Swete) diverges significantly from the Hebrew: instead of water imagery, it reads "a man will come out of his seed" (ἄνθρωπος ἐκ τοῦ σπέρματος αὐτοῦ) and "he will rule many nations" (κυριεύσει ἐθνῶν πολλῶν), omitting the dalyav ("buckets") image entirely. Where the Hebrew names Agag (H0090), the LXX has Gog (Γὼγ). The Vulgate follows the Hebrew water imagery in the first half but renders the second half with opposite sense: "Tolletur... auferetur regnum" ("it will be taken away... the kingdom will be removed") where the Hebrew jussives yarom and tinnase indicate exaltation, not removal.