a prophet and diviner of the city of Pethor on the Euphrates, whose practices with Balak, king of the Moabites, are recorded in the Book of Numbers, chap. xxii. In 2 Peter ii. 15, Balaam is called the son of Bosor, which Gesenius attributes to an early corruption of the text, but Dr Lightfoot considers it to be a Chaldaism, and infers from the apostle's use of it, that he was then resident at Babylon.

Of the numerous paradoxes which we find in this remarkable person, not the least striking is, that with the practice of an art expressly forbidden to the Israelites, he united the knowledge and worship of Jehovah, and was in the habit of receiving intimations of his will. The sacred narrative gives us no reason to suppose that he had any previous knowledge of the Israelites. In the absence of more copious and precise information, we may reasonably conjecture that Jacob's residence for twenty years in Mesopotamia contributed to maintain some just ideas of religion, though mingled with much superstition. To this source, and the existing remains of patriarchal religion, Balaam was probably indebted for that truth which he unhappily "held in unrighteousness."

On the narrative contained in Numb. xxii. 22-35 a difference of opinion has long existed, even among those who fully admit its authenticity. The advocates for a literal interpretation urge, that in a historical narrative it would be unnatural to regard any of the occurrences as taking place in vision, unless expressly so stated; that it would be difficult to determine where the vision begins, and where it ends; that Jehovah's "opening the mouth of the ass" must have been an external act; and, finally, that Peter's language is decidedly in favour of the literal sense. "The dumb ass, speaking with a man's voice, reproved the madness of the prophet" (2 Peter ii. 16). Those who conceive that the whole scene occurred in vision to Balaam (among whom are Maimonides, Leibnitz, and Hengstenberg), insist upon the fact that dreams and visions were the ordinary methods by which God made himself known to the prophets (Numb. xii. 6); they remark that Balaam speaks of himself as the man who had his eyes shut, and who, on falling down in prophetic ecstasy, had his "eyes opened;" that he expressed no surprise on hearing the ass speak; and that neither his servants nor the Moabitish princes who accompanied him appear to have been cognizant of any supernatural appearance. Gregory of Nyssa supposes that the ass did not utter any word articulately; but that having brayed as usual, the diviner, whose practice it had been to draw presages from the cries of beasts and singing of birds, comprehended easily the ass's meaning by its noise; and that Moses designed to ridicule the superstitious art of augurs and soothsayers, as if the ass had really spoken in words articulate.