Comentario sobre Números 23:20

הנה ברך לקחתי BEHOLD, I HAVE RECEIVED COMMANDMENT TO BLESS — You ask me derisively, (v. 17) “What hath the Lord spoken”? I will tell you: I have received an order from Him to bless them.

וברך, Israel is blessed already.

הנה ברו לקחתי, "Behold, I am bidden to bless, etc." According to our explanation of 23,5 that the word דבר there meant "a thing," i.e. that G'd inserted something inside Bileam's mouth which would insulate the Holy Spirit from Bileam's unworthy mouth, he referred to this when he said לקחתי. This "thing" must have been spiritual in the sense that it was abstract. This may be what the Yalkut Shimoni had in mind when the author called it a מלאך, an agent of G'd. The author of the Yalkut however, does not give the same reason that we gave but says that this מלאך was inserted in Bileam's mouth to prevent him from uttering a curse. Basically, what the Yalkut says and what we have said amounts to the same idea. When Bileam referred to this alien presence in his mouth as הנה, "a presence of some kind," he described this presence as the source of the blessings he was forced to utter. The repeat of the word ברך means that not only did G'd put the potential blessing in his mouth but He made him utter it. The whole verse is Bileam's attempt to show Balak that he acts under compulsion. He adds: ולא אשיבנו, "I cannot even retract it."

הנה ברך לקחתי, I have taken it upon myself to bless (them) this day and I am certainly not going to reverse this blessing. וברך, this word is in the past tense, as is the word חרף in Proverbs 17,5. [same vowel pattern of two successive tzeyreh sounds. Ed.]

הנה ברך לקחתי, “here I have received instructions to bless.” This is an introductory comment similar to Genesis 27,39: “here from the fat parts of the earth, etc.” Bileam meant to say that he received the blessings from above, seeing G’d had put the words in his mouth.
וברך לא אשיבנה, “whom He has blessed I will not contradict. it.” Seeing that the power of speech is G’d’s monopoly (as we know from Exodus 3,11).

I have received instructions from Him to bless them. With this Rashi informs us that “to bless” is not a continuation of “or speak and not fulfill it” which comes before (v. 19). Rather, it is associated with the statement “what did Hashem say” (v. 17). Rashi says קבלתי ["I have received"] instead of לקחתי [lit. "I have taken"], for he had not taken [anything] from him in the normal sense. Since the word ברך is a verb root Rashi adds a lamed because a verb root normally takes one of the letters beis, kaf, lamed or mem. In order to indicate from whom he received the [the instructions to] bless Rashi adds the word “from Him” and to indicate whom he should bless, he added the word “them”.

V. 20. לקחתי ,הנה וגו׳ ich habe die Aufgabe, die Fähigkeit erhalten. So heißt ja לקח die Lehre von Seiten des aufnehmenden Schülers. Und siehe, auch jetzt ist mir Segen als Aufgabe geworden, וברך und er hat überhaupt, und mit dem mir erteilten Auftrag im besondern, das Volk bereits gesegnet. Mein Mund bringt nur zum Ausdruck das, was er bereits vollzogen hat. Ich kann daran nichts ändern.

הנה ברך לקחתי, ”behold, I have been bidden to bless, etc.” I have received a blessing from the Lord to be an instrument of blessing Israel.”

וברך ולא אשיבנה, “and when He has blessed, I am unable to reverse this.” The reason is explained in the verse following, i.e. that he had not seen any iniquity amongst the Israelites.

וברך ולא אשיבנה AND HE HAS BLESSED AND I CANNOT REVERSE IT — “He” has blessed them, and “I” cannot reverse this blessing.

And I will not reverse… With this Rashi informs us that the word ברך ["bless"] is a verb, meaning that He had blessed them, not a noun meaning that He [had a blessing and] was ready to bless them. The words ולא אשיבנה ["I cannot reverse it"] are only appropriate when referring to a noun, implying that He had not yet blessed them and I will reverse His intention to bless them. However they are not appropriate for a verb. Thus, since He had already blessed them Rashi has to say “I will not reverse His blessing” as if the Torah had stated “He has blessed them with a blessing, and I cannot reverse it.”

וברך ולא אשיבנה, “and I am unable to reverse the blessing.” He continues justifying the Lord Who instructed him to bless Israel, as this Lord has not found fault with Israel, i.e. לא הביט און ביעקב, and therefore ותרועת מלך בו, “and their King’s acclaim is in their midst.” The expression תרועה, reveals fondness and companionship for the subject to whom it is applied. He Who took this people out of Egypt is powerful indeed, as the prophet Ezekiel has stated also in Ezekiel 17,13: אילי הארץ לקח, “He took away the nobles of the land.”

וברך — This is equivalent to וּבִרֵּךְ. This is the rule of the letter ר, as in (Psalms 74:18): “the enemy blasphemeth”, חֵרֵף like חִרֵּף; and similarly (Psalms 10:3): [ובצע בֵּרֵךְ [נאץ ה׳ (where בֵּרֵךְ is for בִּרֵּךְ), which means, He who praises and blesses the robber (בצע) and says, ‘Do not be afraid, for you will not be punished; peace will be unto you’, he angers (נאץ) God thereby (but see Rashi on this verse where another translation is given). — One cannot say that ברך is a noun, for if it were, it would be voweled in both syllables with Short Patach (our Segol), and its accent would be on the first syllable (בֶּרָךְ) because it is a verb in the Piel conjugation, it is voweled with Short Kametz (our Tzéré) on both syllables, and its accent is on the last syllable.