[Bil'am raised his voice and proclaimed,] "Hashem did not behold any iniquity in Yaakov nor see any wrongdoing in Israel. Their God Hashem is with them, and the shofar-blast of the king is among them."

(Bamidbar 23:21, translated according to Ibn Ezra; see Rashi for alternate interpretation)

Hashem your God refused to listen to Bil'am's curse. Instead, He reversed the curse into a blessing, because He loved you.

(Devarim 23:6)

Bil'am wanted to say, "Kallem" [= "eradicate them"] . However, Hashem reversed this into the word "Melech" [= "king"], as it says "The shofar-blast of the king is among them."

(Tosafot to Avodah Zarah 4b s.v. Regga)

To which king was Bil'am referring? What is the meaning of this blessing, and how was it fulfilled? Perhaps the simplest explanation can be offered by referring to a Mishnah in Shabbat (111a), "Rebbi Shimon says: All of the Children of Israel are considered to be like the sons of kings." (Rebbi Shimon's statement has halachic ramifications, see Mishnah Shabbat ibid.) What Bil'am meant, then, is that *every Jew* is to be considered of royal lineage, and is therefore expected to conduct himself with the self-respect of a "king."

According to this explanation, however, it would have been more fitting for Bil'am to have spoken of "the shofar-blast of *kings*" (plural). Furthermore, according to this interpretation, it was not actually a blessing (as Tosafot calls it) that Bil'am was uttering, but rather the statement of a pre-existing fact -- a flattering fact perhaps, but only a fact.

Let us therefore examine a different line of approach to the meaning of this blessing, through which we shall also gain further insight into what is meant by the "reversal" of Bil'am's curse into the word "king."

A person should always engage himself in the study and fulfillment of the words of the Torah, even if his motives are insincere (e.g. for the sake of personal grandeur, etc. - Tosafot.). If someone practices these acts, even though it is with ulterior motives, he will eventually practice them through a sincere motivation.

The value of even the insincere service of Hashem is demonstrated by the fact that as a result of the 42 sacrifices Balak offered to Hashem, he merited to have Ruth among his descendants. [Rashi: the import of this statement is that *King David*, Ruth's great-grandson, descended from Balak.] As Rebbi Yosef ben Chanina said: Ruth (the Moabite proselyte) was a descendant of Eglon (the Moabite king of Shoftim, Chap. 3), who was a descendant of Balak (the Moabite king who hired Bil'am to curse the Jews).

(Gemara Horayot, 10b)

Rashi, in his comments to Sotah 47a (s.v. Zacha) offers a very simple explanation. David planned (and his son Solomon executed) the building of the Beit HaMikdash in Jerusalem -- the place where Hashem chose to have sacrifices brought before Him. Thus the sacrifices of Balak led to the institution of a place of worship where sacrifices would be offered on a regular basis.

We may add yet another dimension to this analysis. We read in the book of Shmuel (I 13:1) that King Shaul, who ruled over Israel for two years before David took over, sinned against Hashem in the first year of his reign (following Rashi's interpretation of that verse). According to Seder Olam (Chap. 13), it was at that point that the prophet Shmuel went to anoint David as king of Israel (see I Shmuel, Chap. 16). According to this, David was anointed as king for two years before he "officially" ascended to the throne at Hevron. If we add these two years to the total length of King David's reign, we will see that David was anointed as king of Israel for a total of exactly 42 years! We can now discern a close parallel between Balak's acts (his sacrifice of 42 animals) and his reward (having his descendant anointed as king over Israel for 42 years).

(According to this, David was 28 years old when Shmuel anointed him, for he was 70 years old when he died and 70-42=28. Seder Olam itself, however, says in the above-quoted chapter that he was 29 when he was anointed as king! Either this number is a copyist's error [and it should really read 28], or else Rashi [in his explanation of I Shmuel 13:1, where he says that Shaul's sin was in the first year of his reign] disagrees with this statement of Seder Olam.)

In fact, however, the exact opposite was effected. Instead of causing the downfall of Balak's enemy, in the long run these sacrifices led Balak's descendant David to conquer all of *his* adversaries. (See the beginning of II Shmuel for a description of King David's successful military campaigns.) In fact, David secured a major victory over the nation of Moav, Balak's own people (II Shmuel 8:2)!

This, then, gives us a fuller appreciation of the "reversal" of Bil'am's curse into a blessing. The very sacrifices which Bil'am had advised Balak to bring in the hope that they would lead to Moav's victory over Israel (represented by the word "Kallem"), achieved the exact opposite result. They led to Israel's defeat of their own enemies -- Moav among them -- led by triumphant King (="Melech") David.

We can now understand the deeper meaning of the blessing "the shofar-blast of the *king* is among them." The "king" that Bil'am blessed Israel with was King David, who embodied the concept of kingship over Israel. (Only King David's descendants were fit to be kings of Israel, see II Melachim 8:19; Yirmiyahu 33:17; Yechezkel 37:25). Even the future Messiah who will eventually rule over Israel will be a descendant of King David's -- may he come speedily, in our lifetimes!!