Why God Sealed Balaam's Eye in His Final Oracle

"The oracle of Balaam son of Beor" (Numbers 24:3). Balaam and Balak were not worthy men; rather, both of them were "a maneh that is the son of a peras." Concerning Balak it says "son of Zippor" (Numbers 23:18), for his son was fit for kingship, but Balak himself was not so a king; therefore he was "a maneh that is the son of a peras." And likewise concerning Balaam it says "son of Beor," teaching that Beor, Balaam's father, was not esteemed in prophecy as much as he, but was rather like a son in relation to his father. "And the oracle of the man whose eye is open (shetum)." From here we learn that Balaam was blind in one of his eyes. Do not read it "shetum" (open) but "satum" (closed). And why did God close it? Because he said "and counts the issue (rova) of Israel" (Numbers 23:10), teaching that the Holy One, blessed be He, counts the seed of Israel and says: When will the hour come that there will come forth from it [a soul]? That wicked man, whose eye was evil, said: He who is holy and whose ministers are holy — should He gaze upon such a thing? And once the Holy One, blessed be He, saw that his eye was evil, He stored it up and blinded his eye. Another interpretation: "whose eye is open (shetum)" — open of eye, for he saw what all the prophets did not see; and "shetum" means nothing other than the language of "open," as the Mishnah says: "so that one may open (yishtom) and stop up and seal."