במדבר, פרק כ״ג, פסוק ז׳

Balaam’s first prophetic address opens with a reflective look back at the long journey he has undertaken and the dark mission he was hired to fulfill. Woven into his opening words are a deep sense of personal frustration, layers of historical irony, and a reluctant recognition of the formidable spiritual power of the nation standing before him. His message takes the form of poetry or a parable [ביאור שטיינזלץ]. The commentators explore why his prophecy arrived in this specific style. It may be that the divine message came to him as a riddle he had to decode [ספורנו]. Alternatively, his reliance on parables reflects his own limitations, as he lacked the spiritual standing necessary to receive a direct, clear communication from God [אור החיים]. Another perspective views this poetic form as a calculated verbal trick. Desiring to curse the Israelites but forced by God to bless them, Balaam crafted his words as a riddle—a message that sounds like a blessing on the surface but secretly harbors malicious intentions [בעלי ברית אברם].

Balaam notes that Balak, the king of Moab, brought him all the way from Aram, a distant land in the mountains of the east [רשב״ם, ביאור שטיינזלץ]. Emphasizing his geographical origins serves to highlight the immense effort and vast distance he traveled, an exhausting endeavor that would ultimately prove completely useless [רשב״ם, חזקוני]. Beyond mere geography, the location from which Balaam was summoned carries deep spiritual and historical weight. The primary approach among commentators identifies the eastern mountains and Aram as the ancient epicenter of impurity and witchcraft. In this light, Balaam is actually complaining about being dragged down from his perceived spiritual heights to perform such a lowly, degrading task [רקנאטי, העמק דבר, מלבי״ם, אור החיים]. Furthermore, this origin exposes a profound historical ingratitude. Balak is a descendant of Lot, whose life was saved by Abraham, a man originally from Aram. Balaam himself traces his lineage to Laban the Aramean, who only had sons because of the blessings brought by Jacob. Now, both men draw upon their roots in Aram to attack the very descendants of the people who secured their families' survival [רבנו בחיי, קיצור בעל הטורים, אלשיך, מנחת עני]. The mention of these eastern mountains may even allude to the specific mountain where Laban and Jacob forged an ancient peace treaty—a pact that Balak is now demanding Balaam to violate [הטור הארוך].

Balak's explicit request is for Balaam to curse the Israelites and summon divine wrath or expulsion upon them [ביאור שטיינזלץ, שד״ל, רלב״ג, הכתב והקבלה, רשב״ם]. Yet, a bitter irony lies in the king's plea to curse the nation specifically for his own benefit. Since anyone who curses the Israelites ultimately brings a curse upon himself, Balak is unwittingly begging Balaam to bring destruction down upon his own head [רבנו בחיי, שפתי כהן, בעלי ברית אברם]. In issuing his demand, Balak uses both names of the nation: Jacob and Israel. He may have insisted on using every possible name for the people out of fear that if the most accurate name was omitted, the curse would fail to take effect [רש״י, רבנו בחיי, שפתי חכמים, גור אריה, מזרחי]. Alternatively, the two names reflect an attempt to target different segments of the population. The identity of Jacob represents the ordinary masses and the nation's material vulnerabilities; upon them, Balak sought a total and absolute curse. The identity of Israel, however, represents the righteous leaders and the nation's elevated spiritual essence, a realm where forces of impurity cannot easily take hold. Recognizing this invulnerability, Balak settled for a lesser request regarding them—simply trying to awaken divine anger rather than attempting a full, impossible curse [אור החיים, מלבי״ם, רש״ר הירש].