Then the angel of the LORD stood in a narrow path between the vineyards …: Since Balaam was not perceptive the first time, the angel of the LORD blocked his path again. This time the normal Hebrew word for “stand” is used (compare verse 22). In a narrow path between the vineyards is literally “in a narrow path of the vineyards.” Good News Translation provides a helpful model for this phrase, saying “where the road narrowed between two vineyards.” Narrow path may be rendered “footpath” (Alter) or idiomatically “hollow road” (Bijbel in Gewone Taal, Bijbel: Vertaling in opdracht van het Nederlandsch Bijbelgenootschap, Willibrordvertaling). Each time the pathway of diversion grows narrower (so Cole, page 390). For vineyards see 16.14.

With a wall on either side is literally “a wall from this and a wall from this.” The Hebrew word for wall refers to a fence made without mortar from loose stones on the fields, so Good News Translation says “stone wall.” Such walls were used to enclose and protect vineyards. The walls of the two vineyards left Balaam with very little room to maneuver. New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh translates wall as “fence,” but this word in English does not suggest construction in stone. A different, more general Hebrew word for “wall” is used in verse 25, but since the same stone wall is in view there, a different rendering is not necessary.

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 .