God said to Balaam is literally “And God said to Balaam.” This quote frame introduces God’s response to the message from Balak. Since God responds negatively, Contemporary English Version renders this clause as “But God replied,” which is a helpful model.

You shall not go with them: The Hebrew verbal expression here conveys the force of an imperative, a prohibition. In many languages it is more naturally rendered “Do not go with them” (Good News Bible) or “You must not go with them” (NET).

You shall not curse the people is another prohibition. Good News Bible says “and do not put a curse on the people of Israel,” and NET has “you must not curse the people.” For curse see verse 6.

For they are blessed is literally “because it is blessed.” The pronoun “it” refers to the people of Israel in the singular. CRV avoids the passive construction here by rendering this clause as “for there is a blessing on them.” Good News Bible makes it explicit that God is the agent of this blessing by saying “because they have my blessing.” In languages that do not use passive verbs, another possible model is “because I have blessed them” (similarly Bible en français courant, PV, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). For blessed 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 .