Numbers Chapter 24 verse 3 Holy Bible
And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor saith, And the man whose eye was closed saith;
read chapter 24 in ASV
And moved by the spirit, he said, These are the words of Balaam, son of Beor, the words of the man whose eyes are open:
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And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor saith, and the man of opened eye saith,
read chapter 24 in DARBY
And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said:
read chapter 24 in KJV
And he took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said:
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He took up his parable, and said, Balaam the son of Beor says, The man whose eye was closed says;
read chapter 24 in WEB
and he taketh up his simile, and saith: `An affirmation of Balaam son of Beor -- And an affirmation of the man whose eyes are shut --
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Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 3. - Balaam... hath said. Rather, "the utterance of Balaam." נְאֻם is constantly used, as in Numbers 14:28, for a Divine utterance, effatum Dei, but it does not by itself, apart from the context, claim a superhuman origin. The man whose eyes are open. הַגֶּבֶר שְׁתֻם הָעָיִן. The authorities are divided between the rendering in the text and the opposite rendering given in the margin. סָתַם is used in Daniel 8:26, and שָׂתָם in Lamentations 3:8, in the sense of "shut;" but, on the other hand, a passage in the Mishnah distinctly uses שׁתם and סתם in opposite senses. The Vulgate, on the one hand, has obturatus; the Septuagint, on the other, has ὁ ἀληθινῶς ὁρῶν, and this is the sense given by the Targums. Strange to say, it makes no real difference whether we read "open" or "shut," because in any case it was the inward vision that was quickened, while the outward senses were closed.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(3) Balaam the son of Beor hath said.--The Hebrew word (neum) is imperfectly rendered by hath said. It is the word which is commonly used in the prophetical books of Scripture to denote a Divine saying, and is rarely used when a human author is named. It occurs in the Pentateuch only in Genesis 22:16, Numbers 14:28, and in this chapter, where it is found in Numbers 24:3-4; Numbers 24:15-16.The man whose eyes are open.--There is great diversity of opinion respecting the meaning of the word which is here rendered open, and which, as it is here written, occurs in no other place. If shatham is identified with satham, it means to close, not to open. The meaning, however, of this verse is sufficiently explained by that which follows, whichever rendering of the word shethum is adopted. Balaam appears to have been thrown into an ecstatic state, as was Saul, and as were many of the ancient prophets; and whilst the eye of the outer senses was closed, the eye of the inner senses was preternaturally opened.
