King of Moab, son of Zippor, who hires Balaam to curse Israel in Numbers 22-24. ⭐ What is worth noticing about him is his reasoning: he has just watched Israel destroy Sihon and Og, correctly concludes that he cannot win a battle, and goes looking for a weapon an army cannot answer. He never fights Israel at all. ⚠ He is also the only foreign KING to give his name to a weekly Torah portion — Jethro, a Midianite priest, is the other gentile so honoured: the synagogue reading Balaq begins at Numbers 22:2 and runs through the oracles that undo everything he pays for. Micah 6:5 tells Israel to remember ‘what Balak king of Moab devised’ as evidence of God’s faithfulness; Judges 11:25 has Jephthah ask the Ammonites, pointedly, whether they are better than Balak — who, the verse notes, never actually contended with Israel.