Bamidbar Chapter 22: The Story of Balak and Bilaam — Fear, Power, and the Failed Curse

The Placement and Structure of the Balak Story

So today we’re reading Bamidbar chapter 22. As we’ve seen yesterday, this chapter I think starts in the wrong place. It starts a pasuk before where it should have really started. The previous pasuk was about the travel of the Bnei Yisrael to Arvot Moav. And now we have the real place where this chapter should have started, where the Parsha’s Balak starts, is that now we have this full story of what happened when they were in Arvot Moav — really the non-war that happened with Moav.

So there’s a very interesting story, very much known both in the Torah itself. There’s a famous story in Tanakh, the story of Balak, the king of Moav, hiring Bilaam, the sorcerer, the prophet, the person that knows how to curse and bless — that’s definitely something that he knew — to curse the Jewish people. And his curse is not working out, but instead him giving blessings or praises of the people.

A Three-Chapter Narrative Arc

Now this story is very weird. Firstly, it goes through the next two chapters — so again, however split the chapters, for whichever reason decided to split it in this place, I’m not really sure why. It goes through the next, sorry, three chapters until chapter 24. It’s one long story. If you were to cut it up, there might be better places to cut it up than where the chapters cut them up. But in any case, I must have said, well, it’s too long, I’ll just have to cut it somewhere.

I’ve cut it up into these parts: the part of Bilaam, Balak trying to hire, Balak trying to hire Bilaam; Bilaam’s interesting side story on the way to Balak, to the location, to the Arvot Moav, where he wants to curse the people; and the entire progress of Bilaam with the people, where he gets, and he says three, and then fourth, different prophecies about the people and about all the nations in between. So those are the main three parts. That’s how I would divide the story into three parts. The chapters, I didn’t divide them in the exact place where I would, but that’s how I would have divided it.

And each one of these internally is also divided somewhat into three or two. There’s always these doublets and triplets in the stories — everything happens three times, or there’s a progression of threes, or twos, or fours in the story. There’s always a progression how the same kind of thing started. So it’s a story very, very, I could say very well constructed — I shouldn’t say that about the Torah, some stories are more well constructed and some are less — but more explicitly, more clearly built out, unlike the previous stories where we had very slight parts, and we can imagine that there’s some story with this Be’er and so on, which has this whole thing, because this is also a story that has a lot of poetry in it, a lot of meshalim, a lot of music. But here we have the full story, the entire narrative, with many details, with many steps, and each part of the story has a very clear logical progress.

Why Does This Story Matter? The Famous Question

But there’s a very famous question that everyone asks when they read this story, which is: why is this interesting? Like some person, some guy, some Balak wanted to curse us and hired Bilaam, turned out he couldn’t curse us. It seems to be giving too much attention to something totally minor and unimportant.

The Answer: The Fulfillment of Shirat Hayam’s Prophecy

There’s various explanations for this, but I think the most simple explanation or the most simple reading of this in this context where we are is, if you remember, as is seen very explicitly in Sefer Devarim where Moshe repeats all his conquests, all his wars that he won, all the battles that he won — Sihon and Og, and Moav, Sihon Melech HaEmori, Og Melech HaBashan. In some sense, all these three main places that they passed now on their way, on the third leg of the story of the book, when they’re on the threshold of the land of Israel.

So it seems like Moav is a very important question: what happens to them, are they happy with us, are they not happy, do they agree with us, are they letting us, are they fighting with us? Midian, Moav, these people, they might be connected, as we’ll see, Ziknei Midian or someone here. In any case, these people seem to be very important.

And it seems to me that the main point of this story, as it starts, ויגר מואב [Vayagar Moav — and Moav was very afraid] from the people, from the army, from Moshe and his people. And that has already been mentioned in Shirat Hayam. Remember, the greatest or the fullest, the fullest epic poem recorded in the Torah is the Shirat Hayam, as we’ve discussed. Sefer Shemot has in a certain way the more complete or the more, we could say, well edited version of the first part of the story, the story of Yetziat Mitzrayim. The last part here, we see, gets into all these fragmentations and questionable things that we don’t understand entirely. But in Sefer Shemot, the story of Yetziat Mitzrayim, completed with the great song, the great epic poem of Yetziat Mitzrayim, of Shirat Hayam, known as Shirat Hayam — it’s really broader than Shirat Hayam, right? It really talks about the conquest of the people all the way until they get to Eretz Yisrael, until they build the Temple Mount.

