RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Balaam
the Exodus. The main continuous narrative, as we now have it, is found in Num. xxii-xxiv and contains two well-defined elements: a prose portion or the narrative proper, and a poetical portion comprising four oracles uttered by the hero of the story.
The incidents are in brief as follows: Balak, king of Moab, alarmed at the numbers and strength of the Hebrews, sends for the noted seer and wizard, Balaam of Pethor (Assyrian Pitru) on the Euphrates in Mesopotamia, to bring a curse upon them. Balaam would not answer the messengers till he had consulted God as to what he should do. God at first forbade him to go; but after he was again approached by an embassy from Balak with greater gifts and more urgent appeals, he was The Nar- granted permission upon the condition rative that he should utter only God's direct Analyzed, message (Num. xxii, 5-21). He at once sets out for Moab with the princes of the embassy, and on meeting Balak he assures him that at best he can act only as God's mouthpiece (Num. xxii, 35-38). Then Balak takes him to Bamoth-Baal EV, " the high places of Baal "), not far south of the Arnon. Here elaborate sacrifices were prepared, and, when Balaam retired for consultation, God appeared to him and gave him a message which foretold the greatness and blessedness of Israel (Num. xxii, 39xxiii, 10). After a bitter remonstrance from Balak a similar transaction took place upon the summit of Pisgah followed by an oracle in which Israel's purity of worship and its valor are extolled (Num. xxiii, 11-24). Balaam was next transferred by Balak to Peor — apparently another height of Nebo, commanding a specially good view of the Dead Sea desert (Jeshimon), where Israel was encamped. At this stage Balaam, instead of going into the solitude, uttered his oracle from immediate inspiration (as " the spirit of God came upon him ") with a glowing description of the beauty and fertility of the promised land and a forecast of the military triumphs of Israel (Num. xxiii, 25-xxiv, 9). Finally Balak in anger dismisses the prophet, who without the advantages of the prescriptive sacrifices spontaneously delivers himself of a prophecy in which Israel is pictured as victorious over Moab itself as well as over the peoples to the south of Palestine. Balaam then returns to his distant home (Num. xxiv, 10-25). Embedded in this main narrative is the story of Balaam's being confronted by the angel of Yahweh, when on his way to Moab, and of the speaking she-ass who sees this divine messenger invisible to the prophet (Num. xxii, 22-34).
A reference to the last-named section may best introduce a brief analysis of the sources. It is evident at a glance that this section contradicts the preceding part of the present nar- Its In- rative. Verse 22a directly contravenes consisten- verse 20a, and verses 22 sqq., which cies. make Balaam to have traveled pri-
vately, are inconsistent with verse 20b (of. verses 35 and 36, where the main story is resumed). Moreover, the incident of the angel and the clairvoyant and speaking ass is out of
place and inconsequent. There was no occasion that Balaam should learn that it was useless to resist the will of Yahweh (cf. verse 32) since it was in accordance with the divine command that he had entered upon his journey. The marvel of an animal endowed with human speech has many parallels in folk-lore from the earliest times, and adds nothing to the dignity and force of the narrative but rather detracts from it. In fact, if chap, xxii, 22-35 be removed we have a consistent and instructive allegory of the historico-prophetic order. This single and separate episode of the journey to Moab belongs to J, and the rest of the narrative in chap, xxii belongs to E. Chaps, xxiii and xxiv
are probably the work of a redactor The Sources, using materials from both of these
great sources. More particularly, it is apparent that the oracles of chap, xxiii bear, on the whole, an Elohistic and those of chap, xxiv a Jehovistic stamp. In the narrative proper E predominates throughout. Indeed the journey episode is almost all that we have from J in the prose portions of the story. Hence it is now impossible to say what his conception was of the original attitude of Balaam toward his mission. The variations of the story, however, do not obscure the essence of it as far as it concerns the personality and doings of Balaam. In the remote background there appears the figure of a famous Aramean seer of the twelfth century B.C. who among the contending tribes and peoples of Palestine discerned special elements of greatness and power in the Hebrew tribes and in the religion of Yahweh, and had some prevision of their future, to which he gave official utterance. There is no reason why such a belief may not have had a foundation in fact. It must be remembered that the chief proximate ancestors of the Hebrews were Aramean (Deut. xxvi, 5), and that no small portion of the narrative of Genesis consists of cherished traditions of Aramean associations. Moreover, the twelfth century was the epoch-making period of emigration and travel from western Mesopotamia across the Euphrates and southward.
The oracles are of course the significant element of the Balaam story. Their underlying motive is
to vindicate the rightful predomi-
The nance of Israel over its rivals to the
Oracles, east and south. It is this motive
Their Mo- which has diverted the tradition of
tive and Balaam from its original scope and
Date. employed it to justify the remorseless
border wars waged by southern Israel in the days of the monarchy. In the nature of the case the poems were composed not more than a very few generations after the events. Now since the oracles of chap, xxiii are essentially Elohistic and had their origin in the northern kingdom, the events which suggested them took place before the schism, not later than the warlike days of David. Indeed it is generally agreed that the subjugation of Moab and Edom (cf. xxiv, 17, 18), which took place in his time, formed the central point of practical interest for the whole series. The literary period of Solomon may have been the starting-point. But the process of enlargement and
Balaam Ball