THEY had not gone much further when, in a defile so narrow that there was no room to turn, the animal simply collapsed altogether. Balaam was beside himself, but as he picked up his switch the wretched creature spoke.* “Would I do such a thing without a reason?” he asked reproachfully. Balaam was honest enough to reply “No”, and suddenly his eyes fell on something that explained it all: for right in front of them towered a fiery angel of the Lord, drawn sword in hand.
Realising that this spirit from another world had been hampering his every move, Balaam promised to return home immediately, but the angel told him to go on to Moab and say the words that the God of Israel would put in his mouth. So on he went, and at length was conducted into the presence of Balak, King of Moab.
A little impatient to get started, Balak bade Balaam join him in offering sacrifices to the Hebrews’ god, and then waited for the curses which he had paid for so handsomely. When Balaam spoke, however, it was to declare not curses but blessings, blessing upon blessing.
* Talking animals, while commonplace in ancient myth, are extremely rare in the Bible. In fact, Balaam’s ass and the serpent in the Garden of Eden are the full tale of them. Christian tradition has always held that the serpent was not simply a talking snake but some manifestation of the devil, and in 2 Peter 2:16 St Peter implies that the donkey did not speak for himself: “But [Balaam] was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet”.