“... 21. I LOOKED...AMONG THEM. Verse 21 has four concise statements: “No one has beheld evil in Jacob; neither has one seen perverseness in Israel; the Lord his God is with him; and the shouting for the King [God] is among them” (see page 407). Our targumist explains the four statements by reordering the words, adding deeds to the first two, and separating the deity and humans in the final pair. Specifically, (1) he paraphrases the first negative statement in an affirmative manner. He explains “evil” as the supreme evil, “idol worshipping,” and clarifies that the figure of speech (synecdoche) “in Jacob” denotes the entire nation, “the house of Jacob.” He ignores the interpretation in Rashi and Rashbam that God did not see any Israelite misdeeds, since Israel clearly acted improperly repeatedly. Instead, it is Balaam who looked; or, more precisely istakalit, which literally means, “examined the matter closely.” (2) He inserts into the second phrase “and there are also,” as in 20:5 and 23:19, 23; deletes “He sees,” which is now unnecessary because the introductory “looked” applies to the entire verse and because he does not attribute the seeing to God; and explains amal, “mischief” or “trouble,” as those who utter weak lies. [...] (3) He does not paraphrase “the Lord his God is with him” by inserting Shekhinah (the human feeling of the divine presence), as would be expected, since he placed Shekhinah in the next phrase, and prefers to avoid repetitions. Instead, he substitutes the frequently used phrase “the memra [word or wisdom] of the Lord their God helps them.” ...”