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23. Balaam's Oracles

¹ Balaam said, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.” ² Balak did as Balaam said, and the two of them offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

³ Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offering while I go aside. Perhaps the LORD will come to meet with me. Whatever he reveals to me I will tell you.” Then he went off to a barren height.

⁴ God met with him, and Balaam said, “I have prepared seven altars, and on each altar I have offered a bull and a ram.”

⁵ The LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this word.”

⁶ So he went back to him and found him standing beside his offering, with all the Moabite officials. ⁷ Then Balaam spoke his message:

   “Balak brought me from Aram,
   the king of Moab from the eastern mountains.
‘Come,’ he said, ‘curse Jacob for me;
   come, denounce Israel.’
⁸ How can I curse
   those whom God has not cursed?
How can I denounce
   those whom the LORD has not denounced?
⁹ From the rocky peaks I see them,
   from the heights I view them.
I see a people who live apart
   and do not consider themselves one of the nations.
¹⁰ Who can count the dust of Jacob
   or number even a fourth of Israel?
Let me die the death of the righteous,
   and may my final end be like theirs!”

¹¹ Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I brought you to curse my enemies, but you have done nothing but bless them!”

¹² He answered, “Must I not speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?”

Balaam’s Second Message

¹³ Then Balak said to him, “Come with me to another place where you can see them; you will not see them all but only the outskirts of their camp. And from there, curse them for me.” ¹⁴ So he took him to the field of Zophim on the top of Pisgah, and there he built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

¹⁵ Balaam said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offering while I meet with him over there.”

¹⁶ The LORD met with Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, “Go back to Balak and give him this word.”

¹⁷ So he went to him and found him standing beside his offering, with the Moabite officials. Balak asked him, “What did the LORD say?”

¹⁸ Then he spoke his message:

   “Arise, Balak, and listen;
   hear me, son of Zippor.
¹⁹ God is not human, that he should lie,
   not a human being, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act?
   Does he promise and not fulfill?
²⁰ I have received a command to bless;
   he has blessed, and I cannot change it.

    ²¹ “No misfortune is seen in Jacob,
   no misery observed Or He has not looked on Jacob’s offenses / or on the wrongs found in Israel.
The LORD their God is with them;
   the shout of the King is among them.
²² God brought them out of Egypt;
   they have the strength of a wild ox.
²³ There is no divination against Or in Jacob,
   no evil omens against Or in Israel.
It will now be said of Jacob
   and of Israel, ‘See what God has done!’
²⁴ The people rise like a lioness;
   they rouse themselves like a lion
that does not rest till it devours its prey
   and drinks the blood of its victims.”

²⁵ Then Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse them at all nor bless them at all!”

²⁶ Balaam answered, “Did I not tell you I must do whatever the LORD says?”

Balaam’s Third Message

²⁷ Then Balak said to Balaam, “Come, let me take you to another place. Perhaps it will please God to let you curse them for me from there.” ²⁸ And Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, overlooking the wasteland.

²⁹ Balaam said, “Build me seven altars here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me.” ³⁰ Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

1. Build me here seven altars. We more positively conclude from hence that this degenerate prophet had been by no means wont to prophesy in accordance with pure revelations from God, but that the art of divination, in which he boasted, had some affinity to magical exorcisms, and was infected with many errors and deceptions. Still this did not prevent him from being sometimes a true prophet by the inspiration of God’s Spirit; because, as has been already said, whilst the world was plunged in darkness, it was God’s will that some little sparks of light should still shine, in order to render even the most ignorant inexcusable. Since, therefore, Balaam was only endowed with a special gift, he borrowed devices in various directions, which savored of nothing but the illusions of the devil, and were utterly foreign to the true and legitimate method of consulting (God.) Hence came the seven victims and the seven altars; for, although God, by consecrating the seventh day unto Himself, as also in the seven lamps, and other things, indicated that there was something of perfection in that number; nevertheless, afterwards, many strange superstitions were invented, and under this pretense Satan cunningly deluded wretched men, by persuading them that secret virtues were contained in this number seven. This frivolous subtlety prevailed also among profane writers, so that they sought the confirmation of the error throughout all nature. Thus they allege the seven planets, as many Pleiades, the Septemtriones, ¹⁵³¹⁵³ “The seven stars, or Charles’s wain.” — Ainsworth. “Sed ego quidem cum L. Aelio, et M. Varrone sentio, qui triones rustico certo vocabulo boves appellatos scribunt, quasi quosdam terriones, hoc est, arandae colendaeque terrae idoneos. Itaque hoc sidus, quod a figura posituraque ipsa, quia simile plaustro videtur, antiqui Graecorum, αμαξαν dixerunt, nostri quoque veteres a bubus junctis septemtriones appellarunt; id est, a septem stellis, ex quibus quasi juncti triones figurantur.” — A. Gell. 2:21. and as many circles or zones; and again, that infants do not come into the world alive till the seventh month. Many such things they heap together in order to prove that some hidden mystery is implied in the number seven. This contagion reached the Christians also: for on this point the ancients ¹⁵⁴¹⁵⁴ “Les anciens docteurs.” — Fr. sometimes philosophize too refinedly, and have in general preferred to corrupt (Scripture) rather than not to restrict the gifts of the Spirit to this number, and to establish the sevenfold grace of the Holy Ghost. It is plain that Balaam was infected by this fanciful notion, when he endeavours to draw down God by seven altars, and twice seven sacrifices. Let us, however, learn from Balak’s prompt compliance, that the superstitious neither spare expense, nor refuse anything which is demanded by the masters of their errors. Wherefore we must beware lest we be rashly credulous; whilst at the same time we take care lest, when it is clear what we ought to do, we should be withheld by discreditable supineness, when unbelievers hasten so eagerly and speedily to their own destruction.