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55-564: The excavation revealed a multiple-chamber structure that had been destroyed by an earthquake during the Persian period, on the wall of which was written a story relating visions of Bal'am, son of Be'or, a "seer of the gods", who may be the same Balaam son of Be'or mentioned in Numbers 22–24 and in other passages of the Bible. The Deir Alla inscription's take on Bala'am differs from that given in

110-479: A pseudonym for Jesus in Jewish literature. Balaam's father Beor was a son of Laban . The Book of Jasher reports that Balaam's sons were Jannes and Jambres . Balaam's exclamation, "How good are your tents, O Jacob, your tabernacles, O Israel!", was taken by later generations of Jews as the basis of the liturgical prayer Ma Tovu . Balaam is reviled as a "saviour(in terms of prophet)" in several places in

165-769: A blessing and a prophecy in succession. Agag , mentioned in the third poem, is described as a great king, which does not correspond to the king of the Amalekites who was named Agag , and described in 1 Samuel 15 , since that description considers Amalek to be small and obscure. While the Masoretic text of the poem uses the word Agag , the Septuagint , other Greek versions, and the Samaritan Pentateuch all have Gog . These names are consequently considered textual corruptions, and Og has been suggested as

220-444: A book in a West Semitic language written with an alphabet, and the oldest piece of Aramaic literature." When the text was found, it was broken into fragments, which were lying on the ground. The fragments are poorly preserved, and only a part of the text has been found. In all, 119 pieces of ink-inscribed plaster were recovered. The wall, near the summit of the tel, was felled by a tremor. Scholars have succeeded in arranging many of

275-444: A combined text. The first complete translation and reconstruction of the inscription was published in 1981. Today, the text in modern Hebrew letters is available online. The text is difficult to read and to interpret. Here is one reconstruction and translation of the first combination: A more recent and complete English translation can also be found online. The second combination: Though containing some features of Aramaic, such as

330-686: A papyrus in the British Museum ; Gardiner and Caminos , however, transcribe and translate this name as Baꜥalry . In 2019, Israel Finkelstein , Nadav Na'aman and Thomas Römer proposed the common reading of " House of David " in the Mesha Stele is actually "Balak". The Zohar , the basic text of the Kabbalah , offers a special interpretation to the Balak being "The Son of Zippor ". In Hebrew, "Zippor" (ציפור) means "bird". According to

385-399: A prophet in the Bible. In both the inscription and the Bible, Balaam is a prophet whose utterances determine the fate of nations. However, other details of the stories are different. According to the inscription, Balaam wakes up weeping and tells his people that the gods appeared to him in the night telling him about a goddess threatening to destroy the land. She is to cover the sky and reduce

440-574: A translation of a Syria-Palestinian story into a literary Aramaic text. The Semitic Etymological Dictionary categorizes the Deir Alla language as simply "dialect of the inscription from Deir Alla." In the 1960s, in addition to hundreds of vessels like bowls and jars, seven clay tablets were found with an unknown script. They haven't been fully deciphered, nor has their clay been tested to see if it's local to Deir Alla. Cannabis has been found as hemp here and at another Iron Age cultic site, Tel Arad in

495-665: Is a historical reference to ancient Nineveh or a prophecy, which some religious commentators consider refers to the Seleucid Empire , which also took the name "Assyria". The seventh is also ambiguous and may either be a reference to the Sea Peoples or, in the view of some religious commentators, to the conquest of the Achaemenid Empire by Alexander the Great . In the view of some schools of textual criticism,

550-411: Is allowed to see the angel, who informs him that the donkey's turning away from the messenger is the only reason the angel did not kill Balaam. Balaam immediately repents, but is told to go on. Balak meets with Balaam at Kirjat Huzoth , and they go to the "high places of Baal ", and offer sacrifices on seven altars, leading to Balaam being given a prophecy by Yahweh , which He speaks to Balak. However,

605-542: Is datable to ca. 840–760 BCE; it was painted in red and black inks, apparently to emphasize the text, on fragments of a plastered wall: 119 pieces of inked plaster were recovered. Meindert Dijkstra suggests that "the reticence of OT scholarship to take account of the text may be attributable to its damaged state, the difficulty of reconstructing and reading it, and the many questions it raises of script, language, literary form and religious content." Attribution Balak Balak son of Zippor ( Hebrew : בָּלָק Bālāq )

