Balaam rose in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went with Moab’s officials. God opposed his going and placed an angel in the road. Balaam rode the donkey with two servants. The donkey saw the angel holding a drawn sword, turned off the road into a field, and Balaam struck her to turn her back.
The angel stood in a narrow path between vineyards with walls on both sides. The donkey pressed against a wall and crushed Balaam’s foot, so he struck her again. The angel moved to a place with no way to turn right or left. Seeing the angel, the donkey lay down beneath Balaam.
When Balaam struck her with his staff, God opened the donkey’s mouth. She asked what she had done to be struck three times. Balaam said she had mocked him and that he would kill her if he had a sword. The donkey asked whether she had ever acted that way before. Balaam answered no.
Then God opened Balaam’s eyes. He saw the angel in the road with a drawn sword and bowed down. The angel asked why he had struck the donkey three times, saying that the road was perverse before God. If the donkey had not turned aside, Balaam would have died and she would have lived.
Balaam confessed that he had sinned because he had not known the angel was standing in the road. He offered to return if the angel opposed his journey. The angel told him to go with the officials but to speak only the words given to him. Balaam went on with Moab’s officials.