“Now Balak the son of Tzippor saw all that Israel had done to the Amorites.”-Numbers 22:2
Alrighty, let’s dive right into the tale of Balaam and Balak.
The story begins with the introduction of King Balak.
Balak was the king of Moab.
Moab was a vassal nation ruled by the Amorites.
And as we just learned in the last chapter, Israel had just conquered the Amorites.
So it should be pretty clear why Balak was freaking out that close to three million Israelites were encroaching on his border.
Now there is an interesting detail about Balak that we shouldn’t just casually skip over.
Notice we’re told that he was the son of a man name TZIPPOR.
Doesn’t that name sound familiar to you?
It should.
Because Moses’ wife was named Tzippora.
It’s the exact same name except one is for males and the other is for females.
Do you recall what TZIPPORA means in Hebrew?
It means “bird“.
Now the fact that Balak’s father and Moses’ wife have the same name raises a really interesting question.
The name TZIPPORA is found IN ONLY ONE culture and that culture is Midian.
Remember Moses’ wife Tzippora was a Midianite.
TZIPPORA was a pretty typical name among the Bedouins at the time.
However, the problem we face is that Balak is a Moabite.
So how in the heck did he end up with a Midianite name?!
That would be the equivalent of Japanese person with the last name of “Smith“.
Well, let’s take a look at verse 7.
“The leaders of Moab and Midian left, taking with them the payment for divining, came to Bilam and spoke to him the words of Balak.”-Numbers 22:7
Ah ha!
From this verse, we can see that Moab had formed an alliance with Midian to deal with the Hebrew problem fast approaching their borders.
What happened is that Balak’s father had taken on a Midianite name as a gesture of loyalty to his ally.
This shouldn’t strike us as being too unusual.
It’s kind of similar to a wife adopting her husband’s last name.
And even today, when tribes or royal societies form alliances, as a gesture of both respect and loyalty, they will adopt certain elements of each other’s culture.
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