Bible Strands
Numbers 24:6
They spread out like palm groves, like gardens beside a stream, like aloes the LORD has planted, like cedars beside the waters.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Balaam delivers this oracle to King Balak, describing the future condition of Jacob and Israel. The declaration occurs during a second prophetic utterance after Balaam has refused to curse the nation.
The words — The Hebrew נִטָּ֔יוּ (niṭṭāyû) literally means "they are stretched out," while נָטַ֣ע (naṭaʿ) identifies Yahweh as the one who plants the described vegetation. These terms frame the botanical imagery as deliberate divine cultivation rather than natural growth.
The thread — The motif of planted trees beside water appears in Psalms 1:3 and Psalms 104:16 to describe stability and divine provision. Isaiah 58:11 applies the same botanical metaphor to promise guidance and strength in desolate conditions.
Why it lands — The passage demands recognition that Israel’s expansion and security originate from Yahweh’s direct action. Readers must accept that prosperity and royal exaltation follow divine planting, not human strategy.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river’s side, as the trees of lign aloes which the Lord hath planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters.
Cross-references
- Psalms 1:3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does.
- Isaiah 58:11 The LORD will always guide you; He will satisfy you in a sun-scorched land and strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
- Psalms 104:16 The trees of the LORD have their fill, the cedars of Lebanon that He planted,
- Genesis 2:8 And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, where He placed the man He had formed.
- Genesis 13:10 And Lot looked out and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan, all the way to Zoar, was well watered like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)
- Psalms 45:8 All your garments are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia; from palaces of ivory the harps make you glad.
- Psalms 92:12 The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
- Song of Solomon 4:12 My sister, my bride, you are a garden locked up, a spring enclosed, a fountain sealed.
- Song of Solomon 6:11 I went down to the walnut grove to see the blossoms of the valley, to see if the vines were budding or the pomegranates were in bloom.
- Isaiah 41:19 I will plant cedars in the wilderness, acacias, myrtles, and olive trees. I will set cypresses in the desert, elms and boxwood together,