Balak's Entreaty to Balaam (Numbers 22:2-14).
The story began with Balak sending important messengers to Balaam. These were ‘chieftains' (sarim - ‘nobles', ‘chieftains', ‘princes') who would seek to persuade him to come to Moab and curse Israel. This was to be the subject of the first fourteen verses.
Analysis.
The first fourteen verses relate to Balak's first appeal to Balaam. These can be analysed chiastically.
a Balak is afraid of the children of Israel and fears that they will spoil Moab (Numbers 22:2-4)
b He sends messengers to Balaam describing ‘the people who have come from Egypt' (Numbers 22:5)
c He calls for him to come and curse Israel and drive them from the land (Numbers 22:6)
d The elders leave with rewards in their hand to persuade Balaam to curse Israel (Numbers 22:7)
e Balaam tells them to wait while he obtains a word from Yahweh. (Numbers 22:8)
e The word of God comes to Balaam, ‘What men are these? (Numbers 22:9)
d Balaam says that Balak sent them, and wanted Israel cursed (Numbers 22:10-11)
c God tells him not to go and not to curse Israel (Numbers 22:12)
b Balaam tells messengers to return home (Numbers 22:13)
a The chieftain messengers return. Balaam will not come. (Numbers 22:14)
Balak Is Afraid of the Children of Israel and Fears That They Will Spoil Moab (Numbers 22:2-4)
‘And Balak the son of Zippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites.'
Balak, king of Moab (Numbers 22:4), had received notice of all that Israel had done to the Amorites. This would especially relate to what he knew had happened in the adjacent kingdom. Whether Og had also been defeated at this time we do not know. We can, however, understand Balak's fear when he saw all the Amorites slain and their cities taken, for he himself had not been able to withstand the Amorites who had possessed half his land. He was not aware of Yahweh's word to Moses that Moab was not to be disturbed, or if he had received messages to that end he probably thought that he had cause not to believe them. He clearly did not lay as much stress on the family relationship as God did (Deuteronomy 2:9).
‘And Moab was sore afraid of the people, because they were many, and Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel.'
So Moab were dreadfully afraid of Israel, because of the size of their army. And as they saw them encamped seemingly permanently almost on their borders and heard what they were accomplishing elsewhere they were ‘distressed because of the children of Israel'. They waited pensively and apprehensively, wondering when the attack would be turned on them.
‘And Moab said to the elders of Midian, “Now will this multitude lick up all that is round about us, as the ox licks up the grass of the field.'
In their dilemma they also consulted with their allies, a group of Midianites (probably including Amalekites and Kenites, both of whom were inter-related to the Midianites through Abraham - see Numbers 24:20-21; Genesis 25:2; Genesis 36:12; Exodus 18:1 with Judges 1:16; Judges 4:11) who had been settled in the kingdom of Sihon (Joshua 13:21) and who had quite possibly escaped to Moab territory. They described to the ‘elders' (chief men and advisers) of these Midianites how Israel were denuding their neighbours like a hungry ox denudes a field, as they had good cause to know. It would surely be their turn next. They suggested that they needed to act together to rid themselves of this menace.
Balak Sends Messengers to Balaam Describing ‘The People Who Have Come From Egypt' Who Are In Large Numbers (Numbers 22:5).
Having consulted with the Midianite elders, Balak, king of Moab, sent messengers to Balaam pleading with him to come and help them against Israel, emphasising the huge numbers that they were opposing.
‘And Balak the son of Zippor was king of Moab at that time.'
This note is put in so as to explain why it was he who acted and responded to the people's fears. It was because at that time he was the king of Moab. (His pre-eminence in the matter suggests that the Midianites in mind here were in Moabite territory and in treaty relations with him - compare Abraham with the king of Salem in Genesis 14)
‘And he sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor, to Pethor, which is by the River, to the land of the children of his people, to call him, saying, “Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt. Behold, they cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against me.'
Balak was aware that Moab could not defeat Israel unless somehow they were weakened and the power of their God neutralised. So he formulated a plan. He sent messengers to Balaam, the son of Beor, the great prophet of Pethor by the Euphrates, (probably the Pitru of Assyrian inscriptions), which was ‘the land of the children of his people'. This may mean simply his native land, or may indicate that it was a place where many such diviners and sorcerers had taken up residence. In Joshua 13:22 Balaam is called a ‘diviner' (qasam). This clearly also involved him being in contact with the spirit world. Some see ‘his people' (‘ammo) as referring rather to ‘the land of the ‘Amavites' mentioned in a 13th century BC inscription from Alalakh.
For Balak to send to a stranger in so far off a place for assistance must have meant that the reputation of Balaam was awesome. Balaam had obviously built up an extensive reputation as being effective in cursing people, for the Midianites later called on him again in spite of his failure in this case, and it was then that Balaam was slain along with the Midianite leaders (Numbers 31:8). This was because he who had advised the method of destroying the Israelites by causing them to offend Yahweh (Numbers 31:16). This last incident warns us against seeing him as deserving of Yahweh's approval.
‘Come now therefore, I pray you, curse me this people, for they are too mighty for me. Perhaps I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land, for I know that he whom you bless is blessed, and he whom you curse is cursed.'
Balak's intention was that Balaam might weaken Israel by putting a curse on them so that Moab could then smite them. And he called for him to come and curse Israel, so weakening them that he and his armies could deal with them. For he knew that when Balaam cursed men, they were cursed, and conversely that when he blessed men they were blessed. If he could be blessed and Israel could be cursed, in his view this would give him a real advantage. This confirms the kind of reputation that Balaam had in this direction. Many an army would be unwilling to fight and would fight less well if they heard that they had been cursed by a man like Balaam. It would be enough to put them off fighting altogether. And many would fight better because he had blessed them.