Oracles of Balaam

(Book of Numbers 23:1 -24:25 )
Balaam said to Balak,  "On this place I want you to build me 7 altars and prepare as sacrifices, 7 young bulls and 7 rams."  Balak did as he was instructed, and he and Balaam sacrificed a bull and a ram on each altar.  Afterwards, Balaam told him, "Stay here with the burnt offerings.  I am going to see if Jehovah will come to me.  If he does, I will tell you what he reveals to me."  And so he went off alone and climbed to the top of a barren hill.

Jehovah appeared and Balaam told him, "I have built 7 altars and have sacrificed a young bull and a ram on each altar."

Jehovah conveyed to Balaam a message for King Balak and ordered him, "Go back to Balak and give him my message."  And so Balaam returned to Balak and found him standing beside the offerings along with the Moabite court. 

This is the oracle that Balaam proclaimed: "Balak brought me here from Aram.  The King of Moab summoned me from the eastern mountains, urging me, 'Come, curse Jacob for me, denounce the house of Israel.'  How can I curse those whom Jehovah has not cursed?  How can I denounce those whom Jehovah has not denounced?  From the tops of craggy mountains I see them.  From the hills I view them.  Here is a people apart, distinct from the other nations of the world.  Who can count the descendants of Jacob, numerous as specks of dust?  And who can number those in the dust cloud that is Israel's people?  Let me die the death of the righteous man.  Let my end be like his."

Balak voiced his objection to Balaam.  "What have you done to me?  I brought you here to curse my enemies, but instead all you do is bless them!

"Must I not be careful to speak only the words that Jehovah puts in my mouth?"  responded Balaam.

King Balak told him, "Come with me to a different location where you can see another part of the nation of Israel -- not all of them, but at least you can curse them for me from there."  And so he took him to the plateau of Zophim on Mount Pisgah, where he build 7 altars and sacrificed a young bull and a ram on each altar.

Balaam told King Balak, "Remain with your burnt offerings while I go over there to meet with Jehovah."  Jehovah met with Balaam and imparted to him his message and told him, "Return to Balak and give him my message."

Balaam went back to Balak, who was standing with his court by the burnt offerings.  "What did Jehovah say?"  Balak asked.

Balaam pronounced this oracle: "Pay attention and listen to me, Balak.  Hear me, son of Zippor.  God is not a human that he would lie.  Or a mortal that he would change his mind.  If he has made a promise, will he not fulfill it?  If he has spoken, will he not keep his word?  Listen, I have received a command to bless.  The blessing has been made, and I cannot revoke it.  He has foreseen no bad fortune for Jacob, no troubles in store for Israel.  Jehovah, their god, is among them and is acclaimed as their leader.  He brought them out of Egypt, and his strength is like that of a wild bull.  There are no evil omens against Jacob, no curse upon Israel.  Indeed it can be now said of Jacob, of the people of Israel, 'Behold what their god has done for them!'  These people attack and pounce like the lion that refuses to rest until it has devoured its prey and drunk its blood."

Balak said to Balaam, "Well then, neither curse nor bless them at all."

But Balaam responded, "Didn't I tell you I must do whatever Jehovah says."

Balak then said to Balaam, "Come now, I'll take you to another location.  Perhaps it may please Jehovah to curse them from there."  Balak took Balaam to the top of Mount Peor, which overlooks the desert wastelands.

Balaam told him, "Build for me 7 altars and prepare 7 young bulls and 7 rams."  Balak did as he was bid and sacrificed a bull and a ram on each altar.

When he realized that Jehovah was resolved only to bless Israel, Balaam did not look for any omens, as he had done before.  Rather, he gazed out over the expanse of desert where he saw the people of Israel encamped tribe by tribe. 

Nevertheless, the divine spirit came upon him and it delivered an oracle. This is the prophecy of Balaam son of Beor, the prophecy of a man who has been enlightened, of one who hears the word of God and sees a vision from the Almighty -- one who enters a trance without losing consciousness: "How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob, how lovely your dwelling places, O Israel.  They are spread out before me like a valley of palms, like a garden on the river bank.  They are like aloes planted by Jehovah or cedars beside the waters.  Water will brim in their buckets; their descendants will enjoy plenty of water.  Their king will be greater than Agag and their kingdom will be exalted.  Their god brought them out of Egypt, for them his strength is like a wild bull.  He will devour all the nations that oppose them, breaking their bones and piercing them with his arrows.  He crouch down to sleep like a lion, but as with a great lion, who will dare rouse him?  May those who bless you be blessed and those who curse you be cursed!"

Balak became furious with Balaam.  He angrily hit his fists together and rebuked him, "I brought you here to curse my enemies, but instead you bless them -- three times!  Leave at once and go home.  I promised you, 'I will reward you handsomely,' but Jehovah has prevented you from receiving any reward.”

