He came to him, and, behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. Balak said to him, What has Yahweh spoken?
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The same verse in 3 English versions, stacked beneath the original-language interlinear above. Click any original word for its lexicon entry.
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He came to him, and, behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. Balak said to him, What has Yahweh spoken?
And when he came to him, behold, he stood by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said unto him, What hath the LORD spoken?
And he came to him, and behold, he was stationed beside his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab were with him. And Balak said to him, “What has Yahweh spoken?”
unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult).
Every available English version of this verse, each an independent rendering of the whole verse.
He came to him, and, behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. Balak said to him, What has Yahweh spoken?
So he returned to Balak, who was standing there by his burnt offering with the princes of Moab. “What did the LORD say?” Balak asked.
So he returned to Balak, who was standing there by his burnt offering with the princes of Moab. “What did the LORD say?” Balak asked.
And when he came to him, behold, he stood by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said unto him, What hath the LORD spoken?
And he came to him, and, lo, he was standing by his burnt-offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said unto him, What hath Jehovah spoken?
And he came to him, and, lo, he stood by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said unto him, What hath the LORD spoken?
And when he came to him, beholde, hee stoode by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him: so Balak sayde vnto him, What hath the Lord sayd?
Returning he found him standing by his burnt sacrifice, and the princes of the Moabites with him. And Balac said to him: What hath the Lord spoken?
And he cometh unto him, and lo, he is standing by his burnt-offering, and the princes of Moab with him, and Balak saith to him: `What hath Jehovah spoken?'
And he comes to him, and behold, he is standing by his burnt-offering, and the princes of Moab [are] with him, and Balak says to him: “What has YHWH spoken?”
Balaam returned to him, and look, he was standing by his burnt offering, and the leaders of Moab were with him. Then Balak said to him, “What has Yahweh said?”
And he came to him, and behold, he was stationed beside his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab were with him. And Balak said to him, “What has Yahweh spoken?”
And he came to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt-offering, and the princes of Moab with him; and Balak said to him, What has Jehovah spoken?
He came to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. Balak said to him, “What has the LORD spoken?”
And when he came to him, behold, he stood by his burnt-offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, What hath the LORD spoken?
So he went back to Balak, who was waiting there beside his burnt offering, along with all the Moabite leaders. “What did the Lord say?” Balak asked.
So he came to him where he was waiting by his burned offering with the chiefs of Moab by his side. And Balak said to him, What has the Lord said?
And he came to him, and, lo, he stood by his burnt-offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said unto him: 'What hath the LORD spoken?'
Literal Standard Version (2020), Covenant Press — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). Unlocked Literal Bible (unfoldingWord) — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org). unfoldingWord Literal Text — © unfoldingWord, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Word-aligned USFM3 via Door43 (git.door43.org/unfoldingWord/en_ult). Free Bible Version, Dr. Jonathan Gallagher — licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API (eBible.org).
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These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →
Shared distinctive vocabulary
בָּלָ֔ק Balak H1111 occurs in 40 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:
Grammatical profile
Verb forms
Hebrew & Septuagint length
In English translation the verse runs 28 words from the Hebrew and 33 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.
A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.
Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.
In the original languages it is 15 Hebrew tokens and 25 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.
Topical passages linked to Numbers 23:17 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.
Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).
The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.
These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.
וַיָּבֹ֣א אֵלָ֗יו וְהִנּ֤וֹ נִצָּב֙ עַל עֹ֣לָת֔וֹ וְשָׂרֵ֥י מוֹאָ֖ב אִתּ֑וֹ וַיֹּ֤אמֶר לוֹ֙ בָּלָ֔ק מַה דִּבֶּ֖ר יְהוָֽה
He came to him, and, behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. Balak said to him, What has Yahweh spoken?
World English Bible · Public Domain
καί ἀποστρέφω πρός αὐτός καί ὅδε ἐπιἵστημι ἐπί ὁ ὁλοκαύτωσις αὐτός καί πᾶς ὁ ἄρχων μωαβ μετά αὐτός καί εἶπον αὐτός βαλακ τίς λαλέω κύριος
And he returned to him: and he also was standing by his whole burnt sacrifice, and all the princes of Moab with him; and Balac said to him, What has the Lord spoken?
LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain
Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →
The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.
וַאֲתָא לְוָתֵיהּ וְהוּא מְעַתַּד עַל עֲלָתֵיהּ וְרַבְרְבֵי מוֹאָב עִמֵיהּ וַאֲמַר לֵיהּ בָּלָק מָה מַלִיל יְיָ
(no public-domain English translation for this verse)
Targum Onkelos — Aramaic: “Onkelos Genesis” (public domain); “Onkelos Exodus” (public domain); “Onkelos Leviticus” (public domain); “Onkelos Numbers” (public domain); “Onkelos Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “J.W. Etheridge. The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch. London: Longmans, Green, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
וְאָתָא לְוָתֵיהּ וְהָא מְעַתֵּיד עַל עֲלָתֵיהּ וְרַבְרְבֵי מוֹאָב עִמֵיהּ וַאֲמַר לֵיהּ בָּלָק מַה מַלֵיל יְיָ
And he came to him, and, behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, What hath the Lord spoken?
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan — Aramaic: “Targum Jonathan on Genesis” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Exodus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Leviticus” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Numbers” (public domain); “Targum Jonathan on Deuteronomy” (public domain). English: “The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.
Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.
Numbers, in the Pentateuch, opens this verse with 15 words (14 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is Bâlâq (“Balak”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.
Commentary
Notes on Numbers 23:17 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.
Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →
Adam Clarke's Commentary
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill's Exposition
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Whedon's Commentary on the Bible
Daniel D. Whedon
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Rashi
Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi)
Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.