John Calvin Commentary Numbers 22:28

"And Jehovah opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto Balaam, What have I done unto thee, that thou hast smitten me these three times?" — Numbers 22:28 (ASV)

And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass. Skeptical people criticize this passage and ridicule it, as if Moses were relating an incredible fable. Indeed, their scoffing might seem plausible when they object that there is a great difference between the bray of an ass and an articulate voice. However much they may now indulge in such reckless observations, they will eventually be made to feel how seriously and reverently we should speak of the marvelous works of God, about which they joke and trifle to appear witty.

Since their chatter is unworthy of a lengthy refutation, let us be satisfied with the contempt into which it is cast by a single expression of Moses, when he says that God opened the mouth of the ass. For from where would humans possess the faculty of speech, unless God had opened their mouths at the first creation of the world? From where does it come that magpies and parrots imitate the human voice, unless it was the will of God to manifest in them a sample of a certain extraordinary power? Who, then, is there who will now impose a law upon the Maker of the world to prevent Him from adapting the mouth of an animal to the utterance of words? This is unless, perhaps, they would suppose Him to be irrevocably bound—because He has once appointed a certain order in nature—to abstain from displaying His power by miracles.

If the ass had been changed into a human, we would have been bound to reverence this proof of God’s incomprehensible power.¹⁴⁹ Now, when we are told that merely a few words were drawn from it without intelligence or judgment, as if some kind of sound were diffused through the air, should the miracle be regarded as a fable? Moreover, if unclean spirits utter words in spectral illusions, why should God be unable to endow mute tongues with the faculty of speech?

Let us, then, learn to reverence with fitting humility the judgment God executed on the false prophet. He might have chastised him directly with the words of the Angel. However, because the reproof would not have been sufficiently severe if unaccompanied by gross shame, He ordained that an animal should instruct him. The Angel's voice was indeed added afterwards; but since he had been so unteachable, he is treated according to what he deserves, when, after having made some progress in the school of the ass, he begins to listen to God.

Furthermore, the ass convicts him of being dull and deluded in mind in this respect: that he was not aroused by this unusual circumstance. For she says that she had never before been stubborn. If, therefore, there had been any spark of understanding in the wretched man, he should have reflected on the meaning of this novel event and sudden change. Thus he was awakened from his lethargy, so that he might listen more attentively to what the Angel afterwards spoke.

¹⁴⁹ Addition in Fr., “Plutost que d’en faire nos farceries;” rather than to make our mock at it.., “Plutost que d’en faire nos farceries;” rather than to make our mock at it.