1Listen now to what Yahweh says:
“Arise, plead your case before the mountains,
and let the hills hear what you have to say.
2Hear, you mountains, Yahweh’s indictment,
and you enduring foundations of the earth;
for Yahweh has a case against his people,
and he will contend with Israel.
3My people, what have I done to you?
How have I burdened you?
Answer me!
4For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt,
and redeemed you out of the house of bondage.
I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.
5My people, remember now what Balak king of Moab devised,
and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim to Gilgal,
that you may know the righteous acts of Yahweh.”
6How shall I come before Yahweh,
and bow myself before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
with calves a year old?
7Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams?
With tens of thousands of rivers of oil?
Shall I give my firstborn for my disobedience?
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
8He has shown you, O man, what is good.
What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly,
to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
9Yahweh’s voice calls to the city—
and wisdom fears your name—
“Listen to the rod,
and he who appointed it.
10Are there yet treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked,
and a short ephah that is accursed?
11Shall I tolerate dishonest scales,
and a bag of deceitful weights?
12Her rich men are full of violence,
her inhabitants speak lies,
and their tongue is deceitful in their speech.
13Therefore I also have struck you with a grievous wound.
I have made you desolate because of your sins.
14You shall eat, but not be satisfied.
Your hunger will be within you.
You will store up, but not save,
and that which you save I will give up to the sword.
15You will sow, but won’t reap.
You will tread the olives, but won’t anoint yourself with oil;
and crush grapes, but won’t drink the wine.
16For the statutes of Omri are kept,
and all the works of Ahab’s house.
You walk in their counsels,
that I may make you a ruin,
and your inhabitants a hissing.
You will bear the reproach of my people.”
We encounter in Numbers 22-24 the prophet Balaam, a prophet who did not come from God, but in fact comes to be known as a wicked prophet who was prohibited by Yahweh, the God of Israel, from cursing His people. Thus he was a wicked man, but not a false prophet, at least in the instances in the book of Numbers. We see in Numbers 22:21 that on the way to meet the Moabite king, he had an unusual encounter with an angel sent from God to warn him not to speak any curse against Israel. Balaam's donkey could see the angel and even spoke to Balaam before it was revealed to Balaam that had the donkey not stopped and even rebuked Balaam, he would have been killed by God (Num 22:21-33). After his failure to curse Israel for the Moabite king, he makes a prophecy of the coming Messiah (Num 24:11). The end of the story occurs in chapter 24, however, in which the evil prophet Balaam suggests ways in which he could entice the Israelites into false worship and sexual immorality that brought God's judgment on them.
"Balaam’s name and story became infamous, and he is referred to several times in the New Testament. Peter compares false teachers to Balaam, “who loved the wages of wickedness” (2 Peter 2:15). Jude echoes this sentiment, associating Balaam with the selling of one’s soul for financial gain (Jude 1:11). Finally, Jesus speaks of Balaam when He warns the church in Pergamum of their sin: “There are some among you who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin so that they ate food sacrificed to idols and committed sexual immorality” (Revelation 2:14). Satan’s tactics haven’t changed all that much. If he cannot curse God’s people directly, he will try the back-door approach, and idolatry and sexual immorality are his go-to temptations." [1]