Divination

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DIVINATION.—See Magic, Divination, and Sorcery.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909


Eze_13:7. Used in Scripture of false systems of ascertaining the divine will, such as are allied to idolatry: as necromancy, which evoked the dead (1Sa_28:8); prognostication by arrows (Eze_21:21). The arrows marked with names of places to be attacked were shaken (for "He made His arrows bright," translated, "He shook") together in a quiver; whichever came out first intimated the place selected; or else threw them in the air to see in alighting which way they inclined, toward Jerusalem or Ammon. Inspecting entrails. The healthy or unhealthy state of the sacrificial entrails intimated success or failure. In the Nineveh sculptures the king is represented with a cup in his right hand, his left hand resting on a bow, also two arrows in the right hand, possibly for divination. The "magicians" of Egypt in Gen_41:8, (chartumim, from cheret "a style" or pen,) were sacred "scribes" of the hieroglyphics, devoted to astrology, magic, etc.; else from Egyptian chertom, "wonder workers," or cher-tum, "bearers of sacred spells."
Daniel was made "master of the magicians" (Dan_5:11); chokmim, wise men, our wizards (Exo_7:11);" sorcerers" (mekaskphim), "mutterers of magic formulae" (Isa_47:9-12). Jannes or Anna in Egyptian means "scribe," a frequent name in papyri of the time of Rameses II. Jambres, the other name of an Egyptian magician preserved by Paul (2Ti_3:8), means "scribe of the south." The earliest prohibition of witchcraft is Exo_22:18, "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." Witchcraft was an appeal to a power alien from God. So it was accounted rebellion against Jehovah. Saul's disobedience and rebellion against God's will led him, though zealous to extirpate witches so long as God's law did not interfere with his impatient self-will, at last to consult the witch of Endor; Samuel's words as to his disobedience in the case of Amalek proving prophetic, "rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry" (1Sa_15:23; compare 1Sa_28:3-20).
"So Saul died for his transgression (Hebrew shuffling evasion of obedience) ... and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to inquire of it" (1Ch_10:13). "Wizards," yid'oniym, from yaada "to know" (Lev_19:31). Consulters of "the dead," 'oboth (Lev_20:6), "those having familiar spirits" which they consulted to evoke the dead; literally, "bottles" (leather) inflated by the spirit; compare Job_32:19, "my belly is as wine which hath no vent ... ready to burst like new bottles." The pythonesses (margin of Act_16:16) spoke with a deep voice as from the belly; by ventriloquism (Septuagint so translated "them that have familiar spirits," ventriloquists) they made a low voice sound ("peep and mutter") as from the grave or departed person's spirit (Isa_19:3; Isa_29:4).
Scripture has written for all ages (Isa_8:19-20):"when they shall say, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits; and unto wizards that peep and that mutter, should not a people seek unto their God? (should they seek) for the (good of) the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony ... if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." This tests and condemns modern spiritualism, the sign of "the latter times and the last days" (1Ti_4:1), "seducing spirits and doctrines suggested by demons" (2Ti_3:1-8). The phenomena seem supernatural and Satanic, and the communications often lying, as was to be expected from "the father of lying" (Joh_8:44). The Angekoks, Esquimaux sorcerers, when converted, have declared that their sorceries, when they were heathen, were not mere impostures, that they were acted on by a power they could not control; but when they believed in Jesus they had neither the will nor the power to do what they used in their pagan state.
Brainerd states the same as to the Indian diviners, namely, that all their former powers of divination departed the moment the word of God entered their souls. Satan's design in spiritualism is, judging from the alleged spirit communications, to supersede Scripture with another authority (namely, spirit communications) in matters of faith. Satan and his demons are the real speakers in these pretended communications from the spirits of the dead. The "associate spirit" of spiritualism answers to the Scripture "familiar spirit" of the wizards. The pythoness and the witch of Endor were each a "medium" between the consulters and the powers of darkness. The consulters are put en rapport with the latter, not really with the departed dead. Scripture (Ecc_9:5-6, "the dead know not anything ... neither have they any more a portion forever in anything done under the sun"; 2Ki_2:9; Luk_16:19-31) implies that it is not the spirits of the dead that make the alleged communications, though these communications assert that it is; this assertion is from a lying spirit, such as was in Ahab's prophets (1Ki_22:22).
