Numbers 22:7

And the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian departed with the rewards of divination in their hand, for the rich presents were to induce Balaam to come all the more readily. And they came unto Balaam and spake unto him the words of Balak. Balaam was not a common wizard, indulging in cheap tricks and sleight-of-hand performances for the purpose of awing the multitude. He was, indeed, engaged in the business of divination, of soothsaying, but he knew also of the true God, for the tradition of the God of Abraham, of the true, living God, had been handed down in many branches of the family of Shem. That Balaam was well known among the Midianites of this section of Arabia (to be distinguished from the Midianites of the Sinaitic Peninsula) appears from the fact that he afterward gave the heathen the advice which plunged Israel into idolatry and immorality, and almost brought about their ruin, Numbers 31:16; Revelation 2:14.