NOW WHEN BALAAM saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he did not resort to sorcery as at other times, but turned his face toward the desert. 2When Balaam looked out and saw Israel encamped tribe by tribe, the Spirit of God came upon him 3and he uttered his oracle:
“The oracle of Balaam son of Beor,
the oracle of one whose eye sees clearly,
4the oracle of one who hears the words of God,
who sees a vision from the Almighty,
who falls prostrate, and whose eyes are opened:
5“How beautiful are your tents, O Jacob,
your dwelling places, O Israel!
6“Like valleys they spread out,
like gardens beside a river,
like aloes planted by the LORD,
like cedars beside the waters.
7Water will flow from their buckets;
their seed will have abundant water.
“Their king will be greater than Agag;
their kingdom will be exalted.
8“God brought them out of Egypt;
they have the strength of a wild ox.
They devour hostile nations
and break their bones in pieces;
with their arrows they pierce them.
9Like a lion they crouch and lie down,
like a lioness—who dares to rouse them?
“May those who bless you be blessed
and those who curse you be cursed!”
10Then Balak’s anger burned against Balaam. He struck his hands together and said to him, “I summoned you to curse my enemies, but you have blessed them these three times. 11Now leave at once and go home! I said I would reward you handsomely, but the LORD has kept you from being rewarded.”
12Balaam answered Balak, “Did I not tell the messengers you sent me, 13‘Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold, I could not do anything of my own accord, good or bad, to go beyond the command of the LORD—and I must say only what the LORD says’? 14Now I am going back to my people, but come, let me warn you of what this people will do to your people in days to come.”
15Then he uttered his oracle:
“The oracle of Balaam son of Beor,
the oracle of one whose eye sees clearly,
16the oracle of one who hears the words of God,
who has knowledge from the Most High,
who sees a vision from the Almighty,
who falls prostrate, and whose eyes are opened:
17“I see him, but not now;
I behold him, but not near.
A star will come out of Jacob;
a scepter will rise out of Israel.
He will crush the foreheads of Moab,
the skulls of all the sons of Sheth.
18Edom will be conquered;
Seir, his enemy, will be conquered,
but Israel will grow strong.
19A ruler will come out of Jacob
and destroy the survivors of the city.”
20Then Balaam saw Amalek and uttered his oracle:
“Amalek was first among the nations,
but he will come to ruin at last.”
21Then he saw the Kenites and uttered his oracle:
“Your dwelling place is secure,
your nest is set in a rock;
22yet you Kenites will be destroyed
when Asshur takes you captive.”
23Then he uttered his oracle:
“Ah, who can live when God does this?
24Ships will come from the shores of Kittim;
they will subdue Asshur and Eber,
but they too will come to ruin.”
25Then Balaam got up and returned home and Balak went his own way.
Original Meaning
THREE STRIKES AND YOU’RE OUT! At the top of Peor (23:28), Balaam gives up seeking to meet omens/divinations (plural of naḥaš; 24:1), apparently referring to the divine Source with which he connected on previous occasions (23:3, 15). To short-circuit the Lord’s control, he skips going off by himself and simply sets his face in the direction of the desert, where Israel is encamped (24:1). The implication sticks out like the peak of Pisgah: He is bent on sorcery without interference by the Source in order to satisfy Balak and claim his reward.1
Since Balaam has not come to the Lord, the Lord comes to him (cf. 11:26) with some short-circuiting of his own. He possesses Balaam as a prophet (24:2; cf. 11:25–26; 1 Sam. 10:10; 11:6; 19:20, 23), thereby bypassing his volition and overpowering his ability to say anything contrary to the divine will. So Balaam introduces his third oracle: “The oracle of Balaam . . .” (Num. 24:3). The word for “oracle” here (see also 24:4, 15–16) is neʾum which refers to a prophet’s inspired utterance (2 Sam. 23:1) or a declaration of the Lord (e.g., Gen. 22:16; Num. 14:28; Isa. 1:24).
The third oracle contains twelve parallel units (24:3–9).2 That there are twelve is appropriate because Balaam is looking at “Israel encamped tribe by tribe” (24:2). The second member of each of the first three couplets refers to Balaam’s visionary gift (24:3–4). He also “hears the words of God” (v. 4a). The third couplet—“who falls prostrate, and whose eyes are opened [Qal passive of glh]” (v. 4b) alludes in reverse (chiastic) order to 22:31, where the Lord uncovered (Piel of glh) his eyes so that he could see the “angel of the LORD,” and then he bowed and prostrated himself.
