Numbers
Chapter 23
First Oracle
Balaam said:
“Build me seven altars here and prepare seven bullocks and seven rams for me,”
Balak did just as Balaam had ordered, and Balak and Balaam offered up a bullock and a ram on each altar.
Balaam said to Balak:
“Stand here beside your offering while I go aside. Perhaps the Lord will meet me, and I will tell you whatever he lets me see.”
So he went to a barren hill.
God met Balaam, who said:
“I have prepared the seven altars, and on each altar, I have offered a bullock and a ram.”
The Lord then put a message on Balaam’s lips and said:
“Go back to Balak and give him this message.”
Balaam returned and found Balak standing beside his offering together with the leaders of Moab.
Then Balaam pronounced his oracle:
“From Aram, Balak has brought me,
the king of Moab,
from the eastern mountains.
‘Come, curse Jacob for me!
Come, denounce Israel!
How can I curse him
whom God has not cursed?
How can I denounce him
whom God has not denounced?
From the peak of the crags, I see him;
from the heights, I behold him.
I see people who live apart
from all the nations.
Who can count
the dust of Jacob
or number the fourth part of Israel?
Let me die the death of the upright,
and may my end be like theirs!”
Then Balak asked Balaam:
“What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and you have blessed them.”
And Balaam answered:
“Must I not take care to say what the Lord puts on my lips?”
Second Oracle
Balak told him:
“Come with me to another place where you will see them. You will not see all of them, only the tail end, and there you shall curse them for me.”
So he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, built seven altars, and offered a bullock and a ram on each altar.
Balaam said to Balak:
“Stay here beside your burnt offering while I go and meet the Lord over there.”
The Lord met Balaam, put words on his lips, and said:
“Go back to Balak and give him this message.”
He returned and found Balak posted beside his burnt offering with the leaders of Moab. Balak asked:
“What did the Lord say?”
Balaam then pronounced his oracle,
“Be ready to hear, Balak;
listen to me, son of Zippor.
God is not a man that he should lie,
nor a son of man that he should repent.
Has he said he will do something
and will not do it?
Has he promised something
and not fulfilled it?
See, I have received a command to bless;
I cannot change it when he has blessed.
He has not seen misfortune in Jacob
or observed misery in Israel.
The Lord, their God, is with them,
and the shout of a king among them.
God has brought them out of Egypt;
he is for them like the horns of a wild ox.
Israel has no diviners or magicians,
but God will tell them
what he will do with them.
Behold a people that rises
like a lioness that rouses itself like a lion.
It shall not lie down before it
devours its prey and drinks
the blood of its victims.”
Balak said to Balaam:
“Even though you cannot curse them, do not bless them.”
But Balaam answered:
“Did I not tell you that whatever the Lord says, I will do?”
Third Oracle
And Balak told Balaam:
“Come, I will take you to another place. Perhaps it is God’s will that you curse them for me there.”
Then Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the wasteland.
Balaam said to Balak:
“Build seven altars for me here and prepare seven bullocks and seven rams.”
Balak did just as Balaam ordered, offering a bullock and a ram on each altar.
Commentaries
Prophecies of Balaam.
The stories about the desert keep this tale alive, which, when read again during exile in Babylon or at other key moments in Israel’s history, gives hope and keeps the people’s faith strong. The king of Moab, seeing Israel’s progress, becomes scared and calls for Balaam, a respected and well-known figure who, it seems, lives in Mesopotamian territory far from Moab. According to the text, he is a man of God who, based on the beliefs of that time, had the power to curse or bless, and his curse or blessing would have come true. What stands out about the story is that, even though he’s a “man of God,” his donkey seems to have more insight than he does. The story is set up like a kind of fable or tale, showing the process of understanding that someone like Balaam must go through to know exactly which god he serves.
Balak’s repeated attempts to curse Israel through Balaam, which ultimately failed, highlight the self-awareness the Israelite people developed compared to other nations. This acts as support during tough times when both faith and national identity were at risk.
The priestly school (P) relies on these traditions, reworking and updating them to the time of the Babylonian exile to inspire hope and show that, despite the might of Israel’s enemies, God will not abandon them.