The dead do not return, they are personated by evil spirits. Spiritualism is virtually condemned in Deu_18:10; 2Ki_17:17; 2Ki_21:6. "Sorcerers" are especially mentioned as about to abound with "lying wonders," and to be adjudged to damnation, at the Lord's coming again (2Th_2:9-11; Mal_3:5; Rev_21:8; Rev_22:15). The three frog-like demons out of the mouths of the anti-trinity, the dragon, the beast, and the false prophet, shall "work miracles" to tempt the ten kings under Antichrist to the last battle for the kingship of the world, against Christ, in "the great day of God Almighty" (Rev_16:13-14; compare Zec_13:2; Mat_24:24; Rev_13:14-15). Paul was "grieved," so far was he from seeking and welcoming like spiritualists the pythoness' testimony to him (Act_16:17-18); for the Spirit of Christ and the spirit of divination cannot dwell together in the same soul.
God condemns those who "remain among the graves and lodge in the monuments" (Isa_65:4) for necromancy, to consult the dead. The warning in Isa_8:19-20; Mar_5:3, applies to all times. The witch of Endor was "mistress of a spirit by which the dead are conjured up" (1Sa_28:7, ba'alath 'owb). Saul's request, "bring me him up whom I shall name," explains the previous "divine (qacomi) unto me by the familiar spirit." The witch's recognizing Saul as soon as Samuel appeared proves that her art was not mere jugglery: "Why hast thou deceived me? for thou art Saul"; she was in a state of clairvoyance. On the other hand, her "crying with a loud voice," startled at the sight of Samuel, shows that his appearance differed essentially from anything she had ever by demon art effected before. She tells Saul, "I saw gods (a supernatural being) ascending out of the earth ... an old man covered with a (prophet's) mantle" (me'il).
Saul apparently did not see Samuel's person, but recognized the "mantle." Saul's inconsistency is convicted by Samuel: "wherefore then dost thou ask of me, seeing the Lord is departed from thee, and is become thine enemy?" If God was departed from him he should have been the more afraid to increase Jehovah's displeasure by breaking the laws in consulting the dead, as if they were less under God's control than the living. Abject superstition never reasons. Samuel's prophecy of his and his sons' death on the morrow, and Israel's defeat by the Philistines, proves Samuel's appearance to have been of God, and not by demoniac agency nor an illusion (Sir_46:20). God for special reasons awakened His servant out of his repose ("why hast thou disquieted me," etc.) to appear, not at a conjuring call which He forbids, but to show the witch and the king the terrible penalty of disobedience and witchcraft, as he (Samuel) had long ago declared in more general terms when alive (1Sa_15:23; 1Sa_28:17-19).
Jehovah's principle is (Eze_14:4; Eze_14:7-8), "every man that setteth up his idols in his heart and putteth the stumbling-block of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him that cometh, according to the multitude of his idols, that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart ... I will answer him by Myself" (by My own special interposition), answering the fool according to his folly, making the sinner's sin his own punishment. In Egypt books containing magic formulae belonged exclusively to the king, the priests and wise men, who formed a college, being called in by Pharaoh when needful. The qecem divined the future by any mode of taking omens, from a root "to cut." But the kashaph, mekashphim, "sorcerers" above, used fascinations and magic charms (Exo_7:11; Exo_22:18; Dan_2:2; Deu_18:10). The me'oneen (2Ki_21:6),"an observer of times," from 'aanan "to cover," using covert arts; or else from 'on, "time," "fixed time"; those who define the exact auspicious time to travel, to traffic, etc.; or else "astrologers," who judge by the stars auspicious and inauspicious days.
The Septuagint explain it of "observers of words," so as to decide by them whether success will attend an undertaking or not (Gen_24:14; 1Sa_14:9-10; 1Ki_20:33). Others take it from ''Ayin, "the eye," "one fascinating with the eyes" (Mat_20:15). "Monthly prognosticators" (mod'im), who every new moon professed by observations of it to foretell the future (Isa_47:13). Menachashim, "charmers of serpents," from naachaash, "serpent," "to augur." Hobreb shamaim, "dividers of the heavens," watching conjunctions and oppositions of the stars; in casting a nativity they observed the sign which arose at the time of one's birth, the mid heaven, the sign in the west opposite the horoscope, and the hypogee.
