24:18 records that Bil’am declared, “Edom becomes a possession. A possession becomes Se’ir of its enemies, but Israel does valiantly," Fox 1995 translation. While the exact meaning of 24:18 is unclear, it seems that the general message is that Edom and the Jewish people would be enemies (see Rashi on 24:18) and the Jewish people would prevail over Edom. According to this approach Bil’am was prophesying about a future war between the Jewish people and Edom, but there is a disagreement as to which war. Ibn Ezra (on 24:17,18) explains that the war was to be in the time of David, while Ramban (on 24:18) explains that the reference is to the messianic era. Rambam (Laws of Kings 11:1) explains that Bil’am was referring to both David, the beginning of the verse, and the messianic era, the end of the verse. Why did the Torah mention these future hostilities if they were not pertinent to the times of the Torah? Furthermore, if the Torah was going to take account of the future antagonisms, why would Devarim 23:8 allow Edom to join the Jewish people?
The basis for the view that Bil’am was referring to future wars is an assumption that Bil’am’s declarations were prophecies from G-d. However, the Torah does not state that Bil’am’s fourth blessing were prophecies or from G-d. This is in contrast to Bil’am's first three blessings, where the Torah specifically states that Bil’am was speaking G-d’s word, 23:5,16 or that the spirit of G-d came upon him, 24:2.
Ramban (on 24:16, in other versions end of 24:14) notes this difference, but writes that Bil’am’s declaration in 24:17-24 were also prophecies from G-d since 24:16 records that Bil’am said about himself, “utters the hearer of Godly sayings, who knows the knowledge of Most-High envisaging a vision of Shaddai, bowed, but with eyes uncovered,” Fox translation (1995). Chavel (1993, footnotes on Ramban) points out that the phrase “utters the hearer of Godly sayings” also appears in the third blessing, 24:4, and then just as the third blessing was a prophecy so too Bil’am's declarations in 24:17-24 are prophecies. Furthermore, the phrase “knowledge of Most-High,” as noted by the Ibn Ezra (on 24:16) also seems to refer to Bil’am’s prophetic abilities.
I doubt that 24:16 implies that Bil’am was speaking as a prophet of G-d since the verse is a statement from Bil’am. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 105B, Berakhot 7a, see Rashi on 24:16) states that it is preposterous that Bil’am could have knowledge of G-d when he was bested by a donkey, and the Talmud concludes that he had a limited ability to know when to curse the people. Yet, even this seems to be giving him too much credit. With regard to Bil’am’s first three blessings, he wanted to curse the Jewish people, so G-d intervened to change the curse to a blessing (see Devarim 23:6), but by Bil’am’s fourth declaration, he never intended to curse the people, so G-d did not have to intervene. Bil’am claimed he was talking as a prophet but this was just part of his act. As we discussed on 22:8-35, "Bil’am: The wizard of Petor," Bil’am was a big talker. When Balak first sent him messengers, he claimed to speak to G-d, and so too here he was a big talker that he claimed to know G-d’s knowledge. Furthermore, as noted above (on 22:23-35, "The amazing donkey") there is a parallelism between the episode with the donkey and Bil'am's prophecies, but the parallelism is only until the third blessing since by the fourth blessing, Bil'am is speaking his own mind.
My understanding is that as the Torah does not state that Bil’am’s last statements were from G-d, then they were not, and 24:15-24 records Bil’am personal thoughts. Bil’am was a temporary prophet from the time of the incident with the donkey until his third blessing, and afterwards he reverted back to his usual personality of pretending to be a prophet.
With this approach, after reciting three blessings, Bil’am was in a good mood thinking a lot of himself since he had become a temporary prophet, and then when Balak got angry at him, he decided to continue the role of being a prophet. He made predictions about Moav’s future since Balak was the king of Moav, and then for good measure he added on predictions about Edom and the other nations. These statements were based on his general knowledge, and after seeing that G-d intervenes in this world he was sure that the Jewish people would prevail with Moav and Edom. (Was this a good prediction about Edom and the Jewish people, as at best it was only fulfilled four hundred years later? If somebody today would predict that the US would fight with Russia in the future, and four hundred years later they do fight, would that be called a good forecast?)
