Who are these men with you

God came to Balaam, and said, "Who are these men with you?" (Numbers 22:9, WEB)

God came to Balaam and asked, “Who are these men with you?” (Numbers 22:9, NIV)

 say, said, said
Mary said goodbye to John.
Mary left without saying goodbye.
I've said I'm sorry - what more do you want?
He looked as if he was going to say something.
How do you say your last name?

Notice that God said to, not asked, Balaam in WEB's translation. Please see the original Hebrew word (Strong's Hebrew 559). God already knew who they were that were staying at Balaam's home.  When God says to a person a question, it seemingly always occurs in the situation, in which this person already did something sinful. For example when Adam and his wife had sinned and tried to hide from God,

Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?"  (Genesis 3:9, WEB)

Balaam had not done something against God's will yet. I guessed he intended to. Maybe he was thinking that God might allow him to accept the king's assignment and payment. According to Jesus intending to do a bad thing is the same as actually doing it. NIV used 'asked' in the translation of Numbers 22:9. Though it is more natural to English speakers, some important teaching is lost in this translation.

Later Balaam did do the king's assignment in a way according to God's will.

Self-centered desire is the seed for catastrophic butterfly effects.

 However after that he still found a way to bypass God's will and assisted the king to plot a bad thing against the king's enemy. That sowed the seed for the king's enemy to take revenge on Balaam and kill him in a war. Balaam is remembered as a wicked false prophet in New Testament.