Divination by rods is alluded to in Hos_4:12, "their staff declareth unto them"; a rod stripped of bark on one side, not on the other, was thrown up; if the bore side alighted uppermost it was a good omen, otherwise a bad omen. The Arabs mark one rod God bids, the other God forbids; whichever came out first from the case decided the issue. Consultation of idols' oracles is referred to in 2Ki_1:2-6. The only true "oracle" (debir) was the holy of holies (
1Ki_6:16; Psa_28:2); previously, consultation of the Lord through the priest with the ephod (2Sa_2:1; 2Sa_5:23). Our "oracles" are the Holy Scriptures (Act_7:38; Rom_3:2). Of dealings in magic in the New Testament instances occur: Simon Magus (Act_8:9-11); Elymas Bar Jesus (Act_13:6; Act_13:8); the pythoness (Act_16:16's margin); the vagabond Jews, exorcists (Act_19:13; Act_19:19), the Ephesian books treating of "curious arts"; Gal_5:20, "witchcraft"; Rev_9:21, "sorceries."
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.


Divination. Divination is a "foretelling future events, or discovering things secret by the aid of superior beings, or other than human means". It is used, in Scripture, of false systems of ascertaining the divine will. It has been universal in all ages, and all nations alike, both civilized and savage.
Numerous forms of divination are mentioned, such as
divination by rods, Hos_4:12,
divination by arrows, Eze_21:21,
divination by cups, Gen_44:5,
consultation of teraphim, 1Sa_15:23; Eze_21:21; Zec_10:2, see Teraphim.;
divination by the liver, Eze_21:21,
divination by dreams, Deu_13:2-3; Jdg_7:13; Jer_23:32, and
consultation of oracles. Isa_41:21-24; Isa_44:7.
Moses forbade every species of divination, because, a prying into the future, clouds the mind with superstition, and because, it would have been an incentive to idolatry. But God supplied his people with substitutes for divination which would have rended it superfluous, and left them in no doubt as to his will in circumstances of danger, had they continued faithful.
It was only when they were unfaithful that the revelation was withdrawn. 1Sa_28:6; 2Sa_2:1; 2Sa_5:23, etc. Superstition, not unfrequently, goes hand in hand with skepticism, and hence, amid the general infidelity prevalent throughout the Roman empire at our Lord's coming, imposture was rampant.
Hence, the lucrative trade of such men as Simon Magus, Act_8:9,
Bar-jesus, Act_13:6,
the slave with the spirit of Python, Act_16:16,
the vagabond Jews,
exorcists, Luk_11:19; Act_19:13 and
others, 2Ti_3:13; Rev_19:20, etc.,
as well as the notorious dealers in magical books at Ephesus. Act_19:19.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863


a conjecture or surmise, formed concerning future events, from things which are supposed to presage them. The eastern people were always fond of divination, magic, the curious arts of interpreting dreams, and of obtaining a knowledge of future events. When Moses published the law, this disposition had long been common in Egypt and the neighbouring countries. To prevent the Israelites from consulting diviners, fortune tellers, interpreters of dreams, &c, he forbade them, under very severe penalties, to consult persons of this description, and promised to them the true spirit of prophecy as infinitely superior. He commanded those to be stoned who pretended to have a familiar spirit, or the spirit of divination, Deu_18:9-10; Deu_18:15. The writings of the prophets are full of invectives against the Israelites who consulted diviners, and against false prophets who by such means seduced the people.
2. Different kinds of divination have passed for sciences, as
1. Aeromancy, divining by the air.
2. Astrology, by the heavens.
3. Augury, by the flight and singing of birds, &c.
4. Cheiromancy, by inspecting the lines of the hand.
5. Geomancy, by observing cracks or clefts in the earth.
6. Haruspicy, by inspecting the bowels of animals.
7. Horoscopy, a branch of astrology, marking the position of the heavens when a person is born.
8. Hydromancy, by water.
9. Physiognomy, by the countenance.
10. Pyromancy, a divination made by fire.
3. The kinds of divination, to which superstition in modern times has given belief, are not less numerous, or less ridiculous, than those which were practised in the days of profound ignorance. The divining rod, which is mentioned in Scripture, is still in some repute in the north of England, though its application is now confined principally to the discovery of veins of lead ore, seams of coal, or springs. In order that it may possess the full virtue for this purpose, it should be made of hazel. Divination by Virgilian, Horatian, or Bible lots, was formerly very common; and the last kind is still practised. The works are opened by chance, and the words noticed which are covered by the thumb: if they can be interpreted in any respect relating to the person, they are reckoned prophetic. Charles I. is said to have used this kind of divination to ascertain his fate. The ancient Christians were so much addicted to the sortes sanctorum, or divining by the Bible, that it was expressly forbidden by a council. Divination by the speal, or blade bone of a sheep, is used in Scotland. In the Highlands it is called sleina-reached, or reading the speal bone. It was very common in England in the time of Drayton, particularly among the colony of Flemings settled in Pembroke- shire. Camden relates of the Irish, that they looked through the bare blade bone of a sheep; and if they saw any spot in it darker than ordinary, they believed that somebody would be buried out of the house. The Persians used this mode of divination.