Balaam answered Balak, "Didn't I tell the emissaries you sent, 'Should Balaam give me all the gold and silver in his palace, I am nevertheless powerless to contradict the will of Jehovah.'  I told you that I could only repeat what Jehovah tells me.  I will be returning now to my own people, but before I do, let me warn you what the Israelites will do to your people in the future."

He proclaimed an oracle. This is the prophecy of Balaam son of Beor, the prophecy of a man who has been enlightened, of one who hears the word of God, receives knowledge from the Most High, and sees a vision from the Almighty -- one who enters a trance without losing consciousness:  "I see him, but not here and now.  I observe him, but from a distance.  A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will emerge from Israel.  He will kosh he heads of the Moabites and crush the skulls of the Shethites.  Israel will be triumphant, while Edom will be conquered and occupied. Seir will be in the hands of its enemies; it will be ruled by an heir of Jacob, who will destroy what remains of the city.”

Balaam looked to the Amalekites and said, "Amalek was the first among nations, but its fate is complete destruction."

Balaam looked to the Kenites and said, "Your homeland seems secure, a nest set upon the cliffs.  But your land will be laid waste, when the Assyrians carry you away as captives.”

Balaam concluded his prophecies by saying, "Who indeed can survive when God has willed otherwise?  Ships from the Mediterranean islands will come to conquer the Assyrians and the Hebrews -- but in the end, they, too, will be totally destroyed."

Balaam then left and returned home, while Balak went on his way.

Notes
1. An oracle is a communication from a divine or spiritual source, usually a god or some specific spirit being.   It is usually of a prophetic, hortative, or instructive nature, but is often vague, ambiguous, and requiring interpretation. The person delivering the message, or the agency by which spiritual communion is attained is also called an oracle.  Except for Moses, Balaam is the only biblical character who has thus far received oracles.  Back in the good old days, Jehovah would just show up for dinner or something and tell Abraham what was on his mind.  But like the Greek gods (and all the ancient deities, it seems), as time passes they withdraw further and further from human society.  Once they walked among men, then they could be approached in their temples by worshipers, and, finally, only priests or prophets could communicate with them, mostly through dreams and visions and omens.  They would become the sole conduits to the divine, summoning the god through special rituals or achieving communion through psychic, shamanistic techniques.  Balaam, one of these, is what we would call a mystic or a medium.

2. Apparently Balaam is unable to contact Jehovah unless sacrifices are made.  He has Balak do it in a big way, seven altars with seven young bulls and seven rams for each altar, each of the three times he endeavors to try to get a curse out of Jehovah.  All in all, 42 animals are sacrificed -- but for nothing, as far as Balak was concerned.  Apparently when Balak traveled with Balaam, he brought along with them a good-sized flock of animals to be used as sacrifices.  One supposes that the altars were simply piles of rocks, easily constructed.  Were they consecrated in some way, and, if not, would they have been acceptable to the finicky Jehovah?

3. The oracles are conveyed in poetry, but in order to make the meaning more precise, they are rendered here in prose.  A characteristic of Hebrew poetry is reiteration.  Something is said in one way, then the same thing is said in another way, using synonymous words.  These redundancies have generally been preserved, but occasionally edited out when they militate against clear meaning.

4. Balaam's prophecies have been inserted by the authors as rather bald propaganda, a confirmation of Israel's glorious destiny from an non-Israelite source.  If Moses were really the author of Numbers, though, how would he come to hear of Balaam's oracles and know them word for word.  Did someone write them down?  Were the Moabites of the time literate?  (If so, they would have had to use hieroglyphics or cuneiform, the only existent forms of writing at the time.)

5. Almost all biblical prophecies fall into one of three categories: they are obscure, allowing numerous interpretations and inviting a forced conformity to historical fact; they refer to events that had already occurred before the writing of the Old Testament (in the 6th or 5th Centuries BC); they predict events that simply never happened.  The defeat of the Moabites would occur.  Shethite is an unknown reference, but must have been a people living with the Moabites or, possibly, another name for the Moabites.  The Edomites (Seir is their capital) would avoid the destruction oft prophesied for them.  The Amalekites, whom Israel was always fighting, would eventually be destroyed, but not for six or seven hundred years.  (Agag is the general name for an Amalekite king.)  The Kenites, who were part of the Midianites, or synonymous with them, would be conquered by the Assyrians, but, then, so was most of the Middle East.  Assyria would come to a slow end, eventually being annexed by the Medians and Persians, but remaining a national entity.  (Assyrians, primarily Christians, still exist as a distinct, if recently endangered ethnic group in modern Iraq.)  The ships from the Mediterranean islands (the text says Kittim, Cyprus, but probably refers to a broader area) would have nothing to do with the Assyrians' downfall, even assuming the prophecy looks ahead to the Asian conquests of Alexander the Great in the 4th Century BC. or those of Rome.  Attempts have been made to give these prophecies broader meaning, but it’s a real stretch.