The oracle of him who hears the words of God: In some languages it may be more natural to begin a new sentence here, for example, “This is the message of a man who hears the words of God” (similarly New Century Version). For the Hebrew word rendered oracle (neʾum), see the comments on the previous verse. Him who hears the words of God refers to Balaam.
Who sees the vision of the Almighty: The Hebrew words for sees and vision come from the same root (ch z h). This root is used in the inscription from Deir ʿAlla, where Balaam is described as “the man who sees the gods.” For vision see the comments on 12.6 even though a different Hebrew word is used there (see also the discussion in A Handbook on Genesis at Gen 15.1). In some languages the closest equivalent to a vision is a “dream,” especially one that is thought to give some sort of revelation. The vision of the Almighty should be understood as “the vision given by [or, received from] the Almighty,” not as “the vision that gives a view of the Almighty” (so Noth, page 190). Revised English Bible makes this clear by saying “the vision from the Almighty.” There is no agreement on the background and meaning of the Hebrew term rendered the Almighty (shadday). As A Handbook on Genesis explains at Gen 17.1, this term has commonly been thought to refer to the power of God. Some scholars believe it is related to the Arabic root shadda, which means “to be strong, vigorous, violent.” Others relate it to the Akkadian word sadu, which means “mountain.” If it is related to this word, Shaddai may originally have been thought of as god of a mountain or of mountains in general (so Budd, page 269; Levine, page 195). New Jerusalem Bible and La Bible de Jérusalem Nouvelle transliterate the Hebrew word for the Almighty, saying “Shaddai,” but most translations say “the Almighty” (New Revised Standard Version, New International Version, New Living Translation, Revised English Bible), “Almighty God” (Good News Translation), or “the God All-Powerful” (Contemporary English Version; similarly Bible en français courant). These renderings are all based on the Septuagint and the Vulgate. The renderings “the Mighty” (La Nouvelle Bible Segond, Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch) and “the Awe-Inspiring One” (De Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling) are supported by the Arabic root shadda mentioned above. Some languages may have an appropriate praise name for God that can be used here, for example, Mphambe in Chewa, who is the (almighty) storm God of thunder and lightning, and is also recognized as the Creator.
Falling down most likely refers to the state of ecstasy in which the prophet Balaam is flung to the ground (so Alter, page 811) and robbed of the normal control of his own body (so Noth, page 190). Traduction œcuménique de la Bible makes this explicit by saying “when he falls in ecstacy.” Good News Translation, Revised English Bible, and De Nieuwe Bijbelvertaling have simply “in a trance.”
But having his eyes uncovered: Interestingly (and perhaps ironically), Balaam’s eyes are uncovered at the beginning of his third prophecy. There is a link here to the narrative with the donkey in 22.31, where Balaam’s eyes were uncovered during the third encounter between the donkey and the angel of the LORD (see the comments there). In some languages the last line of this verse may be rendered “he sees things in a dream with eyes uncovered” to make a better parallel with the previous line.
Cole (page 417) outlines the chiastic structure of the impressive prophetic introduction in verses 3b-4 as follows:
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 .