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The Antiquities of the Jews
Written by Flavius Josephus
Translated by William Whiston
Book Four
Chapter 6
Concerning Balaam The Prophet And What Kind
Of Man He Was
1. Now Moses, when he had brought his army to Jordan; pitched
his camp in the great plain over against Jericho. This city is a
very happy situation, and very fit for producing palm-trees and
balsam. And now the Israelites began to be very proud of
themselves, and were very eager for fighting. Moses then, after
he had offered for a few days sacrifices of thanksgiving to God,
and feasted the people, sent a party of armed men to lay waste
the country of the Midianites, and to take their cities. Now the
occasion which he took for making war upon them was this that
follows :--
2. When Balak, the king of the Moabites, who had from his
ancestors a friendship and league with the Midianites, saw how
great the Israelites were grown, he was much affrighted on
account of his own and his kingdom's danger; for he was not
acquainted with this, that the Hebrews would not meddle with any
other country, but were to be contented with the possession of
the land of Canaan, God having forbidden them to go any farther
(7) So he, with more haste than wisdom, resolved to make an
attempt upon them by words; but he did not judge it prudent to
fight against them, after they had such prosperous successes,
and even became out of ill successes more happy than before, but
he thought to hinder them, if he could, from growing greater,
and so he resolved to send ambassadors to the Midianites about
them. Now these Midianites knowing there was one Balaam, who
lived by Euphrates, and was the greatest of the prophets at that
time, and one that was in friendship with them, sent some of
their honorable princes along with the ambassadors of Balak, to
entreat the prophet to come to them, that he might imprecate
curses to the destruction of the Israelites. So Balsam received
the ambassadors, and treated them very kindly; and when he had
supped, he inquired what was God's will, and what this matter
was for which the Midianites entreated him to come to them. But
when God opposed his going, he came to the ambassadors, and told
them that he was himself very willing and desirous to comply
with their request, but informed them that God was opposite to
his intentions, even that God who had raised him to great
reputation on account of the truth of his predictions; for that
this army, which they entreated him to come and curse, was in
the favor of God; on which account he advised them to go home
again, and not to persist in their enmity against the
Israelites; and when he had given them that answer, he dismissed
the ambassadors.
3. Now the Midianites, at the earnest request and fervent
entreaties of Balak, sent other ambassadors to Balaam, who,
desiring to gratify the men, inquired again of God; but he was
displeased at [second] trial (8) and bid him by no means to
contradict the ambassadors. Now Balsam did not imagine that God
gave this injunction in order to deceive him, so he went along
with the ambassadors; but when the divine angel met him in the
way, when he was in a narrow passage, and hedged in with a wall
on both sides, the ass on which Balaam rode understood that it
was a divine spirit that met him, and thrust Balaam to one of
the walls, without regard to the stripes which Balaam, when he
was hurt by the wall, gave her; but when the ass, upon the
angel's continuing to distress her, and upon the stripes which
were given her, fell down, by the will of God, she made use of
the voice of a man, and complained of Balaam as acting unjustly
to her; that whereas he had no fault find with her in her former
service to him, he now inflicted stripes upon her, as not
understanding that she was hindered from serving him in what he
was now going about, by the providence of God. And when he was
disturbed by reason of the voice of the ass, which was that of a
man, the angel plainly appeared to him, and blamed him for the
stripes he had given his ass; and informed him that the brute
creature was not in fault, but that he was himself come to
obstruct his journey, as being contrary to the will of God. Upon
which Balaam was afraid, and was preparing to return back again:
yet did God excite him to go on his intended journey, but added
this injunction, that he should declare nothing but what he
himself should suggest to his mind.
4. When God had given him this charge, he came to Balak; and
when the king had entertained him in a magnificent manner, he
desired him to go to one of the mountains to take a view of the
state of the camp of the Hebrews. Balak himself also came to the
mountain, and brought the prophet along with him, with a royal
attendance. This mountain lay over their heads, and was distant
sixty furlongs from the camp. Now when he saw them, he desired
the king to build him seven altars, and to bring him as many
bulls and rams; to which desire the king did presently conform.