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660-661: Is later listed among the Midianites who were killed in revenge for the "matter of Peor". Joshua 13:22 records that Balaam died "by the sword" during a battle for the Reubenite occupation of Moabite land. In total, Balaam's prophecies consist of seven (Hebrew) poems: The poems fall into three groups. The first group consists of two poems which characteristically start immediately. The third group of three poems also start immediately, but are much shorter. The second group, however, consists of two poems which both start: Balaam

715-691: Is now located in the region of northern Syria and southeastern Turkey is simply given as "which is by the river of the land of the children of his people" in the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint . The Samaritan Pentateuch , Vulgate , and Peshitta all identify his land as Ammon . Balaam sends back word that he can only do what YHWH commands, and God has, via a nocturnal dream, told him not to go. Balak consequently sends higher-ranking priests and offers Balaam honours; Balaam continues to press God, and God finally permits him to go but with instructions to say only what He commands. Balaam then sets out in

770-572: Is now southeastern Turkey. According to chapters 22-24 of the Book of Numbers , he was hired by King Balak of Moab to curse Israel, but instead he blessed the Israelites , as dictated by God. Subsequently, the plan to entice the Israelites into idol worship and sexual immorality is attributed to him. Balaam is also mentioned in the Book of Micah . The main story of Balaam occurs during

825-625: Is that of a dog: if you chase it away, it pants, and if you leave it, it ˹still˺ pants. This is the example of the people who deny Our signs. So narrate ˹to them˺ stories ˹of the past˺, so perhaps they will reflect. The Muslim commentators explain that Bal'am bin Ba'ura ( Arabic : بلعام بن باعوراء ) was a Canaanite who had been given knowledge of some of the books of God . His people asked him to curse Moses ( Musa ) and those who were with him, but he said, "How can I curse one who has angels with him?" They continued to press him, however, until he cursed

880-456: The Book of Numbers . Bal'am's god is associated with the goddess Šagar-we-Ishtar. Deities with such names, " Šagar -and- Ishtar " (or Aštar) certainly are known to history, but quite separately. The enigmatic narrative also foregrounds the "Shaddayin" who establish a council. (שדין, deities). It also features the word " Elohin ", taken to mean "gods" in the plural rather than the Hebrew deity. It

935-730: The Heresy of Peor . Numbers 31:16 blames this on Balaam's advice and because of his culpability in the incident, which resulted in deadly divine judgements against the Israelites who participated, he was eventually killed in a retaliatory battle against Midian in Numbers 31:8. Deuteronomy 23:3–6 summarises these incidents, and further states that the Ammonites were associated with the Moabites. Joshua , in his farewell speech, also makes reference to it. With God's protection taken from him, Balaam

990-591: The Israelites , and, as a consequence, they remained 40 years in the Wilderness of the Wanderings. Then, when he had cursed Moses, his tongue came out and fell upon his breast, and he began to pant like a dog. The story as told by Tabari is somewhat more Biblical . Balaam had the knowledge of the Most Sacred Name of God , and whatever he asked of God was granted to him. The story of Balaam and

1045-502: The Negev , as burned incense or drug. Balaam Balaam ( / ˈ b eɪ l æ m / ; Hebrew : בִּלְעָם , romanized :  Bīlʿām ), son of Beor , was a biblical character, a non-Israelite prophet and diviner who lived in Pethor , a place identified with the ancient city of Pitru , thought to have been located between the region of Iraq and northern Syria in what

1100-474: The New Testament , where he is cited as a type of avarice; for example in Book of Revelation 2:14 we read of false teachers at Pergamum who held the "teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication". Balaam has attracted much interest, alike from Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Josephus paraphrases

1155-570: The Targum of Jonathan , they were one alliance of people at this time and therefore had a common interest in preventing Israelite settlement of the area. After his mission with Balaam to curse Israelites failed, Balak decided to ally with Midianites to gather their women in order to lead Israelites men astray in adultery. Sources detailing the story of Balak: According to the Pulpit Commentary , Balak seems to be mentioned by name on

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1210-605: The Balaams of the Old and New Testaments, claiming that Beor is Balaam's father and Bezer is Balaam's home town. The story is also referred to in chapter 10 of 2 Meqabyan , a book considered canonical in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church . In his commentary on Matthew's Gospel , Dale Allison associates the magi who visited the infant Jesus (Matthew 2) with Balaam, in that both Balaam and

