Numbers 24:22-24

New English Translation

Footnotes

1. Numbers 24:22 tc Heb “Nevertheless Cain will be wasted; how long will Asshur take you captive?” Cain was believed to be the ancestor of the Kenites. The NAB has “yet destined for burning, even as I watch, are your inhabitants.” Asshur may refer to a north Arabian group of people of Abrahamic stock (Gen 25:3), and not the Assyrian empire.
2. Numbers 24:23 tc Because there is no parallel line, some have thought that it dropped out (see de Vaulx, Les Nombres, 296).
3. Numbers 24:24 tc The MT is difficult. The Kittim refers normally to Cyprus, or any maritime people to the west. W. F. Albright proposed emending the line to “islands will gather in the north, ships from the distant sea” (“The Oracles of Balaam,” JBL 63 [1944]: 222-23). Some commentators accept that reading as the original state of the text, since the present MT makes little sense.
4. Numbers 24:24 tn Or perhaps “Assyria” (so NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).
5. Numbers 24:24 tn Or “it will end in utter destruction.”