Balaam, however, did not get away with his wickedness; in fact, he was rebuked for his own transgression.

Rebuked may also be rendered as “scolded.” Instead of the passive form was rebuked, some languages will employ an expression using the equivalent of the English word “suffer” and say “But he suffered scolding for his sins”; but in other languages it will be necessary to use the active and say “But God scolded him for his sins” or “But God scolded him for the evil he had done.” Transgression translates a word that means “lawlessness,” “evil act” (Good News Translation “sin”), and refers to a particular action, perhaps Balaam’s readiness to accept a bribe, or even his readiness to curse Israel.

The reference to the dumb ass speaking to Balaam is found in Num 22.21-35. The word for ass (Good News Translation “donkey”) is a term that is literally “under the yoke”; that is, it means a beast of burden, or an animal that is used to carry things—a fitting description for a donkey. Dumb here means “unable to speak,” not “unable to think.” This dumb donkey, however, spoke with human voice, that is, it used human language to communicate with Balaam. The account in Numbers mentions an angel who spoke after the donkey spoke, but Peter is apparently not intending to be thorough at this point. It is not the details that he is interested in but the result of such an unusual event: it restrained the prophet’s madness. Balaam is here called a prophet, that is, he was a person who spoke for God and who proclaimed the message that God revealed to him. (For further discussion of prophet see 2.1.) Here prophet stands in sharp contrast to dumb ass. See comments on 2 Peter 2.1 for ways to translate “prophet.” Restrained translates a verb that means “hinder,” “prevent,” “forbid,” “stop.” Madness on the other hand means “insanity” (as in Good News Translation), “senselessness.” Balaam is therefore described as someone who was not in his right mind in agreeing to curse Israel for the sake of material gain. However, his stupidity was stopped by the human voice of a dumb ass. The whole expression is translated by Knox as “to bring a prophet to his senses.” The final clause restrained the prophet’s madness may also be rendered “stopped the prophet from doing an insane thing” or “stopped the prophet from acting irrationally.”

There is humor here as well as irony. In verse 12 the false teachers were compared to “irrational animals.” Here they are compared to a stupid and insane prophet, who is rebuked by a dumb donkey.

An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• But God scolded him for the evil that he had done. His donkey spoke using human language and stopped the prophet from acting irrationally.

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Second Letter from Peter. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .