Who is balak

But the researchers go further and suggest that the name should be read as B[LK] — that is, Balak. For example, the city of Heshbon, which according to Numbers 21 the Israelites conquered just before their encounter with Balak, was in fact found by archaeologists to have been uninhabited in the supposed time of the Exodus, but to have been an important settlement from the time of the Israelite kings Omri and Ahab.

Another point that favors the identification of Balak as a real person from this period is that we already have a separate and almost contemporaneous inscription that points to the possible historicity of Balaam , the prophet unsuccessfully employed by the king of Moab to curse the Israelites in the biblical narrative.

Back in , archaeologists at Tell Deir Alla, on the eastern side of the Jordan valley, uncovered an inscription, dated to the early 8th century B. Lemaire, the French epigraphist, disagrees with that conclusion and stands by his own interpretation. But what if Finkelstein and colleagues are right? If Balak, just like Balaam, can be identified as a historical figures from the 9th-8th centuries B. Based on the biblical chronology, the Exodus and subsequent conquest of Canaan must have happened in the Late Bronze Age, between the 15thth centuries B.

Even before their new study, it was clear that the story in the book of Numbers was anachronistic, because in the time of the purported Exodus there would have been no kingdom of Moab for Balak to rule, the researchers say. If Balak was indeed the ruler mentioned in the Mesha stele this only highlights the incongruences with his biblical counterpart.

In the book of Numbers, Balak is the one and only ruler of the kingdom of Moab — whereas in history it would seem that he was a losing rival of Mesha in vying for supremacy over the region east of the Dead Sea. Scholars have also noted that the biblical Balaam is just as different from the seer who appears in the Deir Alla text. In the Bible he is a prophet who worships the God of Israel, whereas in the inscription he comes off as polytheist who receives visions from multiple deities, including Shagar, Ishtar and El, the head of the Canaanite pantheon.

This makes sense, given that in the 9th-8th centuries B. For example, inscriptions from the 8th century B. The strictly monotheistic Judaism that we know today only formed in the subsequent centuries, as biblical scribes began to collect, redact and merge age-old traditions, memories and texts from multiple origins and sources to create a shared story for a single people with one God.

The Balak narrative, with its parable of the prophet who came to curse Israel and found himself blessing it instead, was certainly part of this process of establishing and aggrandizing the power of YHWH. By then, he says, there was probably only a distant memory of a Moabite king named Balak and a famous seer named Balaam — and the biblical authors decided to use those historical figures to give their narrative that extra touch of authenticity that every good story needs. Is not all the land before you?

Please part from me; if [you go] left, I will go right, and if [you go] right, I will go left. Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain, and he pitched his tents until Sodom. After all that they had experienced together as a family and after everything Abraham was willing to sacrifice on his behalf including going to war to redeem him, they part ways. That parting must have been difficult and undoubtedly inlaid with great psychological scars and trauma.

Then it is on the outskirts of Sodom that Moav is born. It is from then that the fissure between Lot and Abraham eventually develops into a wide and impassable chasm. Some psychological wounds and rivalries carry through for generations. We understand that Ruth is the granddaughter of Eglon, king of Moab, who himself was a grandson of Balak, king of Moab. Talmud Sanhedrin b.

The Tikkun begins with Ruth. Just as Balak tries to curse the Israelite people three times with the aid of Balaam, we see Ruth being told three times to go back home to Moav by Naomi;. May Hashem deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the deceased and with me. Have I yet sons in my womb, that they should be your husbands? Two daughters of Moav making two different decisions. Both those decisions had long term implications. In Midrashic tradition Orpah is identified with Harafa, the mother of the four Philistine giants, one of them being Goliath;.

And these are the generations of Perez. The messengers take money to pay Balaam a divination fee. Balaam turns them down, but Balak is undaunted. He sends more messengers with a bigger fee. This time Balaam gets permission to go with them. When he arrives, Balaam asks Balak to build seven altars. They sacrifice a bull and a ram on each altar. But upon consulting with God, Balaam blesses the Israelites instead of cursing them.

This scene is repeated two more times with the same results. When the Israelites are in Shittim, the daughters of Moab entice them into having sexual relations. The women also invite them to participate in sacrifices to their gods. The Israelites are punished for their participation with a plague.