Numbers 22 Study Notes

22:1-24:25 This passage contains the account of Balaam, a renowned pagan divination expert, and his oracles of blessing upon Israel. As the very antithesis of the great prophet Moses, this prophet sought Israel’s demise at the bidding of the Moabite king Balak. Instead, Balaam was used by God in a manner like Moses to pronounce future divine blessing for Israel. Moses is curiously absent from the story, probably because of his sin of rebellion and irreverence at Meribah (20:2-13). In this section God demonstrated that he can use even a pagan wizard to bring blessing to his people.

22:1 The setting of this story for Israel was the eastern side of the Jordan River. The leading characters Balak and Balaam were situated in the hills of Transjordan, overlooking the Israelite encampment from the southeast. The plains of Moab was the broad plain between the Transjordan highlands and the Jordan River, extending about ten miles from just north of the Dead Sea.

According to an inscription in a temple at Deir ‘Alla, Balaam son of Beor, a “seer of the gods,” had a frightening night vision that he described while fasting and mourning. He foretold a period of drought and darkness, of mourning and death, in which the natural order of the world was reversed. The sparrow attacks the eagle, the deaf hear things from a distance, and fools have insightful visions. Balaam then implored the goddesses Ashtar (consort of Chemosh in Moab) and Sheger (known from Ugarit and Phoenicia) to bring light, rain, and fertility to the land. Thus the structure at Deir ‘Alla and its wall inscriptions may have been built to honor the gods Sheger and Ashtar who once heeded Balaam’s plea.

22:2-4 Balak is called Moab’s king, meaning he was the head of an emerging tribal confederation like similar groups in Transjordan, such as the Edomites and Ammonites. At various times Moabite territory stretched northward to Heshbon and the surrounding plains, and in this context, the plains just east of the Jordan River opposite the city of Jericho. The Midianites originated in northern Arabia and southern Transjordan. According to Gn 25:1-6, they were descendants of Abraham and his concubine Keturah. Their loose-knit seminomadic culture carried them from Arabia to Sinai and Egypt (Ex 2:15-22; Nm 10:29), and occasionally they made forays into Canaan as traders (Gn 37:25-36) or as marauding invaders (Jdg 6:1-6). A group of Midianite elders joined Balak’s emissaries in enlisting the services of Balaam to curse Israel.

22:5 Balaam was from the Mesopotamian town of Pethor, identified with Pitru, on the Sajur River tributary west of the Euphrates River. The distance from Pethor to Moab would have exceeded 400 miles, making each trip by the emissaries of Balak twenty-five days each way.

22:6 Balak asked Balaam to come and put a curse on these people, referring to the Israelites. Ancient Near Eastern texts recount the power of diviners, magicians, and sorcerers to manipulate the will of the gods through augury, special sacrificial rituals such as ritual dissection, and incantations aimed at blessing or cursing an individual or group, forecasting the future, and advising kings and other leaders.

22:7-8 Balaam was to be rewarded after fulfilling his cursing of Israel (v. 37; 24:11). Scholars have interpreted the phrase “divination in hand” (Hb uqsamim beyadam) as indicating that they had divination equipment or fees for divination in their hands, or as saying that the emissaries of Balak were versed in divination. Viktor Hurowitz (“The Expression uqsamin beyadam”) suggests that certain “magical” objects were used in the negotiation process with the recipient of the divination, including clay models of intestinal entrails, livers, or other body parts used in the practice of extispicy, the art of ritual dissection. So what was “in their hands” may have been baked clay models of the entrails predicting Moab’s downfall and Israel’s ascendancy. These predictions may have alarmed Balak’s own trained diviners so much that they sought a person of great renown such as Balaam to curse Israel so Moab would be delivered.

22:9-11 Appearing to Balaam in a dream-like manner, God began a dialogue with the pagan diviner. In all ancient societies dreams were thought to be a major channel by which deity communicated with humanity.

22:12 God’s clear intent was to bless his people as he had promised to do since the call of Abram (Gn 12:1-3).

22:13-21 The attempt at procuring Balaam’s service by a second, higher-ranking group of emissaries from Balak was met with a cautious response. The words used in v. 18 indicate that Balaam would become God’s spokesman. The terminology of divine speech has now come full circle from Moses to Balaam; Balaam should only “do” (Hb ‘asah) what God “speaks” (Hb davar, v. 20). These terms are used together throughout the book of Numbers in the context of the faithful following of the Lord’s commands in the sequence of God speaking and Moses (or others) doing just what the Lord commanded.

22:18 Balaam’s reference to the Lord my God represents his claim to be a spokesman for Yahweh. The words echo the reality that he had indeed had an encounter with the God of Israel, through which the true God had confronted and revealed himself to the pagan diviner. But his words do not indicate he was a true worshiper of Yahweh.

22:22 The angel of the Lord challenged the commitment of the prophet-diviner to fulfill the task that God had for him. That God would become angry and engage one of his servants on a journey directed by him is consistent with the challenges presented to Jacob when he was traveling back to Canaan (Gn 32:22-32). This also reminds us of Moses when he was headed to Egypt to challenge the pharaoh (Ex 4:24-26). In both cases these men were reminded that a holy God was in control of the situation, and they were to be faithful in completing their assigned tasks.

22:23-27 The words when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord are filled with irony, especially when used three times in this context. This renowned “seer of the gods” could not see what his lowly donkey saw. Furthermore, this donkey was a female, placing the animal in an even lower status when compared to the relative value and usefulness of male donkeys. Balaam beat her into submission, though she was ultimately more submissive to God than was the one whom God was sending to pronounce blessing upon Israel.

22:28-30 Tales of talking animals were common in ancient literature, and were considered fables that often contained warning, irony, or satire. There are two general interpretations of this event. (1) God literally gave the donkey the power of speech (the Lord opened the donkey’s mouth), or (2) the donkey’s normal braying was heightened to such a degree that it was perceived and interpreted by Balaam in a human manner. R. K. Harrison has suggested, “As the donkey brayed, she conveyed a message of anger and resentment that the seer understood in his mind in a verbal form.” Gordon Wenham asks, “If men were able to utter God’s words, why should not the same be true of animals?”

22:31-35 Dennis Olson suggests that “the life of a prophet is like riding a donkey. Balaam’s own personal ability to steer the course of history and see what lies ahead is minimal, less than the animal on which he rides. Lest Balaam have any thought he can make an end run around God, the angel teaches Balaam that he must lay down his own initiative in cursing or blessing Israel and allow God to use him as God sees fit.”

22:36-38 Balaam’s repetition of the words of divine instruction—I must speak only the message God puts in my mouth (cp. vv. 20,35)—shows that what is about to come from him is divine revelation. Balaam’s ability to influence the coming events was less than that of his donkey.

22:39-40 Kiriath-huzoth, the “city of plazas” as the name translates, may have been a central market area for the city of Ar in Moab, based on the suggestions of A. Biran, excavator of Tel Dan in northern Israel. Such buildings near the market plaza outside the gates of cities apparently served as offices for the oversight of commercial activity.

22:41 Balaam’s sacrificial activity began at Bamoth-baal (“the high places of Baal”), a cultic center for the worship of the Semitic deity Baal, the champion of creation in the mythology of Ugarit.