What limits does God place on Balaam’s journey and his words to Balac?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

God first forbids Balaam to go or curse Israel because the people are blessed. He later permits the journey under his command, and the angel repeats that Balaam must speak only what he is commanded. Balaam tells Balac he can say only what God puts in his mouth.

Chapter breakdown

Israel advances and camps on Moab’s plains opposite Jericho beyond the Jordan. Balac son of Sephor sees what Israel has done to the Amorrhite. The Moabites greatly fear Israel and cannot withstand its assault. Balac, then king in Moab, tells Madian’s elders that Israel will destroy everyone within their borders as an ox eats grass to the roots. He sends messengers to Balaam son of Beor, a soothsayer living by the river in the land of the children of Ammon. Balac says a people has come out of Egypt, covered the face of the earth and sits opposite him. He asks Balaam to curse them because they are stronger than he is, so that he may somehow defeat and drive them from his land. He says he knows that those Balaam blesses are blessed and those he curses are cursed.

Moab’s elders and Madian’s elders go with the price of divination in their hands and deliver all Balac’s words. Balaam asks them to stay the night and promises to answer whatever the Lord says to him. While they stay, God comes and asks what these men with him mean. Balaam says Balac son of Sephor, king of the Moabites, has sent them because a people from Egypt covers the face of the land. He repeats the request to curse them so Balac may fight and drive them away. God forbids both going with them and cursing the people, because the people are blessed. In the morning Balaam tells the princes to return to their country, because the Lord forbids his coming. They return and report that Balaam would not come.

Balac sends more messengers, of higher rank than before. They tell Balaam not to delay coming: Balac is ready to honour him and give whatever he wants if he comes and curses the people. Balaam says that even if Balac gives him his house full of silver and gold, he cannot alter the word of the Lord his God by saying more or less. He nevertheless asks them to stay that night too, so he may learn what the Lord will answer once more.

Challoner explains Balaam’s renewed invitation as a desire to please Balac for worldly gain despite already knowing God did not want him to go. The note says God punished this wrong disposition by permitting the journey, though not the curse Balaam wished to give, and allowing him to fall further into sin until he gave harmful counsel against God’s people that ended in his destruction. Challoner warns against indulging a passion for money. The counsel and destruction are the note’s forward-looking account, not events narrated in this chapter.

God comes to Balaam that night and says that, if the men have come to call him, he may rise and go with them, but must do what God commands. In the morning Balaam saddles his ass and goes with them. God is angry, and an angel of the Lord stands against Balaam in the road. Balaam rides with two servants. The ass sees the angel with a drawn sword and turns into a field. Balaam beats her, intending to bring her back to the road. The angel then stands in a narrow place between walls enclosing vineyards. The ass presses against a wall and bruises her rider’s foot; Balaam beats her again. The angel moves to a narrow place with no room to turn right or left. Seeing him, the ass falls beneath her rider. Balaam grows angry and beats her sides harder with a staff.

The Lord opens the ass’s mouth. She asks what she has done to Balaam and why he has now struck her three times.

Challoner explains that the angel moved the ass’s tongue to speak, rebuking Balaam’s brutal fury and folly through an animal’s mouth.

Balaam answers that she deserved it and served him badly; he wishes he had a sword to kill her. She asks whether she is not the animal he has always ridden until this day and whether she has ever behaved this way before. He answers that she has not. The Lord then opens Balaam’s eyes. He sees the angel with a drawn sword and worships him, falling flat on the ground. The angel asks why he beat the ass three times and says he has come to oppose him because his way is perverse and contrary to him.

Challoner explains the perverse way as Balaam’s wicked inclination to curse for gain the people of whom the angel is guardian.

The angel says that, unless the ass had turned aside to give him place, he would have killed Balaam and let her live. Balaam confesses that he has sinned, not knowing the angel stood against him, and offers to return if the journey displeases him. The angel tells him to go with the men but to speak nothing beyond what he commands. Balaam goes with the princes. The account gives his confession and offer without judging the private motive for them.

