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tonychanyt

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Balak summoned Balaam twice in Nu 22. On the second try (ESV):

20 God came to Balaam at night and said to him, “If the men have come to call you, rise, go with them; but only do what I tell you.”
If
אִם־ (’im-)
Conjunction
Strong's 518: Lo!, whether?, if, although, Oh that!, when, not
Strong's Hebrew: 518. אּם (im) — 1070 Occurrences

H518 was a very frequent word with a wide variety of usages. NASB Translation:

By far, most of the times NASB translated H518 as 'if' and rarely as 'since'.

BDB:

  1. hypothetical particle if.
  2. Interrogative particle
Consider the conditional statement: If P then Q. Statement P may or may not be true.

Now consider the statement: Since P then Q. Statement P is asserted to be true.

NIV decided to translate H518 more narrowly:

That night God came to Balaam and said, “Since these men have come to summon you, go with them, but do only what I tell you.”
LXX used the conjunction εἰ. In the NT, G1487 appeared 508 times.

HELPS Word-studies:

1487 expresses "a condition, thought of as real, or to denote assumptions" (i.e. viewed as factual. for the sake of argument) (BAGD). Accordingly, 1487 (ei) should not be translated "since," but rather always "if"
NASB never translated G1487 as 'since':

although* (1), if (341), no (1), only (1), only* (11), suppose* (1), though (7), though* (5), unless (2), unless* (5), until* (1), whatever* (1), whether (19), whoever* (3).
On Biblehub, 24 versions used 'if' and 6 used 'since'.