4 min read

Balak Walked Balaam Through a City of Families to Break His Nerve

When Balaam arrived, Balak took him to Kiriath-Huzoth, a city of markets, and pointed to children and families Israel would destroy.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Tour Before the Altars
  2. The Feast That Revealed the Truth
  3. What Balaam Understood When the Blessings Came
  4. The Wicked Say Much and Do Little

The Tour Before the Altars

Balak did not take Balaam directly to the hilltop. When the hired prophet arrived in Moab, Balak walked him first through Kiriath-Huzoth, which the Midrash Tanchuma translates as the city of markets. He had built the bazaars and the market squares deliberately. He moved Balaam through the crowds, pointing. These are the people that approaching army is coming to destroy. Infants. Merchants. Families going about their ordinary lives. They have done you no harm.

It was theater, but it was skilled theater. Balak needed Balaam not merely willing but moved. A curse launched from indifference might fail. A curse powered by genuine moral outrage, by the sense that an injustice was being perpetrated against innocents, would carry a different energy. Balak was not paying for Balaam's hatred. He was manufacturing Balaam's compassion and pointing it at Israel.

The Feast That Revealed the Truth

After the city of markets came the banquet. Balak sacrificed an ox and a sheep (Numbers 22:40). One ox. One sheep. For the man he had promised wealth beyond reckoning, for the prophet he had told would receive great honor.

Midrash Tanchuma, Balak 11, draws the contrast with surgical precision. Abraham, when three strangers arrived at his tent, ran toward them and told them he would bring a little bread. Then the text shows us three se'ah of fine meal, a calf that Abraham himself ran to fetch, butter, and milk, and Abraham standing over the guests as they ate. The righteous say little and do much. Abraham promised bread and produced a feast.

Balak promised a kingdom and delivered a single livestock sacrifice.

What Balaam Understood When the Blessings Came

When Balaam opened his mouth and blessings poured out instead of curses, Legends of the Jews preserves a tradition in which he explained what he had seen. He had been transported to the high places and found himself among the patriarchs. He recognized his position. Both he and Balak owed their existence to this people. To act against them was ingratitude of the most radical kind.

The tour through Kiriath-Huzoth had not produced the pity Balak designed it to produce. Balaam had seen children and families in the markets and felt something, but what he felt when the spirit moved through him was not outrage at Israel. It was recognition. The people he had been hired to destroy carried a blessing that predated Balak's commission and would outlast it by generations.

The Wicked Say Much and Do Little

The Tanchuma preserves the principle as a general law about the character of actions, not just about Balak. The wicked say a great deal and do not even do a little. Balak had promised Balaam great honor. He provided one ox and one sheep. The gap between the promise and the delivery was not an oversight. It was character expressed in small, observable choices about what ends up on a table when a prophet finally arrives.

Abraham's character went the other direction. He had promised bread and produced a feast because the guests standing at his tent mattered more than the precision of what he had claimed to offer. The promise understated the reality. The righteous under-promise and over-deliver.

SacrificeKingsBalakBalaamGenerosity
← All myths

From the tradition

Sources

2 sources

The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Midrash Tanchuma, Balak 11Midrash Tanchuma

(Numb. 22:39:) “Then Balaam went unto Balak, and they came unto Kiriath-Huzoth (literally: city of markets),” where he had made market places for buying and selling. He had [also] made a bazaar. [His purpose was] to show him crowds and say, “See what those [people] are coming to kill, people and infants who have done them no wrong.” (Numb. 22:40:) “Then Balak sacrificed an ox and a sheep.” The righteous say little and do much. It is written of Abraham (in Gen. 18:5), “Let me bring a piece of bread that you may refresh your souls.” But after that (in vs. 6-7), “’Hurry up with three se'ah [of fine meal]….’ Then Abraham ran unto the herd.” But the wicked say a lot and do not even do a little. Balak said (in Numb. 22:17), “For I will surely honor you greatly….” When [Balaam] came, he only sent him an ox and a sheep. Balaam began gnashing his teeth at him, for he was greedy. He said [to himself], “Is this what he sent me? Tomorrow I will deliver a curse through his [own] property,” as stated (in Numb. 23:1), “Then Balaam said [unto Balak], ‘Build [seven altars] for me here, [and make ready for me here seven bulls and seven rams]….’” (Numb. 22:41:) “So it came to pass in the morning that Balak took Balaam and brought him up to the high places of Baal, [and from there he saw the edge of the people].” Balak was a more of a master of divinations and auguries than Balaam, for Balaam was being dragged along after him like a blind man. What did the two of them resemble? Someone who had a knife in his hand but did not know [where to find] the [animal] joints, while his companion knew the joints but did not have a knife in his hand. Balak saw the places in which Israel would fall and (ibid.) “brought him up into the high places of Baal.” This was Baal Peor, where he saw that Israel would fall. (Numb. 23:1:) “Then Balaam said unto Balak, ‘Build seven altars for me here.’” Why seven altars? [They] corresponded to seven righteous ones from Adam to Moses, who built seven altars and had been accepted: Adam, Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Moses. Then [Balaam] said, “Why did you accept these? Was it not because of the service (the sacrifices) which they performed before you that you accepted them? Is it not [more] suitable for you to be served by seventy nations and not by [merely] one nation?” As it were, the holy spirit [answered him] (in Prov. 17:1), “Better a dry morsel with tranquility than a house full of quarrelsome feasting.” Better (in the words of Lev. 7:10) “a grain offering mixed with oil or dry” than (in Prov. 17:1) “a house full of quarrelsome feasting”; for you want to introduce strife between Me and Israel. (Numb. 23:2-3:) “Then Balak did as Balaam had [spoken…]. And he said to Balak, ‘Stand beside your burnt offerings [...]’; so he went alone (rt. shph).” [Balaam] had been at ease (rt. shph) to curse. Thus he had been at ease until that moment, but from that moment on he was troubled.

Full source
Legends of the Jews 6:39Legends of the Jews

So, Balaam, the non-Jewish prophet hired by Balak, king of Moab, to curse the Israelites, is ready to get down to business. Balak and his princes are all waiting, anticipation thick in the air. But instead of the curses Balak expects, something extraordinary happens. Balaam's mouth, instead of spewing venom, begins to pour forth blessings upon Israel. How does that even happen?

Balaam explains that he was transported to "high places," finding himself in the company of the Patriarchs. He laments that Balak has cast him down, causing him to lose his gift of prophecy. He points out a crucial connection: both he and Balak owe their existence to the very people they seek to harm.

"Both of us are ungrateful men if we wish to undertake evil against Israel," Balaam declares, according to Legends of the Jews, a compilation of rabbinic tradition. He reminds Balak that were it not for Abraham, who saved Lot from the destruction of the cities, Balak, a descendant of Lot, wouldn't even exist! And Balaam himself, a descendant of Laban, acknowledges that he wouldn't be alive if Jacob hadn't entered Laban's house.

He continues, pointing out the irony: Balak brought him from Aram to curse Israel, but Abraham left that very land laden with blessings, and Jacob entered it likewise blessed. How can a curse possibly emerge from such a place? Balaam asks, rhetorically, how can he curse those whom God has not cursed? “How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed?” he asks.

According to Midrash Rabbah, Balaam argues that cursing Jacob's descendants would be like telling a king his crown is worthless – an act of utter disrespect. He reminds Balak that "The Lord's portion is His people; Jacob is the lot of His inheritance." God Himself said that He will be glorified in Israel. So, how could anyone possibly curse them?

Even when the Israelites have deserved punishment, they haven't been cursed, Balaam argues. Remember when Jacob tricked his father, Isaac, to receive the blessings, saying, "I am Esau, thy firstborn?" (Genesis 27:19). Shouldn't a curse have followed that deception? But instead, he was blessed!

Balaam goes on, reminding Balak about the sin of the Golden Calf. Ordinarily, a rebellious group would face severe consequences, but even after the Israelites worshipped the idol, God didn't withdraw His love. He continued to provide them with the clouds of glory, manna, and the well – all miracles that sustained them in the desert.

Balaam emphasizes that even when God threatened the Israelites with a curse, He never explicitly stated that He would bring it upon them. In contrast, when promising blessings, God always affirmed that He Himself would send them upon Israel. "How shall I curse when God doth not curse!" Balaam exclaims.

So, what are we to make of this? Balaam's forced blessings highlight the power of divine will. It's a reminder that even those who intend to harm can be instruments of blessing. And perhaps, it’s a lesson that blessings, once spoken, carry a weight and power all their own. Even against the speaker's will.

Full source