Balak, Part Two: The Parable in Balaam's Mouth

Poor Balak. He’s just trying to save the land he loves, playing his very last card, hoping for some magic to pull him out of the hot seat. Reality is barreling down on him like a stampede of oxen, as he says. His world is changing, and there is nothing he can do to stop it. Like Treebeard said: “The world is changing: I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, and I smell it in the air.” The Israelites are coming, and God, it appears, is on their side.

Three times he asks Balaam to curse the Israelites; three times Balaam blesses them instead, with the Word that God places in his mouth.