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THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA is

impressed by the magnificent sight of Israel's

encampment

(xxiv. 56-6, R. V.):

" As valleys are they spread forth, As gardens hy the river-side, As llgn-aloes which the Lord hath planted. As cedar-trees beside the waters."

Balak is at last infuriated and would dismiss Balaam at once, but the latter pours forth his fourth and last prophecy of the rise of a tribe in Israel that will secure for the

Hebrews decisive victories over Moab and Edom; to which are added short denunciations of Amalek and the Kenites. The king then permits the prophet to return to his home. The four oracles are in poetic form and belong to the best specimens of a certain species of ancient He-

brew poetry. They are all characterized by a rich imagery, and the diction is at once impressive and stately.

The third, xxiv. 5, beginning, " How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob Thy Tabernacles, O

Israel,"

Balaam

saw that he could not curse the children of Israel, he advised Balak (intimated in Num. xxiv. 14) as a last resort to tempt the Hebrew nation to immoral acts and, through these, to the worship of Baal-peor. "The God of the Hebrews," adds Balaam, "hates lewdness; and severe chastisement must follow" ib. x. 28d; Num. R. I.e.). The Rabbis, playing on the name Balaam,

(San. 106a; Yer.

call

him

Belo 'Am " (without people that is, without a share with the people in the world to come), or "Billa' 'Am" (one that ruined a people); and this hostility against his memory finds its climax in the dictum that whenever one discovers a feature of wickedness or disgrace in his life, one should preach about it (Sanh. 1066). In the process of killing Balaam (Num. xxxi. 8), all four legal methods of execution stoning, burning, decapitating, and strangling were employed (Sanh. I.e.). He met his death at the age of thirty-three (ib.); and it is stated that he had no "



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portion in the world to come (Sanh. x. 2 90a). The Bible devotes a special section to the remarkable history of the prophet, in order to answer the ques;

is

particularly fine.

Balaam

mentioned in Micah

Very suggestive is the article "Haman, Bileam, und der Jiidische Nabi," by Stemthal, in "Zur Bibel- und Reis

vi. 5.

ligionsphilosophie," Berlin, 1890. J.. JR.

I.

In Rabbinical Literature



Balaam

M. P. is

repre-

sented as one of seven heathen prophets the other six being Balaam's father, Job, and his four friends (B. B. 156). He gradually acquired a position among the heathen as exalted as that of Moses among the

why God has taken away the power of prophecy from the Gentiles (Tan., Balak, 1). Moses is expressly mentioned as the author of this episode in the Pentateuch (B. B. 146). J. 8K. H. M. S. tion,



chosen people (Num.R.xx.l). At first a mere interpreter of dreams, Balaam later became a magician, until finally the spirit of prophecy descended upon him (ib. 7). He possessed the special gift of being able to ascertain the exact moment during which God is wroth a gift bestowed upon no other creature. Balaam's intention was to curse the Israelites at this moment of wrath; but God purposely restrained His anger in order to baffle the wicked prophet and to save the nation from extermination (Ber. 7a). When the law was given to Israel, a mighty voice shook the foundations of the earth; so that all kings trembled, and in their consternation gathered about Balaam, inquiring whether this upheaval of nature portended a second deluge but the prophet assured them that what they heard was the voice of the Almighty giving the sacred Law to His children of Israel (Zeb. 116a).

—



Nevertheless, it is significant that in rabbinical literature the epithet "rasha'" (the wicked one) is often attached to the name of Balaam (Ber. I.e. Ta'anit 20a; Num. R. xx. 14). He is pictured as blind of one eye and lame in one foot (San. 105a); and his disciples (followers) are distinguished by three morally corrupt qualities, viz., an evil eye, a haughty bearing, and an avaricious spirit— qualities the very opposite of those characterizing the disciples of Abraham (Ab. v. 19; compare Tan., Balak, Balaam received the divine communication at 6). night only a limitation that applies also to the

—

otherheathenprophets(Num.R.xx.

12).

TheRabbis

hold Balaam responsible for the unchastity which led to the apostasy in Shittim, and in chastisement of which 24,000 persons fell victims to a pestilence (Num. xxv. 1-9). When Balaam, "the wicked,"

Critical View Nearly all modern expositors agree that the section xxii.-xxiv. belongs to the composite document JE. In xxii. Balaam, according to J, is requested by the messengers of Balak to come and pronounce a curse against the Israelites, of whose growing power the Moabite chief is not unreasonably in dread. Balaam is willing to go, but assures Balak that he can not exceed the command of Yhwh, even though Balak were to give him his bouse "full of silver and gold " (xxii. 18). The episode of the ass is then

told.

The E account simply states that Balaam was summoned by Balak, but that he did not consent to go until God (Elohim) appeared to him in a dream (xxii. 19-21). The episode of the journey (xxii. 22 et seq.) belongs entirely to J. comparison between xxiii. (E) and xxiv. (J) will show that the J account is much more picturesque than that of E, and has, moreover, none of

and gave him permission

A

the latter '3 elaborate and somewhat stilted detail. Whether the four poems are to be attributed, just as they stand in xxiii. and xxiv., to E and J respectIt is much more probively, is a matter of doubt. able that an ancient poem about Balaam had been used by both the J and E accounts, which the later J and E redactor divided in the manner in which it

now

appears. to the age of the respective accounts, the nucleus of the narrative must have originated at a comparatively late date, after Israel had Age of acquired a permanent ascendancy over Narrative, the other Canaanitish nations. The tale of the talking ass must be regarded as a bit of primitive folk-lore, introduced into the narrative as a literary embellishment. It is generally supposed by critics that the three short oracles in xxiv. 20-24 are a later accretion by

As