4. Of all attempts to look into futurity by such means, as well as resorting to charms and other methods of curing diseases, and discovering secrets, we may say, that they are relics of Paganism, and argue an ignorance, folly, or superstition, dishonourable to the Christian name; and are therefore to be reproved and discouraged.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.


Divination is a general term descriptive of the various illusory arts anciently practiced for the discovery of things secret or future. The human mind has always shown a strong curiosity to ascertain the course of fortune, and the issue of present or contemplated schemes; and in those countries and ages where ignorance of physical laws has combined with superstition to debase it, it has sought to gratify this innate disposition to pry into futurity, by looking for presages in things between which and the object of its anxiety no connection existed but in the diviner's imagination. Scarcely a single department of nature but was appealed to, as furnishing, on certain conditions, good or bad omens of human destiny; and the aspect of things, which, perhaps by the most casual coincidence, marked some event or crisis in the life of one or two individuals, came to be regarded, by blind credulity, as the fixed and invariable precursor of a similar result in the affairs of mankind in general. By such childish and irrational notions was the conduct of the heathen guided in the most important, no less than in the most ordinary occurrences of life; and hence arose the profession of augurs, soothsayers, et hoc genus omne of impostors, who, engrafting vulgar traditions on a small stock of natural knowledge, established their claims to the possession of an occult science, the importance and influence of which they dexterously increased by associating it with all that was pompous and imposing in the ceremonies of their religion.
This science, if that can be called science which was the product of ignorance and fraud united, was divided into various branches, each of which had its separate professors. In a general view, divination may be considered as either natural or artificial: the first being founded on the notion that the soul possesses, from its spiritual nature, some prescience of futurity, which it exemplifies particularly in dreams, and at the approach of death: the second, resting on a peculiar interpretation of the course of nature, as well as on such arbitrary observations and experiments as superstition introduced. The different systems and methods that were anciently in vogue are almost incredible: as, for instance, A?romancy, divining by the air; Arithmomancy, by means of numbers; Capnomancy, by the smoke of sacrifices; Chiromancy, by the lines on the palms of the hands; Hydromancy, by water; Pyromancy, by fire, etc. but without attempting an enumeration and explanation of all the arts of divination that were anciently practiced, let us confine ourselves to the mention of those which occur in sacred history.
1. Wise men (Exo_7:11; Isa_44:25; Jer_50:35; Dan_2:12, etc.), a term applied generally to magicians, or men who were skilled in natural science.
2. 'Wizards' or wise men, and 'a witch,' from an Arabic verb signifying 'to reveal,' both practicing divination by the same arts, i.e. pretending to reveal secrets, to discover things lost, find hidden treasure, and interpret dreams.
3. One who foretold what was to happen by the flight of birds, or the use of lots.
4. One who, though rendered by our translators 'an observer of times,' foretold political or physical changes by the motion of the clouds, along with whom Isaiah conjoins those who made the same predictions from eclipses, and the conjunction of the stars (Isa_47:13).
5. 'An enchanter' was probably one who practiced Ophiomancy, or the art of charming serpents, which was, and still is, a favorite trick of jugglery in the East.
6. 'A charmer,' one who placed words and things in a certain arrangement, or muttered them, as a kind of spell.
7. 'A consulter with familiar spirits,' or 'a ventriloquist,' was a wizard who asked counsel of his familiar, and gave the responses received from him to others?the name being applied in reference to the spirit or demon that animated the person, and inflated the belly, so that it protuberated like the side of a bottle (see Lev_20:27; 1Sa_28:8; also Act_16:16).
8. 'A necromancer,' one who, by frequenting tombs, by inspecting corpses, etc. like the witch of Endor, pretended to evoke the dead, and bring secrets from the invisible world (Gen_41:8; Exo_7:11; Lev_19:26; Deu_18:10-12).