In the fourth to seventh couplets, Balaam extols Israel’s war camp, of which the beauty is in tents (24:5–7a). Among other similes, likening the tents (plural of ʾohel; v. 5) of the Israelites to aloe trees (plural from root ʾhl; v. 6) provides a satisfying Hebrew wordplay. After figuratively referring to water (“like gardens beside a river,” v. 6), verse 7a affirms the Israelites’ literal abundance of that crucial resource.
The eighth couplet (24:7b) speaks of Israel in royal terms: “Their king will be greater than Agag; their kingdom will be exalted.” In his second oracle, Balaam described Israel as already having a king, that is, the Lord (23:21). However, in 24:7 the verbs are in the imperfect tense/aspect and may refer to a future human king of Israel. In later history it was Saul, the first king, who destroyed the Amalekites under King Agag as divine punishment for the Amalekite attack on the Israelites at Rephidim when they came out of Egypt (1 Sam. 15; cf. Ex. 17:8).3
The ninth couplet (Num. 24:8a), recalling the Exodus and likening Israel to a wild ox, reiterates part of Balaam’s second oracle (23:22). The tenth parallel unit (24:8b) would be particularly disquieting to Balak because it describes Israel as devouring nations that are its enemies, breaking their bones, and striking them (Qal of mḥṣ)4 with arrows. Here the only figurative expression is “devour,” a transparent metaphor for destroying in battle (cf., e.g., Deut. 32:42; 2 Sam. 2:26; 11:25). The rest of the language is devastatingly literal, calculated to intimidate Balak into peaceful relations with Israel.
I can somewhat understand how Balak must be feeling. During an academic break from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1987, my wife and I went to a beach at Eilat. Noticing what appeared to be public beach chairs, I sat in one of them. Moments later I was approached by a tough-looking young man, who informed me in no uncertain terms that there was a charge for use of the chairs and offered to break all my bones if I tried to sit in one without paying. Since I liked my bones the way they were and had no reason to doubt that he could carry out his threat, I profusely apologized and abruptly left—without thanking the chair-man for his hospitality.
In his eleventh parallel unit, Balaam continues to intimidate by likening Israel to a lion (Num. 24:9a), affirming the ongoing validity of Jacob’s prophetic blessing on Judah: “You are a lion’s cub, O Judah; you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion he crouches and lies down, like a lioness—who dares to rouse him?” (Gen. 49:9). Let sleeping lions lie! In his previous oracle, Balaam has already warned of what the Israelite lion will do if aroused: “. . . he devours his prey and drinks the blood of his victims” (Num. 23:24).
As Balaam’s punch line, the twelfth and final parallel hammers home God’s unequivocal “bottom line” toward Israel: “Blessed are they who bless you, Accursed they who curse you!” (24:9b; NJPS). In his first oracle, Balaam said he could not curse those whom the Lord had not cursed (23:8). In his second oracle he admitted that he could not change God’s command to bless (23:20). Now he speaks of blessing and cursing together (cf. 22:12), adding the motivational concept that the way people treat Israel determines whether they are blessed or cursed (24:9). By building to this climax, Balaam has arrived at the full formulation of God’s promise to Abraham: “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse (Gen. 12:3; cf. 27:29).
Infuriated that his persistence has backfired, King Balak fires Balaam and orders him to “flee” (Qal of brḥ) home, without giving him any honorarium, severance package, or even a token consolation prize (Num. 24:10–11). Nevertheless, by blaming the Lord for keeping Balaam from his reward, Balak acknowledges divine control (24:11b).
For the last time, Balaam cites his escape clause (24:12–13). However, this time he repeats the fuller version that he stated to Balak’s second group of messengers: “Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold . . .” (24:13; cf. 22:18).
Parting shots. Before leaving, Balaam delivers unsolicited divine counsel regarding what the Israelites will do to the Moabites in the latter days, that is, in the distant future (24:14; cf. Gen. 49:1; Deut. 31:29; Jer. 48:47). Balaam begins his “latter days” oracle as a prophetic speech, using the same words with which he commenced his third oracle (Num. 24:15–16; cf. 24:3–4). But this time he adds a line at the center of his introductory section of three parallels (24:15–16), describing himself as one “who has knowledge from [lit., knows knowledge of] the Most High” (24:16a). He has access to information that is otherwise inaccessible to humans, in this case because it concerns future events.
The following couplets (24:17–19) are startling. Balaam sees a future ruler, whom he metaphorically depicts as a “star” or “scepter” who will originate from Israel and strike (Qal of mḥṣ) the heads of the Moabites (24:17).5 Unlike Balaam’s third oracle, this is not a conditional threat that the Moabites will be defeated if they disturb Israel (cf. 24:8–9); rather, it is a prediction.
