(Numb. 22:12:) THEN GOD SAID UNTO BALAAM: YOU SHALL NOT GO WITH THEM. He said to him: If that is the case, I will curse them from where I am.²⁵., Numb. 7:6; Numb. R. 20:10. (Ibid., cont.:) YOU SHALL NOT CURSE THE PEOPLE. He said to him: Let me bless them. He said to him: They do not need your blessing, (Ibid., cont.:) FOR THEY ARE BLESSED. Similarly one says to a hornet: None of your honey and none of your sting.

footnotes: ²⁵ Tanh

(Numb. 22:13:) SO BALAAM AROSE IN THE MORNING AND SAID TO THE PRINCES OF BALAK: GO UNTO YOUR OWN LAND…. Balaam did not tell them: The Holy One did not give me permission either to go or to curse. He simply said (Ibid., cont.:): THE LORD REFUSED TO LET ME GO WITH YOU. He said to me: It is not in accord with your honor to go with these people. Rather you must go with people greater then they, since he takes pleasure in my being honored. (Numb. 22:14:) SO THE PRINCES OF MOAB AROSE AND {WENT} [CAME] UNTO BALAK AND SAID: BALAAM HAS REFUSED TO GO WITH US. Therefore (in vs. 15): ONCE AGAIN BALAK SENT PRINCES, MORE NUMEROUS AND MORE HONORABLE THAN THE FIRST ONES.

(Numb. 22:16–17:) THEN THEY CAME UNTO BALAAM AND SAID TO HIM: THUS HAS BALAK BEN ZIPPOR SAID: PLEASE DO NOT REFRAIN FROM COMING UNTO ME. FOR I WILL SURELY HONOR YOU GREATLY. Even more than what you [wanted] formerly I will give you. Moreover, everything that you desire and whatever you ordain I will do.

(Numb. 22:18:) BUT BALAAM ANSWERED AND SAID UNTO THE {PRINCES} [SERVANTS] OF BALAK: EVEN IF BALAK SHOULD GIVE ME A HOUSE FULL OF SILVER AND GOLD, I COULD NOT TRANSGRESS THE COMMAND OF THE LORD MY GOD TO DO LESS OR MORE. From here you learn that he had {a haughty spirit, an evil eye} [an evil eye, a haughty spirit], a greedy soul:²⁶ 5:19. An evil eye, since it is stated (in Numb. 24:2): THEN BALAAM RAISED HIS EYES AND SAW ISRAEL DWELLING TRIBE BY TRIBE. A haughty spirit, since (according to Numb. 22:13): SO BALAAM AROSE IN THE MORNING AND SAID TO THE PRINCES OF BALAK: GO UNTO YOUR OWN LAND, FOR THE LORD REFUSED TO LET ME GO WITH YOU. A greedy soul, since (according to Numb. 22:18): EVEN IF BALAK SHOULD GIVE ME [A HOUSE FULL OF SILVER AND GOLD].

footnotes: ²⁶ See Avot

(Ibid., cont.:) I COULD NOT TRANSGRESS [THE COMMAND OF THE LORD] MY GOD. He was prophesying that he could not annul the blessings with which the ancestors had been blessed by the mouth of the Divine Presence.

(Numb. 22:19:) NOW YOU ALSO PLEASE STAY HERE TONIGHT, because in the end you will go in disappointment like the former messengers.

(Ibid., cont.:) SO THAT I MAY KNOW WHAT ELSE (rt.: YSP) THE LORD MAY SAY TO ME. Thus he prophesied that the Holy One was going to multiply (rt.: YSP) blessings for them at his hands.