While Balaam rode his ass to Moab the angel of the Lord appeared, not to Balaam, but to the ass. Seeing the terrible angel of the Lord, the ass swerved, first into a field and then against a wall ...

On one occasion, Balaam is confronted by an angel of the Lord who can only be seen by Balaam’s donkey. The donkey falls down and is beaten by his master. Eventually, Balaam also sees the angel.

In Rembrandt’s 1626 painting, Balaam and the Ass, the prophet sits atop his donkey mid-journey, his arm raised in frustration. The animal has stopped abruptly.

But there’s a hitch: As Balaam travels to curse the Israelites, God sends an angel to imbue his donkey with the power of speech. The donkey—long story short—tells Balaam that he’ll only be ...

This is German artist Gustav Jaeger’s depiction of Balaam’s donkey protesting that Balaam was beating him when an angel, visible at first only to the donkey, was blocking their way with a ...

Every year the story of Balaam and his talking donkey recalls for me one of my childhood’s favorite TV sit-coms “Mr. Ed” featuring that friendly talking Palomino horse in the barn.

So, he saddled his donkey and set off to meet the Israelites. The Lord sent an angel, furious, big sword in hand, to block Balaam - and at the ready to slay him at once if he proceeded.

BaMidbar is a book filled with stories. In this book of many stories perhaps no story so intrigues our imagination as that of Balaam and his talking donkey (22:2-25:9).

And Balaam spoke with Him when he was fallen, viz. (Num. 24:4) “The vision of the Almighty shall he see, fallen and his eyes uncovered. This seems like an odd place to find comfort.

In Gen 12:2 Abram is promised that his descendants will become a great nation, and that is exactly the situation that confronts Balak and prompts him to hire Balaam.