CTSJ 4:4 (October 1998) p. 18 Balaam: A Light to the Gentiles? — Dr. Glenn Carnagey* [*Editor’s note: Glenn Carnagey earned his B.A. at the University of Texas, Th.M. at Dallas Theological Seminary, and Ph.D. at the University of Tulsa. Glenn has done extensive archaeological work in the Near East and editorial work for a major archaeological journal, as well as presented scholarly papers at meetings of the Evangelical Theological Society. Dr. Carnagey has also pastored churches in Texas, Oklahoma, and Minnesota. Glenn is a member of Chafer Seminary’s National Board of Advisors, is a contributing editor to the CTS Journal, and was instrumental in the formation of CTS.] Archaeological Background In February and March of 1967, H. J. Franken was conducting excavations at Deir ‘Alla in the Jordan River Valley when his vigilant foreman, Abu Abdul Rasul, noticed writing on pieces of plaster being removed from the remains of an ancient building. He brought the information to the excavator. That building probably was a sanctuary for a goddess whose name begins with the Hebrew letter “shin.” Shamash and Shgr have both been suggested as possibilities, especially Shgr, since it occurs later in the second combination in connection with the Council of the Gods. This inscription is an eighth century narrative concerning the seer/prophet Balaam, well known to Bible students as the prophet who dominates Numbers 22–24. This inscription offers some useful insights into the biblical text. Identifications Then he sent messengers to Balaam the son of Beor at Pethor, which is near the River in the land of the sons of his people, to call him, saying: “Look, a people has come from Egypt. See, they cover the face of the earth, and are settling next to me (Numbers 22:5)!1 Deir ‘Alla is located on the Jordanian side of the Jordan River Valley, near the spot where the Zerqa River flows into the Jordan. It is north of Jericho, but still within the wide swath of the Jordan River, which at this point has the Hassid plains on both sides. Moses quite accurately called this expanded area “The Plains of Moab.” However, the biblical text also sees the campsite as “this side of Jordan by Jericho,” hence it was a fair distance south of Deir ‘Alla. No one has suggested in the literature that Deir ‘Alla could have been identified with Pethor during the lifetime of Balaam, but the excavations clearly demonstrate very limited Middle Bronze occupation followed by extensive Late Bronze and Iron Age cities. If not for Deuteronomy 23:4, it would be a tempting site for the phrase “by the river of his people” CTSJ 4:4 (October 1998) p. 19 (Numbers 22:5), since the Jordan River is only a few hundred yards away.2 Moses is again quite explicit, however, and reveals an Ammonite-Moabite conspiracy against Israel, during the description of which he identifies the city of Pethor as a Mesopotamian city (Deuteronomy 23:4). Later,3 of course, we learn that the Midianites (or the Amorite-Midianite amalgamation) were also involved. This has a certain significance for the entrance of Israel into Cis-Jordan (=the land west of the Jordan River). Even though God had carefully proscribed any battles with the Ammonites, the Moabites or the Edomites—instructions which Moses was careful to obey—it seems they panicked anyway and formed an alliance to destroy the Israelites before they could cross the Jordan River and attack Jericho. The Amorite Corridor Moses and the people traveled up the old Desert Highway to avoid confrontation with their relatives. They instead cleared out what might be called the “Amorite Corridor,” land over which Sihon king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan controlled and ruled. If one takes the full extent of this geographical indicator seriously, the Israelites controlled the land from the Arnon River north across the Bashan of Syria to the shoulders of Mount Hermon. Indeed, Barry Beitzel, in the Moody Bible Atlas, extends the Trans-Jordanian inheritance for the two and a half tribes (Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh) into just those 1 Holy Bible, New King James Version (Nashvile, TN: Nelson, 1982). All Scripture citations are from the NKJV. 2 Because they did not meet you with bread and water on the road when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you (Deuteronomy 23:4). 