Balak (—Hebrew for "Balak," a name, the second word, and the first distinctive word, in the parashah) is the 40th weekly Torah portion (, parashah) in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading and the seventh in the Book of Numbers. In the parashah, Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, tries to hire Balaam to curse Israel,. Balaam's donkey speaks to Balaam,. and Balaam blesses Israel instead. The parashah constitutes Numbers 22:2–25:9. The parashah is made up of 5,357 Hebrew letters, 1,455 Hebrew words, 104 verses, and 178 lines in a Torah Scroll (, Sefer Torah).
Jews generally read it in late June or July. In most years (for example, 2024, 2025, and 2028), parashah Balak is read separately. In some years (for example, 2026 and 2027) when the second day of Shavuot falls on a Sabbath in the Diaspora (where observant Jews observe Shavuot for two days), parashah Balak is combined with the previous parashah, Chukat, in the Diaspora to synchronize readings thereafter with those in Israel (where Jews observe Shavuot for one day).
The name "Balak" means "devastator",Francis Brown, S.R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew and English Lexicon (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 1979), pages 118–19. "empty",New Open Bible Study Bible Name List. or "wasting".Alfred Jones, Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names (Kregel Academic and Professional, 1990). The name apparently derives from the rarely used Hebrew verb (balak), "waste or lay waste."See Francis Brown, S.R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew and English Lexicon, page 118 (; ).
Readings In traditional Sabbath Torah reading, the parashah is divided into seven readings, or , aliyot.See, e.g., Menachem Davis, editor, The Schottenstein Edition Interlinear Chumash: Bamidbar/Numbers (Brooklyn: Mesorah Publications, 2007), pages 154–76.
First reading—Numbers 22:2–12 In the first reading, Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, grew alarmed at the Israelites’ military victories among the Amorites.. He consulted with the elders of Midian and sent elders of Moab and Midian to the land by the Euphrates to invite the prophet Balaam to come and curse the Israelites for him.. Balaam told them: "Spend the night here, and I shall reply to you as the Lord may instruct me.". God came to Balaam and said: "You must not curse that people, for they are blessed.".
Second reading—Numbers 22:13–20 In the second reading, in the morning, Balaam asked Balak's dignitaries to leave, as God would not let him go with them, and they left and reported Balaam's answer to Balak.. Then Balak sent more numerous and distinguished dignitaries, who offered Balaam rich rewards in return for damning the Israelites.. But Balaam replied: "Though Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not do anything, big or little, contrary to the command of the Lord my God.". Nonetheless, Balaam invited the dignitaries to stay overnight to let Balaam find out what else God might say to him, and that night God told Balaam: "If these men have come to invite you, you may go with them.".
Third reading—Numbers 22:21–38 In the third reading, in the morning, Balaam saddled his donkey and departed with the dignitaries, but God was incensed at his going and placed an angel in Balaam's way.. When the donkey saw the angel standing in the way holding his drawn sword, the donkey swerved from the road into the fields, and Balaam beat the ass to turn her back onto the road.. The angel then stationed himself in a lane with a fence on either side.. Seeing the angel, the donkey pressed herself and Balaam's foot against the wall, so he beat her again.. The angel then stationed himself on a narrow spot that allowed no room to swerve right or left, and the donkey lay down under Balaam, and Balaam became furious and beat the ass with his stick.. Then God allowed the donkey to speak, and she complained to Balaam.. And then God allowed Balaam to see the angel, and Balaam bowed down to the ground.. The angel questioned Balaam for beating his donkey, noting that she had saved Balaam's life.. Balaam admitted his error and offered to turn back if the angel still disapproved.. But the angel told Balaam: "Go with the men. But you must say nothing except what I tell you." So Balaam went on.. Balak went out to meet Balaam on the Arnon border, and asked him why he didn't come earlier.. But Balaam told Balak that he could utter only the words that God put into his mouth..
Fourth reading—Numbers 22:39–23:12 In the fourth reading, Balaam and Balak went together to Kiriath-huzoth, where Balak sacrificed oxen and sheep, and they ate.. In the morning, Balak took Balaam up to Bamoth-Baal, overlooking the Israelites.. Balaam had Balak build seven altars, and they offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.. Then Balaam asked Balak to wait while Balaam went off alone to see if God would grant him a manifestation.. God appeared to Balaam and told him what to say.. Balaam returned and said: "How can I damn whom God has not damned, how doom when the Lord has not doomed? . . . Who can count the dust of Jacob, number the dust-cloud of Israel? May I die the death of the upright, may my fate be like theirs!". Balak complained that he had brought Balaam to damn the Israelites, but instead Balaam blessed them.. Balaam replied that he could only repeat what God put in his mouth..
Fifth reading—Numbers 23:13–26 In the fifth reading, Balak took Balaam to the summit of Pisgah, once offered a bull and a ram on each of seven altars, and once again Balaam asked Balak to wait while Balaam went off alone to seek a manifestation, and once again God told him what to say.. Balaam returned and told Balak: "My message was to bless: When He blesses, I cannot reverse it. No harm is in sight for Jacob, no woe in view for Israel. The Lord their God is with them.". Then Balak told Balaam at least not to bless them, but Balaam replied that he had to do whatever God directed..
