Chapter Twenty-Three
Balaam’s First Oracle
23:1 And Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me here seven altars, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.” 2 Balak did as Balaam had said. And Balak and Balaam offered on each altar a bull and a ram. 3 And Balaam said to Balak, “Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps the LORD will come to meet me, and whatever he shows me I will tell you.” And he went to a bare height, 4 and God met Balaam. And Balaam said to him, “I have arranged the seven altars and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.” 5 And the LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” 6 And he returned to him, and behold, he and all the princes of Moab were standing beside his burnt offering.
It is clear from this text that Balaam knew very little about YHWH, as he has Balak build seven altars and obtain seven bulls and seven rams. One bull and one ram were offered on each altar. In the hope that YHWH would come to meet him. Even though the terminology sounds correct, such as calling these sacrifices as burnt offerings, they were not offered according to God’s instructions (not performed by an official priest, not offered on a holy altar, animals not prepared according to Levitical procedures, etc.) But then word ‘ō·lā(h)’ may not be a reference to the standard burnt offering as it also refers to “that which ascends,” referring to a burning sacrifice.[1]
Interestingly, God did meet Balaam, who told him to go back to Balak and God would speak through him. There will be a total of four discourses, most often called the oracles of Balaam. Each one has God blessing the nation of Israel.
23:7 And Balaam took up his discourse and said, “From Aram Balak has brought me, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains: ‘Come, curse Jacob for me, and come, denounce Israel!’ 8 How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce whom the LORD has not denounced? 9 For from the top of the crags I see him, from the hills I behold him; behold, a people dwelling alone, and not counting itself among the nations! 10 Who can count the dust of Jacob or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his!”
God told Balaam to state that he was asked while living in Aram (another name for Syria, the northern region of Mesopotamia) by Balak, the king of Moab, to come and curse (Hebrew ‘ā’·rā(h)’,[2] to inflict a curse) Jacob and denounce (Hebrew ‘zā’am’,[3] to be enraged) Israel for him. He then asks two questions. How can I curse whom God has not cursed? And how can I denounce whom the YHWH has not denounced?
In verse nine the Hebrew pronoun ‘hû’[4] in many Bibles is translated as ‘him’ (KJV, NKJV, ESV, NASB, etc., including the Septuagint and the Targum of Onkelos) referring to God, which would emphasize the importance of obeying Him, making it clear that He is not some local deity or an idol that can be left behind, with His glory observable from high places. However, many translations based on context, prefer to use the word ‘them’, referring to the Israelites (NIV, NLT, NET, CSB, etc.) If they were still at Bamoth-baal (Numbers 22:41), a reference to a high place, Balaam could possibly see the vast number of Israelites and further said, “Who can count Jacob’s descendants, as numerous as dust? Who can count even a fourth of Israel’s people?” (Verse 10, NLT) This statement offers additional evidence of God’s fulfillment of His promise to Abraham that his offspring would be fruitful (see Genesis 13:16; Exodus 1:7). Recognizing that the people of Israel dwell alone, a reference often misinterpreted, Balaam perhaps now understood that these were God’s people, being holy, separated from others with Him as their God. Balaam concludes that when he dies, he wants to die a righteous person, to be like one of them.
23:11 And Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have done nothing but bless them.” 12 And he answered and said, “Must I not take care to speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?”
This whole purpose of this exercise was for Balaam to curse the Israelites, but instead he blessed them. However, long before Balak went ballistic, Balaam did warn him that he could only say what God commands him to say (see Numbers 22:18, 38) and, once again, Balaam states that he can only speak the words that YHWH puts in his mouth to speak.
Balaam’s Second Oracle
23:13 And Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place, from which you may see them. You shall see only a fraction of them and shall not see them all. Then curse them for me from there.” 14 And he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. 15 Balaam said to Balak, “Stand here beside your burnt offering, while I meet the LORD over there.” 16 And the LORD met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus shall you speak.” 17 And he came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the LORD spoken?”
Balak still did not understand why Balaam could not curse the Israelites, thinking the problem has something to do with not seeing all of them (apparently the first location only saw approximately one-fourth of them, see verse 10), so he brought Balaam to the top of Pisgah where they built another seven altars and offered another seven bulls and another seven rams. Balaam instructed Balak to remain standing near the sacrifices while he went to a nearby location to meet with God. YHWH met with Balaam and told him again to return to Balak and He will tell him what to say. When he returned Balak and the princes of Moab were waiting with him.
