Texts in Conversation
Numbers 22:3 echoes Exodus 1:12 by using the same language to describe how Moab, like Egypt before it, reacts with fear and disgust at Israel’s growing numbers. This was likely intentionally designed to directly connect the Balaam narrative with the Egypt narrative in Exodus.
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Exodus 1:12
Hebrew Bible
11 So they put foremen over the Israelites to oppress them with hard labor. As a result they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 12 But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more they multiplied and spread. As a result the Egyptians loathed the Israelites, 13 and they made the Israelites serve rigorously. 14 They made their lives bitter by hard service with mortar and bricks and by all kinds of service in the fields. Every kind of service the Israelites were required to give was rigorous.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Numbers 22:3
Hebrew Bible
2 Balak son of Zippor saw all that the Israelites had done to the Amorites. 3 And the Moabites were greatly afraid of the people, because they were so numerous. The Moabites were sick with fear because of the Israelites. 4 So the Moabites said to the elders of Midian, “Now this mass of people will lick up everything around us, as the bull devours the grass of the field.” Now Balak son of Zippor was king of the Moabites at this time.
Date: 5th Century B.C.E. (Final composition) (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... “Felt a disgust at the children of Israel.” This is the first of a string of terms in the Balaam story that are also found in the E account of the exodus from Egypt. Compare Exodus 1:12 ..."
Friedman, Richard Elliott
The Bible with Sources Revealed: A New View Into the Five Books of Moses
(p. 280) Harper San Francisco, 2005
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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