When Balac hears, he comes to meet Balaam in a Moabite town at Arnon’s farthest borders. He asks why Balaam did not come immediately when summoned and whether he thought Balac unable to reward him. Balaam says he is now present, but asks whether he has power to speak anything other than what God puts in his mouth. They travel together to a city at the farthest borders of Balac’s kingdom. Balac kills oxen and sheep and sends presents to Balaam and the princes with him. The next morning he brings Balaam to Baal’s high places, where Balaam sees the outermost part of the people.

The story inside

Balac’s request remains a curse, while God’s permission concerns a journey under command. The first refusal names Israel’s blessing; the later permission does not reverse it into permission to curse. The angel’s final instruction again restricts Balaam’s words, and Balaam repeats that limit to Balac on arrival.

On the road, the ass sees the angel before Balaam does. Her three responses are followed by three beatings. After her speech, God opens Balaam’s eyes, and the angel explains that her turning saved his life. The contrast rests on the recorded actions and dialogue, without needing claims that Balaam boasted of vision or that his confession lacked sincerity. Challoner supplies an attributed warning about gain; that note must remain separate from the narrator’s words and from events not yet narrated here.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Permission to travel is conditional. God permits Balaam to go while requiring obedience to his command; the angel then restricts what he may say. The journey does not grant Balac the curse he requested.
2
The ass’s actions receive an explanation. Balaam first treats her turns as bad service, but the angel says that without them Balaam would have died and she would have lived. The later explanation changes how the earlier acts are understood.
3
Challoner’s warning has a clear source. His note connects Balaam’s second invitation with gain and looks ahead to harmful counsel and destruction. Those later events are kept as commentary here rather than added to this chapter’s history.

