And Balaam lifted up his eyes: For this idiomatic Hebrew expression, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh has “As Balaam looked up,” which will be helpful in many other languages. Good News Translation omits this clause.

And saw Israel encamping tribe by tribe is literally “and he saw Israel dwelling according to its tribes.” Balaam did not just see part of Israel as he did before. Instead, he saw the whole nation of Israel, presented (as in the first part of the book of Numbers) as a people composed of twelve distinct tribes. For tribe see 1.4.

And the Spirit of God came upon him is literally “and the spirit of God was upon him” (Alter). This clause with the Hebrew verb meaning “to be” is rare in the Old Testament, but it is used for prophets (for example, Azariah in 2 Chr 15.1). So this clause reflects a changing perception of Balaam’s role: the Hebrew now explicitly refers to Balaam as to a divinely inspired prophet. (Very similar expressions are used in connection with judges in Jdg 3.10 and 11.29.) In some languages it will be more natural to render this clause as “Just then, the spirit of God took control of him” (similarly Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version) or “and he was grabbed by the spirit of God” (Chewa). For the Spirit of God, see the comments on 11.17.

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 .