with the destruction of the Kenite state by
Assyria; also of uncertain date, Assyria being, according to some, the
ancient realm of Nineveh, according to others the Seleucid kingdom of
Syria, which was also called Assyria.

The _Seventh_, xxiv. 23 f., speaks of the coming of ships from the West, to
attack Assur and "Eber"; it may refer to the conquest of Persia by
Alexander the Great. An interesting, but doubtful, emendation makes this
poem describe the ruin of Shamal, a state in N. W. Syria.

In the New Testament Balaam is cited as a type of avarice;[6] in Rev. ii.
14 we read of false teachers at Pergamum who held the "teaching of Balaam,
who taught Balak to cast a stumbling-block before the children of Israel,
to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication."

Balaam has attracted much interest, alike from Jews, Christians and
Mahommedans. Josephus[7] paraphrases the story _more suo_, and speaks of
Balaam as the best prophet of his time, but with a disposition ill adapted
to resist temptation. Philo describes him in the _Life of Moses_ as a great
magician; elsewhere[8] he speaks of "the sophist Balaam, being," _i.e._
symbolizing, "a vain crowd of contrary and warring opinions"; and again[9]
as "a vain people"; both phrases being based on a mistaken etymology of the
name Balaam. The later Targums and the Talmuds represent him as a typical
sinner; and there are the usual worthless Rabbinical fables, _e.g._ that he
was blind of one eye; that he was the Elihu of Job; that, as one of
Pharaoh's counsellors, he was governor of a city of Ethiopia, and rebelled
against Pharaoh; Moses was sent against him by Pharaoh at the head of an
army, and stormed the city and put Balaam to flight, &c. &c.

[v.03 p.0233] Curiously enough, the Rabbinical (Yalkut) identification of
Balaam with Laban, Jacob's father-in-law, has been revived from a very
different standpoint, by a modern critic.[10] The Mahommedans, also, have
various fables concerning Balaam. He was one of the Anakim, or giants of
Palestine; he read the books of Abraham, where he got the name Yahweh, by
virtue of which he predicted the future, and got from God whatever he
asked. It has been conjectured that the Arabic wise man, commonly called
Luqman (_q.v._), is identical with Balaam. The names of their fathers are
alike, and "Luqman" means _devourer_, _swallower,_ a meaning which might be
got out of Balaam by a popular etymology.

If we might accept the vario