Balak now sent messengers to Balaam with the following message: "Think
not that I ask thy help against Israel exclusively in my own interests,
and that thou canst expect from me alone honor and rewards for thy
service, but rest assured that all nations will then honor thee, that
Canaanites as well as Egyptians will cast themselves at thy feet when
thou shalt have destroyed Israel. This people that hath gone out of
Egypt hath covered with earth Sihon and Og, the eyes that guarded the
whole land, and now they are about to destroy us as well. They are not,
indeed, greater heroes than we, nor are their host more numerous than
ours, but they conquer as soon as they open their lips in prayer, and
that we cannot do. Try now to see if I may not gradually become their
master, so that I may at least lead a certain per cent of them to
destruction, be it only a twenty-fourth part of them."
Balak himself was even a greater magician and soothsayer than Balaam,
but he lacked the gift of properly grasping prophetic observations. He
knew through his sorcery that he was to be the cause of the death of
twenty-four thousand Israelites, but he did not know in what way Israel
was to suffer so great a loss, hence he requested Balaam to curse
Israel, hoping by this curse to be able to restrain Israel from
entering the Holy Land.
Balak's messengers to Balaam consisted of the elders of Moab and
Midian. The latter were themselves great magicians, and by their art
established the truth, that should Balaam obey Balak's summons, their
mission against Israel would be successful, but should he hesitate even
for a moment to follow them, nothing was to be expected from him. When
they now reached Balaam and he bade them stay over night to await his
answer, the elders of Midian instantly returned, for they knew that
they had now nothing to expect from him. [728] They said: "Is there
such a father as hates his son? God is the father of Israel, He loves
them. Shall He now, owing to a curse from Balaam turn His love into
hatred?" [729] Indeed, had the matter depended on Balaam's wishes, he
would doubtless instantly have acquiesced and followed Balak's summons,
for he hated Israel more than Balak, and was much pleased with the
commission of the Moabite king. The elders that Balak had sent had
besides in their possession all needful instruments of magic, so that
Balaam might have no excuse for not instantly following them, but
Balaam had, of course, to bide his time and first find out if God would
permit him to go to Balak, hence he bade the Moabite messengers stay
over night, because God never appears to heathen prophets save at
night. As Balaam expected, God appeared by night and asked Balaam, "Who
are these people with thee?"
Balaam was one of the three men whom God put to the test and who
miserably failed to pass it. When God appeared to Cain and asked,
"Where is Abel thy brother?" he tried to deceive God. He should have
replied, "Lord of the world! What is hidden and what is open, both
alike are known to Thee. Why then dost Thou inquire after my brother?"
But instead of this he replied, "I know not. Am I my brother's keeper?"
God therefore said to him: "Thou hast spoken thin own sentence. The
voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto Me from the ground, and now
cursed art thou." Hezekiah acted like Cain when the messengers from the
king of Babylon came to him, and Isaiah the prophet asked him, "What
said these men? And from whence came they unto thee?" Hezekiah should
have answered, "Thou art a prophet of God, why dost thou ask me?" But
instead of giving this answer, he replied haughtily and boastfully,
"They are come from a far country unto me, even from Babylon." On
account of this haughty answer Isaiah announced to the king this
prophecy: "Behold, the days come, that all that is in thine house shall
be carried to Babylon; and of thy sons that shall issue from thee, they
shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."
The scoundrel Balaam, too, should have made answer to God's question,
"What men are these with thee?" by saying, "Lord of the world!
Everything lies open before Thee, and nothing is hidden from Thee, why
then dost Thou ask me?" But he, on the other hand, made quite a
different answer and started to boast, saying to God: "Although Thou
dost not distinguish me, and dost not spread my fame over the world,
still the kings seek me: Balak, the king of Moab, hath sent to ask me
to curse Israel." Then God said, "Because thou speakest thus, thou
shalt not curse the people," and added, "O thou wicked rascal! I said
of Israel, He that toucheth them, toucheth the apple of My eye,' and
yet thou wishest to touch them and curse them! Therefore shall thine
eye be blinded." [730] Thus Balaam became blind of one eye, as he had
already been lame of one foot. [731] Balaam now perceiving that God did
not wish him to curse Israel said, "If it be so, then I shall bless
them." God: "They have not need of thy blessing, for they are blessed."
God said to Balaam as one says to a bee: "Neither thy honey nor thy
sting."