And Moav figures prominently there. These are the three people, or two of them we just mentioned: Edom being afraid, Moav being afraid, and then Canaan, which we didn’t get to yet in this version of the story. We had the Canaan in Melech Arad, but he obviously wasn’t afraid, but he was routed, so it might be why they’re starting to be afraid.

Raising the Morale of the People

So this seems to be very important. This seems to be important to tell us that all the people in our way were really very afraid of us, and this is probably also to raise the morale of the people themselves. Moshe, as we’ve seen in the last, in the end of yesterday’s chapter, was afraid, and Hashem tells him, don’t be afraid of Og. Obviously he was afraid. These were powerful kings, there were people with a lot of power. So a big part of the story is to say that they do not have power. And in other words, they broke, their spirit was broken even before. There might have been some fight later — there was a fight with Bilaam, with Midian, there was an actual battle — but this important story of Bilaam trying, Bilaam and Balak trying to curse, which is, whatever the meaning of a curse, it obviously expresses a kind of moral or narrative power that they have over us, they could curse us. And the important message of this story is that no, they were afraid, even Bilaam was afraid, or saw the great power, and the great success of the people, and therefore, instead of cursing, he blessed.

So that’s, I think, the most general and most, story that makes the most sense of this story in the context.

The Opening: Balak’s Fear and His Plan

Now we will read the story. As we’ll see, it’s a very structured story. We go through it. So the first story, this is sort of the background, the first part gives us the background, tells us that Balak ben Tzippor, Balak, the son of Tzippor — this is his name — sees. And as a note, as this sort of editorial or narrative note at the end of this part says, Balak is the king of Moav at that time. So that’s who, we didn’t know, the story sort of just says Balak ben Tzippor, we were supposed to know, so it sort of gives us the information at the end. This is the style of the Torah many times, gives us historical information, the background information, and sort of a side note in the end.

What Balak Saw: The Defeat of Sihon

So Balak ben Tzippor sees what Israel did to Moav, in other words, to Sihon, mostly. Remember, from the previous poetry in the previous chapter, Sihon, there was a famous poem about Sihon being even more powerful than Moav, right? אוי לך מואב אבדת עם כמוש [Oy lecha Moav avadta am Kemosh — Woe to you Moav, you are destroyed, people of Kemosh], בני סיחון [benei Sihon — the sons of Sihon], and so on. And now Sihon was destroyed by the people, by Israel, so kal vachomer, obviously, Moav should be afraid.

The Language of Fear: Echoes of Pharaoh

So Moav is very afraid, because they’re great, כי רב [ki rav — because they’re great], because they’re many, because they’re strong, and they’re קץ [katz], they’re, I don’t know how to exactly translate this word, something like disgusted, but I don’t think that’s a very good translation. It means something like very scared. I see someone translating it, very distressed. Of course, this echoes also Pharaoh. Pharaoh had the same kind of fear, ויקוצו מפני בני ישראל [vayakutzu mipnei Bnei Yisrael — and they were distressed because of the children of Israel], the beginning of Sefer Shemot, and also for the same reason, כי רב [ki rav], because they were many of them. So this is like Moav, the great repetition of the fears and threats of the people, that there are many of them, there’s a demographic threat, and they’re obviously not only demographic, they’re also militarily strong.

Moav Consults with Midian: The Ox Metaphor

So Moav tells Ziknei Midian, and there’s some questioning, what is Ziknei Midian doing here, but as we’ll see later, Midian seems to have definitely been connected to this story, so something is going on here. He tells them, and here also there’s a poetic, already a poetic image, a poetic metaphor. He says this people, this community, this great mass, we could translate it, will eat or destroy the vegetation all around us as an ox destroys the green of the field. So an ox goes, eats, and eats everything, he’s very hungry, and this, he’s imagining the people as some kind of big great herd of oxen, and coming and destroying it, nothing green is left, it all becomes brown and destroyed.

So that’s the setting, the stage, similarly to how we had in the beginning of Sefer Shemot. There’s the nation, they’re becoming great, they’re becoming many, they’re becoming powerful, and there’s ויאמר אל עמו [vayomer el amo — and he said to his people], there’s the quote of what the people are saying, why they’re afraid.

