The two servants

"And Bilaam rose in the morning, and saddled his donkey, and went... and his two servants with him" (Bemidbar 22:21-22)

Bilaam made a point of traveling with two servants, just as earlier Avraham had traveled with two servants to the Akedah. Why did they each do this?

In general, night is a time of dangers, and it was advisable for a traveling party to station a guard at all times so as not to be defenseless while sleeping. (Yaakov, who fled his parents' house alone and had to sleep without a guard, was moved to specially pray for protection on his journey.) It seems that in biblical times, the night watch commonly was divided into several shifts in a standard arrangement. Gideon launched his attack "at the beginning of the middle watch" (Shoftim 7:19), while the Egyptian chariots in the split sea were immobilized "in the morning watch" (Shemot 14:24). These sources imply that the night consisted of three watches. I suggest that this corresponds to the three individuals in Bilaam's and Avraham's parties (excluding Yitzchak, who may have been a child unsuitable for guarding, and also was not expected to return). Over the course of a twelve-hour night, each individual would guard for one four-hour shift and sleep for the remaining eight hours. To allow for this, those who could would travel in groups of three.

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A different approach is to note the parallel between Avraham and Bilaam specifically, and indeed there are other literary parallels one could make between the two stories, for example the trip from Aram to Israel, for example the phrase "those who bless you will be blessed". But that is the subject of a different post..