Balaam the Butcher Who Came to Slay and Stayed to Bless

(Numbers 23:10:) LET MY SOUL DIE THE DEATH OF THE UPRIGHT. A parable of a butcher who came to slaughter a cow that belonged to a king. The king began to watch. When he (the butcher) sensed this, he began to cast away the knife, and to stroke it (the cow), and to fill the feeding-trough before it. He began to say: Let my soul go forth, for I came [to slaughter it, yet behold, I have fed it. So too Balaam said: Let my soul go forth, for I came] to curse, yet I bless. Behold, LET MY SOUL DIE THE DEATH OF THE UPRIGHT, AND LET MY END BE LIKE HIS.