Israel will also take possession of Edom/Seir, which treated Israel as an enemy (24:18; cf. 20:14–21). The Lord protected the Moabites and Edomites from the Israelites because they were related to them (Deut. 2:4–5, 9), but this protection will end because both nations have treated the chosen people with hostility rather than brotherhood and thereby incurred the curse of Abraham: “. . . and whoever curses you I will curse” (Gen. 12:3; Num. 24:9).
Balaam concludes his salvo with three brief discourses against other nations—(1) Amalek, (2) Kenites, and (3) Assyria and Eber (24:20–24; see below)—each of which is introduced as a mašal (see comments on 23:7). Numbers 24 ends anticlimactically by simply reporting that Balaam goes home and Balak goes on his way (24:25). With this “gruesome twosome” splitting up, we could assume that their threat to Israel is over. However, we will discover that such a conclusion is premature (cf. chs. 25; 31).
Bridging Contexts
“A STAR WILL COME OUT OF JACOB.” To a significant extent, King David fulfilled Balaam’s prophecy that a “star” will march forth (Qal of drk) out of Jacob and a “scepter” will arise from Israel to defeat Moab and Edom (24:17–18; cf. 2 Sam. 8:2, 13–14). Since David was a king, it is readily understandable that he could be represented by a “scepter,” but what is the point of a “star” (Num. 24:17)? There are other places in the Bible where stars are associated with people. For one thing, similes that liken people to stars can emphasize their large numbers (Gen. 15:5; 22:17; 26:4; Ex. 32:13; Deut. 1:10; 10:22; Neh. 9:23).6 Daniel uses a simile that refers to another aspect of stars: their light (12:3).
More relevant to the metaphorical/symbolic “star” from Jacob in Numbers 24:17 is young Joseph’s dream, in which he saw that “the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me” (Gen. 37:9). Here the nuclear family of Jacob, from which came the nation of Israel, appears as a kind of “solar system,” with each member represented by a heavenly body.
To an extent, Balaam’s star out of Jacob (24:17) is like the eleven stars in Joseph’s dream. They represented his brothers, who were out of Jacob because they were descended from him. In Balaam’s oracle, however, the “star” person is also a scepter. So, like Joseph, he will reign over his fellow Israelites. Indeed, David reigned over the twelve tribes, descended from Joseph and his brother “stars,” which comprised a multitude as numerous as the stars (1 Chron. 27:23). The rule of David, like that of Joseph, was divinely mandated for the purpose of delivering God’s people (1 Sam. 16; 2 Sam. 3:18; 7:8–11; cf. Gen. 45:5–8).
Although David fulfilled Balaam’s prophecy up to a point by conquering Moab and Edom, later prophets pointed to future messianic victory for Israel linked to defeat of the Transjordanian peoples (e.g., Isa. 11:14; 25:9–11). In the New Testament, another deliverer is also a “star”: “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star” (Rev. 22:16). Christ continues the Davidic kingship and delivers in a larger sense: God saves the world through him (John 3:16–17) because he saves people from their sins (Matt. 1:21; 1 Tim. 1:15) and frees Planet Earth from the tyranny of Satan and powers allied with him (Luke 10:18; John 12:31–32; Rev. 19:11–21).
While stars can stand for humans, they can also represent heavenly beings (Job 38:7; Isa. 14:13). Ancient Near Eastern peoples associated stars with deities and worshiped them as such from early times.7 In fact, the Sumerian cuneiform sign for “god” (DINGIR), which was adopted into the writing system of the Akkadian language used by the Babylonians and Assyrians and also into Hittite cuneiform writing, was originally a pictograph of a star.8
It is no coincidence that a star led Magi from the east to baby Jesus in Bethlehem (Matt. 2:1–11). Both the Magi and King Herod took this star to be the sign of a divinely designated “king of the Jews” (2:2), a ruler like the Davidic “star” out of Jacob that Balaam saw (Num. 24:17). In this case the newly born King was the Son of God (Luke 1:32–35), whose heavenly, divine origin (John 3:13, 31; 6:38, 51) made the symbol of a star even more appropriate.
Oracles against nations. After pronouncing doom on Moab and Edom (24:17–18), Balaam turns his ominous gaze toward other nations. (1) Amalek will come to destruction (24:20), in accordance with the Lord’s promise to “completely blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven” (Ex. 17:14) because this nation attacked Israel (17:8; cf. 1 Sam. 15).
(2) Although the Kenite (qeni) people have a secure “nest” (qen) in which to dwell, they are destined for burning/destruction and for captivity by Assyria (24:21–22). The Bible does not record Kenite hostility toward Israel, as it does in the cases of Amalek, Moab, and Edom. Indeed, the Kenites were related to Moses by marriage (Judg. 1:16; 4:11), and King Saul was grateful that the Kenites “showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt” (1 Sam. 15:6).