1265-557: The Elohist describes Balaam giving two blessings, making sacrifices on seven altars, at the high places of Baal, before each, then deciding not to "seek enchantments" after the third set of sacrifices, but to "set his face upon the wilderness," which Balak views as a third blessing, and so Balaam then gives the three final predictions of fate. Conversely, in the Jahwist source, Balaam arrives, the spirit of God comes upon him, and he delivers

1320-456: The Israelite population and the consequent resource depletion which could be expected if they were permitted to occupy Moabite land. Balak initially conferred with his Midianite allies in order to block Israelite settlement, before sending his elders (along with Midianite elders) to seek Balaam's curse on them. The Midianites appear to have been co-located with the Moabites - according to

1375-498: The Israelites from the peak. The Spirit of God comes upon Balaam and he delivers a third positive prophecy concerning Israel. Balak's anger rises to the point where he threatens Balaam, but Balaam merely offers a prediction of fate. Balaam then looks upon the Kenites , and Amalekites and offers two more predictions of their fates. Balak and Balaam then go to their respective homes. Later, Numbers 25:1–9 describes how Israel engaged in

1430-585: The Israelites, seeking the Promised Land following their Exodus from Egypt , had defeated the Canaanites at a place named Hormah , as well as the Amorites and the people of Bashan , and next approached Moab. The biblical narrative stresses the fears of the people of Moab, who were 'exceedingly afraid' and 'sick with dread' (NKJV) or 'terrified' (GNT). Their fears appear to relate to the size of

1485-615: The Jews; at first being a mere interpreter of dreams, but later becoming a magician, until finally the spirit of prophecy descended upon him. According to a negative view of Balaam in the Talmud , Balaam possessed the gift of being able to ascertain the exact moment during which God is angry—a gift bestowed upon no other creature. Balaam's intention was to curse the Israelites at this moment of wrath, and thus cause God himself to destroy them; but God purposely restrained His anger in order to baffle

1540-537: The Moon, while burning incense in front of it for seven days and seven nights. Thereupon, the bird would start talking and foretelling of what is about to happen. Only the most skilled of wizards could construct such a bird. Balak, the greatest wizard of his age, managed it. The bird was always sitting on Balak's shoulder and whispering in his ear, and therefore he was nicknamed "Son of the Bird". The Zohar further recounts that

1595-523: The Name and his faith. This being done, they went out from him in the form of a white dove. The Baghdadi historian Al Masudi said in his book Meadows of Gold and Mines of Gems that Balaam ben Beor was in a village in the lands of Shem (Canaan), and he is the son of Baura(Beor) ben Sanur ben Waseem ben Moab ben Lot ben Haran (PUT), and his prayers were answered, so his folks asked him to pray against Joshua ben Nun but he could not do it, so he advised some of

1650-507: The Zohar, this was not the name of Balak's father but rather referred to a magical metal bird which Balak made use of. As the Zohar recounts, such a bird has a head made of gold , a mouth made of silver and wings made of copper mixed with silver, and its body is made of gold; once the bird is made, it should be put during the day in a window facing the Sun and during the night in a window facing

1705-639: The age of 33, and it is stated that he had no portion in the world to come. The book devotes a special section to the history of the prophet discussing why God has taken away the power of prophecy from the Gentiles. The Talmud states that "Moses wrote his book and the portion of Balaam", regarding this passage as separate from the rest of the Torah in terms of topic or style, but united in authorship. In ( Sanhedrin 106b) and ( Giṭtin 57a) Balaam may be likened to Jesus. Some have theorized that Balaam became used as

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1760-469: The ass, then follows at length. When it came to the actual cursing, God "turned his tongue" so that the cursing fell upon his own people and the blessing upon Israel. Then his tongue came out and hung down on his breast. Finally, he advised his people to adorn and beautify their women and to send them out to ensnare the Israelites. The story of the plague at Baal-peor and of Cozbi and Zimri follows. According to another story which al-Tabari gives, Balaam

1815-529: The bird spoke true words of prophecy in Balak's ear and warned him not to set himself against the Sons of Israel, and also foretold of the harsh punishment in store for himself and for the Moabits. Nevertheless, Balak persisted in his wrong way and was punished exactly as the bird foretold. Revelation 2:12 - 2:14 refers to Balak. Balak is mentioned in chapter 10 of 2 Meqabyan , a book considered canonical in

