Ironic Blessings for Tumultuous Times

Parashat Balak, Numbers 22:2–25:9

Dr. Vered Hillel, Netanya, Israel

The story of Balak and Balaam is one of the most well-known in Numbers, full of irony, fascinating parallels, reversals, patterns of threes, curses and blessings. The Israelites are approaching the end of their forty years in the wilderness. They have already fought and won wars against Sichon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, leaving the Moabites worried about Israel’s advance. Instead of confronting the Israelites in war, Balak summons Balaam. Three times Balak sends messengers to Balaam to entice him to come and curse the Israelites. Twice Balaam refuses. The third time God tells him to go with Balak’s men and to speak only what God commands.

 You know the rest of the story: on his way to Moab, Balaam encounters an angel of Hashem, hindering his way. However, only his donkey sees the hindering angel. In the first encounter, the donkey turns off into a field; in the second, it presses against a wall and injures Balaam’s right foot; in the third, it lies down and refuses to move. By the third time, Balaam is so angry that he answers the donkey as if getting into an argument with a donkey is an everyday occurrence. Hashem opens Balaam’s eyes; he sees the angel and falls on his face in repentance. The angel of Hashem charges Balaam to continue to Balak, warning Balaam to say only what he tells him.

Notice the sequence of threes in Balak’s summons of Balaam and Balaam’s encounter with the angel of Hashem. The narrative continues this pattern. From three different vantage points, Balak entreats Balaam to curse Israel. Each time Balaam blesses Israel instead. Just as Balaam gets angry with the donkey, Balak becomes angry with Balaam for not doing what he wishes. Balaam responds to Balak’s anger with a prophecy about the end of days and the coming of Messiah.

Balaam’s three blessings and the prophecy of the end days are exquisite and highly dignified poetry, set in the middle of the narrative and developed with it. Without the narrative, the poetic utterances are almost incomprehensible. The narrative elucidates the allusions to personalities, nations and events in the poetry. For example, in both the narrative and poetry, Balaam’s rise in esteem is inversely matched by the downgrading of Balak. In the first blessing, Balak is called the King of Moab; in the second, he is an ordinary human; in the third blessing and the eschatological/messianic prophecy, Balaam ignores Balak completely.

In the first blessing, Num 22:41–23:12, Balaam explains that Balak, a mortal king, requires him to curse Israel, but the King of kings requires him to bless Israel. Two central themes emerge 1) the election of Israel, which set them apart from all other nations (Num 23:9), and 2) the blessing of their significant number (Num 23:10). These two themes echo the call of Abraham (Gen 12:2), “I will make of you a great nation,” and the blessing of Jacob (Gen 28:14), “Your offspring will be like the dust of the earth.” Balaam says, “Here is a people living alone and not reckoning itself among the nations! Who can count the dust of Jacob or number the dust cloud of Israel?” Balaam’s statement reinforces that Israel alone is Hashem’s am segula, his elected and treasured possession (cf. Exod 19:5).

The second blessing, Num 23:13–26, centers on Hashem’s closeness to Israel and presence in their midst. Balaam no longer addresses Balak as a king but refers to Balak as a mere human with a transitory nature. In contrast, Balaam shows that Hashem is not capricious; he does not alter his purpose. He is the unchanging provider and guardian who accompanies his people Israel in triumphant sovereignty. Israel is invincible with Hashem as their King, like a lion, strong in battle.

The third blessing, Num 23:27–24:9, is characterized by more imaginative and figurative language than the previous two blessings. The Spirit of God comes upon Balaam, and he proclaims, “Ma tovu ohaleicha Ya’acov—How goodly are your tents, Jacob, your dwelling places, Israel!” (Num 24:5–7). This blessing emphasizes the beauty, prosperity, and fruitfulness of Jewish life. Rashi states that the adjective “goodly” in 24:5 refers to Israel’s moral and ethical goodness, and that Balaam is praising the purity and chastity of the Jewish people. The simple meaning of the term encapsulates the full range of perfection—beauty, charm, simplicity, and purity.

Numbers 24:6 and 7 intertwine the motif of water with plant imagery. Biblically, water symbolizes abundance, freshness, and vitality, and plant imagery speaks of upright living. Psalm 1:3 says a righteous man is like a tree planted by streams of water, and Jeremiah 31:11 relates that redeemed Israel is like a well-watered garden and will not languish anymore. The garden imagery connects to the creation of the world and Eden: “And the Lord God planted a garden . . . and made all kinds of trees to grow out of the ground that were pleasing to the eye” (Gen 2:8–9).

Suddenly the poem changes to another type of good—the people of Israel will be exalted over the surrounding nations. This oracle proclaims victory over the enemies of God and his people. The imagery of the lion lying down to rest in peace conjures up a picture of peace as in Lev 26:6: “And I will give peace in the land, and you will lie down, and none will make you afraid.” Furthermore, the blessing concludes, “blessed is everyone who blesses you and cursed is everyone who curses you” (Num 24:9), pointing back to Balaam’s first blessing and those of Abraham (Gen 12:3) and Jacob (Gen 27:29).

In one final ironic twist, Balaam curses Israel’s enemies (Num 24:10–25) and prophesies that Israel will crush the surrounding nations and be blessed while the other nations will be doomed.

These verses encapsulate a well-known messianic prophecy: “I see him, but not now: I behold him, but not near—a star shall come out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel” (Num 24:15–19). Jewish and Christian interpreters understand this verse to refer to a future ruler of Israel. Jewish interpreters see a reference to King David or Bar Kochva, who led a revolt against Rome in the second century CE, and Christian interpreters see Yeshua. However, neither interpretation completely fulfills the prophecy. We still look forward to the days when all the enemies of God and his people will be subdued and put under his feet, and when war, famine, pestilence, and death will be conquered.

Our current world situation prompts us to cry, “how long, O Lord, how long?” (cf. Hab 1:2). The promised star out of Jacob has come, yet we still live with war, famine, pestilence, and death. As we walk through these tumultuous times, remember three points drawn from Balaam’s oracles. God is the sovereign King who will complete what he began, the invincible and unchanging guardian who lives among his people, and the victor who will subjugate all his enemies under his feet and bring peace. May we live uprightly like a tree planted by streams of water and like a well-watered garden that in the kingdom of God produces abundance, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold (Mark 4:8, 20)!