3 See Numbers 31:8, They killed the kings of Midian with the rest of those who were killed—Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, the five kings of Midian. Balaam the son of Beor they also killed with the sword. same boundaries. This massive land grab by the Israelites helps to explain the panic of the Moabites and Ammonites, in particular, when confronted with the Israelite army, now under Joshua, in a more southerly and hence more menacing campsite. From the Scripture involved then, we can conclude that Moab and Ammon, together with “elders of Midian,” who at an earlier time had been associated with Edom to the south, took steps to destroy Israel, even though they had been totally spared by God and the nation of Israel. It is this traitorous behavior early in the post-exodus generation that led to the heavy penalty of a 10-generation exclusion from the Tabernacle and worship of Israel (Deuteronomy 23:3–6). CTSJ 4:4 (October 1998) p. 20 An Open Question The problem of who the people of Balaam were is, at this point, quite an open question in scholarly dialogue.4 Joshua 13:21 establishes the relevant facts: (A)ll the cities of the plain and all the kingdom of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, whom Moses had struck with the princes of Midian: Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba, who were princes of Sihon dwelling in the country. (Joshua 13:21) This passage informs the reader that the Midianite princes (or kings, cf. Numbers 31:8) were in reality the remnant of Sihon’s Amorite kingdom. They acted as feudal kings, “dukes,” over the Midianites, who had somehow settled either within the Moabite territory or perhaps at its northern edge. Whether the five were indeed Amorites or not, they served Sihon who ruled in Heshbon. This rather enigmatic reference to the alliance between certain Midianites with the Amorite kingdom of Heshbon would strengthen the case regarding the archaeological excavations in Jordan at the site of Heshbon as the correct site for Pethor, since there was no occupation before the Iron Age. Others suggest that Balaam was an Aramaean from further north, while those who hold to the validity of Scripture tend to accept a Mesopotamian origin for Balaam and would look to the region of the “Two Rivers” (the Tigris and Euphrates rivers) for Pethor. Hence, the “river of the land of the children of his people” (Numbers 22:5) would have to be either the Tigris or the Euphrates. He 4 The higher critics, who view this passage as a late 8th early 7th century document compare the phraseology in the Deir ‘Alla Inscription with Numbers 22–24 and see strong evidence for contemporary composition (as per Kyle McCarter). Some hold with Thompson that Balaam was an Ammonite, though again Deuteronomy 23:4 seems to prohibit this conclusion by calling him a Mesopotamian. Subsequent examination of the Deir ‘Alla Inscription, written upon the pieces of plaster at Deir ‘Alla some six centuries later, has yielded for this narrative various dates between 800 and 600 B.C. Based on orthography, a date between 750 and 700 BC seems to be the most commonly accepted one today. could, then, have been from the early generations of the Assyrians or from the Amorite or Kassite tribes who were prominent during the second millennium BC. It is even possible that some of the Sumero-Akkadian population groups had managed to continue into the CTSJ 4:4 (October 1998) p. 21 15th century BC (the date of Numbers), or that very early Aramaean tribal units in the southern region were his original home. What was the nature of this prophet/seer Balaam? Why was his message deemed to be so important that a special sanctuary was constructed in honor of the goddess whose wrath his wisdom had averted and a stele erected with his message inscribed thereupon with red and black ink?5 For a complete answer, one must move back in time to the interval during which Israel camped in the Plains of Moab, just before the death of Moses and the campaigns of the conquest in Cis- Jordan. It was a peculiar time, to say the least. The Strange King A strange king by the unlikely name of Agag was the greatest king known to Balaam (Numbers 24:7). Why not Thutmose, Rameses, Amenhotep, or some other Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt? Perhaps because this king was not an Egyptian Pharaoh at all—he was instead the king of the Amalekites. Balaam refers to this group of people in his great prophetic oracles of Numbers 22–24. In fact, he sees a world in which the Amalekites are the greatest nation in the world with the mightiest army, and Agag, probably Apop I or II, is their world- renowned king. Alternatively, more germane to the critical viewpoint, why were none of the neighbors of 7th century Israel mentioned, particularly the later Egyptian Dynasties? The Amalekites seem to have disappeared shortly after the time of David and were certainly no threat by the time of Josiah.