Balaam
E226662
Balaam is a biblical figure depicted in the Old Testament as a non-Israelite diviner or prophet whose story involves attempts to curse Israel and a famous encounter with a talking donkey.
All labels observed (7)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Balaam canonical | 21 |
| Balaam son of Beor | 5 |
| Balaam and His Master | 1 |
| Balaam as a diviner | 1 |
| Balaam’s donkey | 1 |
| Balaam’s journey to Moab | 1 |
| Balaam’s way | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2027843 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Balaam Context triple: [Second Epistle of Peter, mentions, Balaam]
-
A.
Shadrack
Shadrack is a traumatized World War I veteran in Toni Morrison’s novel *Sula* who founds the ritual of National Suicide Day and embodies the community’s fears and marginalization.
-
B.
Reuel
Reuel is the middle name of famed English author and philologist J. R. R. Tolkien, used as part of his full name John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.
-
C.
Obadiah
Obadiah is a short prophetic book of the Old Testament that delivers a judgment oracle against Edom and a vision of Israel’s restoration.
-
D.
Elisha
Elisha is the given first name of former NFL quarterback Eli Manning, who led the New York Giants to two Super Bowl championships.
-
E.
Elisha
Elisha is a prominent Hebrew prophet in the Bible, known as the successor of Elijah and for performing numerous miracles in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Balaam Target entity description: Balaam is a biblical figure depicted in the Old Testament as a non-Israelite diviner or prophet whose story involves attempts to curse Israel and a famous encounter with a talking donkey.
-
A.
Shadrack
Shadrack is a traumatized World War I veteran in Toni Morrison’s novel *Sula* who founds the ritual of National Suicide Day and embodies the community’s fears and marginalization.
-
B.
Reuel
Reuel is the middle name of famed English author and philologist J. R. R. Tolkien, used as part of his full name John Ronald Reuel Tolkien.
-
C.
Obadiah
Obadiah is a short prophetic book of the Old Testament that delivers a judgment oracle against Edom and a vision of Israel’s restoration.
-
D.
Elisha
Elisha is the given first name of former NFL quarterback Eli Manning, who led the New York Giants to two Super Bowl championships.
-
E.
Elisha
Elisha is a prominent Hebrew prophet in the Bible, known as the successor of Elijah and for performing numerous miracles in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (51)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
biblical figure
ⓘ
diviner ⓘ prophet ⓘ |
| associatedConcept |
Balaam’s error
ⓘ
Balaam’s teaching ⓘ Balaam’s way ⓘ
linked to:
Balaam
|
| associatedWith |
Midian
ⓘ
Moab ⓘ |
| called |
Balaam son of Beor
ⓘ
linked to:
Balaam
|
| causeOfDeath | killed by the Israelites in battle ⓘ |
| condemnedIn |
2 Peter 2:15
ⓘ
Jude 11 ⓘ Revelation 2:14 ⓘ
linked to:
Book of Revelation
|
| deathDescribedIn | Joshua 13:22 ⓘ |
| ethnicity | non-Israelite ⓘ |
| father | Beor ⓘ |
| hiredBy | Balak ⓘ |
| knownFor |
attempts to curse Israel
ⓘ
blessing Israel instead of cursing them ⓘ encounter with a talking donkey ⓘ oracles about Israel ⓘ prophecy about a star out of Jacob ⓘ |
| linkedToEvent | Israelite idolatry and immorality at Peor ⓘ |
| mentionedIn |
Book of Deuteronomy
ⓘ
Book of Joshua ⓘ Book of Jude ⓘ
linked to:
Epistle of Jude
Book of Micah ⓘ Book of Numbers ⓘ Book of Revelation ⓘ Hebrew Bible ⓘ
linked to:
Tanakh
Old Testament ⓘ
linked to:
Bible
Second Peter ⓘ
linked to:
Second Epistle of Peter
|
| narrativeEvent |
Balaam’s eyes opened to see the angel
ⓘ
confrontation with the angel of the LORD ⓘ donkey sees the angel and turns aside ⓘ donkey speaks to Balaam ⓘ journey to Balak with princes of Moab ⓘ pronouncement of blessings over Israel ⓘ prophecy of a star and scepter from Israel ⓘ three attempts to curse Israel from different locations ⓘ utterance of four main oracles ⓘ |
| occupation |
seer
ⓘ
soothsayer ⓘ |
| primaryNarrativeLocation | Numbers 22–24 ⓘ |
| religion |
Christianity
ⓘ
Islam ⓘ Judaism ⓘ |
| roleInNarrative | foreign prophet summoned to curse Israel ⓘ |
| textualTradition | sometimes associated with Deir Alla inscription by scholars ⓘ |
| viewInChristianity | symbol of greed and false teaching ⓘ |
| viewInJudaism | negative example of a corrupt prophet ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Balaam Description of subject: Balaam is a biblical figure depicted in the Old Testament as a non-Israelite diviner or prophet whose story involves attempts to curse Israel and a famous encounter with a talking donkey.
Referenced by (31)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Balaam
linked to: Balaam
linked to: Balaam
linked to: Balaam
linked to: Balaam
linked to: Balaam
linked to: Balaam
linked to: Balaam
linked to: Balaam