He then slew the sacrifices, and offered them as
burnt-offerings, that he might observe some signal of the flight
of the Hebrews. Then said he, "Happy is this people, on whom God
bestows the possession of innumerable good things, and grants
them his own providence to be their assistant and their guide;
so that there is not any nation among mankind but you will be
esteemed superior to them in virtue, and in the earnest
prosecution of the best rules of life, and of such as are pure
from wickedness, and will leave those rules to your excellent
children; and this out of the regard that God bears to you, and
the provision of such things for you as may render you happier
than any other people under the sun. You shall retain that land
to which he hath sent you, and it shall ever be under the
command of your children; and both all the earth, as well as the
seas, shall be filled with your glory: and you shall be
sufficiently numerous to supply the world in general, and every
region of it in particular, with inhabitants out of your stock.
However, O blessed army! wonder that you are become so many from
one father: and truly, the land of Canaan can now hold you, as
being yet comparatively few; but know ye that the whole world is
proposed to be your place of habitation for ever. The multitude
of your posterity also shall live as well in the islands as on
the continent, and that more in number than are the stars of
heaven. And when you are become so many, God will not relinquish
the care of you, but will afford you an abundance of all good
things in times of peace, with victory and dominion in times of
war. May the children of your enemies have an inclination to
fight against you; and may they be so hardy as to come to arms,
and to assault you in battle, for they will not return with
victory, nor will their return be agreeable to their children
and wives. To so great a degree of valor will you be raised by
the providence of God, who is able to diminish the affluence of
some, and to supply the wants of others."
5. Thus did Balaam speak by inspiration, as not being in his own
power, but moved to say what he did by the Divine Spirit. But
then Balak was displeased, and said he had broken the contract
he had made, whereby he was to come, as he and his confederates
had invited him, by the promise of great presents: for whereas
he came to curse their enemies, he had made an encomium upon
them, and had declared that they were the happiest of men. To
which Balaam replied, "O Balak, if thou rightly considerest this
whole matter, canst thou suppose that it is in our power to be
silent, or to say any thing, when the Spirit of God seizes upon
us? for he puts such words as he pleases in our mouths, and such
discourses as we are not ourselves conscious of. I well remember
by what entreaties both you and the Midianites so joyfully
brought me hither, and on that account I took this journey. It
was my prayer, that I might not put any affront upon you, as to
what you desired of me; but God is more powerful than the
purposes I had made to serve you; for those that take upon them
to foretell the affairs of mankind, as from their own abilities,
are entirely unable to do it, or to forbear to utter what God
suggests to them, or to offer violence to his will; for when he
prevents us and enters into us, nothing that we say is our own.
I then did not intend to praise this army, nor to go over the
several good things which God intended to do to their race; but
since he was so favorable to them, and so ready to bestow upon
them a happy life and eternal glory, he suggested the
declaration of those things to me: but now, because it is my
desire to oblige thee thyself, as well as the Midianites, whose
entreaties it is not decent for me to reject, go to, let us
again rear other altars, and offer the like sacrifices that we
did before, that I may see whether I can persuade God to permit
me to bind these men with curses." Which, when Balak had agreed
to, God would not, even upon second sacrifices, consent to his
cursing the Israelites. (9) Then fell Balaam upon his face, and
foretold what calamities would befall the several kings of the
nations, and the most eminent cities, some of which of old were
not so much as inhabited; which events have come to pass among
the several people concerned, both in the foregoing ages, and in
this, till my own memory, both by sea and by land. From which
completion of all these predictions that he made, one may easily
guess that the rest will have their completion in time to come.
6. But Balak being very angry that the Israelites were not
cursed, sent away Balaam without thinking him worthy of any
honor. Whereupon, when he was just upon his journey, in order to
pass the Euphrates, he sent for Balak, and for the princes of
the Midianites, and spake thus to them: O Balak, and you
Midianites that are here present, (for I am obliged even without
the will of God to gratify you,) it is true no entire
destruction can seize upon the nation of the Hebrews, neither by
war, nor by plague, nor by scarcity of the fruits of the earth,
nor can any other unexpected accident be their entire ruin; for
the providence of God is concerned to preserve them from such a
misfortune; nor will it permit any such calamity to come upon
them whereby they may all perish; but some small misfortunes,
and those for a short time, whereby they may appear to be
brought low, may still befall them; but after that they will
flourish again, to the terror of those that brought those
mischiefs upon them. So that if you have a mind to gain a
victory over them for a short space of time, you will obtain it
by following my directions: Do you therefore set out the
handsomest of such of your daughters as are most eminent for
beauty, (10) and proper to force and conquer the modesty of
those that behold them, and these decked and trimmed to the
highest degree able. Then do you send them to be near camp, and
give them in charge, that the young men of the Hebrews desire
their allow it them; and when they see they are enamored of
them, let them take leaves; and if they entreat them to stay,
let give their consent till they have persuaded leave off their
obedience to their own laws, the worship of that God who
established them to worship the gods of the Midianites and for
by this means God will be angry at them (11). Accordingly, when
Balaam had suggested counsel to them, he went his way.
