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In Numbers 23, Balaam wishes to die the death of the righteous. In Philo, he hopes his soul will be with the righteous after death, but in the Aramaic translation in Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, he says he will lose the world to come if Israel kills him.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Numbers 23:10
Hebrew Bible
9 For from the top of the rocks I see them; from the hills I watch them. Indeed, a nation that lives alone, and it will not be reckoned among the nations. 10 Who can count the dust of Jacob, or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the upright, and let the end of my life be like theirs.”
Philo On the Life of Moses 1.279
Classical
279 Who has ever discovered with accuracy the first origin of the birth of these people? Their bodies, indeed, may have been fashioned according to human means of propagation; but their souls have been brought forth by divine agency, wherefore they are nearly related to God. May my soul die as to the death of the body, that it may be remembered among the souls of the righteous, such as the souls of these men are."
Date: 40 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Pseudo Jonathan Numbers 23:10
Targum
And when Bileam the sinner beheld the house of Israel, a circumcised people, hidden in the dust of the desert, he said, Who can number the merits of these strong ones, or count the good works of one of the four camps of Israel? Bileam the wicked said: If the house of Israel kill me with the sword, then, it is made known to me, I shall have no portion in the world to come: nevertheless if I may but die the death of the true! O that my last end may be as the least among them! And Balak said to Bileam, What hast thou done to me? I brought thee to curse my enemies, and, behold, blessing, thou hast blessed them.
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Notes and References
“... 10. May my soul die the death of the righteous, and my end be like his. Balaam hoped to share in the destiny of Israel. The Vulgate accepts the literal meaning of the text, and so also does the Septuagint, except that it interprets the second half of the verse as, "and let my seed be like theirs". Palestinian tradition does not allow this wish to pass without pronouncing impossible its fulfilment. If these Israelites kill him with the sword, Balaam himself announces that he will have no place in a future life. But should he die the death of the righteous, his end might resemble the end of the least among them. 2TJ. If the house of Israel kills me with the sword, I have already said that I shall have no part in a future life. But if I die the death of the righteous, let my end resemble that of the least among them. 1TJ. PHILO, believing in the immortality of the souls of the just, paraphrases the verse: May my soul die to the life of the body that it may be reckoned among the souls of the just, even such as are the souls of these men. VM, l. §279. ...”
* 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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