“prophetess” of Exod 15:20*.7 The principal story of Balak and Balaam is told in Numbers 22–24. Recent discovery of a long (but very obscure) Aramaic (?) text, concerning Balaam, son of Beor, from about 700 B.C. combines with other biblical evidence (Num 25:1–3* and 31:16*) to make it plain that the figure of Balaam loomed even larger in legend of Micah’s time than the Numbers story suggests.8 Here, in the context of favorable divine acts, the reference is to the involuntary reversal in