Therefore he sent elders of Moab, and of Midian, to Balaam ( apparently a powerful and respected prophet ), son of Beor ( Bible ), to induce him to come and curse the Israelites.

Moab consequently sent higher ranking priests and offers Balaam honours, and so God tells Balaam to go with them.

Balaam thus, without being asked again, sets out in the morning with the princes of Moab and God becomes angry that he went, and the Angel of the Lord ( Numbers 22: 22 ) is sent to prevent him.

Due to his behavior with the Midianites, the Rabbis interpret Balaam as responsible for the behavior during the Heresy of Peor, which they consider to have been unchastity, and consequently the death of 24, 000 victims of the plague which God sent as punishment.

Because they had " caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam ," to sin against the Lord and had sent a plague into the congregation of Israelites, Moses decreed that every male child and non-virginal woman be killed ( since it was the Midianite women who led the Israelite men into sexual sin ).

The prayer begins with, where Balaam, sent to curse the Israelites, is instead overcome with awe at God and the Israelites ' houses of worship.

Balaam sends back word that he can only do what YHWH commands, and God has, via a nocturnal dream, told him not to go.

Balaam, though still a son of Beor, in this narrative is a prophet of Shamash, the Semitic sun god ( The word " shemesh " is still the Hebrew word for " sun ," which in Arabic is " shams ").

" ( Revelation 2: 14 ) Evidently, Balaam returned to King Balak and explained how he was unable to curse the Israelites due to God having control of his tongue, but instead explained to the king on how he could get the Israelites to curse themselves, thereby removing the protection God had on them.

When Balaam saw that he could not curse the children of Israel, the Rabbis assert that he advised Balak, as a last resort, to tempt the Hebrew nation to immoral acts and, through these, to the worship of Baal-peor.

An ancient Aramaic inscription, found at Dier Alla, identifies Balaam as a prophet of Shamash, a semitic sun-god, and consequently, it could well be the case that the unidentified Baal of Peor is Shamash.

There is an inference that after Balaam failed to curse the Israelites directly, he instructed King Balak as to how Moab could persuade the Israelites to curse themselves.

At first the Angel is seen only by the ass Balaam is riding.

At this point, Balaam was allowed to see the angel, who informed him that the ass is the only reason the Angel did not kill Balaam.

However, the prophecy blesses Israel ; Balak remonstrated, but Balaam reminded him that he can only speak the words put in his mouth, so Balak taook him to another high place at Pisgah, to try again.

Moab consequently sends higher ranking priests and offers Balaam honours ; Balaam, in his coveteousness, continues to press God, and God finally gives him over to his greed and permits him to go but with instructions to say only what he commands.

At first the angel is seen only by the donkey Balaam is riding, which tries to avoid the otherwise invisible angel.

At this point, Balaam is allowed to see the angel, who informs him that the donkey is the only reason the angel did not kill Balaam.

However, the prophecy blesses Israel ; Balak remonstrates, but Balaam reminds him that he can only speak the words put in his mouth, so Balak takes him to another high place at Pisgah, to try again.

According to Jewish legend, Balaam was made this powerful in order to prevent the non-Jewish tribes from saying: " If we had only had our own Moses, we would be as pious as the Jews.

Balaam was felt to be very fit as the personification of Zoroaster because not only was Balaam considered a contemporary of Moses, but also as a Monotheist ( albeit non-Israelite ) he was assumed to be able to make true prophesies in the name of the one God Jehovah ( cf.

Only exceptionally did non-Jewish people prophets like Balaam attain prophetic powers, and at best they had only prophetic dreams ( Midrash Leviticus Rabbah i. 12-13 ).

Balaam refused to speak what God didn't speak and would not curse the Israelites, even though King Balak of Moab offered him money to do so.

The Talmud also recounts a more positive view of Balaam, stating that when the Law was given to Israel, a mighty voice shook the foundations of the earth, so much so that all kings trembled, and in their consternation turned to Balaam, inquiring whether this upheaval of nature portended a second deluge ; the prophet assured them that what they heard was the voice of God, giving the sacred law to the Israelites ( Talmud, Zeb.

Balak met with Balaam at Kirjath-huzoth, and they went to the high places of Baal, and offered sacrifices at seven altars, leading to Balaam being given a prophecy by God, which Balaam relates to Balak.

The spirit of God came upon Balaam and he delivered a third positive prophecy concerning Israel.

The story of Balaam in Numbers 22, describes a non-Jewish prophet who honors God and refuses to curse Israel and who is generally presented favorably.

The Spirit of God comes upon Balaam and he delivers a third positive prophecy concerning Israel.

With God's protection taken from him, Balaam is later listed amongst the Midianites who were killed in revenge for the " matter of Peor ", which is where Balaam showed King Balak how to trap the Israelites so that God might destroy them.

Balaam the son of Beor hath said, and the man whose eyes are open hath said: He hath said, which heard the words of God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, falling into a trance, but having his eyes open ...

Conversely, in the Jahwist source, Balaam arrives, the spirit of God comes upon him, and he simply delivers a blessing and a prophecy, in succession.

According to a negative view of Balaam in the Talmud, Balaam possessed the gift of being able to ascertain the exact moment during which God is wroth — a gift bestowed upon no other creature.

In demonology, Balam ( also Balaam, Balan ) is a great and powerful king ( to some authors a duke or a prince ) of Hell who commands over forty legions of demons.

" Balaam has attracted much interest, alike from Jews, Christians and Muslims.

Where the Masoretic describes Yahweh as a " man of war " (), the Samaritan has " hero of war ", a phrase applied to spiritual beings, and in, the Samaritan reading " The Angel of God found Balaam " replaces the Masoretic " And God met Balaam.

But the fact must be noted, which no one has so far brought forward, namely, that every single utterance of Balaam is called a sentence (" mashal "; Numbers 23: 7, 23: 18, 24: 3, 24: 15, 24: 20, 24: 23 ), while in the prophetic books this term is not applied to the prophecies.

Joseph H. Hertz, a 20th century Jewish biblical commentator, writes that these verses " depict the continuance on the subconscious plane of the mental and moral conflict in Balaam's soul ; and the dream apparition and the speaking donkey is but a further warning to Balaam against being misled through avarice to violate God's command.

Balaam immediately repented, but is told to go on.

Balaam immediately repents, but is told to go on.

Zoroaster, the founder and first prophet of that religion, who is said to have told his people how to recognize the Saviour at the right moment, is identified with Balaam.

Balaam thus set out with two servants to go to Balak, but an Angel tried to prevent him.

Every ancient reference to Balaam considers him a non-Israelite, a prophet, and the son of Beor, though Beor is not so clearly identified.

Balak, king of Moab ( Numbers 22: 2 ), consequently becomes alarmed, and sends elders of Midian and his messengers ( Numbers 22: 4-5 ), to Balaam, son of Beor, to induce him to come and curse Israel.

While St. Peter claimed that Balaam loved the wages of wickedness, which caused him to wander from the straight path ( 2 Peter 2: 15 ).

In this literature, Balaam gradually acquired a position among the non-Jews, which was exalted as much as that of Moses among the Jews ( Midrash Numbers Rabbah 20 ); at first being a mere interpreter of dreams, but later becoming a magician, until finally the spirit of prophecy descended upon him ( ib.