23:18 And Balaam took up his discourse and said, “Rise, Balak, and hear; give ear to me, O son of Zippor: 19 God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? 20 Behold, I received a command to bless: he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it. 21 He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob, nor has he seen trouble in Israel. The LORD their God is with them, and the shout of a king is among them. 22 God brings them out of Egypt and is for them like the horns of the wild ox. 23 For there is no enchantment against Jacob, no divination against Israel; now it shall be said of Jacob and Israel, ‘What has God wrought!’ 24 Behold, a people! As a lioness it rises up and as a lion it lifts itself; it does not lie down until it has devoured the prey and drunk the blood of the slain.”
Balaam begins his second oracle by calling Balak to listen carefully as he is about to receive invaluable insight as to who YHWH is and to illuminate His true nature. This section mirrors several other verses in the Bible that demonstrate that the nature of God is not like the nature of mankind, He does not have any of the failing qualities of a man (see 1 Samuel 15:29; Malachi 3:6; Titus 1:2; Hebrews 6:18; James 1:17), or any deity created by man. This lesson amplifies several characteristics about God, that He is holy, loving, omniscient, and omnipotent.
He says that God is not man in that He would or could lie, as lying would violate His holiness, nor would he be like a son of man and change His mind. He is omniscient. He alone knows all things past, present, and future. He cannot later be better informed requiring Him to change His mind. If He said He would do something, being omnipotent He would always have the ability to do as He promised. Balaam then tells Balak that he has been told by God to bless these people and that He has blessed them, and he is powerless to change that blessing to a curse, as YHWH, their God, is with them. The shout (Hebrew ‘terû·’ǎṯ’, referring to the sounding of alarm or shout of joy)[5] of a king would be considered a joyful scenario celebrating a king’s favorable friendship.
It was God who brought them out of Egypt (perhaps a statement made to counter Balak’s assumption that they came out of Egypt on their own, see Numbers 22:5), who is like the horn of a wild ox, goring their enemies as they travel in the wilderness. No enchanting powers or divination can be used against the people of Israel. “What wonders God has done for Israel!” (Numbers 23:23b, NLT) The Hebrew word translated as ‘enchantment’ is only found twice in the Bible, here and in the next chapter (translated ‘omens’ in verse one). The noun ‘nǎ’·ḥǎš’[6] comes from the verb ‘nā·haš’[7] (found eleven times in Scripture, meaning to practice divination).[8] The word translated as ‘divination’ in the same verse is a different word, ‘qě’·sěm’,[9] first seen in the previous chapter (verse 7), always used in conjunction with pagan ritual, referring to one or more methods of examining omens to determine possible future outcomes.
Magic comprises two categories, sorcery and divination, which differ in their objective: the former attempts to alter the future; the latter, to predict it. The magician who claims to curse or bless is a sorcerer, whereas the one who foretells events but cannot affect them is a diviner. In Israel, sorcery (keshafim) is not only banned (Deut. 18:10) but punished with death (Exod. 22:17)...Divination could be tolerated in Israel since, theoretically, it was not incompatible with monotheism—the diviner could always claim that he was only trying to disclose the immutable will of God. Indeed, according to one source, the prophet originally was called a diviner (1 Sam. 9:9). Thus, the diviner, in contrast to the sorcerer, was never subject to judicial execution.[10]
Balaam concludes by saying, that these people rise up like a lioness, and as a lion is awakened rises, refusing to rest until the prey has been devoured and the blood of those slaughtered has been consumed. Not favorable news for Balak!
23:25 And Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all, and do not bless them at all.” 26 But Balaam answered Balak, “Did I not tell you, ‘All that the LORD says, that I must do’?” 27 And Balak said to Balaam, “Come now, I will take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.” 28 So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooks the desert. 29 And Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me here seven altars and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.” 30 And Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.
At this point it seems that Balak is telling Balaam to just be quiet, if he can’t curse, then don’t say anything! Balaam again reminds Balak that he did warn him that he could only say what he is allowed to say (see Numbers 22:18).
Balak, still not grasping the spiritual aspect of what was going on, or perhaps not able to think apart from the presuppositions of his pagan understanding, tries yet another location. Balak brings Balaam to the top of Peor, which overlooked the desert, apparently also the location of a sanctuary dedicated to Baal (see Numbers 25:3; Hosea 9:10). Once there, they followed the same procedure of setting up seven altars and offered seven bulls and seven rams as sacrifices.
⇐Previous Chapter (Introduction/Index) Next Chapter⇒
[1] See commentary under Genesis 8:20 and 22:1-2.
[2] Strong’s Hebrew 779.
[3] Strong’s Hebrew 2194.
[4] Strong’s Hebrew 1931.
[5] See commentary under Leviticus 23:23-25.
[6] Strong’s Hebrew 5173.
[7] Strong’s Hebrew 5172.
[8] See commentary under Genesis 30:25-28; 44:3-6.
[9] Strong’s Hebrew 7081.
[10] Milgrom, J. (1990). Numbers (p. 471-2). Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society.