Numbers 23:4
And when he was gone with speed, God met him. And Balaam speaking to him, said: I have erected seven altars, and have laid on everyone a calf and a ram.
Open Numbers 23:4 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Cumque abiisset velociter, occurrit illi Deus. Locutusque ad eum Balaam : Septem, inquit, aras erexi, et imposui vitulum et arietem desuper.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἐφάνη ὁ θεὸς τῷ Βαλαάμ, καὶ εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτὸν Βαλαάμ Τοὺς ἑπτὰ βωμοὺς ἡτοίμασα, καὶ ἀνεβίβασα μόσχον καὶ κριὸν ἐπὶ τὸν βωμόν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיִּקָּ֥ר אֱלֹהִ֖ים אֶל בִּלְעָ֑ם וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֵלָ֗יו אֶת שִׁבְעַ֤ת הַֽמִּזְבְּחֹת֙ עָרַ֔כְתִּי וָאַ֛עַל פָּ֥ר וָאַ֖יִל בַּמִּזְבֵּֽחַ
Haydock's commentary
Speed. Hebrew shephi, may signify also "on the straight road," (Septuagint) "into the plain," (Louis de Dieu) "all alone," (Onkelos) or most probably "upon an eminence." (Kimchi) (Calmet)
God, in the visible form of an angel. (Menochius)
To him. Balaam might suppose that he was addressing his idol. But Moses informs us, that the true God or his angel was present, and forced Balaam to deliver an unwelcome message to the king. (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.