Commentary for Numbers 23:5

AND THE ETERNAL PUT A WORD IN BALAAM’S MOUTH. Some commentators¹²³I have not identified these commentators. See, however, my Hebrew commentary, p. 294, Note 22, for a similar opinion found in the Zohar. explain that Balaam did not understand the words [he said], but G-d filled him with words and said to him: “Return unto Balak, and thus thou shalt speak,¹²²Verse 5. for the words will come forth [automatically] from your mouth.” Perhaps this is also the opinion of our Rabbis, who have said:¹²⁴Tanchuma, Balak 12; Bamidbar Rabbah 20:16. “He shaped his mouth and formed it [so that he would speak as He desired], like a person who fixes a nail onto a board. Rabbi Eleazar says: It was an angel that spoke: Rabbi Yehoshua says: etc.”¹²⁵“It was the Holy One, blessed be He, that spoke through the mouth of Balaam” (ibid.). But it does not appear to me to be correct [that Balaam did not know what he was saying], because he said [that he] heareth the words of G-d; seeth the vision of the Almighty.⁹⁷Further, 24:4. But the meaning of [the word] ‘vayasem’ (and He put) is “instruction,” signifying He taught him the words so that he should recite them with his mouth, and he should not forget or omit any part of it, similar to [the expression], teach thou it the children of Israel; ‘simah’ (put it) in their mouths.¹²⁶Deuteronomy 31:19. This means: let them know the words of this song by heart (Ibn Ezra). Similarly, for by the appointment of Absalom this hath been ‘sumah’ (‘put; determined’).¹²⁷II Samuel 13:32.

וישם ה׳ דבו בפי בלעם, G'd put words in Bileam's mouth, etc. Although most commentators have already treated this verse exhaustively, they have also left some room for our comments. G'd wanted to use this opportunity to reveal part of the future and to mention the wonderful things that would happen to Israel at that time. He was particularly interested that this future be revealed to the Gentile nations by their own prophet. This is why He chose Bileam as His instrument to predict both Israel's eventual greatness and the other nations eventual downfall at the hands of Israel. When the Gentile nations would be able to note that one of their own had predicted all this it would impress them all the more. Due to the negative spiritual influences Bileam had surrounded himself with, the Holy Spirit which would enable him to foretell the future could not come to rest on him; not only this, but the words of G'd themselves are inherently sacred and not entrusted to a member of an impure nation. This is why G'd had to resort to a special stratagem so that words of holiness would not be spoken in impure surroundings. G'd constructed a barrier between the power of the speaker and the words he spoke, and the "mouth of the pig." This is what the Torah means when it writes: "G'd put a thing, דבר, inside Bileam's mouth." The דבר was the artificial barrier between G'd's holy words and Bileam's mouth. In this way Bileam's mouth was converted into a domain all by itself, divorced from Bileam the person. When the Torah continued וכה תדבר, the meaning is that with the help of this barrier in his mouth Bileam would be able to speak the words of G'd. The Zohar volume three page 210 writes that the word כה is an allusion to something sacred. Students of the Kabbalah will understand what I mean.

וישם ה' דבר בפי בלעם, “Hashem put words in the mouth of Bileam, etc.” There are some commentators who derive from this that Bileam was unaware of the utterances he was about to make. G’d filled his mouth with words and told him to go back to Balak and “open your mouth to speak,” and the following words would come tumbling out of his mouth. Perhaps this coincides with what our sages had in mind when they said that G’d twisted Bileam’s mouth until it looked like that of a carpenter having nails between his lips, and is the correct interpretation. I do not think so, for the Torah goes on to quote Bileam (24,4) as saying (about himself): ”the one who hears the sayings of G’d and who sees visions of Shaddai.” שומע אמרי א-ל אשר מחזה שדי יחזה. The meaning of the words וישם...דבר is more likely that G’d trains Bileam so carefully what to say. [The difference between ויתן and וישם is always one of degree, the word always implying a more deliberate action. Ed.] In other words, pronouncements made by Bileam in the name of G’d are not “off the cuff remarks,” uttered casually, but are most deliberate and deserve to be examined minutely.

V. 5. וישם ד׳ וגו׳. Gott gewährte ihm nicht eine Erscheinung, deren Auffassung er sodann in Worte zu kleiden gehabt hätte, sondern er legte ihm die Worte in den Mund, die er zu sprechen hatte.

כה תדבר, “G–d commenced with the same word with which He had announced to Avraham that he would become the founding father of a nation, though at that time he had not yet been able to father a single child. [Compare Genesis 15,5, a conversation between G–d and Avraham which had preceded the command for him to leave Charan in chapter 12. Ed.] He reminded Bileam by referring to that promise that any attempt by him to curse Avraham’s descendants would be futile. In fact G–d had guaranteed to Avraham that his descendants would increase and multiply.

וכה תדבר, “and thus you shall say;” there was no need to spell out the precise wording Bileam was to use at this stage, as long as he would know what would follow.

In the event that you do not understand the nature of this separation within Bileam's mouth, consider Chagigah 15 where the Talmud explains how G'd had divided between different great bodies of water although they are adjoining one another without any visible barrier. The separations between these bodies of water are as thin as a hair. We are also taught in Shabbat 35 concerning the well which accompanied the Israelites thanks to the merit of Miriam that if someone wishes to see it he should climb Mount Carmel and look down into the sea where he would observe something that looks like a sieve. This is the well that used to accompany the Israelites in the desert.

שוב אל בלק, "go back to Balak, etc." G'd forced Bileam to say the unpalatable things he was going to say in Balak's presence.