BALAAM (Hebrew: Bil'ām). - Magician, son of Beor, from the city of Pethor on the right bank of the Euphrates, in Mesopotamia (Num. 22:5-6; cf. Deut. 23:5), probably to be identified with the Pitru of the Assyrian monuments and the Pedru of the annals of Thutmose III (ca. 1500).
He was the protagonist of an episode described at length in Num. 22-24, and to which allusion is made in Deut. 23:4-5; Josh. 13:22; 24:9-10; Mic. 6:5; 2 Pet. 2:15; Jude 11; Rev. 2:14.
Toward the end of their forty-year sojourn in the desert, the Hebrews, advancing eastward from the Dead Sea and the lower Jordan, having defeated the Amorite kings Sihon and Og, had encamped in the plains of Moab. Balak, the local prince, fearing the ill fate of the two preceding kings, urgently sent an embassy to B., asking him to come and curse the invaders and rout them by his magical power (Num. 22:5-6). B. at first refuses to set out, following the prohibition he had received from the Lord, whom he had consulted during the night. New messengers renew the king's invitation; Yahweh permits him to accept it, on condition that he do whatever he will be commanded by him. But while the soothsayer sets out, God, angered, hinders the continuation of his journey by means of his angel (Num. 22:18, 22). For what reason? The text, in its present state, omits any explanation. Perhaps B. in his heart was no longer disposed to observe the condition imposed by Yahweh, enticed by the ample promises of the one inviting him (2 Pet. 2:15 accuses him particularly of venality). The she-ass on which B. was riding could no longer take a step along the straight way, because the angel stood before her. Struck by her master, she miraculously spoke, complaining. God then granted B. to perceive the angel, who exonerated the beast of burden.
Corrected in his intentions, the soothsayer, chosen by way of exception as an instrument of divine revelations, arrives at Balak's side, who immediately takes him up to the height of Bamoth-baal, from which the vast encampments could be seen of Israel. After a young bull and a ram had been sacrificed on each of the seven altars he had erected on the spot, and having entered into communication with Yahweh, B. instead of cursing, solemnly blesses the Israelites, justifying himself by saying: "Am I not bound to utter only the words that Yahweh puts into my mouth?" (23:11-12). Shortly thereafter, on two new heights he blesses and extols Israel two more times.
(mostly E. Jasi)
The king, dismayed and frightened, begs him to leave. But B. renews his gesture a fourth time, proclaiming among other things: "A star shall rise out of Jacob, a scepter shall arise from Israel" (24:17); an oracle announcing the appearance among the chosen people of a personage distinguished for his splendor (symbolized by the star: cf. Gen. 49:10; Is. 14:2; Apoc. 22:16), a powerful king ("scepter").
The sacred writers cited above, and Catholic and rabbinic tradition, have recognized the entire biblical narrative of B. as historical. The Fathers, and ancient and modern Catholic exegetes, have interpreted the aforementioned prophecy in a messianic sense. So too has rabbinic tradition (Targum of Onkelos). Noteworthy is the fact that, along with a numerous following, R. 'Aqiba (d. 135 A.D.) and other learned rabbis regarded as Messiah Bar Kokhba, the leader of the last national uprising of the Jews (132 A.D.), who called himself "son of the star," precisely because he claimed to apply to himself the messianic prophecy of B.
The soothsayer, having uttered his oracles, returned to his own land (Num. 24:25).
In the vicinity of Shittim, Israel allowed itself to be drawn by the women of Moab and of neighboring Midian (Num. 25:1-17) into idolatrous feasts and debaucheries. The one who had instigated these women to make Israel fall into disfavor with Yahweh was none other than B. (Num. 31:16); and it does not appear that he had abandoned idolatry; indeed, it was not by his own will that he had blessed the chosen people!
To avenge the scandal, Moses wages a religious war against the Midianites, of whom he kills five princes. B. himself was swept away in their ruin (Num. 25:16, 17; 31:1-16). He had therefore lingered in Midianite territory on the return journey, since the events of Num. 31 follow at a short distance those of Num. 22-25 (chapters 26-30, besides the account of the census, contain only legislative elements).
Bibliography7 works
Ermenegildo Florit
CHRISTIAN ARCHAEOLOGY
The prophet B. was sometimes represented in ancient Christian monuments, always following what is narrated about him in the book of Num. 22:22-35 and 24:17. From the typological point of view, the oldest scene is the one referring to the prophecy of the star and its fulfillment, that is, the very well-known scene in the cemetery of Priscilla, interpreted until now as Isaiah, whereas comparison with contemporary texts suggests the identification with the prophet B., who is the only one to speak of the star (orietur stella ex Iacob); Isaiah, on the other hand, speaks only in certain passages of light, never of the star; it should also be emphasized that in the marble slab of Severa in the Lateran Museum the star is that of the Epiphany; now it is precisely B. and never Isaiah who is cited by the Fathers when it is a question of the Epiphany. This scene is also found in some Christian sarcophagi. An abbreviated group is the one offered in the paintings of the cemetery of Sts. Marcellinus and Peter, where the prophet B. appears pointing to the star.
A rare example is that of the sarcophagus found in St. Sebastian's representing the scene of B. with the she-ass according to the account in Num. 22:21-35 (G. Wilpert and L. De Bruyne, Due sarcofagi recentemente scoperti a S. Sebastiano, in Riv. di archeol. crist., 16 [1939], pp. 253-69). The figure of B. also remains in medieval art, whether in scenes with the she-ass or as an isolated figure, as in the cathedral of Siena where he is represented on the pulpit of Nicola Pisano, or, with the queen of Sheba, at Chartres, or, isolated, in the capitals of Moissac.
Bibliography3 works
Engelberto Kirschbaum