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Share(6) Come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people; for they are too mighty for me; peradventure I shall prevail, that we may smite them, and that I may drive them out of the land; for I know that he whom thou bless is blessed, and he whom thou curse is cursed.’
Genesis 12:3. And I will bless those who bless thee, and him that curses thee I will curse, and in thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
(41) And it came to pass in the morning that Balak took Balaam, and brought him up into Bamoth-baal, and he saw from thence the utmost part of the people.
Sforno on Genesis 48:10
לא יוכל לראות, he could not see clearly. In order for a blessing to take hold it is necessary for the one bestowing the blessing to see the party whom he blesses at the time the blessing is pronounced. [the same is true of a curse, this is why Balak took Bileam to a vantage point from which he could see the people of Israel whom he had been hired to curse, clearly. (Numbers 23:13). G’d also took Moses to a point from which he could see the land of Israel clearly so that he could bless the land.
- Balaam ascends from a common sorcerer to a prophet who ‘hears the words of God.’ The rise is reflected by the preparations attending each part of his parable.
- “His first endeavors are directed at invoking divine aid through magical means.” - Build me here 7 altars, prepare for me 7 oxen and 7 rams (Num. 23:1). He works to bend the divine will to his own rather than do what prophets do, that is, to achieve a closer connection with God.
- In the second blessing, Balaam does not refer to Balak with his title as king, rather, as a man. “Arise, Balak, and hear” (23:18).
- Only by the third blessing does Balaam leave his usual designs and give himself wholly to the prophetic urge. “And Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel dwelling tribe by tribe; and the spirit of God came upon him” (24:2).
- Another distinction between the three blessings: the first refers to the present moment and the generation facing him, the second to the immediate future and the generation which would conquer the land, and the third concerns the distant future, when wars have ended.