Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/516

466 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

Balaam

466

ing from 12,333 in 1867 to 112,000 in 1897. The Jewish population increased proportionately, numbering

mined to secure the prophet's services, sends other and more distinguished messengers, who, as the nar-

2,000 in 1899.

rative puts

The Jewish community of Baku

is

now

one of the

most advanced, and

It its affairs are well managed. possesses a religious school for children, and a new synagogue was erected in 1901 at a cost of 100,000

rubles.

In the government of Baku the Caucasian Jews in 1900 numbered 8,630, and were distributed as follows: city of Kuba, 7,000; Mudzy, 950; Aftaran-

Mudzy,

680.

In the country round Baku Professor Hahu of Tiflis discovered in 1894 a Jewish tribe which had never before been recognized as descendants of Israel. The members of this tribe lived in villages in the neighborhood of Baku and Elizabethpol, shut

by insurmountable mountains, and occupied themselves with cattle-breeding and agriculture. They claim to be the remainder of the exiles from the land of Israel in the time of the First Temple. The language of these mountain Jews, which contains unmistakable traces of Hebrew, is related to that of the Ossetines, who are also considered to be

in

of Israelitish origin.

Bibliography: Semenov, Slnvar Bossiskoi ImjjeriU

1.

s.v.;

Guillaume de Rubrouck, Bectt de Son Voyage, etc., pp. 280, I. Tschomy, Sefer ha-Maza'ot, pp. 262, 263 No. 9 David A. Louis, The Baku Petroleum District of Bussia, in Engineering Magazine, 1898, p. 986; Begesty i NadpUi, No. 177 Von der Hoven, in Budushcli281, Paris, 1877 Voskhod, 1901,





it, are empowered to promise still greater rewards and honor to the soothsayer if he will accede Balaam, although anxious to go, to Balak's wishes. again refuses declaring that even if Balak were to give him his house full of silver and gold, he can not do contrary to God's command. However, he begs the embassy to await a second consultation with the Lord. This time God permits the soothsayer to go to Balak, but enjoins upon him to do only " the word

which I shall say " (xxii. 20). Balaam then arises and departs with the Moabites, riding upon his ass. But notwithstanding the previous permission, God's anger is kindled at Balaam as he goes; and the angel of the Lord with a drawn sword in his hand shows himself accordingly to the ass, which refuses to proceed along the road despite Balaam's efforts Three times the angel, invisible as yet to urge it. to Balaam, puts himself in the path of the ass, which

beaten by its master for its refusal to proceed. ass is then given the power of addressing its rider in human speech, and asks him His Ass reproachfully why it has been smitSpeaks. ten. The soothsayer, apparently not astonished by the miraculous speech, replies angrily that, were a sword in his hand, he would willingly kill the ass. The angel then becomes visible to Balaam, and the soothsayer falls on is

The



nost, 1900, No. 52 Berlin, 1894.

Katz, Die



Juden im Kaukasus,

p. 17,

H. R.

BALAAM Ba?uia/i).

(Hebr.

— Biblical

DjJ^a

Data



A

Bil'am; Septuagint, son of Beor and a

his face before the vision. to the angel

and

Balaam confesses

offers to return to his

own

his sin

land, but

the divine messenger permits him to go on with the Moabites, enjoining him to say "only the word that I shall speak unto thee " (xxii. 35). Chapters xxiii.-xxiv. contain the detailed account of four oracles that Balaam uttered to Balak concerning Israel. The soothsayer directs Balak to offer sacrifices to God of seven oxen and seven rams on seven altars built on a high place, Bamoth-baal, where he could see " the utmost part " of Israel (xxii. 41). Balaam then utters the first inspired oracle in favor of Israel, a people that "shall not be reckoned among the nations " (xxiii. 9). Impressively he concludes

"

Who can

count the dust of Jacob,

Or number the fourth part of Let me die the death of the And let my last end be like

Balaam and the

prophet of Pethor in Mesopotamia. The nirrative relating to Balaam is found in Num. xxii.-xxiv. According to this narrative, Balak, king of Moab, sent messengers to the soothsayer, requesting him to come and pronounce a curse against Israel, with whom the Moabites were at war, and of whom they stood in dread. Balak hoped, with the aid of the soothsayer's powerful curse, to overcome his foe.

His confidence in Balaam is illustrated by the declaration he makes to him: "I know that he

whom thou blessest is blessed, and he whom thou cursest is cursed " (ib, xxii.

Balaam, after consulting B. V.). is forbidden to go back with the Moabites, and he accordingly refuses, despite the gifts that the messengers of Balak had brought with them for him. Balak, being deterSolicits

His Aid.

6,

God,

his

"

(xxiii. 10,

R. V.).

Ass.

(From a " Teutach Chumesh.")

Balak

Israel ?

righteous,

Balak moves the seer to another point of outlook, the top of Mt. Pisgah, where the entire Israelitish camp is visible. Here again Balaam receives an oracle even more strongly commendatory of Israel than " The Lord his God is with the first

His Four

him

...

he hath, as it were, the strength of the wild ox" (xxiii. 21, R. What Israel accomplishes is not V.). enchantment, but by God's own might. Com;

Oracles,

by

paring Israel to a

lion,

he says:

" Behold, the people riseth up as a lioness, And as a lion doth he lift himself up He shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, And drink the blood of the slain " (xxiii. 24, R. V.).

Balak then begs Balaam neither to curse nor to bless, but to remain silent as to Israel's future. Balaam replies that he must do as directed by God. The king then takes the soothsayer to Mt. Peor, but is once more disappointed. The prophet in his third utter-