Balak Sends for Bilaam: The Messengers and the Message

So now he seems to have a plan, and his plan is, as I said, the first part of the story is, he’s going to send messengers to Bilaam ben Be’or, who lives at the river, probably Pesor, the river Perat, or Pesor might be a plain word of Perat. Now I’m thinking Pesor, Perat, in any case, or a place called Pesor. And where he lives, Eretz Bnei Amo, there’s some difficulty with these words. In any case, he sends messengers all the way to Bilaam. Bilaam is a famous sorcerer, a famous poet, a famous prophet. He calls him, and he gives him this message.

The Poetic Message: A Nation Covering the Earth

He gives him also a poetic message, or a message written in a high register. Tells him what has happened, what is going on. He tells him there’s this nation, people, coming out of Egypt, they’ve covered the color, or the light of the ground, and they’re right here, they’re sitting next to, across from me. So again, there’s the same image of the earth being covered, or the earth being eaten, like an ox eats the grass.

And therefore, ועתה [ve’atah — and therefore], ועתה [ve’atah] in the Torah always means something like, and thus, and therefore. Doesn’t mean and now. I mean, literally means and now, but not like, it’s not about a chronological time, it’s still like, and therefore, come and curse—

The First Delegation and Bilaam’s Initial Response

The Elders of Moab and Midian go with *kesomim* [magical implements] to Bilaam and deliver Balak’s message. This is the first delegation. Bilaam answers them: “You have to stay here overnight, and I will respond to you as Hashem, as ה׳ [Hashem], speaks to me.” He’s saying, “My whole thing is that I speak with Hashem, so I can’t just answer you. You’ll stay here overnight, and I’ll tell you what Hashem says.” And they do that.

Now, interestingly, Bilaam says “Hashem,” but Elokim [God] comes to Bilaam according to the Torah. Elokim comes to Bilaam at night. As God acts in the Torah, He always starts off with small talk, asks people questions — although probably He knows everything, but this is the way of Him starting conversations. He says, “Who are these people?”

Bilaam answers: “Oh, Balak ben Tzipor, the King of Moab, sent them to me.” He repeats to Him the message: there’s this nation that has covered the land, covered the color or the shine of the land, and Balak asks him to curse them — maybe he’ll be able to fight with them and banish them from the land. Bilaam changes the verb from *arah* to *kovah*, but apparently that means the same thing.

Now what does Elokim answer? “Bilaam, don’t go. Don’t go with them. Don’t curse the people. They’re blessed people. They’re My — basically I blessed them — they’re blessed people. It’s not going to go.”

So he got his refusal. He wakes up in the morning and tells Balak’s ministers, Balak’s messengers, Balak’s princes: “Go back to where you came from, go back to your land, because Hashem refuses to let me go with you.”

And therefore, that’s what they do. They go back to Moab and they tell Balak: “Bilaam refuses to come with us.”

The Pattern of Divine Names

It’s very interesting that, again, consistently Bilaam talks about Hashem, the Tetragrammaton. But the person who doesn’t talk about Hashem is the one actually talking to him — it’s Elokim who comes to him. Also, there’s a little change: the ministers of Moab come and say “Bilaam doesn’t want to go with us,” but Bilaam told them “Hashem doesn’t want to let me go, refuses to let me.” They understood that this is him — they translated his theological refusal into a personal one.

The Second Delegation

Therefore we have the second messenger. Again, Balak isn’t impressed by this refusal. He realizes that maybe Bilaam needs to be begged more, so he sends even more honorable, even more dignified princes, and more of them. They come and they respond to his refusal. They say, in the name of Balak: “This is what he says: Do not refuse, do not hold yourself back from coming to me. I’ll give you great honor, anything you ask me I’ll give you, anything you tell me. Just come and curse these people for me.”

And Bilaam responds — because he said he didn’t say that it’s him refusing, he said that Hashem is refusing — he says: “Look, Balak can give me his whole house full of silver and gold, I will not be able to go against the word of Hashem, ה׳ אלהי [Hashem Elokai — Hashem my God].” So very important: Hashem my God. He claims Hashem to be his God, the one who speaks to him. “I can’t do a big thing, I can’t do anything.”

But — therefore, the answer should be refusal. But he understands that just like Balak understands that if Bilaam refuses he can ask him again, Bilaam understands that if Hashem refuses he can ask Him again. So he says: “Look, stay here again another night, and I’ll see what Hashem will add — maybe He will give me some new message.”

And now, again, Elokim comes to Bilaam at night and tells him, changes to a new message, a new answer. He says: “If these people came to call you, go with them.” So here Hashem already knows — He didn’t ask him “who are these people?” He says, “These are the people that came to call you, go. But it’s not that you’re going to be able to do whatever you want. You’re going to have to do the thing that I speak to you.”

