Balaam the Prophet 1

Based on the information supplied by the Bible, it is not immediately apparent why
Jewish tradition has been so hostile to poor old Balaam.

Admittedly, at his worst moments, he comes across as a pathetic, almost comical

creature, a weak-willed man who is subjected to a humiliating argument with a talking
ass.

Yet the same individual is acknowledged to be an authentic prophet who obeys the
directives of the God of Israel, in whose name he blesses Israel with some of the Bible's
most inspired poetic outpourings.

In light of the above considerations, it is hard to comprehend why the Bible considered
him such a formidable antagonist that he had to be executed by Joshua's army.

Our understanding of this non-Hebrew prophet has been enriched in recent years by a
remarkable inscription that was unearthed in 1967 in archeological excavations at the
Deir 'Alla site in Jordan, not far from the scene of Balaam's activities in the book of
Numbers. The text in question, which was probably composed around 700 B.C.E., was
written in Aramaic (or Ammonite) on plaster slabs that might have formed part of a
sanctuary or cultic monument. From it we learn of the existence, some six hundered
years after Balaam's lifetime, of a religious movement that continued to revere Balaam
as its great prophet and spiritual mentor.

Several features in this memorial reveal uncanny resemblances to the familiar Biblical
story of Balaam, whose role is depicted in terms that are reminiscent of the Hebrew
prophets.

Thus, "Balaam bar Be'or" is said in the inscription to be a "seer of the gods" and is the
one to whom those gods reveal their intentions in "visions of the night."

The names of the gods who speak to the pagan prophet are also familiar to us from the
Bible, including "El" and a council of deities called "Shaddayin" (mighty ones). Balaam
is informed in a dream that the people are about to be punished by darkness, drought
and other natural disasters, and he must urge the people to placate the angry divinities.

It is clear however that these surface similarities to Jewish religious concepts only serve
to enhance the fundamental contrast between the pagan seer and the Prophets of Israel.

We must not lose sight of the fact that Balaam's gods are referred to in the plural,
signifying a world governed by disharmony and conflict. In fact some scholars have
suggested that the Bible, in order to prevent any confusion between the divine epithet
"Shaddai" and its profaned use among the pagans, deliberately altered its pronunciation,
turning it into "shed[im]," the common word for "demons."

The most glaring differences between the perceptions of prophecy in the Torah and in
Balaam's cult become apparent when we read in the inscription how the heathen leader
responded to the warnings of doom.

Now, we are all familiar with the typical Jewish responses to impending catastrophes:
The people are urged to examine their spiritual states, and to take special care to
improve their standards of morality, social justice and the welfare of the poor.

Not so Balaam. Although the concluding lines of the inscription have been poorly
preserved, and several different conjectural reconstructions have been proposed for the
Aramaic text, one very persuasive interpretation reads that Balaam exhorted his people
to placate their gods by deepening their commitment to the promiscuous activities that
were carried out, with the assistance of sacred prostitutes, in the name of the local
fertility cult. According to this theory, it is likely that the structure that once housed the
inscription had been just such a cultic brothel.

If this hypothesis is correct, then it also sheds light upon the Biblical account of how,
immediately following the Balaam episode, the Israelites were enticed into commiting
harlotry with Moabite and Midianite women. That transgression, which brought divine
punishment upon the people, is ascribed by Jewish tradition to Balaam.

From the Deir `Alla inscription we learn that from Balaam's perspective such behaviour
might not have been intended as a deliberate affront to God, so much as it was a pious
pagan "mitzvah."

All these details might help explain why Balaam, ostensibly speaking in the name of the
same god, but representing a religious world-view diametrically opposed to Jewish
moral values, came to be regarded as such a serious threat to the Biblical ideals of
spirituality.

My email address is: eliezer.segal@ucalgary.ca

Bibliography:

• Jo Ann Hackett, The Balaam Text from Deir `Alla (Chico, 1984).
• Jo Ann Hackett, "Observations on the Balaam Inscription at Deir `Alla," Biblical
Archeological Review 1986, 5:218-22.
• Alexander Rofé, The Book of Balaam (Jerusalem, 1979).

1
First publication: Jewish Free Press, July 5 1995, p. 10.