Hello! Question about the LEB translation of Num. 24:2, where it says, "Balaam lift up his eyes, and saw Israel dwelling according to its tribes, and the spirit of God was upon it." What factors made the translation team (or translator) go with the Spirit being on the camp of Israel and not Balaam? I know עָלָ֖יו can be translated as "upon him" or "upon it" but the LEB has a unique rendering among other English translations. What's the case for it? I am very interested in this, as I am preparing to write a thesis on the Spirit's activity in the Pentateuch. Thanks!

  1. , good question. I honestly have no idea what motivated the LEB translator here, but it's obviously intentional since the translator included a note clarifying that "it" here referred back to Israel. But the translator seems to be all alone in this interpretation. At least I couldn't find ANY commentators in my Logos library (I checked 16) who take this position or even mention it as a viable option. Technically, Israel is the nearest possible antecedent to the pronoun, but I'd hesitate to say Hebrew follows that "rule." If no other English translation does it and no commentators offer support for it, then it shouldn't have been used in LEB. I'm adding it to my list of errors to fix.

  2. , I searched my resources as well (unfortunately, not 16 yet...), and found no support at all. Thank you for looking into that!