So that’s the second version, the second thing. He speaks to them, and Bilaam wakes up in the morning and takes along his donkey, his female donkey, and goes with them.

So that’s what I said: there’s the double part. Twice they sent to him, and the second time he agreed and Hashem agreed, but with this condition that he will only be able to say what He spoke. And he goes with them.

The Donkey Episode

Now there’s a very interesting long story of what happens on the way.

God’s Anger Despite Permission

ויחר אף [Vayichar af — And the anger flared] — Elokim is angry that he’s going. So although He gave him permission, obviously what we see here — and I think that’s the simple reading — not everything, sometimes, you know, like your child asks you something five times, and after, you say “Okay, do it,” it doesn’t mean he really wanted to do that. In the same way, Hashem said, “Okay, they want to go, you go with them,” it doesn’t mean He really wanted it. And He’s upset.

And a messenger of Hashem — so here we have ה׳ [Hashem, the Tetragrammaton] — comes on the way לשטן לו [leSatan lo — to be a satan to him], to be someone that bothers him, to be someone that stops him, to be against him.

Now Bilaam is riding on his donkey with his two servants. The *aton* [female donkey] now sees the *malach* [angel] standing in the way with his sword stretched out in his hand. So the *aton* has some kind of vision — of course, very mysterious, what does this mean even — but the *aton* sees the *malach*. And this *malach* obviously has some kind of miraculous vision, some kind of thing that you could see, but Bilaam didn’t see at first. And now the *aton* saw it, and therefore goes off the way and goes into the field.

The Three Encounters

Now Bilaam doesn’t see the *malach*, so he just sees his *aton* going off the way, and he hits it to get it back.

Now the *malach* — so again, we have this three-time, three-time structure. The second time, the *malach* goes in the way between two vineyards. This is interesting, because this also connects very much with the stories that we discussed earlier, with the request that Bnei Yisrael had to Edom, and then to Moab, and then to Sichon, that they would go in the right way, they’re not going to go in the fields. And here Bilaam is sort of being forced to go into the fields or into the vineyards by this *aton*. I don’t know what the connection is, but I’m noticing.

But now he goes in this kind of way, so there’s different ways. There’s a way that’s between open fields, but now there’s a way between two vineyards, and these both vineyards apparently have two fences, or *gederim* [stone fences], between them. And therefore there’s not a lot of place to move to the side.

So the *aton* sees again the *malach*, so she pushes herself into the wall. And Bilaam, who’s riding on it, his foot, which is on the side of the *aton*, is getting squashed into the wall, so he hits it again. But okay, there’s still — she passed by the *malach*, that’s basically what happened. Although there was a small space, she passed by.

Third time, the *malach* comes and he stands in a place where there’s nowhere to move anywhere at all. It’s an even more narrow path. There’s nowhere to go right or left — interesting language, right? This is language in Sefer Devarim and later, don’t go away from the way of the Torah right or left.

And the *aton* sees the *malach* a third time. So what does she do? She doesn’t continue. She just sits down and she refuses to move.

And now Bilaam is upset. ויחר אף בלעם [Vayichar af Bilaam — And Bilaam’s anger flared]. It’s the start of the story with ויחר אף אלהים [Vayichar af Elokim — God’s anger flared], and he hits the *aton*. “What’s going on with you?”

The Donkey Speaks

Now suddenly, at this stage, ויפתח ה׳ את פי האתון [Vayiftach Hashem et pi ha’aton — Hashem opened the mouth of the donkey]. And again, something very weird, very interesting. The *aton* speaks to Bilaam, and the *aton* tells Bilaam: “Why did you hit me? Three times.”

And Bilaam says, “What do you mean? You’re making fun of me. If I’d have had a sword, I would have killed you.” Of course, remember the *malach* is the one that’s standing with a sword, and the *aton* is thinking, “You have a sword? You might be talking about a sword, but I had a sword.”

And the *aton* answers Bilaam. She says: “Well, I’m your *aton*. You’ve ridden on me from always until this day. Have I ever done something like this to you?” In other words, she’s saying: when you see an *aton* suddenly misbehaving, suddenly not cooperating, you should think, maybe there’s something wrong. It’s not like, you know, we have a *shor mu’ad* [an ox known to gore], right? We know that this animal doesn’t listen. This is a good animal. It’s been serving him well all this time.

