And Balaam said to God: Good News Bible renders this quote frame simply as “He answered,” which some languages may find helpful. The verb “answered” renders well the generic verb said, since it introduces Balaam’s answer to God’s question.

Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, has sent to me, saying: For Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab, see the comments on verses 2 and 4. New Revised Standard Version renders has sent to me, saying (literally “has sent to me”) as “has sent me this message.” The Hebrew text does not refer explicitly to Balak’s messengers who were mentioned in the question in verse 9 (“these men”), but in many languages it will be natural to do this by saying “has sent them to tell me” (Good News Bible) or “has sent these messengers to tell me.”

Behold, a people has come out of Egypt, and it covers the face of the earth …: Balaam quotes Balak’s message, but the words are not exactly the same as in verses 5b-6 (see the comments there). In some languages indirect speech will be necessary for this embedded quote (so Good News Bible). In other languages the direct speech can be maintained in a natural way to emphasize the urgent message of Balak, as in the Hebrew. New Jerusalem Bible follows the Hebrew for the first sentence of this quote more accurately than Revised Standard Version by saying “Look, the people who have come out of Egypt have covered the whole land” (similarly Traduction œcuménique de la Bible). Revised Standard Version follows the Septuagint and a few other ancient versions here. In the Hebrew text Balak refers to the people of Israel with a definite article; he speaks of them as an already known entity even though he does not refer to them explicitly by name. So the Hebrew differs here slightly from verse 5, but translators should render consistently the words that are the same, especially if the direct speech is kept. For it covers the face of the earth (literally “it covers the eye of the earth/land”), see verse 5. In verse 5 the Hebrew word hinneh (“behold”) introduces this clause, but the Hebrew does not include it here.

Now come: See the comments on “Come now” in verse 6, but here the Hebrew does not include the word meaning “please.”

Curse them for me is literally “curse it [Israel] for me.” See verse 6.

Perhaps I shall be able to fight against them and drive them out is literally “perhaps I will be able to fight against it [Israel] and I will drive it out.” See verse 6.

Quoted with permission from de Regt, Lénart J. and Wendland, Ernst R. A Handbook on Numbers. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2016. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .