He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob; nor has he seen trouble in Israel: In these parallel lines the Hebrew verbs are in the third person. For Revised Standard Version these third person verbs point to God as the subject, who is the referent for the pronouns He/he (so also New Revised Standard Version, King James Version, Revised English Bible, Nouvelle Bible Segond, New International Version footnote). Most translations, however, understand these verbs as impersonal; for example, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible renders these lines as “One observes no calamity in Jacob, one sees no suffering in Israel,” and New International Version has “No misfortune is seen in Jacob, no misery observed in Israel.” These renderings will be more natural in a number of languages. Good News Bible uses the first person pronoun, saying “I foresee that Israel’s future will bring her no misfortune of trouble.” This rendering seems to be based on the Peshitta, in which the two verbs are in the first person, referring to Balaam. However, there seems to be no reason to deviate from the Hebrew text here (so also HOTTP). The Hebrew words for misfortune (ʾawen) and trouble (ʿamal) are similar in meaning in these parallel lines. Revised English Bible renders these words as “iniquity” and “mischief,” treating these lines as a moral assessment of Israel by God. However, it is doubtful whether such a moral assessment fits the context of a blessing. Revised English Bible‘s rendering can easily give the wrong suggestion that the Israelites are blessed because of their moral qualities. There is no hint of this in the book of Numbers, certainly not in view of the people’s behavior as reported in chapters 11–19. A morally positive assessment of Israel does not fit in well with the rest of the book either. In this context it is more plausible to understand that these words refer to physical misfortune and trouble. They could refer to the terrible calamities that Balak wanted Balaam to cause by cursing the Israelites. Jacob and Israel are parallel references to the same nation (see the comments on verse 7b). In some languages this would not be clear. If so, it may be better to mention only Israel in the translation (so Good News Bible). Other languages may have a way of indicating that Jacob and Israel refer to the same people by using a demonstrative back reference (so Chewa). Another way to do it is by rendering these two lines as follows: “No one has observed suffering among the Israelites, Jacob’s descendants; no one has seen any trouble for them at all.”

The LORD their God is with them: The Hebrew pronouns for their and them are singular, referring to Israel. Like Revised Standard Version, many languages will prefer plural pronouns here.

And the shout of a king is among them: The Hebrew word for shout is used normally for a battle cry or the sound of a trumpet (see 10.5-6, where it is rendered “alarm”). Here a human shout is in view. In Revised Standard Version it is ambiguous whether a king refers to some human king or to God as Israel’s king. Since this line is parallel to the previous one, New Revised Standard Version makes it explicit that God is in view here by saying “acclaimed as a king among them”. Other possible models that follow this interpretation are “He [God] receives their royal acclamation” (similarly Bible en français courant) and “They acclaim him as their king” (similarly Good News Bible, New Living Translation).

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 .