The gentile seer of Numbers 22-24, hired by Balak of Moab to curse Israel and made to bless them instead — but who then taught Balak to seduce Israel into idolatry and immorality for a fee (Numbers 31:16). In the New Testament he becomes the type of the teacher who sells his gift for money: Jude condemns those who 'for pay abandoned themselves to the error of Balaam' (1:11), and 2 Peter 2:15 and Revelation 2:14 use him the same way. Greed dressed up as prophecy.