Balaam's Donkey Shames the Sorcerer Who Would Curse Israel

"If I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you now" (ibid.). A parable: to a physician who came to heal with his tongue one who had been bitten by a snake on the road. He saw a lizard on the road and began to seek a stick to kill it. They said to him: This one you are not able to take up <without a stick>? How then did you come to heal with your tongue one bitten by a snake? So too the she-ass said to Balaam: Me you are not able to kill unless there is a sword in your hand, and how do you wish to uproot an entire nation? He was silent and found no answer. The princes of Moab began to be astonished, for they saw a miracle the like of which had never been in the world. And there are those who say that he said to them: She is not mine. She answered him: "Am I not your she-ass, upon which you have ridden ever since I was yours until this day?" (Numbers 22:30). From this you have learned that he was not an old man, for she was older than he.