Balaam

(not belonging to the people, i.e. not one of them) (Num. 22:5) — son of Beor, or Bosor, and a native of the city of Pethor, which is in Mesopotamia. Accounts of him are contained in the Book of Numbers (chapters 22, 23, 24, and 29 [sic]). He lived at the time when the Israelites were journeying from Egypt to the Promised Land. The number of the Hebrews was so great that the kings of the countries through which they passed, not knowing of their miraculous feeding with manna in the wilderness, feared not without reason that a famine might occur as a result of their incursion into their lands, and that they might make an attempt to conquer their territories.

Among these kings was Balak, king of Moab, who out of fear entered into alliance with the Midianites. He knew that he could not withstand so terrible an enemy, and supposing that the God of Israel, like the pagan deities, could bless or curse depending on his disposition, or depending on the value of the gifts of the offerers, sent for Balaam, who enjoyed the fame of a great seer and soothsayer, and asked him to come and curse the hosts of Israel, promising him great gifts and reward for it.

It was also rumored of Balaam that whomever he blessed would indeed be blessed, and whomever he cursed would be cursed (Num. 22:6). Balaam accepted the tempting proposal, but God Himself prevented him from pronouncing the curse. Three times Balak assigned him a place for this on various high places, and three times, miraculously inspired by God, Balaam, instead of curses, pronounced blessings, and concluded them with an exalted prophecy of the Messiah: “How goodly are thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel!” he exclaimed, “As the valleys are they spread forth, as gardens by the river’s side, as the trees of lign aloes which the Lord hath planted, and as cedar trees beside the waters… He couched, he lay down as a lion, and as a great lion: who shall stir him up?… There shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth” (Num. 24).

But, infected with the passion of covetousness and seduced by the gifts and flattery of Balak, Balaam afterward gave him the ruinous counsel to draw the Israelites gradually into idol-worship, through which, little by little, iniquity and depravity spread among them with the daughters of Moab (Num. 31:16; Rev. 2:14). To cut short this evil and punish the Midianites, God stirred up the zeal of Phinehas; during the defeat of the Midianites, Balaam too was killed (Num. 31:8). St. Peter the Apostle mentions Balaam in his epistle (2:15, 16), calling him one who “loved the wages of unrighteousness,” but was “rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet.” He is also mentioned in the epistle of the apostle Jude: “Woe unto them!” he says, “for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core” (v. 11).