9. Belomancy, as it is called, a form of divination by means of arrows (Eze_21:21; see also 2Ki_13:14-19), a notable example of which occurs in the history of Nebuchadnezzar, who, being undecided whether to march first against Jerusalem or Rabbah, allowed neither his policy nor resentment to decide the course of his expedition, but was determined wholly by the result of superstitious rites. The way of divining by arrows was, having first made them bright 'in order the better to follow them with the eye,' to shoot them, and to prosecute the march according to the direction in which the greatest number of arrows fell; or, having 'mixed together' some arrows with the names of the devoted cities marked on them, to attack that first which was first drawn out; or to put in a bag three arrows, as is the practice of the Arabs, one of which is inscribed with the words 'Command me, Lord,' the second with 'Forbid me, Lord,' while the third is left blank; so that if the first is taken out, he was to go; if the second, he was to desist; if the third is drawn, no decision being given, the experiment is to be repeated.
10. Rhabdomancy, or divination by rods (Hos_4:12). This has been confounded with the preceding. But the instruments of divination which Hosea alludes to are entirely different from those described by Ezekiel, arrows being used by the latter, whereas the former speaks of 'staff.' The form of divination by the staff was, after placing it upright, to let it fall, and decide by the direction in which it fell, or, according to others, by measuring the staff with the finger, saying at each span, 'I will go' or 'I will not go' and determining the course, according as it happened to be the one or the other at the last measurement. Both of these, as Jerome informs us, were frequently practiced by the Assyrians and Babylonians. Herodotus (vi.) describes the Alani women as gathering and searching anxiously for very smooth and straight wands to be used in this superstitious manner.
11. Another way of divining was by 'images' (Eze_21:21), which are generally considered talismans, but which the Persian and other versions render astrological instruments or tables.
12. Another form of divination was, 'by looking into the liver' of a newly killed sacrifice, and by observing its state and color according to certain rules, to draw a favorable or unfavorable omen.
The last form which it is of consequence to notice as alluded to in Scripture was by 'the cup.' But in what manner it was practiced; whether it was by observing the appearance of some magical ingredients that were infused into the vessel; or whether allusion is made to a famous cup which the immemorial tradition of the East says has been in the possession of some great personages, and represents the whole world; or, finally, whether the original word rendered 'divineth,' should be rendered by 'searching' or 'inquiring earnestly,' as many learned writers, anxious to save the character of Joseph from the imputation of sorcery (Gen_44:5), have labored to prove, it is absolutely impossible, and we shall not attempt, to determine.
Egypt, the cradle of arts and sciences, if she did not give it birth, seem to have encouraged the practice of divination at an early age, and whether any of its forms had become objects of popular superstition, or were resorted to for the purposes of gain in the days of Joseph, it is well known that at the time of the Hebrew Exodus there were magicians in that country whose knowledge of the arcana of nature, and whose dexterity in the practice of their art, enabled them, to a certain extent, to equal the miracles of Moses. By what extraordinary powers they achieved those feats, how they changed their rods into serpents, the river water into blood, and introduced frogs in unprecedented numbers, is an inquiry that has occasioned great perplexity to many men of learning and piety. Some have imagined that the only way of accounting for the phenomena is to ascribe them to jugglery and legerdemain; the serpents, the frogs, and the other materials requisite having been secretly provided and dexterously produced at the moment their performances were to be exhibited. Others contend that these conjurors were aided by familiar spirits or infernal agents, with the Divine permission, in the performance of their wonderful feats. 'Earth, air, and ocean,' says a sensible writer, 'may contain many things of which our philosophy has never dreamed. If this consideration tend to humble the pride of learning, it may remind the Christian that secret things belong not to him, but to a higher power.'
