Balaam and His Donkey

Israel camped in the plains of Moab beyond the Jordan near Jericho. Balak king of Moab saw what Israel had done to the Amorites, and Moab was filled with fear. So Balak sent messengers to Balaam, asking him to come and curse Israel, hoping he could defeat them and drive them away.

The elders of Moab and Midian came to Balaam carrying payment for divination. Balaam told them to stay the night while he listened for what Yahweh would say. God told Balaam not to go with them and not to curse the people, because they were blessed. In the morning Balaam sent Balak's princes home.

Balak sent more princes, more honoured than the first, and promised Balaam great honour. Balaam answered that even a house full of silver and gold could not let him go beyond Yahweh's word. That night God told Balaam to go with the men if they had come to call him, but to do only what God said. So Balaam set out with them.

On the journey, God's anger burned because Balaam went, and Yahweh's angel stood in the road against him. Balaam could not see the angel, but his donkey could. First she turned off the path into a field. Then she pressed against a wall in a vineyard path and crushed Balaam's foot. At last, in a narrow place, she lay down under him. Each time Balaam struck her.

Then Yahweh opened the donkey's mouth, and she asked Balaam why he had hit her three times. She reminded him that she had carried him for years and had never acted like this before. Then Yahweh opened Balaam's eyes. He saw the angel with a drawn sword and bowed low with his face to the ground.

The angel said Balaam's way was perverse, and that the donkey had saved his life by turning aside. Balaam admitted his sin and offered to go back, but the angel told him to continue and speak only the word he was given. Balak met Balaam and questioned the delay. Balaam said he could only speak what God put in his mouth. Then Balak welcomed him, offered cattle and sheep, and the next morning took him up to see part of Israel from the high places of Baal.