You are strongly recommended to add to your library the excellent revised edition of Harper's Bible Dictionary titled, The Harper Collins Bible Dictionary, Revised Edition [book review], edited by Paul J. Achtemeier, with the Society of Biblical Literature (NY: Harper Collins, 1996). It is currently the best one-volume Bible dictionary in English, and it is available at Border's Books, Christian Science Reading Rooms, http://www.borders.com, or http://www.christianbook.com.

Balak, the king of Moab and principal antagonist in the Balaam story (Num. 22-24). His pathetic plea for a curse against Israel casts him as a tragic figure, yet places him in comic contrast to the prophet who blesses Israel.