During the period of the “judges,” Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, became a heroine to the Israelites when she staked Sisera in her tent (Judg. 4:17–22; 5:24–27). Sisera was the general of Jabin, the Canaanite king of Hazor who oppressed Israel (4:2–3). However, the reason why Sisera sought refuge with Jael was “because there were friendly relations between Jabin king of Hazor and the clan of Heber the Kenite” (4:17). So the Kenites appear to have had a conflict of interest (cf. 1 Sam. 15:6, where Saul warned the Kenites to leave the Amalekites before he destroyed the latter). Because the Kenites settled in the Negev, the southern part of Judahite territory (Judg. 1:16; cf. 1 Sam. 27:10), it is possible that they would have fallen into the hands of the Assyrians when Sennacherib invaded Judah during the reign of Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:13).
Balaam’s third and final speech against non-Israelites begins differently and is directed against two nations—Assyria (Asshur) and Eber: “Alas, who can live except God has ordained it? But ships shall come from the coast of Kittim, And they shall afflict Asshur and shall afflict Eber; So they [lit., he] also shall come to destruction” (24:23–24; NASB). Thus, after taking Kenites captive (24:22), Assyria will fall prey to Kittim.
Kittim refers to the Mediterranean region where Cyprus is located (Isa. 23:1, 12; Jer. 2:10; Ezek. 27:6). So in Numbers 24:24, ships from the direction of Cyprus will come against Assyria and Eber (cf. Dan. 11:30). Elsewhere Eber appears as an early descendant of Shem (Gen. 10:21, 24, 25; 11:14–17). Although this name does not designate a particular nation, it seems to refer to several Semitic peoples descended from this patriarch (see Gen. 10:21), who was also an ancestor of the Israelites through Abraham (11:16–26). So the idea that ships from the direction of Kittim would afflict Asshur and Eber can be taken to mean that westerners will subdue territories belonging to several groups. Some have identified this threat from the Mediterranean with the influx of “Sea People” during the thirteenth century B.C., but since the invasion stopped at the borders of Egypt, those who hold this view tend to identify Asshur with a north Arabian tribe (see Gen. 25:3 and south Arabian inscriptions) rather than with Assyria.9
Balaam’s speeches constitute early examples of oracles against nations. This kind of oracle is robustly represented in the books of the classical writing prophets (e.g., Isa. 10; 13–35; Jer. 46–51; Ezek. 25–32). Balaam’s oracles have the purpose of magnifying Israel at the expense of her detractors. The classical prophets hold all nations accountable to the Lord’s sovereignty10 and show that he is fair when he holds his own apostate people of Israel and Judah accountable.
Contemporary Significance
IN TOUCH WITH GOD. Balaam began his oracle of the “latter days” by describing himself as the man (1) whose eye is open, (2) who hears the words of God, (3) who has knowledge of the Most High, (4) who sees a vision of the Almighty, (5) who falls (prostrate), and (6) whose eyes are uncovered (Num. 24:15–16; cf. vv. 3–4). This was the divine ideal for a prophet, which Balaam was experiencing because God had taken control of him. If he had chosen to accept this ideal during the rest of his life, his story would have turned out a lot differently.
While Balaam’s words describe a prophet who receives special revelation from the Lord, there is also a sense in which the same principles can apply to those who preach and teach God’s Word. Today, no less than in ancient times, spokespersons for God need clear vision to see what he wants to show them, whether in his written Word, in his creation, or in providential circumstances. They need to be ready at all times to hear communication from God, even when it comes in a “gentle whisper” (cf. 1 Kings 19:12), rather than drowning it out with all kinds of other “noise,” including their own exhuberant verbosity. They need knowledge of the Most High, including both knowledge from him and about him. They need to gain their vision from El Shaddai (see Gen. 17:1; 35:11; Ex. 6:3; Job 37:23), be awestruck by his power and glory as Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and John were (Isa. 6; Ezek. 1; Dan. 7:9–14; Rev. 4–5), fall prostrate before him in humility, and allow him to uncover their eyes to see the “angel of the LORD.”
It is not enough to know that these characteristics are good and that we should have them. Balaam knew that much. It is necessary to go a step further in order to possess them and allow them to become part of us. We can do this only by unconditionally saying “yes” to God in our hearts/minds as well as with our mouths. Balaam’s oral commitment was impressive (Num. 22:18; 24:13), but he had “heart trouble.” The Lord blessed him with rare privilege as a prophet of extraordinary insight and foresight, but we can and must be spiritually closer to God than he was.
Staying in touch with God requires choosing to accept his kind of thinking, which is far higher than ordinary human patterns of thought (Isa. 57:7–9). As revealed by Christ, the divine mind is characterized by humility and unselfish love for other people rather than conceit and selfish ambition (Phil. 2:1–8).