7. So when the Midianites had sent their daughters,as Balaam had
exhorted them, the Hebrew men were allured by their beauty, and
came with them, and besought them not to grudge them the
enjoyment of their beauty, nor to deny them their conversation.
These daughters of Midianites received their words gladly, and
consented to it, and staid with them; but when they brought them
to be enamored of them, and their inclinations to them were
grown to ripeness, they began to think of departing from them:
then it was that these men became greatly disconsolate at the
women's departure, and they were urgent with them not to leave
them, but begged they would continue there, and become their
wives; and they promised them they should be owned as mistresses
all they had. This they said with an oath, and called God for
the arbitrator of what they promised; and this with tears in
their eyes, and all such marks of concern, as might shew how
miserable they thought themselves without them, and so might
move their compassion for them. So the women, as soon as they
perceived they had made their slaves, and had caught them with
their conservation began to speak thus to them:
8. "O you illustrious young men! we have of our own at home, and
great plenty of good things there, together with the natural,
affectionate parents and friends; nor is it out of our want of
any such things that we came to discourse with you; nor did we
admit of your invitation with design to prostitute the beauty of
our bodies for gain; but taking you for brave and worthy men, we
agreed to your request, that we might treat you with such honors
as hospitality required: and now seeing you say that you have a
great affection for us, and are troubled when you think we are
departing, we are not averse to your entreaties; and if we may
receive such assurance of your good-will as we think can be
alone sufficient, we will be glad to lead our lives with you as
your wives; but we are afraid that you will in time be weary of
our company, and will then abuse us, and send us back to our
parents, after an ignominious manner." And they desired that
they would excuse them in their guarding against that danger.
But the young men professed they would give them any assurance
they should desire; nor did they at all contradict what they
requested, so great was the passion they had for them. "If
then," said they, "this be your resolution, since you make use
of such customs and conduct of life as are entirely different
from all other men, (12) insomuch that your kinds of food are
peculiar to yourselves, and your kinds of drink not common to
others, it will be absolutely necessary, if you would have us
for your wives, that you do withal worship our gods. Nor can
there be any other demonstration of the kindness which you say
you already have, and promise to have hereafter to us, than
this, that you worship the same gods that we do. For has any one
reason to complain, that now you are come into this country, you
should worship the proper gods of the same country? especially
while our gods are common to all men, and yours such as belong
to nobody else but yourselves." So they said they must either
come into such methods of divine worship as all others came
into, or else they must look out for another world, wherein they
may live by themselves, according to their own laws.
9. Now the young men were induced by the fondness they had for
these women to think they spake very well; so they gave
themselves up to what they persuaded them, and transgressed
their own laws, and supposing there were many gods, and
resolving that they would sacrifice to them according to the
laws of that country which ordained them, they both were
delighted with their strange food, and went on to do every thing
that the women would have them do, though in contradiction to
their own laws; so far indeed that this transgression was
already gone through the whole army of the young men, and they
fell into a sedition that was much worse than the former, and
into danger of the entire abolition of their own institutions;
for when once the youth had tasted of these strange customs,
they went with insatiable inclinations into them; and even where
some of the principal men were illustrious on account of the
virtues of their fathers, they also were corrupted together with
the rest.
10. Even Zimri, the head of the tribe of Simeon accompanied with
Cozbi, a Midianitish women, who was the daughter of Sur, a man
of authority in that country; and being desired by his wife to
disregard the laws of Moses, and to follow those she was used
to, he complied with her, and this both by sacrificing after a
manner different from his own, and by taking a stranger to wife.
When things were thus, Moses was afraid that matters should grow
worse, and called the people to a congregation, but then accused
nobody by name, as unwilling to drive those into despair who, by
lying concealed, might come to repentance; but he said that they
did not do what was either worthy of themselves, or of their
fathers, by preferring pleasure to God, and to the living
according to his will; that it was fit they should change their
courses while their affairs were still in a good state, and
think that to be true fortitude which offers not violence to
their laws, but that which resists their lusts. And besides
that, he said it was not a reasonable thing, when they had lived
soberly in the wilderness, to act madly now when they were in
prosperity; and that they ought not to lose, now they have
abundance, what they had gained when they had little: and so did
he endeavor, by saying this, to correct the young inert, and to
bring them to repentance for what they had done.
