Bilaam

(40) (Devarim, Ibid. 10) "And there shall not arise in Israel again a prophet such as Moses": But among the nations, there did arise. And who was he? Bilam the son of Beor. But there is a difference between the prophecy of Moses and the prophecy of Bilam. Moses did not know who was speaking to him, and Bilam did know, viz. (Bamidbar 24:16) "The speech of the hearer (Bilam) of the words of the Almighty." Moses did not know when He would speak to him until He did so. Bilam did know, viz. "and the knower of the knowledge of the Most High." Moses did not speak with Him unless he was standing, viz. (Devarim 5:28) "And you, here, stand with Me." And Bilam spoke with Him when he was fallen, viz. (Bamidbar 24:4) "The vision of the Almighty shall he see, fallen and his eyes uncovered."

(1) "And Balak son of Zippor saw": The Torah says (Deuteronomy 32) "The Rock--perfect is His work for all of His ways are justice." Hashem did not give the non-Jews an opening to say in the future "You have distanced us." What did Hashem do? Just like He set up kings and sages and prophets for the Jews, He set these up for the non-Jews. He set up Shlomo as a king over the Jews and the entire earth, and He did the same for Nebuchadnezzar. This one built the Beit Hamikdash and said "How many praises and supplications there are!" and this one destroyed it and scoffed and said (Isaiah 14): "I will ascend to the heights of the clouds." He gave David riches, and he took his house for His Name. And he gave Haman riches, and he took an entire nation to be slaughtered. All the greatness that the Jews took, you find that the nations took. Another example: He set up Moshe for the Jews and Bilaam for the nations. Understand what the difference is between Jewish prophets and non-Jewish prophets? Jewish prophets exhort the people about their sins, as it says (Ezekiel 3): "And you, son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman etc." And the prophet from among the nations caused a breach to drive the creations from the world. Not only this, but all the prophets were [given prophecy] from the attribute of mercy on the Jews and the non-Jews, as Yirmiyah said (Jeremiah 48): "My heart to Moav is as pipes moan." And as Yechezkel said (Ezekiel 27): "Son of man, lament for Tyre." And this cruel one stood to uproot an entire nation for no reason. Therefore the passage of Bilaam was written, to make it known why Hashem took away the holy spirit from non-Jews, for this one was from them and see what he did.