victorious. Conducted afterwards to the top of Peor, he surveyed the army of Israel, and predicted their future, their goodly dwellings in Canaan, and their successful wars against the nations down to Saul s time. Though Balak was angry and interrupted him, Balaam continued his prophecy, announcing Israel s valiant deeds, from David down to Hezekiah. Upon this he returned to his home. Another account of Balaam appears in Numbers xxxi. 8-16, Joshua xiii. 22, where we learn that lie advised the Midianite women to seduce the Israelites to the licentious worship of Baal, and that he was slain in a war with the
Midianites.The character given to Balaam in the first account is a favourable one. He is a worshipper of Jehovah the true God, receives divine revelations, and repeatedly declares that he will not go beyond or against them. Faithful to his calling, he steadfastly resists temptations sufficiently powerful, and therefore God communicates His Spirit to him, enabling him to predict the future of Israel.
The second account is unfavourable. In it he appears as a diviner, [ Hebrew ], a heathen seer, who tempted the wor shippers of the true God to idolatry. Instead of being a prophet of Jehovah, receiving visions and revelations, a man to whom the Almighty came by night, giving him instructions what to do, he is an immoral soothsayer. Of the two accounts, the latter, brief as it is, seems entitled to greater consideration. The former is elaborate and artificial, the theme being the glorification of the chosen people by the mouth of one of their enemies. An inspired seer from the far distant land of Aram is called in to bless the Israelites. He does so reluctantly, but like a true prophot, announcing nothing but what came to pass. The way in which he is taught the high des tiny of the chosen people is instructive. Ignorant at first of Israel s relation to the true God, and thinking they were like others, he was disposed to curse them, but is enlightened, and forcibly impelled to follow the divine revelations. From a heathen mantis he is converted into a true prophet by revelations and visions which he cannot resist. The seer is taken to three places in succes sion, whence he surveys Israel, and utters oracular sayings concerning them. Three times the angel of the Lord stands in the way, and three times the ass is smitten by Balaam. There are four prophetic announcements xxiii. 7-10, 18-24; xxiv. 3-9, 15-24. The first refers to the separate condition of Israel, their numbers, and their wor ship of the true God amid the idolatry of the surrounding nations. The second declares that God blesses Israel because there is no iniquity or perverseness in them, that He dwells among them, reveals himself to them, and makes them powerful and victorious. Both these refer to Mosaic times, or at least to times not later than Joshua. But the third announcement has the character of prediction, and refers to future events. Hence Balaam is introduced as a man whose eyes are opened, who hears the words of God, and sees visions of the Almighty. The condition of the people down to the time of Saul is glanced at, their eecure settlement in Canaan, and victorious wars with the native races. The fourth prophecy apparently carries down the history to the time of Hezekiah ; and a future ruler is distinguished as the star out of Jacob, the sceptre out of Israel, the conqueror of the Moabites and Edomites. The mention of the Kenites and Assyria in ver. 22, the former of whom were allies of Edom, shows, in the opinion of some recent critics, that the writer was acquainted with the Edomite wars under Amaziah and Uzziah, and hoped that the latter power would permanently subjugate the restless Edomites. This would bring the composition down to the first half of the 8th century. Verses 23 and 24 are obscure, but probably refer to no event later than Hezekiah. A fleet from the Phoenician Cyprians seems to have attacked the Canaanitish and Phoenician coasts, threatening the Syrians farther north.
The writer of Num. xxxi. 8, 16, Joshua xiii. 22, is the Elohist, whose account is very brief. Meagre, however, as it is, it is probably historical. A heathen soothsayer, connected with the Midianites, perished in one of their battles with Israel. The writer of Numbers xxii.-xxiv. is, in this view, the Jehovist, who, under the name of Balaam, gives expression to his ideas and hopes in the elevated diction of an inspired prophet. As Jacob and Moses had pronounced blessings on Israel under the imme diate inspiration of the Almighty, so Balaam is summoned from a distant land to eulogise the same people.
The character of Balaam has been apprehended very variously. Such diversity must exist according as the Elohist or Jehovist is followed. The Old Testament writers who mentioned him afterwards were influenced by the Jehovistic notice, and pronounce no judgment upon the seer (Deut. xxiii. 5, G; Joshua xxiv. 9, 10; Micah vi. 5; Nehemiah xiii. 2); but the New Testament authors followed the Elohistic account, and speak of him disparagingly, attri buting to him love of " the wages of unrighteousness," mad ness, idolatrousness, and impiety (2 Peter ii. 15, 16 ; Jude 11 ; Eev. ii. 14). Josephus calls him yuavrts a/uoros TWI/ TOTC, " the best prophet of his time," supposing him to be a prophet of the true God, but with a disposition ill- adapted to resist temptation. Philo describes his character more critically : " There was a man at that time celebrated for divination, who lived in Mesopotamia, and was an adept in all the forms of the divining art; but in no branch was he more admired than in augury ; to many persons, and on many occasions, he gave great and astounding proofs of his skill. For to some he foretold storms in the height of summer ; to others drought and heat in the depth of win ter ; to some scarcity succeeding a fruitful year, and then again abundance after scarcity ; to others the overflowing and drying up of rivers, and the remedies of pestilential diseases, and a vast multitude of other things, each of which he acquired great fame for predicting." The unfavourable character drawn of him by Philo is that which is generally taken by the later Jews. The later Targumists call him a sinner and an accursed man, while the Talmudists make him the representative of the godless, in contrast with Abraham, the representative of the pious. Yet they do not ignore his prophetic gift. The Midrashim about him are hardly worth mentioning, such as that he was one of Pharaoh s counsellors, that he was governor of a city in Ethiopia which he excited to rebellion, but was unable to defend against Moses at the head of an army who stormed the place and put Balaam to flight. In Yalkut ( She- moth) he is said to have been identified by some with Laban, Jacob s father-in-law ; by others with Elihu, Job s friend ; while others say that Jannes and Jambres were his sons. In Sanhedrin ( Chelek) he is said to have been blind of an eye. These, and other rabbinical fables, are entirely worthless ; and Origen s belief that the Magi from Persia, who came to worship the infant King of the Jews, learnt the meaning of the star from Balaam s prophecies, is of the same character.[1]
judged him to be a soothsayer or magician, a prophet in spired by the devil. A few, as Tertullian and Jerome, took a more favourable view of his character. The Ma hometans have various fables concerning Balaam. They say that he was of the race of Anakim, or giants of Pales tine, and that he read the books of Abraham, where he got
the name Jehovah, by virtue of which he predicted tho- ↑ See Fabricius s Codex Pseudepigrcpkus Vet. Test., p. 807, &c.
