The name Am KeLavi derives from Numbers 23:24, where the prophet Balaam declares: "הן עם כלביא יקום ומצא כליש ישתה" ("Behold, a people rises like a lion, and lifts itself up like a young lion"). ...For many PaleoJudaica posts on the Balaam inscription from Tel Deir 'Alla (Deir Alla), see here and links.The operation's name illustrates Hebrew's unique capacity to collapse temporal boundaries. Languages typically evolve through gradual change, with ancient vocabulary becoming archaic and eventually unintelligible. Hebrew's peculiar history – its suspension as a spoken language for nearly 17 centuries followed by systematic revival – created different possibilities. Contemporary Hebrew speakers can employ biblical vocabulary with the same immediacy their ancestors used, creating what linguists call "synchronic archaism" – the use of genuinely ancient language in thoroughly modern contexts.
Balaam's biblical oracles have been influential. For use in the Dead Sea Scrolls, see here. For Balaam's influence generally in antiquity, see here. And the star that the magi followed to Bethlehem in the Gospel of Matthew arguably arose (so to speak) from a midrashic intepretation of Balaam's oracle in Numbers 24:17, "A star shall come forth (or *"rise") out of Jacob." See here and links, plus here, and here.
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