And the ass saw the angel of the LORD standing in the road …: The narrative action line resumes at this point. An appropriate conjunction may or may not be necessary to indicate this. Good News Translation begins this verse with “When the donkey saw….”

With a drawn sword in his hand means the angel had a sword drawn from a scabbard ready to use. For sword see 14.3. Some translations render a drawn sword as “a naked [uncovered] sword” (La Bible de Jérusalem Nouvelle, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Luther). Some common language translations say simply “a sword” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version, Parole de Vie, SPCL), but this rendering loses the connotation that the angel was ready to strike with his sword. So a better model is “a ready sword” or “a pulled out sword” (Chewa).

And the ass turned aside out of the road, and went into the field means the donkey left the road and went into the bush. In the ancient Near East strange or unexpected animal behavior was often interpreted as a sign that required divination. However, Balaam was not perceptive, so he did not seem to interpret the donkey’s behavior in this way. Instead, he beat it. In this context the Hebrew expression for field does not refer to a farm or garden of some kind, but to “open country” or “bush.”

And Balaam struck the ass: Presumably he hit the donkey with his staff (see verse 27). It may be necessary to make this instrument explicit here.

To turn her into the road indicates why Balaam beat his donkey. Good News Translation changes this purpose clause into a narrative event by saying “and brought it back onto the road.” NET Bible expresses the Hebrew more accurately here as “to make her turn back to the road.” The Hebrew verb for turn … into (natah) is the same one rendered turned aside. Many languages will require different verbs to indicate these contrasting motions.

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 .