Balaam the Seer: From the Bible to the Deir ʿAlla Inscription

See Hayim Nahman Bialik and Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky, The Book of Legends (Sefer Ha-Aggadah): Legends from the Talmud and Midrash (Translated by William G. Braude; New York: Schocken Books, 1992) 96-97; Louis Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews Volume III: Moses in the Wilderness (Translated by Paul Radin; Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society of America, 1968 [1911, 1939]) 354-382.

See Erasmus Gaß, “Bileam (AT),” Das wissenschaftliche Bibellexikon im Internet; and Matthias Ederer, “Bileam (NT),” Das wissenschaftliche Bibellexikon im Internet. 

See Levine, Baruch, et al. “Balaam.” Encyclopaedia Judaica, edited by Michael Berenbaum and Fred Skolnik, 2nd ed., vol. 3 (Macmillan Reference USA, 2007), 76-81. Gale Virtual Reference Library (Accessed 7 June 2018).

Although the parashah is named after one of its first words, Balak, king of Moab, it is the seer Balaam who is the main human actor in it. On the complex literary history of the Balak/Balaam story, see David Frankel, “The Prehistory of the Balaam Story: When Balaam and Balak were Independent Characters,” TheTorah.com. On the parashah itself, see Jacob Milgrom, The JPS Torah Commentary: Numbers במדבר (Philadelphia/New York: The Jewish Publication Society, 1990) 185-215, 467-480; Baruch Levine, Numbers 21-36 (Anchor Bible; New Haven: Yale, 2000), 241-263.

In this, as in other cases, the literary figure of Joshua is emulating that of Moses. For more on Joshua as a Moses figure, see Carl S. Ehrlich, “‘Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better’: Joshua as Moses,” TheTorah.com (2016).

This reference to the narrative of the parashah is what occasioned in part the use of Micah 5:6-6:8 as this week’s haftarah portion, on which see Michael Fishbane, The JPS Bible Commentary: Haftarot הפטרות (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2002) 244-250.

See “Is Balaam a Hero or a Villain?” TheTorah.com (2013).

On the Jezirah as a region of Aramean habitation, see K. Lawson Younger, Jr., A Political History of the Arameans: From Their Origins to the End of Their Polities (Archaeology and Biblical Studies 13; Atlanta: SBL, 2016) 17-21; for the history of the region, see pp. 221-306.

According to Milgrom (Numbers, 186), the distance between Moab and Pitru/Pethor was around 640 kms or 400 miles. Taking the biblical text at face value, he then reckons that all the traveling between the one and the other in this parashah would have taken over three months.

See Jo Ann Hackett, “Balaam,” Anchor Bible Dictionary 1:569-572, esp. 571; Levine, “Deir ‘Alla,” 141; Smelik, Writings, 82-83.

For a succinct summary of the site and its excavations, see Gerrit van der Kooij, “Deir ‘Alla, Tell,” The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land 1:338-342.

Shmuel Aḥituv, Echoes from the Past: Hebrew and Cognate Inscriptions from the Biblical Period (Translated by Anson F. Rainey; Jerusalem: Carta, 2008) 433. Joseph Naveh arrives at a similar date in the early to mid eighth century on the basis of the paleography of the inscription. See his Studies in West-Semitic Epigraphy (Jerusalem: The Hebrew University Magnes Press, 2009) 206-208.

Smelik, Writings, 85-86.

On the Deir ‘Alla inscriptions, see among many others: Aḥituv, Echoes from the Past, 433-465; Jo Ann Hackett, The Balaam Text from Deir ‘Allā (Harvard Semitic Monographs 31; Chico, CA: Scholars Press); Baruch A. Levine, “3. Deir ‘Alla: The Deir ‘Alla Plaster Inscriptions (2.27),” The Context of Scripture Volume Two: Monumental Inscriptions from the Biblical World 2:140-145; Baruch A. Levine, “Deir ‘Alla, Texts,” New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible 2:83-85; Milgrom, Numbers, 473-476; Klaas A.D. Smelik, Writings from Ancient Israel: A Handbook of Historical and Religious Documents (Translated by G.I. Davies; Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1991) 79-88.

Although his name is mostly missing in the first line of the text, from later occurrences in the text we know that this seer is Balaam the son of Beor.

Transcription and translation are based on Levine, Numbers 21-36, 241-263, in conversation with his translation and notes from Context of Scripture.

One of the few exceptions to this rule is when Laban and his son-in-law Jacob erect a pile of stones as a sign of their covenant. Laban names it Yegar-sahadutha in Aramaic, while Jacob names it Gal-ed in Hebrew. In both cases, the meaning is the same: mound of witness. Also exceptional is the reference to a translator in the Joseph story (Gen 22:23). Another significant instance of biblical knowledge of linguistic difference is when the Assyrian commander (Rabshakeh) addresses the people of Jerusalem during the Assyrian siege of 701 BCE; and the defenders implore him to speak to them in Aramaic rather than Judean (a.k.a. Hebrew) so as not to dismay the people (2 Kings 18:26). Needless to say, he refused.

This is a standard feature of old Aramaic; in later Aramaic this sound is represented by an ‘ayin. For an argument in favor of a regional dialect of (southern) Aramaic, see Andreas Schüle, “Balaam from Deir Allā: A Peripheral Aramean?” In: Wandering Arameans: Arameans Outside Syria: Textual and Archaeological Perspectives (edited by Angelika Berlejung, Aren M. Maeir, and Andreas Schüle; Leipziger Altorientalistische Studien 5; Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2017) 69-80.

See the discussion of “The Dialect” in Hackett, Balaam Text, 109-124; as well as Aḥituv,Echoes from the Past, 434.

On this group of gods, see Hackett, Balaam Text, 85-89

Others read Sheger or even Shamash.

Others read Ashtar or Astarte.

See Aḥituv, Echoes from the Past, 453; Karel van der Toorn, “Sheger שגר,” Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (2^nd edition) 760-762. Differently, Levine, “Deir ‘Alla,” 141-143, and Schüle, “Balaam from Deir Allā,” 71-72.

Gen 17:1, 28:3, 35:11, 43:14, 48:3, Exod 6:3, Ezek 10:5; Job 8:5, 15:25, 27:11, 33:4.

For a discussion of the etymology of Shaddai and its possible interpretations, see Ernst Axel Knauf, “Shadday שדי,” Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (2^nd edition) 749-753; G. Steins, “שדי šadday,” Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament 14:418-446.

Either of these two former concepts would certainly be applicable to the Israelite God, who is associated with both mountains – e.g., Sinai and Zion – and the wilderness (forty years of wandering in same).

The attempt to understand the development of ancient Israel’s religion from polytheism to monotheism has been a central focus of biblical studies practically since its inception. Among the countless recent works on the subject, see the following: William G. Dever, Did God Have a Wife? Archaeology and Folk Religion in Ancient Israel (Grand Rapids, MI/Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2005; Richard S. Hess,Israelite Religions: An Archaeological and Biblical Survey (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007); Patrick D. Miller, The Religion of Ancient Israel (Library of Ancient Israel; London: SPCK & Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000; Mark S. Smith, The Origins of Biblical Monotheism: Israel’s Polytheistic Background and the Ugaritic Texts (Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press, 2001); Ziony Zevit, The Religions of Ancient Israel: A Synthesis of Parallactic Approaches (London/New York: Continuum, 2001).