Test your recall

How does the angel’s explanation change the meaning of the ass’s three responses, and what condition governs Balaam’s continued journey?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 16730–16757
Numbers Chapter 22 Balac, king of Moab, sendeth twice for Balaam to curse Israel. In his way Balaam is rebuked by an angel. 22:1. And they went forward and encamped in the plains of Moab, over against where Jericho is situate beyond the Jordan. 22:2. And Balac the son of Sephor, seeing all that Israel had done to the Amorrhite, 22:3. And that the Moabites were in great fear of him, and were not able to sustain his assault, 22:4. He said to the elders of Madian: So will this people destroy all that dwell in our borders, as the ox is wont to eat the grass to the very roots. Now he was at that time king in Moab. 22:5. He sent therefore messengers to Balaam the son of Beor, a soothsayer, who dwelt by the river of the land of the children of Ammon, to call him, and to say: Behold a people is come out of Egypt, that hath covered the face of the earth, sitting over against me. 22:6. Come therefore, and curse this people, because it is mightier than I: if by any means I may beat them and drive them out of my land: for I know that he whom thou shalt bless is blessed, and he whom thou shalt curse is cursed.
Lines 16758–16783
22:7. And the ancients of Moab, and the elders of Madian, went with the price of divination in their hands. And where they were come to Balaam, and had told him all the words of Balac: 22:8. He answered: Tarry here this night and I will answer whatsoever the Lord shall say to me. And while they stayed with Balaam, God came and said to him: 22:9. What mean these men that are with thee? 22:10. He answered: Balac the son of Sephor king of the Moabites hath sent to me, 22:11. Saying: Behold a people that is come out of Egypt, hath covered the face of the land: come and curse them, if by any means I may fight with them and drive them away. 22:12. And God said to Balaam: Thou shalt not go with them, nor shalt thou curse the people: because it is blessed. 22:13. And he rose in the morning and said to the princes: Go into your country, because the Lord hath forbid me to come with you. 22:14. The princes returning, said to Balac: Balaam would not come with us.
Lines 16784–16798
22:15. Then he sent many more and more noble than he had sent before: 22:16. Who, when they were come to Balaam, said: Thus saith Balac the son of Sephor, Delay not to come to me: 22:17. For I am ready to honour thee, and will give thee whatsoever thou wilt: come and curse this people. 22:18. Balaam answered: If Balac would give me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot alter the word of the Lord my God, to speak either more or less. 22:19. I pray you to stay here this night also, that I may know what the Lord will answer me once more.
Lines 16799–16808
To stay.... His desiring them to stay, after he had been fully informed already that it was not God’s will he should go, came from the inclination he had to gratify Balac, for the sake of worldly gain. And this perverse disposition God punished by permitting him to go (though not to curse the people as he would willingly have done), and suffering him to fall still deeper and deeper into sin, till he came at last to give that abominable counsel against the people of God, which ended in his own destruction. So sad a thing it is to indulge a passion for money.
Lines 16809–16835
22:20. God therefore came to Balaam in the night, and said to him: If these men be come to call thee, arise and go with them: yet so, that thou do what I shall command thee. 22:21. Balaam arose in the morning, and saddling his ass went with them. 22:22. And God was angry. And an angel of the Lord stood in the way against Balaam, who sat on the ass, and had two servants with him. 22:23. The ass seeing the angel standing in the way, with a drawn sword, turned herself out of the way, and went into the field. And when Balaam beat her, and had a mind to bring her again to the way, 22:24. The angel stood in a narrow place between two walls, wherewith the vineyards were enclosed. 22:25. And the ass seeing him, thrust herself close to the wall, and bruised the foot of the rider. But he beat her again: 22:26. And nevertheless the angel going on to a narrow place, where there was no way to turn aside either to the right hand or to the left, stood to meet him. 22:27. And when the ass saw the angel standing, she fell under the feet of the rider: who being angry beat her sides more vehemently with a staff.
Lines 16837–16839
22:28. And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass, and she said: What have I done to thee? Why strikest thou me, lo, now this third time?
Lines 16840–16843
Opened the mouth, etc.... The angel moved the tongue of the ass, to utter these speeches, to rebuke, by the mouth of a brute beast, the brutal fury and folly of Balaam.
Lines 16844–16858
22:29. Balaam answered: Because thou hast deserved it, and hast served me ill: I would I had a sword that I might kill thee. 22:30. The ass said: Am not I thy beast, on which thou hast been always accustomed to ride until this present day? tell me if I ever did the like thing to thee. But he said: Never. 22:31. Forthwith the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel standing in the way with a drawn sword, and he worshipped him falling flat on the ground. 22:32. And the angel said to him: Why beatest thou thy ass these three times? I am come to withstand thee, because thy way is perverse, and contrary to me:
Lines 16859–16861
Perverse.... Because thy inclinations are wicked in being willing for the sake of gain to curse the people of whom I am the guardian.
Lines 16862–16871
22:33. And unless the ass had turned out of the way, giving place to me who stood against thee, I had slain thee, and she should have lived. 22:34. Balaam said: I have sinned, not knowing that thou didst stand against me: and now if it displease thee that I go, I will return. 22:35. The angel said: Go with these men, and see thou speak no other thing than what I shall command thee. He went therefore with the princes.
Lines 16872–16891
22:36. And when Balac heard it he came forth to meet him in a town of the Moabites, that is situate in the uttermost borders of Arnon. 22:37. And he said to Balaam: I sent messengers to call thee, why didst thou not come immediately to me? was it because I am not able to reward thy coming? 22:38. He answered him: Lo, here I am: shall I have power to speak any other thing but that which God shall put in my mouth? 22:39. So they went on together, and came into a city, that was in the uttermost borders of his kingdom. 22:40. And when Balac had killed oxen and sheep, he sent presents to Balaam, and to the princes that were with him. 22:41. And when morning was come, he brought him to the high places of Baal, and he beheld the uttermost part of the people.