Balaam, the foreign prophet and the donkey that saw the angel
Balaam son of Beor in the Book of Numbers: King Balak, the talking donkey, the blessings on Israel, the star of Jacob and the Deir Alla inscription.
Among the prophetic figures of the Hebrew Bible, Balaam is one of the most unusual. He is not an Israelite but a foreign diviner, son of Beor, summoned by an enemy king to curse the people of Israel. His story, told in chapters 22 to 24 of the Book of Numbers, contains one of the most famous episodes of the Old Testament, that of the talking donkey, and a prophecy that later tradition read in a messianic sense.
The king of Moab and the commission
According to the biblical account, while the Israelites were encamped on the plains of Moab, King Balak son of Zippor, fearing their strength, sent messengers to Balaam, who lived at Pethor by the river, generally identified with the Euphrates. He offered him rewards to come and curse that people, convinced that the seer's word had the power to bring about their defeat.
Balaam replied that he could speak only what God put into his mouth. After a first refusal and a second embassy, he set out with the princes of Moab. The text thus presents a diviner known and consulted outside Israel, whose authority was recognised by neighbouring peoples, while at the same time subjecting him entirely to the will of the God of Israel.
The donkey and the angel
On the road the best-known episode takes place. An angel with a drawn sword stands in the way, visible to the donkey but not to the prophet. Three times the animal turns aside, presses against a wall, lies down, and three times Balaam beats it. Then the Lord opens the donkey's mouth and it reproaches its master; only afterwards are Balaam's eyes opened and he sees the angel standing before him.
The irony of the story is plain: the professional seer is blind to what a beast of burden recognises. The episode has enjoyed great success in art, from medieval miniatures to Romanesque capitals, down to Rembrandt's early painting of 1626, now in Paris, which captures the moment when the prophet raises his stick over the animal.
The blessings and the star of Jacob
Having reached Balak, Balaam has altars built on heights from which the Israelite camp can be seen. But three times, instead of the curse requested, blessings come from his lips, to the king's great anger. In the fourth oracle he utters the famous words: “There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel.” In Jewish and Christian tradition these words were interpreted as announcing a future ruler.
Some Church Fathers, among them Origen, linked this star to the one followed by the Magi in the Gospel of Matthew. Elsewhere, however, the Bible judges Balaam harshly: the Book of Numbers credits him with advising that Israel be seduced into idolatry, and the New Testament, in the Second Letter of Peter and in Revelation, makes him the model of one who betrays for gain.
In 1967 at Deir Alla, in Jordan, archaeologists discovered fragments of an inscription painted on plaster, in an ancient Semitic language, datable roughly to the eighth century BC, which speaks of “Balaam son of Beor”, a seer of the gods, and of a vision he had at night. The text does not confirm the biblical account, but it shows that a seer of that name was known in the region outside the Bible as well.