History of Israel and the Jewish People

Timeline›Conquest & Judges

Balak (Moab)

−1400 · until −1395

Hebrew year: 2361 (ב׳שס״א)

Open on the interactive timeline
Balak and Balaam offer sacrifices on the heights of Moab (Numbers 23), engraving from the Phillip Medhurst collection of Bible prints.
Balak and Balaam offer sacrifices on the heights of Moab (Numbers 23), engraving from the Phillip Medhurst collection of Bible prints. · Phillip Medhurst collection, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Balak son of Zippor was king of Moab when the Israelites camped on the plains of Moab, across the Jordan from Jericho, at the end of their forty years in the wilderness. Afraid of them, he hired the seer Balaam son of Beor to curse Israel (Numbers 22–24).

Three times Balaam went up to the heights to curse, and three times he blessed instead, among them the words "How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, your dwellings, O Israel" (Ma Tovu), which open the morning prayers to this day. A seer named Balaam son of Beor also appears in the Deir Alla inscription, found on the east bank of the Jordan.

Hebrew year
2361 (ב׳שס״א)
Place
Moab (Kir-hareseth)
Category
Foreign rulers & empires
Part of
Conquest & Judges

At the same time

Events

Foreign Rulers