Among the many curious episodes in the Torah, few are as striking as the story of Balaam and his talking donkey. Hired by Balak to curse the Israelites, the pagan prophet set out to fulfill the task, only to have his own donkey talk back to him:

…The donkey saw the angel of the L-rd, and it crouched down under Balaam. Balaam’s anger flared, and he beat the donkey with a stick. The L-rd opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you that you have struck me these three times?” … The L-rd opened Balaam’s eyes, and he saw the angel of the L-rd standing in the road, with a sword drawn in his hand. He bowed and prostrated himself on his face.1

This strange story raises the obvious question: Why did G‑d make Balaam’s donkey speak? What purpose did this miraculous event serve? Below, we will explore various explanations set forth by the Biblical commentators.

1. To Warn Balaam

The Midrash Tanchuma explains that G‑d opened the donkey’s mouth, “To show him that the mouth and the tongue are under His control. That if [Balaam] sought to curse, the power of speech was in G‑d’s hands.”2

Nachmanides further focuses on Balaam’s identity as a sorcerer. Adept in occult arts, Balaam sought to employ magical powers to overcome G‑d’s Divine will and harm the Israelites. Nachmanides explains that G‑d therefore performed an astounding miracle — granting speech to an animal — specifically to startle and warn Balaam. This was a clear message that no sorcery could stand against G‑d’s plan. If even a dumb beast could speak by the word of G‑d, then Balaam’s own mystical skills were woefully impotent before the Creator.3

In a similar vein, Sforno understands the talking donkey as a moral wake-up call. Balaam prided himself on his oracular speech and curses, but here his own donkey’s mouth was opened by G‑d. This was intended to remind Balaam that all speech and prophecy are granted by G‑d’s will alone. If G‑d could put words in the mouth of a mere animal, then certainly Balaam could only speak what G‑d allowed.

The shock of hearing his donkey speak ought to have caused Balaam to reconsider, realizing that he was but a tool in G‑d’s hands. The talking donkey was an act of mercy – a chance for the wayward prophet to awaken, humble himself, and abandon his wicked mission before it was too late.4

2. Only for Israel’s Sake

According to Kli Yakar, the donkey’s speech was not only miraculous—it was a mirror for Balaam himself. Just as the donkey was not a natural speaker, and only spoke because G‑d temporarily enabled it for Israel’s sake, Balaam’s prophetic ability was not a reflection of his own greatness: It was a one-time gift, given so that he would ultimately bless the Jewish people—and so that the nations could not later argue that they were denied the chance for prophecy. This answer underscores that both the donkey and Balaam were Divine tools, activated only to serve G‑d’s purposes for Israel, with neither having independent spiritual merit of their own.5

3. Calculated Humiliation

Ohr HaChaim explains that the entire episode was a deliberate, Divine strategy to humiliate Balaam in the most extreme way possible. Balaam had conducted himself arrogantly, speaking as though he operated independently of G‑d’s will. To counter this, G‑d orchestrated a public and degrading miracle, where Balaam would be rebuked not by a prophet or even an angel, but by his own donkey, in front of his two attendants.6

4. Did the Donkey Actually Talk?

Notwithstanding all the above, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, some early commentators suggest that these verses should not be taken literally. Rabbi Saadya Gaon, Rabbi Shmuel Bar Chofni—two authorities from the Geonic period—as well as Maimonides7 and Gersonides8 do not believe that the donkey spoke at all. According to this view, the entire account was merely a vision that Balaam experienced.

This notion is lambasted by Ibn Ezra, however, who writes that this view merely panders to rationalists who believe that G‑d does not generally intervene in the general order of nature in a miraculous way.9

5. The Beginning of Balaam’s Undoing

The Rebbe explains10 that through the donkey’s argument with Balaam, his malicious intent to curse the Jewish people began to unravel. The Moabite dignitaries were astonished by the spectacle of a donkey rebuking its master with clarity and moral reasoning—something never seen before—undermining Balaam’s credibility as a prophet.

The Zohar teaches that through the donkey’s words, Balaam’s power was broken. Balaam, the great sorcerer, was reduced to humiliation, as even his beast saw what he could not. Thus, the talking donkey was the first crack in Balaam’s plan, a Divine tactic to disarm evil with absurdity and elevate Israel by exposing falsehood through the mouth of a beast.11