And when the ass saw the angel of the LORD is literally “And the donkey saw the angel of the LORD.” See verse 23.

She pushed against the wall, and pressed Balaam’s foot against the wall: The same Hebrew verb is used for pushed and pressed, a rhetorical feature that would be nice to retain in translation if possible. In any case, the action here is not a gentle squeeze, but a violent, potentially injurious “crushing” (so Good News Translation), as the donkey did everything possible to avoid running into the angel of the LORD.

So he struck her again is literally “and he added to strike her,” which could mean he hit the donkey a second time, or he hit it harder than the first time (verse 23). Perhaps both senses are intended. There does seem to be a progression in the severity of Balaam’s beatings, with the worst yet to come (verse 27).

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 .