Three Venues

At Balak’s request, Balaam thrice attempted to curse Israel. It should be noted that each of the venues was chosen by Balak, not Balaam. [22:41; 23:13;ibid.27-28] Further, each time, Balak changed the venue. After the first attempt to curse Israel turned into a blessing, Balak took Balaam to S’dei Tzofim, from which it was possible “to see only a small section of (the Israelite camp).” [23:13] For Balak’s final attempt to have Israel cursed, he chose “the peak of Pe’or.” [23:28]

As Malbim comments, Balak chose the second and third venues with malice aforethought. Following Balaam’s initial failure to curse the nation of Israel, Balak took him to a spot from which Balaam could curse part of the nation. Malbim explains that Balak’s intention was “to separate them from the collective Israel, for when Israel is united, no curse will affect them.”

After failing to curse even part of Israel, Balak’s next choice of venue was intended to utilize Israel’s sins against God in order to curse them, thus he chose the place where the Israelites would sin with the daughters of Moav.

Rashi [23:14] comments that Balaam was not as expert a diviner as Balak, who saw that Israel would be vulnerable at the peak of Pe’or.

Indeed, Balak understood better than Balaam that the two factors which protect Israel are the nation’s unity and its observance of Torah, thus he attempted to “attack” Israel at each of its points of vulnerability.