Numbers 22:28

The miracle here recorded finds no parallel in the O.T. except that of the serpent who spoke to Eve (Genesis 3:1; Genesis 3:4 f.). But similar instances are to be found in the folklore of many nations (see Gray, p. 334). The speaking ass is to be considered not as a fable in the sense in which the word is applied, for example, to Aesop's Fables but as a detail of a fabulous nature which attached itself, during the course of Israel's early traditions, to a narrative which may have had a historical basis. With the modern knowledge, to which God has led us, of the gradual nature of His self-revelation to Israel, and of the many different stages of literary development which are represented in the O.T., we are not under the necessity either of believing that the ass actually spoke, or of explaining away the miracle in some rationalising manner, e.g. by supposing that Balaam had a vision. The permanent spiritual value of the story lies in its representation of the strivings of conscience.