When the ass saw the angel of the LORD is literally “And the donkey saw the angel of the LORD.” See verse 23. For the sake of narrative naturalness, a language may prefer a different transitional conjunction than “And,” either to indicate simple time (so Revised Standard Version with When) or a climax (so Good News Translation with “This time, when”).

She lay down under Balaam: Good News Translation omits under Balaam, perhaps because it is implied all along that Balaam was sitting on the donkey. In some languages, however, to draw attention to the incongruity of the scene, the repetition of Balaam’s name throws the spotlight on him. What will the prophet do this time?

And Balaam’s anger was kindled: This image of burning anger is idiomatic in other languages as well (see verse 22 and 11.1). Ironically, Balaam did not know (as the reader does) that God was angry with him (verse 22; so Sherwood, page 176).

And he struck the ass with his staff: The Hebrew verb for struck is the same one used in verses 23 and 25, but this time Balaam’s staff is mentioned as the instrument for beating the donkey. This addition no doubt suggests the increased severity in the beating that reflected Balaam’s growing anger and frustration. The Hebrew word for staff probably refers to Balaam’s “walking stick” (New Intenational Readers Version ), but Ashley (page 457) says it may refer to his divining rod in this context. His staff is literally “the staff.” The use of the definite article in Hebrew suggests that it was the stick that Balaam already had with him on the journey.

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 .