מעבר לירדן יריחו, meaning opposite the Jordan river and Jericho which was on the other bank of the river, i.e. it as neither south of nor north of Jericho. The formulation of מעבר לירדן is justified as it is perceived from the vantage point of those who had in the meantime (before they would read this) crossed the river, so that the river Jordan was on the far side of Jericho from their point of view.

ויקץ מואב, the expression describes someone becoming fed up with life, similar to when Rivkah had said that she would become fed up with her life if Yaakov were to marry a Canaanite girl as had Esau his brother (Genesis 27,46)

ילחכו, all the existing crops and any other available foodstuffs.

ארץ בני עמו, the people Balak himself belonged to, not Moav.

את אשר תבורך, by means of prophetic inspiration. Balak also knew that Bileam was a prophet and practiced foretelling future events by resorting to such tools of his trade as קסמים, charms of different sorts. This is the reason why in Joshua 13,22 Bileam is described as a קוסם, a sorcerer, someone working with charms. Up until now Balak had thought that his prayers and sacrifices would be enough to ward off the danger he thought the Jewish people posed for him and his country.

וקסמים בידו, they brought along charms of their own to forestall Bileam saying that he did not have any of these charms handy. We read in Ezekiel 21, 27-28: “in his right hand the קסם, sorcery, indicated Jerusalem, to appoint commanders to urge on to murder. But it was for them as a vain divination, קסם שוא, etc.”

הלוך עמנו, for we do not appear as men of substance in his eyes.

רבים, more numerous than the previous delegation. ונכבדים, more distinguished and of higher rank than the earlier delegation.

כי הולך הוא, willingly; he was desirous of cursing the Jewish people even though he knew that this was not what G’d wanted.

ותלחץ את רגל בלעם, which resulted in Bileam becoming partially lame as we know from 23,3 וילך שפי, he walked with a limp.

אולי נטתה מפני; whenever the word אולי occurs in the Bible its meaning is similar to the words אם and אילו. (‘if’) Commentators who explain the word as meaning לולי as in Genesis 43,10 לולי התמהמנו, ”if not for the fact that we procrastinated,” or as in Genesis 31,42, לולי אלוקי אבי, “if not for the G’d of my father, etc.,” are in error. We have to understand the word as in Lamentations 3,29 אולי יש תקוה, “maybe there is hope,” or as in Amos 5,15 אולי יחנן ה', “maybe G’d will be gracious,” or as in Genesis 43,12 אולי משגה הוא,”maybe it was an oversight.”

Here too the angel challenged Bileam asking: “why did you strike your ass three times, implying that Bileam had been wrong to do this, explaining that the ass had tried to avoid him, the angel, לפני, “in front of me,” as opposed to מפני. He meant that if the ass had actually passed the angel instead of halting before him, he, the angel, would have been forced also to kill Bileam as he was not supposed to get past him. As matters stood, thanks to the ass’ behaviour Bileam had suffered only minor injury. In the alternate scenario the ass would not have been harmed at all for the angel would allowed her to live just as she was alive now. After all, it was not the ass who had sinned but her owner.

גם אותך הרגתי, the word גם here is used in the same sense as in Exodus 12,32 וברכתם גם אותי, “also bestow a blessing upon me!” [be on your way and bless me, i.e. the word גם is not a continuation of something conceptually identical with what preceded it. Ed.]