3

The Talmud tells us that: "Seven prophets prophesied to the nations of the world, namely, Balaam and his father, Job and his four friends." (Bava Batra 15b)

What did they prophesy? We only know what Balaam prophesied from the Torah. What about the other six?

The Torah tells us that Miriam was a "prophetess", but we had to wait for extra biblical sources to tell us what she prophesied. Do such sources exist for the six in question?

2
  • We only know what Balaam prophesied regarding Israel, but he was a famous prophet before then. We have found another possible prophecy of his here called the Deir Alla inscription: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deir_Alla_inscription
    – Aaron
    Commented Aug 26 at 18:31
  • Interestingly (nice trivia fact) Bilaam is the only Toranic figure with extra-biblical evidence.
    – Al Berko
    Commented Aug 27 at 9:13

1 Answer 1

1

The father of Bil'am is mentioned in midrash Bemidbar Tanhuma 24 in connection with prophecy of the conquest of the portion of Moabite territory by Amorites led by Sichon.

Iyov and his four friends are brought in the book of Iyov. Certainly, the statement in the Talmud about them as prophets also agrees that Iyov was not a fictional character. The prophesies of Iyov and his friends deal with G-d's judgement, punishment, questions why righteous suffer, etc., as explained in the answers to the question here.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .