Numbers 24:17
A star, a scepter, or a man?
Balaam's last oracle sees "a star out of Jacob, and a scepter out of Israel." The Greek translators wrote "a man" for the scepter, the Aramaic Targum "the Messiah," the Dead Sea Scrolls and Rabbi Akiva read it of coming leaders, and Matthew's Magi follow a star.
Same letters, different readings: the consonants agree, but ancient readers vocalized or interpreted them differently
The family tree
Each row is a language or text tradition. Witnesses in the same row may share ancestry, revise one another, or have an uncertain relationship; the line under each box says which. A solid arrow appears only where direct copying or a documented revised edition is established. Order by date never implies copying. Scroll sideways on a phone.
✓ contains it · ✕ does not · ❝ quotes part of it · ⓘ reports on manuscripts · ▢ pages lost · – no copy survives
- Same line, through lost copies
- Translation
- Related (shared ancestry)
One oracle, many readings
- Hebrew
- Star and scepter: images of a king.
- Greek
- Star and a man.
- Aramaic
- A king and the Messiah.
- Qumran
- Two figures: an interpreter and a prince.
- Christian
- The Messiah, Jesus, whose star the Magi saw.
Every witness, in order
Unknown (debated; possibly very early poetry)
Balaam's oracle
No original survives.
Translated c. 250 BC
Septuagint
How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site. The Greek wording is from published editions; its sense was compared with Giguet's French in the library.
ἀνατελεῖ ἄστρον ἐξ Ιακωβ, καὶ ἀναστήσεται ἄνθρωπος ἐξ Ισραηλ
a star shall rise out of Jacob, and a man shall rise up out of Israel
Giguet's French Septuagint in our library: "une étoile sortira de Jacob, un homme s'élèvera d'Israël." The scepter becomes a person.
1st century BC
Dead Sea Scrolls: 4QTestimonia; Damascus Document 7; War Scroll 11
How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.
4QTestimonia quotes the oracle among messianic texts. The Damascus Document interprets the star as "the Interpreter of the Law" and the scepter as "the Prince of the whole congregation."
1st century AD
Matthew 2:2
How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.
Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.
Matthew does not quote Numbers, but Christian readers from early on connected the Magi's star with Balaam's oracle, given by another seer from the east.
AD 132
Rabbi Akiva on Bar Kosiba
How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.
"A star [kokhav] shall come out of Jacob: Kosiba has come out of Jacob" (Jerusalem Talmud, Taanit 4:5). The revolt leader became known as Bar Kokhba, "son of the star."
2nd–3rd century AD
Targum Onqelos
How the site knows this: Reported in scholarship; not checked by the site.
When a king shall arise from Jacob, and the Messiah shall be anointed from Israel
The Aramaic paraphrase read in synagogues makes the messianic reading explicit.
c. AD 400
Jerome's Vulgate
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Clementine Vulgate (1592 edition).
Orietur stella ex Jacob, et consurget virga de Israël
A star shall rise out of Jacob, and a rod shall spring up from Israel
Follows the Hebrew: virga, a rod or scepter.
AD 1008
Masoretic Text (Leningrad Codex)
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: Westminster Leningrad Codex, a digital transcription of the Leningrad Codex.
דָּרַךְ כּוֹכָב מִיַּעֲקֹב וְקָם שֵׁבֶט מִיִּשְׂרָאֵל וּמָחַץ פַּאֲתֵי מוֹאָב
a star shall march out of Jacob, and a scepter (shevet) shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab
Shevet means a rod, scepter or tribe. The Samaritan Pentateuch has the same text.
Historical manuscriptImage credit Pictured: a decorated page from the codex, not Numbers 24.
1611
King James Bible
How the site knows this: Read in the site's library text: King James Version (1769 text).
there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel
The capitals reflect a Christian messianic reading.
What changed, and why
The Hebrew words are the same in every Hebrew witness. What changed is how translators and interpreters understood them. The oracle's history shows how a blessing on Israel became one of the central messianic hopes of both Judaism and Christianity.
What the evidence shows
- The Septuagint renders "scepter" as "a man."
- Targum Onqelos interprets the verse of the Messiah.
- Rabbi Akiva applied the verse to Simon bar Kosiba.
Source: Jerusalem Talmud, Taanit 4:5
Sources
- E. Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 3rd ed. (Fortress, 2012)
- "Star Prophecy" ↗
Related lessons
- A Star out of Jacob →Three times Balak takes Balaam to a high place and builds seven altars; three times Balaam blesses Israel. His last oracle sees a star rising from Jacob and a scepter from Israel, words that later inspired messianic hopes, a revolt against Rome, and the journey of the Magi.
- How Numbers Came to Us →The date of the story, the age of its traditions, the shaping of the book and the age of its copies are four different questions. Here are the answers we can give for each: Moses and the scholars, silver amulets that are not a copy of Numbers, Dead Sea Scrolls that are, a Samaritan Torah with sixteen major expansions, Greek, Latin and Syriac translations, and what remains unchecked.