1870-539: The death of 24,000 victims of the plague which God sent as punishment. When Balaam saw that he could not curse the children of Israel, the Rabbis assert that he advised Balak, as a last resort, to tempt the Hebrew nation to immoral acts and, through these, to the worship of Baal-peor. The God of the Hebrews , adds Balaam, according to the Rabbis, hates lewdness; and severe chastisement must follow . The Rabbis, playing on

1925-463: The fragments into two large 'combinations'. At least to some extent, they had use of information about which fragments were found close together or wide apart on the ground. Still, uncombined fragments remain. For the reading of damaged or missing parts of the text, they sometimes had to guess; however, where the same group of words seems to appear in several places, but with different parts damaged in different occurrences, they could reasonably reconstruct

1980-485: The kings of the giants to show the pretty women and release them toward the camp of Joshua ben Nun, and so they did, and they (the Israelites) hurried up to the women and the plague spread among them and seventy thousand of them were dead. In 1967, at Deir Alla , Jordan , archaeologists found an inscription with a story relating visions of the seer of the gods Bala'am, son of Be'or, the same name appearing as that of

2035-559: The magi were "from the east": thus "Matthew's magi are Balaam's successors". No clear reference is made to Balaam in the Qur'an . However, the commentators argue that he is the one to whom the following text is referring: And relate to them ˹O Prophet˺ the story of the one to whom We gave Our signs, but he abandoned them, so Satan took hold of him, and he became a deviant. If We had willed, We would have elevated him with Our signs, but he clung to this life—following his evil desires. His example

2090-568: The morning with the princes of Moab. God becomes angry that he went and sends the Angel of the Lord (Numbers 22:22) to prevent him. At first, the angel is seen only by the donkey Balaam is riding, which tries to avoid the angel. After Balaam starts punishing the donkey for refusing to move, it is miraculously given the power to speak to Balaam (Numbers 22:28) and says, "What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?" At this point, Balaam

2145-429: The mouth of the donkey" to tell him there was an angel with a drawn sword facing him. He tells the angel he will return home: "I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood against me on the road". The angel instructs Balaam to attend the meeting with the princes of Moab but to "say only what I tell you". According to Numbers 22:2, and Joshua 24:9, Balak was the son of Zippor . In the preceding chapter of Numbers,

2200-504: The name Balaam, call him "Belo 'Am" (without people; that is, without a share with the people in the world to come), or "Billa' 'Am" (one that ruined a people); and this hostility against his memory finds its climax in the dictum that whenever one discovers a feature of wickedness or disgrace in his life, one should preach about it. In the process of killing Balaam (Numbers 31:8), all four legal methods of execution—stoning, burning, decapitating, and strangling—were employed. He met his death at

2255-719: The name Balaam. A man also named Balaam also figures as an example of a false prophet motivated by greed or avarice in both 2 Peter 2:15 and in Jude 1:11. This Balaam is listed as the son of Bezer, which is usually identified as Beor. Some authors claim that Bezer was the Aramaic pronunciation of Beor, while others hold that the author was attempting to play off the Hebrew word basar or "flesh" to insult Balaam. Later Jewish tradition similarly played with Balaam's name to call him corrupt and imply bestiality. Still other authors hold that Bezer and Beor are distinct, while still identifying

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2310-417: The narrative, excepting the episode involving the donkey, is simply a framework invented to be able to insert much older poems. In rabbinic literature Balaam is represented as one of seven gentile prophets ; the other six being Beor (Balaam's father), Job , and Job's four friends. In this literature, Balaam gradually acquired a position among the non-Jews, which was exalted as much as that of Moses among

2365-403: The original. The final three poems do not refer to Israel or Moab and are thus considered unusual since they seem to have little relevance to the narrative. It is thought that they may have been added to bring the number of poems up to five if inserted into the Elohist source or up to seven if only inserted once JE was constructed. While the sixth poem refers to Assyria, it is uncertain whether it

2420-476: The prophecy blesses Israel; Balak remonstrates, but Balaam reminds him that he can only speak the words put in his mouth, so Balak takes him to another "high place" at Pisgah , to try again. Building another seven altars here, and making sacrifices on each, Balaam provides another prophecy blessing Israel. Balaam finally gets taken by a now very frustrated Balak to Peor , and, after the seven sacrifices there, decides not to "seek enchantments" but instead looks upon