Accordingly, the antagonism expressed in 24:18 between Edom and the Jewish people was Bil’am's private prediction and not the viewpoint of the Torah. Thus, from the Torah’s point of view, there were supposed to be friendly relations between the Jewish people and Edom, and the two nations were not destined to fight.
Maybe the predictions about Edom and Moav were included in the Torah to give the Jewish people confidence that they would learn that Bil’am had predicted that they would have great victories in the future. This was especially important with regard to Edom since the people might have wondered how they were going to conquer the land of Israel if they had backed down from Edom when Edom did not let them pass through their country, Bemidbar 20:21. In addition, once there was a reason to include Bil’am’s prediction about Moav and Edom, then the rest of Bil’am’s ramblings about the other nations were also included in the Torah even though they did not relate to the Jewish people since they were part of the same speech.
I doubt that 24:16 implies that Bil’am was speaking as a prophet of G-d since the verse is a statement from Bil’am. The Talmud (Sanhedrin 105B, Berakhot 7a, see Rashi on 24:16) states that it is preposterous that Bil’am could have knowledge of G-d when he was bested by a donkey, and the Talmud concludes that he had a limited ability to know when to curse the people. Yet, even this seems to be giving him too much credit. With regard to Bil’am’s first three blessings, he wanted to curse the Jewish people, so G-d intervened to change the curse to a blessing (see Devarim 23:6), but by Bil’am’s fourth declaration, he never intended to curse the people, so G-d did not have to intervene. Bil’am claimed he was talking as a prophet but this was just part of his act. As we discussed on 22:8-35, "Bil’am: The wizard of Petor," Bil’am was a big talker. When Balak first sent him messengers, he claimed to speak to G-d, and so too here he was a big talker that he claimed to know G-d’s knowledge. Furthermore, as noted above (on 22:23-35, "The amazing donkey") there is a parallelism between the episode with the donkey and Bil'am's prophecies, but the parallelism is only until the third blessing since by the fourth blessing, Bil'am is speaking his own mind.
My understanding is that as the Torah does not state that Bil’am’s last statements were from G-d, then they were not, and 24:15-24 records Bil’am personal thoughts. Bil’am was a temporary prophet from the time of the incident with the donkey until his third blessing, and afterwards he reverted back to his usual personality of pretending to be a prophet.
With this approach, after reciting three blessings, Bil’am was in a good mood thinking a lot of himself since he had become a temporary prophet, and then when Balak got angry at him, he decided to continue the role of being a prophet. He made predictions about Moav’s future since Balak was the king of Moav, and then for good measure he added on predictions about Edom and the other nations. These statements were based on his general knowledge, and after seeing that G-d intervenes in this world he was sure that the Jewish people would prevail with Moav and Edom. (Was this a good prediction about Edom and the Jewish people, as at best it was only fulfilled four hundred years later? If somebody today would predict that the US would fight with Russia in the future, and four hundred years later they do fight, would that be called a good forecast?)
Accordingly, the antagonism expressed in 24:18 between Edom and the Jewish people was Bil’am's private prediction and not the viewpoint of the Torah. Thus, from the Torah’s point of view, there were supposed to be friendly relations between the Jewish people and Edom, and the two nations were not destined to fight.
Maybe the predictions about Edom and Moav were included in the Torah to give the Jewish people confidence that they would learn that Bil’am had predicted that they would have great victories in the future. This was especially important with regard to Edom since the people might have wondered how they were going to conquer the land of Israel if they had backed down from Edom when Edom did not let them pass through their country, Bemidbar 20:21. In addition, once there was a reason to include Bil’am’s prediction about Moav and Edom, then the rest of Bil’am’s ramblings about the other nations were also included in the Torah even though they did not relate to the Jewish people since they were part of the same speech.
Chavel, Hayyim Dov, 1993, Commentary of the Ramban, revised edition, Jerusalem: Mossad Harav Kook.
Fox, Everett, 1995, The Five Books of Moses: A new translation, New York: Schocken Books.
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