Literary Devices – Bemidbar 23/0
Literary Devices – Bemidbar 23
Parallelism
Balak's blessings are phrased poetically and, like much Biblical poetry, are marked by parallelism.
Examples
- מָה אֶקֹּב לֹא קַבֹּה אֵל / וּמָה אֶזְעֹם לֹא זָעַם י״י
- כִּי מֵרֹאשׁ צֻרִים אֶרְאֶנּוּ / וּמִגְּבָעוֹת אֲשׁוּרֶנּוּ
- לֹא הִבִּיט אָוֶן בְּיַעֲקֹב / וְלֹא רָאָה עָמָל בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל
Articles
For more information about the nature of Biblical parallelism, see Dr. Mayer I. Gruber’s article The Meaning of Biblical Parallelism: A Biblical Perspective and Dr. Adele Berlin’s Grammatical Aspects of Biblical Parallelism.1
Key Words
Sight
The verbal root “ראה” appears six times in this chapter, and is a key word of chapters 22-24. Other words relating to sight appear multiple times in the unit as well. Thus, “עין” (eye) appears four times in Chapter 22 and six times in Chapter 24, and the roots “שור” , “נבט” , and “חזה” (all meaning to look, view or gaze) each appear one or two times in the unit. These words highlight the theme of prophecy/vision, which is granted only to those whom God chooses (even a donkey) and cannot be manipulated as Balak imagines.
"קרה"
- Tanakh Lab demonstrates that the verb “קרה" is 115 times more prevalent in this chapter than in the rest of Tanakh. In Rashi’s view (verse 4), this verb reflects the inferior nature of Bilam’s revelation of Hashem, for it is as if Hashem only "happens" upon him.