2475-708: The sojourn of the Israelites in the plains of Moab , east of the Jordan River , at the close of forty years of wandering , shortly before the death of Moses and the crossing of the Jordan. The Israelites have already defeated two kings in Transjordan: Sihon , king of the Amorites , and Og , king of Bashan . Balak , king of Moab , consequently becomes alarmed and sends elders of Midian and his Moabite messengers, to Balaam, son of Beor, to induce him to come and curse Israel. Balaam's location, Pethor , which

2530-566: The son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said: He hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open ... Of Balaam's three groups of poems, the documentary hypothesis argued that the first and third groups originated within the Elohist text, whereas the second group belonged to the Jahwist . Thus

2585-450: The story more so, and speaks of Balaam as the best prophet of his time, but with a disposition ill-adapted to resist temptation . Philo describes him as a great magician in the Life of Moses ; elsewhere he speaks of "the sophist Balaam, being," i.e. symbolizing "a vain crowd of contrary and warring opinions" and again as "a vain people", both phrases being based on a mistaken etymology of

2640-460: The wicked one , is often attached to the name of Balaam. Balaam is pictured as blind in one eye and lame in one foot, and his disciples (followers) are distinguished by three morally corrupt qualities: an evil eye , a haughty bearing, and a greedy spirit. Due to his behavior with the Midianites, the Rabbis interpret Balaam as responsible for the behavior during the Heresy of Peor , which they consider to have been unchastity , and consequently

2695-468: The wicked prophet and to save the nation from extermination. The Talmud also recounts a more positive view of Balaam, stating that when the Torah was given to Israel, a mighty voice shook the foundations of the earth, so much so that all kings trembled, and in their consternation turned to Balaam, inquiring whether this upheaval of nature portended a second deluge; the prophet assured them that what they heard

2750-498: The word bar "(son of [Beor])" rather than the Canaanite ben , it also has many elements of Canaanite languages , leading some to believe it was written in a dialect of Canaanite rather than an early form of Aramaic. The inscription has been dated to 880–770 BCE. Klaus Beyer calls the language South Gileadite. Holger Gzella reckons the mixture of Canaanite vocabulary and narration with a primarily Aramaic grammatical core reflect

2805-440: The world to complete darkness. In contrast with the biblical account where Balaam receives prophecies from Yahweh, the inscription associates Balaam with multiple deities ( Ashtar , a god named Shgr, and Shadday gods and goddesses). The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies describes it as "the oldest example of a book in a West Semitic language written with the alphabet, and the oldest piece of Aramaic literature." The inscription

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2860-464: Was a king of Moab described in the Book of Numbers in the Hebrew Bible , where his dealings with the prophet and sorcerer Balaam are recounted. Balak tried to engage Balaam the son of Beor for the purpose of cursing the migrating Israelite community. On his journey to meet the princes of Moab, Balaam is stopped by an angel of the Lord after beating his female donkey . The Lord then "opened

2915-630: Was a renegade Israelite who knew the Most Sacred Name, and to gain the things of this world, went over to the Canaanites. Al-Tha'labi adds that Balaam was descended from Lot. He gives, too, the story of Balaam's dream, his being forbidden by God to curse Israel. Another version is that Balak , the king of Bal'a , compelled Balaam to use the Most Sacred Name against Israel. The curse fell automatically, and Moses, having learned whence it came, entreated God to take from Balaam his knowledge of

2970-490: Was on ink on plastered wall; as in the plaster inscriptions at Kuntillet Ajrud , black and red inks were used. Red apparently emphasized certain parts of the text. The inscriptions were written with a broad nibbed pen with ink, an extremely early example. They represent the earliest point of evidence in the history of the West Semitic alphabet. The Oxford Handbook of Biblical Studies describes it as "the oldest example of

3025-401: Was the voice of God, giving the sacred law to the Israelites. According to Jewish legend, Balaam was made this powerful in order to prevent the non-Jewish tribes from saying: "If we had only had our own Moses, we would be as pious as the Jews." The wicked Balaam is included in the list of persons born circumcised along with Moses. In rabbinical literature the epithet rasha , translating as

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