Sixth reading—Numbers 23:27–24:13 In the sixth reading, Balak took Balaam to the peak of Peor, and once offered a bull and a ram on each of seven altars.. Balaam, seeing that it pleased God to bless Israel, immediately turned to the Israelites and blessed them: "How fair are your tents, O Jacob, your dwellings, O Israel! . . . They shall devour enemy nations, crush their bones, and smash their arrows. . . . Blessed are they who bless you, accursed they who curse you!". Enraged, Balak complained and dismissed Balaam..
Seventh reading—Numbers 24:14–25:9 In the seventh reading, Balaam replied once again that he could not do contrary to God's command, and blessed Israelites once again, saying: "A scepter comes forth from Israel; it smashes the brow of Moab.". Then Balaam set out back home, and Balak went his way.. While the Israelites stayed at Shittim, the people went whoring with the Moabite women and worshiped their god Baal-peor, enraging God.. God told Moses to impale the ringleaders, and Moses directed Israel's officials to slay those who had attached themselves to Baal-peor.. When one of the Israelites publicly brought a Midianite woman over to his companions, Phinehas son of Eleazar took a spear, followed the Israelite into the chamber, and stabbed the Israelite and the woman through the belly.. Then the plague against the Israelites was checked, having killed 24,000..
Readings according to the triennial cycle Jews who read the Torah according to the triennial cycle of Torah reading read the parashah according to a different schedule.See, e.g., Richard Eisenberg, "A Complete Triennial Cycle for Reading the Torah," in Proceedings of the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards/1986–1990 (New York: Rabbinical Assembly, 2005), pages 383–418.
In inner-Biblical interpretation The parashah has parallels or is discussed in these Biblical sources:For more on inner-Biblical interpretation, see, e.g., Benjamin D. Sommer, "Inner-biblical Interpretation," in Adele Berlin and Marc Zvi Brettler, editors, The Jewish Study Bible, 2nd edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), pages 1835–41.
Numbers chapter 22 In Micah 6:5, the prophet asked Israel to recall that Balak consulted Balaam and Balaam had advised him.
The only time in the Bible that Balak is not mentioned in direct conjunction with Balaam is in Judges 11:25.
Numbers chapter 23 Balaam's request in Numbers 23:10 to share Israel's fate fulfills God's blessing to Abraham in Genesis 12:3 that "all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you," God's blessing to Abraham in Genesis 22:18 that "All the nations of the earth shall bless themselves by your descendants," and God's blessing to Jacob in Genesis 28:14 that "All the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you and your descendants."See Jacob Milgrom. The JPS Torah Commentary: Numbers: The Traditional Hebrew Text with the New JPS Translation, page 155. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 1990.
Numbers chapter 24 Balaam's observation that Israel was "encamped according to its tribes" (Numbers 24:2) shows that the leaders and people remained faithful to the tribe-based camp pattern which God had instructed Moses and Aaron to adopt in Numbers 2:1-14.
+The Encampment of Israel "according to its tribes" North Asher DAN Naphtali Benjamin Merari Issachar West EPHRAIM Gershon THE TABERNACLE Priests JUDAH East Manasseh Kohath Zebulun Gad REUBEN Simeon South
Psalm 1:3 interprets the words "cedars beside the waters" in Balaam's blessing in Numbers 24:6. According to Psalm 1:3, "a tree planted by streams of water" is one "that brings forth its fruit in its season, and whose leaf does not wither."
Numbers 24:17–18 prophesied, "A star rises from Jacob, a scepter comes forth from Israel . . . Edom becomes a possession, yea, Seir a possession of its enemies; but Israel is triumphant." Similarly, in Amos 9:11–12, the 8th century BCE prophet Amos announced a prophecy of God: "In that day, I will set up again the fallen booth of David: I will mend its breaches and set up its ruins anew. I will build it firm as in the days of old, so that they shall possess the rest of Edom."
Numbers chapter 25 Tikva Frymer-Kensky called the Bible's six memories of the Baal-Peor incident in Numbers 25:1–13, Numbers 31:15–16, Deuteronomy 4:3–4, Joshua 22:16–18, Ezekiel 20:21–26, and Psalm 106:28–31 a testimony to its traumatic nature and to its prominence in Israel's memory.Tikva Frymer-Kensky, Reading the Women of the Bible (New York: Schocken Books, 2002), page 215.
In the retelling of Deuteronomy 4:3–4, God destroyed all the men who followed the Baal of Peor but kept alive to the day of Moses's address everyone who cleaved to God. Frymer-Kensky concluded that Deuteronomy stresses the moral lesson: Very simply, the guilty perished, and those who were alive to hear Moses were innocent survivors who could avoid destruction by staying fast to God.
In Joshua 22:16–18, Phinehas and ten princes of Israelite Tribes questioned the Reubenites’ and Manassites’ later building an altar across the Jordan, recalling that the Israelites had not cleansed themselves to that day of the iniquity of Peor, even though a plague had come upon the congregation at the time. Frymer-Kensky noted that the book of Joshua emphasizes the collective nature of sin and punishment, that the transgression of the Israelites at Peor still hung over them, and that any sin of the Reubenites and Manassites would bring down punishment on all Israel.