JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

alaam
his dominance over pagan seers like Balaam. In this perspective,
the poetic orations are understood to express the same
religious outlook as do the prose sections of the Balaam Pericope.
Just as the divine appellations in the Balaam orations
are unusual, so are the designations of the Israelite collective.
With only one exception (Num. 24:18–19), the consistent
classification is (a) Jacob, (b) Israel, expressed in parallelism
(Num. 23:7, 10, 21, 23, 24:5, 17). This nomenclature recalls the
change of Jacob’s name from Yacaqôb to Yisra’el after his combat
with the angel, which, appropriately, occurred at Penuel,
in the Valley of Sukkoth (Gen. 32), where the Deir ʿAlla inscriptions
were found!
There has been considerable progress in the exegesis of
the Balaam orations, which because of their relative antiquity
and the dialectal features they manifest have resisted interpretation.
They employ rare, even unique forms that afford
little basis for comparison. W.F. Albright (1944) achieved a
breakthrough by reducing the Masoretic text to its consonantal
base, and reading the poems as West-Semitic epigraphy.
Sh. Morag (1981) sought to shed light on unrecognized
meanings through linguistic analysis. More recent attempts
are presented in commentaries on the Book of Numbers by
Milgrom (1990) and Levine (2000).
(B) THE PROSE NARRATIVES. The prose sections pursue
a sequential narrative, except for the tale of the ass (Num.
22:22–35), which derives from a separate source. It was undoubtedly
inserted as a satire, poking fun at Balaam’s reputed
clairvoyance as a seer. In a mode familiar to us from Aesop’s
fables, and from ancient Near Eastern wisdom literature, as
well, it depicts Balaam as being blind to what even the ass he
was riding was able to see! Its theme is that the God of Israel
initially objected to Balaam’s willingness to accompany Balak’s
messengers to Moab, and sent an angel to block his path. The
ass made several attempts to avert the angel, and each time
Balaam struck her, until God gave speech to the ass, so that
she could explain to Balaam what was going on. Ultimately,
God opens Balaam’s eyes, as well, and he submits to God’s will,
offering to return home. Balaam is then told by the angel that
he is permitted to accompany Balak’s emissaries on condition
that he speak only what YHWH communicates to him.
The Tale of the Ass is preceded in Numbers 22:2–21 by a
narrative of Balak’s invitation to Balaam to pronounce curses
over Israel on his behalf. Balaam at first refuses, insisting that
he is under the authority of Israel’s God. However, God appears
to him at night and authorizes him to accompany the
men, but to speak only what he is told. The intervening tale effectively
brings us back to this point, in Numbers 22; 35. In the
ensuing narrative (Num. 22:36–23:6), we read that Balaam arrives
in Moab and is welcomed by Balak, who offers him great
rewards. After a feast prepared by Balak, Balaam proceeds to
the mountain-top of Bamoth-Baal, where he is afforded a view
of part of the Israelite encampment. There he pronounces his
first blessings of Israel (Num. 23:7–10). When the prose narra-
tive resumes, we read that Balak is furious, but Balaam repeats
that he can speak only what YHWH instructs him to say. In an
effort to achieve greater efficacy, Balaam is advised to move to
a more propitious site, the peak of Pisgah, where he erects altars
and offers sacrifice. YHWH encounters Balaam and places
an oracle in his mouth. Balak asks him: “What has YHWH spoken?”
which indicates that he now accepts Balaam’s subservience
to Israel’s God (Num. 23:11–17). Then follows Balaam’s
second oration (Num. 23:18–24). At this point, Balak is all but
ready to give up, but again suggests moving to a different site,
the summit of Peor, where altars are erected and sacrifices offered,
prior to a third attempt by Balaam, who now realizes
that it pleases YHWH to bless Israel. Without further ado, he
prepares to declaim his third oration (Num 23:25–30, 24:1–2),
which predicts Israel’s victory over the Amalekites of Canaan
(Num. 24:3–9). When the prose narrative resumes, we read
that Balak dismisses Balaam in anger, but that before returning
to his own land, Balaam tells him that he will reveal what
the Israelites will do to Moab (and Edom) in the future (Num.
24:10–14). This is the theme of Balaam’s fourth oration (Num.
24:15–19). Numbers 24:20–29 present the three brief prophecies
against neighboring nations.
Throughout the prose sections, YHWH and ʾelohim alternate
exclusively as designations of the God of Israel, who is
perceived as totally controlling the activities of Balaam from
the outset. In fact, in Numbers 22:18 Balaam already refers to
YHWH as elohai “my God,” and in a manner not dissimilar
from that of Pharaoh in the Moses sagas, Balak also becomes
increasingly aware of YHWH’s power, and of Balaam’s subservience
to it. In contrast to the Egyptian sagas, however, which
repeatedly refer to the gods of Egypt, the prose sections of the
Balaam Pericope nowhere refer to any other divine power, or
use what would be regarded, in context, as epithets of YHWH
or ʾelohim.
The Balaam Texts from Deir ʿAlla
Notwithstanding their poor state of preservation, the plaster
texts from Deir ʿAlla add to our understanding of the Balaam
Pericope, and in a reciprocal manner, the biblical sources enlighten
us as to the meaning of the Deir ʿAlla texts. Like most
new discoveries, the Deir ʿAlla texts raise problems of a literary
and historical nature. The inscriptions were restored from
plaster fragments that had fallen to the ground from the walls
of a regional distribution center, where some cultic activity
took place. (For transcriptions, translations, archaeological
background and commentary see Levine, 2000, 241–75; idem,
COS II, 140–45.)
COMBINATION I OF THE INSCRIPTION. Combination I relates
that Balaam was visited at night by gods sent to convey to
him a message from the high god, El. The message consisted
of a celestial omen of disaster. A council (mwʿd = Hebrew
moʿed)) of deities who opposed El had ordered the goddess
Shagar-we-Ishtar, a Venus figure of light and fertility, to sew
up the heavens, thereby producing darkness and dread. Upon
78 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3