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BALAAM

(Heb. bilʿām)

A prophet referred to in the OT and NT as well as in an 8th-century b.c.e. plaster inscription from Tell Deir ʿAllā in Jordan; the book of Numbers contains the most extensive material. Balaam is first introduced in the biblical material when the Israelites approach the land of Canaan, after their defeat of Sihon and Og (Num. 21:21-35). His homeland was in Pethor (Num. 22:5; Deut. 23:4), sometimes identified with Pitru on the Upper Euphrates. Balak, king of Transjordanian Moab, having witnessed Israel’s rout of the Amorites, sent messengers to Balaam requesting that he curse the Israelites (Num. 22:1-6). After the messengers arrived with “fees for divination” (cf. Josh. 13:22), Balaam told them that he must first consult Yahweh, an intriguing statement for a non-Israelite. Balaam refused to go to Moab with these messengers, but received permission from God to go with the second group (Num. 22:7-21). After an unusual incident involving Balaam’s donkey and an angel of Yahweh (22:22-35), Balaam arrived in Moab. Although Balak desired that Israel be cursed, Balaam stated that he must speak that which he was permitted to by God (22:36-39). After sacrifices were offered, Balaam sought Yahweh and received a divine message (23:1-6). Much to the chagrin of Balak, Balaam blessed Israel in his first oracle (23:7-12). Balak convinced Balaam to attempt again to curse Israel, but his second oracle was also a blessing (23:13-26). Two more blessing oracles were subsequently pronounced by Balaam, the final one predicting that Israel would rule over the Transjordanian kingdoms, including Moab (24:1-25).

Although the archaic (mostly JE) Balaam traditions in Num. 22-24 are rather positive, there are later negative traditions about him. For example, there was apparently a tradition that Balaam was actually willing to curse the Israelites, but was prevented from doing so by Yahweh (Deut. 23:3-6; Josh. 24:9-10; Neh. 13:1-2), something which differs with the statements in Num. 22-24. Num. 25:1-15 is a combined narrative, one component referring to incidents involving Israelite men and Moabite women (vv. 1-5) and a second to incidents involving an Israelite man and a Midianite woman (vv. 6-15). Num. 31 is aware of this combined narrative; it suggests that Balaam was instrumental in the initiation of the apostasy (v. 16 P) and states that he was killed along with various Midianites (v. 8). Furthermore, the NT references to Balaam are all negative, viewing him as a prototype of false teachers in the NT period (2 Pet. 2:15; Jude 11; Rev. 2:14).

Two major fragment groups of a plaster inscription were excavated at Tell Deir ʿAllā in 1967, designated Combination I and Combination II. The latter is particularly fragmentary and enigmatic. On the basis of the script as well as the archaeological context, the plaster texts are dated ca. 700. The language of the inscription has both Aramaic and Canaanite features, therefore scholars are divided as to its precise linguistic classification. As for parallels between the biblical and epigraphic material, Combination I specifically mentions “Balaam son (br) of Beor,” a “seer of the gods” who had a night vision in which the Šaddayyīn conveyed the “future” to him. The fact that the name and patronymic are identical is certainly striking and indicates that both the biblical and epigraphic traditions relate to the same individual. Moreover, in both texts, nocturnal dialogues with god(s) occur (Combination I, line 1; Num. 22:8, 19) and the root ḥzh, “see(r),” is also used of Balaam in both texts (Combination II, line 1; Num. 24:4). Finally, the reference to Šaddayyīn (“Gods of the Mountain”) is the linguistic equivalent of Šadday (“God of the Mountain” or “God Almighty”), found in a biblical oracle of Balaam (Num. 24:4). The similarities between the biblical and epigraphic data demonstrate that both draw upon a similar tradition about the same figure, but there are far more differences than similarities, revealing the distinctiveness of each tradition.

Bibliography. F. H. Cryer, Divination in Ancient Israel and Its Near Eastern Environment. JSOTSup 142 (Sheffield, 1994); J. A. Hackett, The Balaam Text from Deir ʿAllā. HSM 31 (Chico, 1984); W. C. Kaiser, Jr., “Balaam Son of Beor in Light of Deir ʿAllā and Scripture,” in Go to the Land I Will Show You, ed. J. Coleson and V. Matthews (Winona Lake, 1996), 95-106; P. K. McCarter, Jr., “The Balaam Texts from Deir ʿAllā: The First Combination,” BASOR 239 (1980): 49-60; G. L. Mattingly, “Moabites,” in Peoples of the Old Testament World, ed. A. J. Hoerth, Mattingly, and E. M. Yamauchi (Grand Rapids, 1994), 317-33; M. S. Moore, The Balaam Traditions. SBLDS 113 (Atlanta, 1990).

Chris A. Rollston

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

BALAAM

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)