THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
BALAAM, be'lam: A non-Israelitic prophet or soothsayer, son of Beor, from Pethor (Assyrian Pitru, cf. E. Sclirader, KAT, i, 38; F Delitzsch, Wo lag das Parodies, Leipsic, 18S5, p. 2G9; J.Halevy, Melanges d'Epigraphie et d' Archeologie Scmitiques, Paris, 1S74, p. 77; Max Miiller, Asien und Europa nach altdgyptischen Denkmalern, Leipsic, 1893, p. 291), a city of northern Mesopotamia, not far from the Euphrates. He seems to have been known as a sorcerer throughout a wide region, and according to Num. xxii, 5 sqq., was engaged by Balak, king of the Moabites, to curse Israel in the name of the God whom Israel served. But the God in whose name Balaam practised his magical arts, is a living God who could interfere with and govern Balaam's doings. And such an interference took place when Balak called Balaam. By this means his divination became real prediction.
Balaam, moved by desire for reward, accepted Balak's invitation, which aroused Yahweh's anger.
That he accepted the invitation gladly
The Biblical may be seen from the anger which
Narrative, seized him as his animal suddenly
shied on the way and refused to proceed. His own eyes were held so that he did not perceive the apparition in his path. He would have seen it if he had gone with the disposition of a prophet of Yahweh, for he would then have had an eye open to that which his God sent him. The irrational animal which carried him became the instrument to set him right. Its resistance changed into intelligible speech. For the animal spoke in the same manner as the wife of the first man heard the serpent speak. In neither case need one think of an act of divine omnipotence, granting to the speechless animal the momentary function of human organs of speech. The act concerned rather the ear of the prophet and for him the animal's plaintive tone became articulate utterance. The prophet could be brought to his senses and aroused from a mental disposition intent only upon gain by something extraordinary, which was the reason why the animal refused to proceed. Now he also saw the apparition which had startled his beast, and the horror of it made him even willing to turn back, still more to speak only that which should offer itself to him as God's word.
After Balaam had arrived in the mountainous part of Moab, near the sources of the Arnon between the Arnon and the Jabbok, Balak, after offering sacrifices to predispose Yahweh in his favor, three times assigned to Balaam a station (Num. xxii, 41; xxiii, 11, 28), that from the high place he might curse Israel which was encamped before his eye. But three times, overcome by Yahweh's spirit, the prophet blessed the people (Num. xxiii, 7-10; 18-24; xxiv, 3-9), first giving the reason which made it impossible for him to curse Israel, viz., that it differed entirely from other nations, being richly favored by God; he then expanded the blessing briefly indicated in this first parable, and in a third deliverance finally described the glorious prosperity of Israel and its dominion as well as the fearful power of this people which should crush all enemies, having been set for a curse and a blessing to the nations. Balak was greatly enraged and
dismissed the seer who, according to Num. xxiv, 15-24, spoke to the king more fully of the future which awaited Israel during its rule, and of the mighty commotions which should destroy nations. Under the figure of a star and scepter he sees in the distant future a king coming forth from Israel, whose glorious power none may resist, and the ruin of the world-powers one after the other and one through the other.
It can not be denied that there is something strange in Balaam's utterances foretelling worldhistorical events to a remote future. But to have recourse to the expedient that we have here a prophecy after the event, or that the originally transmitted prophecy of Balaam has been enlarged in later time in accordance with the course of history, is to deprive Balaam's whole appearance of its essential meaning in connection with Old Testament prophecy. Balaam's importance Significance consists in just this, that from the of Balaam's time when Israel first appeared among Prophecies, the nations, the future of the nations and world-powers was disclosed not to one of its own prophets but to one outside of it. And the knowledge of the history of future centuries which was there communicated to the people served to comfort them in the midst of threatening world-movements till Daniel's revelations came and continued the knowledge of the future from the point where Balaam left it. The great importance of Balaam's prophecy finds its expression also in this, that whenever the Israelitic prophets of later times speak of the relations of Israel to the world-nations, we hear his words ringing through their utterances. As a matter of course, this reference of the origin of the oracles of Balaam to Mosaic times applies only to the essential contents, not to the form of expression as it now exists. The latter must be attributed to the narrator.
Balaam's condemnation in the New Testament (II Pet. ii, 15-16; Rev. ii, 14) is founded upon the notice Num. xxxi, 16, according to which he advised Balak to seduce Israel to the sensual cultus of Baal-Peor. The contradiction in which this later and additional notice seems to stand with Num. xxiv, 25, which passage at the first glance every one understands to mean that Balaam, after his parting-word concerning Israel, returned to his home, is easily reconciled by the supposition that Balaam actually left Balak, but stayed with the Midianites, who were allied to the Moabites (Num. xxii, 4, 7), in order to serve Israel's enemies and to await the success of his plan to lead them astray. In the war of revenge which broke out against Midian (Num. xxv, 16-19), the divine punishment overtook him (Num. xxxi, 8; Josh, xiii, 22). His giving to the Midianites the advice so fatal to Israel in its consequences can be explained from the irritation which took hold of him when he found himself deprived of the reward which he desired. W. VoLCKf.
The fascinating and somewhat perplexing story of Balaam as given in Numbers becomes less puzzling when it is analyzed and traced to its sources. The whole story is an episode of the history of the tribes of Israel at the close of their wanderings after