And God came to Balaam at night and said to him: See verse 9. As noted in verse 8, at night was the normal time for dreams and visions in the Old Testament. This time reference should not be omitted. Contemporary English Version renders this sentence as “That night, God said,” which leaves too much implied.

If the men have come to call you, rise, go with them: The translation here should not imply that God does not know why Balak’s messengers have come to Balaam. A model that avoids this implication is “Since these men have come for you, get up and go with them” (New Living Translation). NIRV is similar with “These men have come to get you. So go with them.”

But only what I bid you, that you shall do is literally “And only the word which I speak to you, it you shall do.” The Hebrew word for “it” emphatically refers back to “the word which I speak to you.” Balaam may only do what the LORD permits him to do. God required precision concerning even the words and deeds that accompanied a blessing or a curse. The expression here recalls what Balak said through his officials in verse 17: “whatever you [Balaam] say to me I will do.”. The verbs “say/speak” and “do” are keywords in the Balaam story. Both words and deeds are under the LORD’s complete control. New Revised Standard Version renders this sentence as “but do only what I tell you to do.” Another possible model is “But you will only do the word that I will say to you.”

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 .