Numbers 23:30

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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Word by word

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בָּלָ֔ק

Bâlâq

H1111

“Balak”

Noun, Proper

Appears 43× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Numbers 22:2

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H1110

TWOT: None

Balak = "devastator" - a king of Moab who hired Balaam to curse Israel

About this verse

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 →

9: words
9: distinct lemmas
Pentateuch: section

Shared distinctive vocabulary

בָּלָ֔ק Balak H1111 occurs in 40 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
5 nouns
1 particle

Verb forms

וַיַּ֣עַשׂ Qal · Sequential Imperfect
אָמַ֣ר Qal · Perfect
וַיַּ֛עַל Hiphil · Sequential Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 17 words from the Hebrew and 17 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — the same length.

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 9 Hebrew tokens and 15 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.

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

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.

Hebrew Numbers 23:30 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיַּ֣עַשׂ בָּלָ֔ק כַּאֲשֶׁ֖ר אָמַ֣ר בִּלְעָ֑ם וַיַּ֛עַל פָּ֥ר וָאַ֖יִל בַּמִּזְבֵּֽחַ

Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Numbers 23:30 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ποιέω βαλακ καθάπερ εἶπον αὐτός βαλααμ καί ἀναφέρω μόσχος καί κριός ἐπί ὁ βωμός

And Balac did as Balaam told him, and offered a calf and a ram on every altar.

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 →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

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.

Targum Onkelos Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וַעֲבַד בָּלָק כְּמָא דִי אֲמַר בִּלְעָם וְאַסֵיק תּוֹר וּדְכַר עַל כָּל מַדְבְּחָא

(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.
Targum Pseudo-Jonathan Torah (Genesis–Deuteronomy)

וַעֲבַד בָּלָק הֵיכְמָא דְאָמַר בִּלְעָם וְאַסֵיק תּוֹר וּדְכַר עַל כָּל אֲגוֹרָא

And Balak did as Bileam had said, and offered a bullock and a ram upon every altar.

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.

Commentary

Notes on Numbers 23:30 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 →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Num 23:30 And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bullock and a ram on [every] altar.

Ver. 30. And Balak did.] How unweariable are wicked men in their ways!

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And Balak did as Balaam had said,.... Though the sacrifices were expensive, he did not grudge them; he spared no cost to gain his point, though he now could have but little hope of it: and offered a bullock and a ram on every altar; as he had done before, Num 23:2.

Next: Numbers Chapter 24

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Lesson kit

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 9 words (9 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.

Discussion questions

The word Bâlâq carries the sense “Balak.” How does it shape the verse?
Numbers 22:2 shares the word «Balak» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
These translations render this verse differently. What is at stake in choosing one wording over another?
The verb «וַיַּ֣עַשׂ» is Qal Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and John Gill's Exposition read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 9 Hebrew ↔ 15 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 4 words in this verse.
9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 9 words in this verse.