Seder 120: Numbers 23----Balaam's First Two Oracles: No Curses Against Israel

Balak, the leader of the Moabites, had summoned Balaam from his home near the Euphrates to come and curse the children of Israel, who were camped near his border.  Balaam hoped to carry out Balak's wishes but had to admit that he could only say what Yahweh, the God of Israel, allowed him to say.  

Balaam delivered four oracles, recorded in Numbers 23 and 24.  In the first he affirmed the promises that God had made to Abraham.  "Who can count the dust of Jacob or number the fourth part of Israel?" he asked (Num 23:10), echoing the promise made in Gen 13:16.  

He described Israel as a holy people, set apart from other nations.  "Behold, a people dwelling alone, and not counting itself among the nations!" he declared (v 9).  Kevin Chen points out that the words for "dwell" and "alone" in verse appear together in only one other place in the Torah, in Moses' blessing of Israel in Deut 33:28: "So Israel lived in safety, Jacob lived alone, in a land of grain and wine, whose heavens drop down dew."  Balaam, like Moses in Deut 33, was describing an ideal, eschatological Israel.

Balak was upset that Balaam had blessed the Israelites instead of cursing them.  He decided that a change of venue might help.  Perhaps Balaam's "reception" would improve if they moved to a different hill.  

However, Balaam's message from Pisgah was consistent with his oracle from Bamoth-Baal.  "God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind," he began, affirming that Yahweh keeps his promises (v 19).  

Again, Balaam reported God's long-term goal for Israel:  "He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble in Israel" (Num 23:21).  The Hebrew words for "misfortune" and "trouble" are often used for wickedness and perversion.  The Israelites had at times exhibited those things during their journey, even recently, but Balaam was looking beyond the present to what ultimately would be true.  

Balaam had to acknowledge, "For there is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel" (v 23).  The word for "enchantment", nachash, is related to the word for "serpent" in Gen 3.  Chen suggests a connection here with Gen 3:15.  The serpent would not be able to defeat Israel.  Instead, the seed of the woman would defeat the seed of the serpent.  

Balak's anger at Balaam grew.  He said to Balaam, in effect, "If you can't say anything bad about the Israelites, don't say anything at all!" (v 25).  Still, he took Balaam to a third location, hoping for a different result.  Balak in Jewish tradition has been compared to Pharaoh.  Pharaoh tried in three ways to reduce the population of Israel (through enslavement, threatening the Hebrew midwives, and ordering that babies be drowned), and Balak tried three times to have Israel cursed.

Seder 119: Numbers 22---Balaam the Maledictorian

 After defeating rulers Sihon of the Amorites and Og of Bashan, the Israelites came to the border of Moab.  God was not going to allow the Israelites to attack Moab (Deut 2:9), but the Moabites did not know that.  Understandably, the Moabites feared this formidable army that had come out of Egypt 40 years before and was now conquering territory east of the Jordan.  The Israelites had just defeated Sihon, who had earlier defeated the Moabites.

Balak, leader of the Moabites, decided to summon help from Balaam son of Beor, a famous "curse expert" (commentator Roy Gane calls him the "maledictorian") who lived near the Euphrates River, over 400 miles away.  The trip from Moab to Balaam would take Balak's envoys something like three weeks to complete.

The extent of Balaam's fame is attested by the Deir Alla inscription, which dates from the 8th century BC, several hundred years after the events of Numbers 22.  This inscription appears on a wall in what is today Jordan, a little bit north of Moab's territory.  The inscription describes Balaam as "a seer of the gods" and gives an account of a troubling vision that he received one night.

Balak's envoys proposed that Balaam help the Moabites by directing a curse at Israel.  When Balaam took this proposal to God, God answered, "You shall not go with them.  You shall not curse the people, for they are blessed" (Num 22:12).  

So Balaam told Balaam's envoys, "Go to your own land, for the Lord has refused to let me go with you" (v 13).  Some have seen significance in the fact that Balaam is not said here to have mentioned the part about not being able to curse Israel.  In any case, Balak got the impression that Balaam was holding out for a bigger paycheck.  He sent a more impressive delegation to try to persuade Balaam to change his mind. 

Balaam had already heard God's answer, but he seems to have held out hope that God would allow him to honor the request of the second delegation.  And God did tell Balaam that he could travel to Moab, making clear, however, that he had to follow God's orders (v 20).  

Knowing how much Balaam wanted to collect the reward Balak was offering, God sent an angel to confront him on the trip to Moab.  The famous rebuke from his donkey put Balaam in his place, showing how little the famous seer could really see.  

When Balaam set out on his journey, he "rose in the morning and saddled his donkey and went with the princes of Moab."  The wording parallels that of Gen 22;3, when Abraham set out to obey God's command to sacrifice Isaac.  The parallel wording invites the reader to compare Abraham and Balaam, two "wandering Arameans."  

A Jewish tradition recorded in Pirke Avot 5:22 draws a sharp contrast between the two, saying that disciples of Abraham are characterized by "a good eye, a humble spirit, and a moderate appetite," while disciples of Balaam have "an evil eye, a haughty spirit, and a limitless appetite."  While disciples of Abraham enjoy this world and inherit the world to come, disciples of Balaam inherit gehinnom. 

As Pirke Avot brings out, there is a danger in being blinded by greed, as Balaam was.  Kyle Kettering brought out this lesson and others from Numbers 22 in a sermon at Church of the Messiah on October 1, 2022.