Bedouins still bake bread in this way, or do so on a heated iron disk, the Arabic sadj.

Grain offerings made by the Israelites were often “something baked in the oven,” came “from off the griddle,” or from “out of the deep-fat kettle.” (Lev. 2:4-7) The griddle was a thick pottery plate having depressions (comparable to a modern waffle iron), though iron griddles were also used.—Ezek. 4:3.

Professional bakers were in business in the cities. While Jeremiah was in custody in the Courtyard of the Guard in Jerusalem during the time of scarcity prior to that city’s overthrow in 607 B.C.E., he was given a daily ration of a round loaf of bread “from the street of the bakers,” as long as the supply lasted. (Jer. 37:21) So, commercial bakers evidently occupied a particular street in Jerusalem. Years later, when Jerusalem’s walls were restored under Nehemiah’s supervision, the “Tower of the Bake Ovens” was also repaired. (Neh. 3:11; 12:38) Just how the tower came to be named is uncertain, but it is possible that it was given its unusual name because the ovens of commercial bakers were located there.

In modern times, the professional Oriental baker does not customarily prepare the dough. Instead, it is made by the house baker and is then sent to the public baker. So it is not uncommon to observe the baker’s boy walking along with trays of freshly baked bread balanced on his head, delivering the bread to customers’ homes. In Bible times, too, the professional baker may often have baked the dough (and even meat and vegetables) brought to him. After removing the bread or cakes from his oven with a long shovel, the baker at times greased them. The fine quality of bread baked in the larger oven of the Oriental commercial baker seems to be indicated by this proverb of the Arabs: “Send your bread to the oven of the baker, though he should eat the half of it.”

Bakers in ancient Egypt had to render to the overseer of granaries strict accounts of the materials they had in stock. The Greek historian Herodotus of the fifth century B.C.E. spent some time in Egypt and provides a detailed account of Egyptian baking processes. He says the Egyptians kneaded bread with their feet, a procedure confirmed in a wall painting from the tomb of Ramses III.

The royal baker was evidently a man of some importance in ancient Egypt. The above-mentioned wall painting from Ramses III’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings at Thebes depicts an Egyptian royal bakery in full operation, showing such steps as the kneading of dough with the feet, the making of cakes of bread and the preparing of the oven. As reported in Genesis, one Egyptian royal baker gained particular notoriety because he sinned against the king and was cast into prison. There he had a dream in which he saw himself carrying three baskets of bread on his head, with fowls eating from the topmost basket. This “chief of the bakers” was taken out on the third day and “hung up,” thus fulfilling Joseph’s interpretation: “The three baskets are three days. In three days from now Pharaoh will lift up your head from off you and will certainly hang you upon a stake; and the fowls will certainly eat your flesh from off you.”—Gen. 40:1-3, 16-22.

BALAAM

(Ba’laam) [perhaps, devouring or devourer].

A son of Beor of the fifteenth century B.C.E., who lived in the Aramaean town of Pethor in the upper Euphrates valley and near the Sajur River. Though not an Israelite, Balaam had some knowledge and recognition of Jehovah as the true God, speaking of him on one occasion as “Jehovah my God.” (Num. 22:5, 18) This may have been because devout worshipers of Jehovah (Abraham, Lot and Jacob) formerly lived in the vicinity of Haran, not far from Pethor.—Gen. 12:4, 5; 24:10; 28:5; 31:18, 38.

Balaam turned down the offer of the first delegation from the Moabite king Balak, who brought with them “payments for divination,” saying: “Jehovah has refused to let me go with you.” (Num. 22:5-14) When “other princes in greater number and more honorable” came (Num. 22:15), and Balaam again sought God’s permission to go, Jehovah said: “Get up, go with them. But only the word that I shall speak to you is what you may speak.”—Num. 22:16-21; Mic. 6:5.

On the way Jehovah’s angel three times stood in the road, causing Balaam’s ass first to turn into a field, then to squeeze Balaam’s foot against a wall, and at last to lie down. Three times Balaam beat the animal, which then miraculously uttered a spoken protest. (Num. 22:22-30) Finally, Balaam himself saw Jehovah’s angel, who announced: “I have come out to offer resistance, because your way has been headlong against my will.” Yet Jehovah once again allowed Balaam to continue in his chosen course.—Num. 22:31-35.

From start to finish God unalterably disapproved any cursing of Israel, insisting that if Balaam went he would have to bless, not curse. (Josh. 24:9, 10) However, God permitted him to go. It was as in the case of Cain, when Jehovah expressed his disapproval, but at the same time allowed the individual personal choice, either to abondon his bad way or plunge ahead in his wicked course. (Gen. 4:6-8) Balaam, then, like Cain, was headstrong in disregarding Jehovah’s will in the matter, determined to gain his own selfish objective. In Balaam’s case it was greed of reward that blinded him to the wrong of his way, as Jude writes: ‘Balaam rushed into the erroneous course for reward.’ The apostle Peter comments: “Balaam, the son of Beor, . . . loved the reward of wrongdoing, but got a reproof for his own violation of what was right. A voiceless beast of burden, making utterance with the voice of a man, hindered the prophet’s mad course.”—Jude 11; 2 Pet. 2:15, 16.

Upon reaching Moabite territory and meeting King Balak on the bank of the Arnon, Balaam wasted no time in going to work for these opposers of Jehovah’s people the next day. Balaam then withdrew, hoping to “come upon any unlucky omens” (Num. 23:3; 24:1), but the only message received was a blessing for Israel from Jehovah. The same sacrificial procedure was again followed atop Pisgah, and again “no unlucky spell against Jacob,” only blessings. Finally, the performance was repeated atop Peor, and again for the third time “God changed the malediction into a benediction.”—Num. 22:41–24:9; Neh. 13:2.

At this turn of events, “Balak’s anger blazed against Balaam,” and, clapping his hands in a rage, he exclaimed: “It was to execrate my enemies that I called you, and, look! you have blessed them to the limit these three times. And now run your way off to your place. I had said to myself I was without fail going to honor you, but, look! Jehovah has held you back from honor.” (Num. 24:10, 11) Balaam tried to excuse himself, blaming Jehovah for his failure at cursing Israel, saying he was not “able to pass beyond the order of Jehovah,” and that ‘whatever Jehovah said is what he had to speak.’ So with a few more proverbial pronouncements against Israel’s enemies, “Balaam got up and went and returned to his place.”—Num. 24:12-25.

When it says that Balaam “returned to his place” it does not necessarily mean he actually reached his home back in Pethor. The words themselves do not imply that Balaam left more than the immediate vicinity of Mount Peor. As Cook’s Commentary observes on Numbers 24:25: “Returned to his own place. Not to his own land, for he remained amongst the Midianites to plot by new means against the people of God, and to perish in his sin . . . The phrase, which is of frequent recurrence (cf. e.g. Gen. xviii. 33, xxxi. 55; 1 S. xxvi. 25; 2 S. xix. 39), is idiomatic, meaning merely that Balaam went away whither he would.”

Balaam still entertained hope of having that rich reward for which he had come so far and for which