11. But Zimri arose up after him, and said, "Yes, indeed, Moses,
thou art at liberty to make use of such laws as thou art so fond
of, and hast, by accustoming thyself to them, made them firm;
otherwise, if things had not been thus, thou hadst often been
punished before now, and hadst known that the Hebrews are not
easily put upon; but thou shalt not have me one of thy followers
in thy tyrannical commands, for thou dost nothing else hitherto,
but, under pretense of laws, and of God, wickedly impose on us
slavery, and gain dominion to thyself, while thou deprivest us
of the sweetness of life, which consists in acting according to
our own wills, and is the right of free-men, and of those that
have no lord over them. Nay, indeed, this man is harder upon the
Hebrews then were the Egyptians themselves, as pretending to
punish, according to his laws, every one's acting what is most
agreeable to himself; but thou thyself better deservest to
suffer punishment, who presumest to abolish what every one
acknowledges to be what is good for him, and aimest to make thy
single opinion to have more force than that of all the rest; and
what I now do, and think to be right, I shall not hereafter deny
to be according to my own sentiments. I have married, as thou
sayest rightly, a strange woman, and thou hearest what I do from
myself as from one that is free, for truly I did not intend to
conceal myself. I also own that I sacrificed to those gods to
whom you do not think it fit to sacrifice; and I think it right
to come at truth by inquiring of many people, and not like one
that lives under tyranny, to suffer the whole hope of my life to
depend upon one man; nor shall any one find cause to rejoice who
declares himself to have more authority over my actions than
myself."
12. Now when Zimri had said these things, about what he and some
others had wickedly done, the people held their peace, both out
of fear of what might come upon them, and because they saw that
their legislator was not willing to bring his insolence before
the public any further, or openly to contend with him; for he
avoided that, lest many should imitate the impudence of his
language, and thereby disturb the multitude. Upon this the
assembly was dissolved. However, the mischievous attempt had
proceeded further, if Zimri had not been first slain, which came
to pass on the following occasion: Phineas, a man in other
respects better than the rest of the young men, and also one
that surpassed his contemporaries in the dignity of his father,
(for he was the son of Eleazar the high priest, and the grandson
of [Aaron] Moses's brother,) who was greatly troubled at what
was done by Zimri, he resolved in earnest to inflict punishment
on him, before his unworthy behavior should grow stronger by
impunity, and in order to prevent this transgression from
proceeding further, which would happen if the ringleaders were
not punished. He was of so great magnanimity, both in strength
of mind and body, that when he undertook any very dangerous
attempt, he did not leave it off till he overcame it, and got an
entire victory. So he came into Zimri's tent, and slew him with
his javelin, and with it he slew Cozbi also, Upon which all
those young men that had a regard to virtue, and aimed to do a
glorious action, imitated Phineas's boldness, and slew those
that were found to be guilty of the same crime with Zimri.
Accordingly many of those that had transgressed perished by the
magnanimous valor of these young men; and the rest all perished
by a plague, which distemper God himself inflicted upon them; so
that all those their kindred, who, instead of hindering them
from such wicked actions, as they ought to have done, had
persuaded them to go on, were esteemed by God as partners in
their wickedness, and died. Accordingly there perished out of
the army no fewer than fourteen (13) [twenty-four] thousand at
this time.
13. This was the cause why Moses was provoked to send an army to
destroy the Midianites, concerning which expedition we shall
speak presently, when we have first related what we have
omitted; for it is but just not to pass over our legislator's
due encomium, on account of his conduct here, because, although
this Balaam, who was sent for by the Midianites to curse the
Hebrews, and when he was hindered from doing it by Divine
Providence, did still suggest that advice to them, by making use
of which our enemies had well nigh corrupted the whole multitude
of the Hebrews with their wiles, till some of them were deeply
infected with their opinions; yet did he do him great honor, by
setting down his prophecies in writing. And while it was in his
power to claim this glory to himself, and make men believe they
were his own predictions, there being no one that could be a
witness against him, and accuse him for so doing, he still gave
his attestation to him, and did him the honor to make mention of
him on this account. But let every one think of these matters as
he pleases.
Continue on to
Book
Four,
Chapter 7,
The Antiquities of the Jews
by
Flavius Josephus
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The Antiquities of the Jews - Table of Contents
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