Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Yitzhak Sapir <yitzhaksapir AT gmail.com>]

On 8/20/05, Jan Pieter van de Giessen wrote:
> See the article from Meir Bar-Ilan "Astronomy and Astrology Among the Jews 
> in
> Antiquity" 
> (http://faculty.biu.ac.il/~testsm/astronomy%20and%20astrology.html)
> for more details about this subject.
> 

Thanks!  I find that he says "Therefore, though Bilaam's practices (Num. 
22-23) 
seem to be connected to Astrology, they are more like propitiatory rituals 
(namburbis) to seven different Aramaic Gods (such as Ba'al), that may
be called 'pre'-Astrology" which you apparently seem to quote.  Do you
have any idea why
Bilaam's practices are considered astrological?  He does all of this
rituals in the
morning, so that claim seems odd to me.  In any case, it is interesting to me
because in the Balaam inscription, he is referred to as a "xzh )lhn"
and the root
xzh is applied to Bilaam in Num 24:4.

Yitzhak Sapir