So he says no. In other words, the *aton* won. Bilaam — the great, right, the great man of words, he knows how to have words and things for everything — here, his donkey has won a debate with him, a conversation with him.

Bilaam’s Eyes Are Opened

And now Hashem opens Bilaam’s eyes. So first He opened the *aton’s* mouth, now He opens Bilaam’s eyes. And he sees the *malach* with his sword. So now Bilaam obviously understands what’s going on. And what you do when you see a *malach* is you bow down to him.

And the *malach* tells Bilaam: “Why did you hit your *aton* three times?” He says, “It was me. I’ve come here to be something that stands in your way, because this way is against me” — כי ירט הדרך לנגדי [ki yarat haderech legdi]. I think that’s what it means, something like that: you’re going against my will. So he’s speaking in the name of Hashem here. You’re going against Hashem’s will, and I’ve come in some way to stop you.

“And the *aton* saw me, so at least she went to the side from me. Therefore, maybe she went from me — she was right, you’re the one that’s wrong. Now that you see that it was me, that she was respecting me in some sense, going to the side, I should have killed you and let her live.”

In other words, you’re saying that she should be killed for not going in the way? You should

The Malach’s Rebuke and Bilaam’s Apology

You’re going against the malach. She’s at least respecting the malach. And what does Bilaam say? Sorry, I’ve sinned. I didn’t know that you’re the one standing against me in the way. And of course, he understands that this malach is a messenger of Hashem. He’s not apologizing to the malach for trying to go through him. He’s apologizing to Hashem who sent the malach.

And now he understands that Hashem doesn’t want him to go and he tells him: If this is bad in your eyes, let me go back. I’m going to return home.

The Malach’s Surprising Response

And what does the malach of Hashem say? No, no problem. You don’t have to go back home. You can stay here. You can continue on your way. But again, only the thing that I’ve spoken to you, that’s what you will speak. And Bilaam continues on his way.

So this is a very interesting story. If he does want, then why did he send the malach to stop him? Something very weird. And I can’t give a solution for this. But I think this part of the story is to show or to emphasize how strongly Bilaam does want to go. So don’t think that Bilaam was just going to give up. He does want to go. And he’s forced. He’s sort of being played with. Like Bilaam said to the donkey, Bilaam is the one being played with and becoming just a tool in the hands of this malach, in the hands of Hashem.

Bilaam’s Arrival and First Meeting with Balak

Okay, so that’s where I would stop the chapter. I’m going to continue a little bit. So we see the beginning of him coming to Balak. And we’ll stop more or less with this chapter. So we’ll have to start this again tomorrow because this is a really weird start.

Balak Goes Out to Meet Bilaam

So Balak hears that Bilaam came, that messengers must have went ahead and told him Bilaam is on the way. And he goes to meet him in a city called Ir Moav [city of Moav] next to the Arnon in asher biktzeh hagvul [which is at the edge of the border], in this river called Arnon, which we’ve discussed. Arnon was the border of Moav and Ammon.

Balak’s Complaints and Bilaam’s Response

And now Balak, Balak again has ta’anos [complaints]. He’s not happy with Bilaam and he speaks to him. He tells him, I’ve sent for you many times. Why didn’t you come? Is it because I cannot respect you? I cannot honor you?

And Bilaam answers it. Look, I came. So firstly, like why tell me you can’t come? I didn’t want to come, I came. But now, does that mean that I can speak anything? I can’t speak anything. Whatever Elokim, Hashem, our God will put in my mouth, that’s what I will speak.

So he’s sort of answering the two things. It’s not you, it’s not you that can’t respect me enough, that can’t honor me enough. It’s not that I can’t come. It’s Hashem who is controlling me. I will only speak what he gives me in his mouth.

The Welcoming Feast at Kiryat Chutzot

So they come to a place called Kiryat Chutzot. Balak slaughters bakar v’tzon [cattle and sheep], sheep from the herd, and sends Bilaam food. So they make a sort of a party. And in the morning, so that was like the first meeting.

Setting the Stage for What Follows

So let’s stop here. This is the first meeting. So there’s like the stage. Balak comes to Bilaam and there’s the first stage of the meeting where they have a sort of a small argument. But they reconcile. They make a little party.

And then we’re going to have the next, again, three times where each time Balak asks Bilaam to slaughter, not a party for himself, but for Hashem, for korbanot [sacrifices]. And each time, according to that, tries to prophesy. And then we have what happens.