Numbers 22:6

He adds moreover: "for I know," he says, "that those whom you have blessed will be blessed, and those whom you have cursed will be cursed." I do not believe that the king knew that whomever Balaam had blessed would be blessed; but it seems to me that he says these things for the sake of flattery, so that, exalting and extolling his art, he may render him more ready for the crime. For the magical art does not know how to bless, because neither do demons know how to do good. Isaac and Jacob know how to bless, and all the saints; none of the impious knows how to bless. But at length the envoys come to Balaam. For "there came," he says, "the elders of Moab and the elders of Midian, and the divinations in their hands." Among those arts of divination which human curiosity has devised, there are certain things which Scripture indeed has named "divinations," but which Gentile custom calls either tripods or cauldrons or by other terms of this kind; which, as if consecrated to this very purpose, are wont to be moved and handled by these people. Divine Scripture indeed names a certain ephod in the vernacular tongue in the prophets, which they hand down to be the garment of those who prophesy. Yet in the divine Scriptures one thing is held to be prophecy, another divination; for it says: "there shall be no augury in Jacob, nor divination in Israel. In due time it shall be told to Jacob and Israel what God is about to do." Divination, then, is utterly renounced; for it is fulfilled by the work and ministry of demons, as we have already said above. Balaam, therefore, having received the divinations, when the demons were wont to come to him, sees indeed that the demons are put to flight, but that God is present; and therefore he says that he is consulting God, because he nowhere sees the demons accustomed to obey him. God himself, then, comes to Balaam, not because he was worthy that God should come to him, but so that those might be put to flight who were accustomed to be present to him for cursing and doing harm; for from this point God was already providing for his people. He is present, then, and God says to him: "why have these men come to you?" And Balaam said to God: "Balak, son of Zippor, king of Moab, sent them to me, saying: behold, a people has gone out from Egypt, and has covered the face of the earth, and this one sits beside me; come now, therefore, and…

We meanwhile say that by a certain dispensation and wisdom of God all things in this world are so arranged that absolutely nothing is idle with God, whether it be evil, whether it be good. But let us explain more plainly what is said. God did not make wickedness; yet, though he could prohibit it when it has been invented by others, he does not prohibit it, but uses it, together with those very ones by whom it is held, for necessary purposes. For through those very persons in whom wickedness is, he makes those illustrious and approved who strive toward the glory of the virtues. For if wickedness were destroyed, there would surely be no one to oppose the virtues. But virtue, having nothing contrary to it, would not shine forth, nor become more splendid and more tested. And a virtue not proved nor tested is not even a virtue. But if these things be said without the testimonies of the divine words, they will seem contrived rather and composed by human art than true and beyond doubt. Let us therefore inquire whether the divine volumes also contain a meaning of this kind. Let us come to Joseph. Take away the wickedness of his brothers, take away envy, take away all that parricidal scheme by which they raged against their brother, to the point of selling him: if you take these away, see how great a dispensation of God you will at the same time have destroyed; for you will at the same time cut off all those things that were done in Egypt through Joseph for the salvation of all. There would have been no interpretation of Pharaoh's dream, if through the envy of his brothers Joseph had not been sold away and come into Egypt; no one would have understood what God had revealed to the king, no one would have gathered grain in Egypt, no one would have provided for the necessity of the famine by wise foresight; Egypt would have perished, the neighboring regions too would have perished by famine, Israel itself and its seed would have perished, and seeking bread it would not have entered Egypt, nor would the sons of Israel have gone out from it with the wonders of the Lord; nowhere would there have been the plagues upon the Egyptians nor those mighty works which God did through Moses and Aaron; no one would have walked through the Red Sea with dry footsteps; mortal life would not have known the food of manna; no streams of waters would have burst forth from the following…