Introduction
The story of Balaam and his ass, told in the Book of Numbers, is set in the late thirteenth century BC, some forty years after the Israelites escaped slavery in Egypt. Now they were massing in Moab on the eastern side of the Dead Sea, ready to cross the River Jordan into their Promised Land; but Balak, King of Moab, was feeling far from hospitable and already had a plan for moving them on.
‘THE Lord thy God’ Moses liked to remind the Israelites ‘is a jealous God’.* Soon they would enter their Promised Land, where strange peoples worshipped stranger gods, and he wanted them to know that infidelity would cost them dear.
Shortly before Joshua led the Israelites through the Jordan, they made camp in the land of Moab.* Balak, King of Moab, had heard that these Hebrew nomads had strong magic, so he anxiously despatched a delegation to a prophet-for-hire named Balaam,* offering gold if he would come to Moab and drive the Hebrews away by getting their own god to curse them. Balaam declined, but Balak sent grander ambassadors, and promised more gold, and next morning found Balaam saddling his ass, while the delegation hurried home with the good news.
As Balaam plodded along towards Moab, his faithful ass inexplicably bolted off the road into a field. Balaam gave the poor beast a thrashing, and dragged him back to the road. They were passing through vineyards when the ass, as if to avoid some unseen obstacle, hugged the sidewall so closely that Balaam’s foot was crushed painfully against the stones. Balaam thrashed his donkey again, and pressed on.
* See Exodus 20:5, repeated in several other places. The word ‘jealous’ means ‘unwilling to share’; the God of Israel would not share Israel with any other lord, be it an earthly king or one of those dark ‘spirits of the air’ or ‘principalities and powers’ spoken of by St Paul in e.g. Ephesians 2:2, Romans 8:38, and Ephesians 6:12.
* The action in this tale takes place in Moab, a pagan kingdom located east of the Dead Sea, in what is now the Kingdom of Jordan. The spot where the Israelites crossed the River Jordan and formally entered their Promised Land lay just to the north.
* Balaam was not a Hebrew prophet, but a pagan oracle of some kind. There is some evidence he may have been primarily a prophet of the sun-god Shamash. Numbers 31:7-8 implies that Balaam was a Midianite, i.e. from Midian further south, in what is now Saudi Arabia. Many Midianites appear to have lived in and around Moab.
Précis
When Balak, King of Moab, saw Moses and his Israelites pouring into his realm, he hired a soothsayer named Balaam to come to his palace and call down on Israel the curses of their own god, in the hope of moving them on. On the way, however, Balaam’s donkey behaved very strangely, and even a sound thrashing did no good. (60 / 60 words)
When Balak, King of Moab, saw Moses and his Israelites pouring into his realm, he hired a soothsayer named Balaam to come to his palace and call down on Israel the curses of their own god, in the hope of moving them on. On the way, however, Balaam’s donkey behaved very strangely, and even a sound thrashing did no good.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, despite, may, otherwise, since, unless, until, whereas.
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