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Balaam is an interesting character, but this passage is definitely confusing. I think it is easy to just read this passage and think that Balaam is a good guy. He tells Balak he won’t help him, then when he finally goes with Balak, he blesses Israel instead of curses them. Sounds like a good guy. But every other passage in the Bible about Balaam (for instance, 2 Peter 2:15, Jude 1:11, Revelation 2:14) speaks of him as very evil.

So this is one of those passages to me that shows how easily we can totally misread parts of the Bible because we lack the context that the original readers had. It is a reminder of how much care we should put into our reading of the scriptures, and not just read haphazardly.