It is reasonable to suppose that as Moses never had been in any other civilized country, all the allusions contained in his writings to the various forms of divination were those which were practiced in Egypt; and, indeed, so strong a taste had his countrymen imbibed there for this species of superstition, that throughout the whole course of their history it seems to have infected the national character and habits. The diviners, who abounded both among the aborigines of Canaan and their Philistine neighbors (Isa_2:6), proved a great snare to the Israelites after their settlement in the promised land; and yet, notwithstanding the stern prohibitions of the law, no vigorous efforts were made to put an end to the crime by extirpating the practitioners of the unhallowed art, until the days of Saul, who himself, however, violated the statute on the night previous to his disastrous fall (1 Samuel 28). But it was Chaldea to which the distinction belongs of being the mother country of diviners. Such a degree of power and influence had they attained in that country, that they formed the highest caste and enjoyed a place at court; nay, so indispensable were they in Chaldean society that no step could be taken, not a relation could be formed, a house built, a journey undertaken, a campaign begun, until the diviners had ascertained the lucky day and promised a happy issue. A great influx of these impostors had, at various times, poured from Chaldea and Arabia into the land of Israel to pursue their gainful occupation, more especially during the reign of the later kings (Isa_8:19), and we find Manasseh not only their liberal patron, but zealous to appear as one of their most expert accomplices (2Ki_21:6; 2Ch_33:6). The long captivities in Babylon spread more widely than ever among the Jews a devoted attachment to this superstition; for after their return to their own country, having entirely renounced idolatry, and, at the same time, no longer enjoying the gift of prophecy or access to the sacred oracles, they gradually abandoned themselves, as Lightfoot has satisfactorily shown, before the advent of Christ, to all the prevailing forms of divination (Comment. on Matt.).
Against every species and degree of this superstition the sternest denunciations of the Mosaic law were directed (Exo_22:18; Lev_19:26; Lev_19:31; Lev_20:27; Deu_18:10-11), as fostering a love for unlawful knowledge and withdrawing the mind from God only wise; while, at the same time, repeated and distinct promises were given that, in place of diviners and all who used enchantments, God would send them prophets, messengers of truth, who would declare the divine will, reveal futurity, and afford them all the useful knowledge which was vainly sought for from those pretended oracles of wisdom. Much discussion, however, has been carried on by learned men to determine the question whether the ancient tribe of diviners merely pretended to the powers they exercised, or were actually assisted by demoniacal agency. The latter opinion is embraced by almost all the fathers of the primitive church. On the other hand, it has been, with great ability and erudition, maintained that the whole arts of divination were a system of imposture, and that Scripture itself frequently ridicules those who practiced them as utterly helpless and incapable of accomplishing anything beyond the ordinary powers of nature (Isa_44:25; Isa_47:11-13; Jer_14:14; Jon_2:8).
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.


Divination
( קֶסֶםke'sem, a lot [see below], or some kindred term; Gr. μαντεία [but Πυθών, Pytho, in Act_16:16]; used in the verb form קָסִם, kasam', only of false prophets, etc., e.g. of the Hebrews, Deu_18:10; Deu_18:14; Mic_3:6-7; Mic_3:11; of necromancers, 1Sa_28:8; of foreign prophets, as of the Philistines, 1Sa_6:2, and Balaam, Jos_13:22; and specifically of the three kinds of divination common among the Shemitic nations, viz. arrows, entrails, and Teraphim, Eze_21:21) is a general term descriptive of the various illusory arts anciently practiced for the discovery of things secret or future. The curiosity of mankind has devised numberless methods of seeking to accomplish this result. By a perversion and exaggeration of the sublime faith which sees God everywhere, men have laid everything, with greater or less ingenuity, under contribution, as means of eliciting a divine answer to every question of their insatiable curiosity: e.g. the portents of the sky and sea (Plutarch, De Superstitione, passim); the mysteries of the grave (νεκρομαντεία and σκιομαντεία); the wonders of sleep and dreams (thought to be emanations from the gods, Homer, Il. 1:63; Hymn in Mercur. 14; Virgil, AEn. 5:838); the phenomena of victims sacrificed (deities were supposed to be specially interested or near at hand; comp. the ἱερομαντεία in Potter's Gr. Ant. 2:14); the motions and appearances of the animal creation (such as the flight of birds, a copious source of superstition in the — ρνιθοσκοπία of the Greeks and the auguriumn of the Latins, and the aspect of beasts); and the prodigies of inanimate nature (such as the ἐνόδια σύμβολα, omens of the way, upon which whole books are said to have been written; the κληδόνες, ominous voices); and the long list of magic arts, which may be found in Hoffmann's Lexicon, 2:97, and Potter on the Occult Sciences (in the Encycl. Metropol. part 5, which contains some thirty names ending in many, or compounds of μαντεία, all branches of the magic art). Nor have these expedients of superstition been confined to one age or to a single nation. The meteoric portents, for instance, which used to excite the surprise and fear of the old Greeks and Romans, are still employed among the barbarians of Africa (e.g. musana of the Manika tribe, Krapf's Trav. in E. Africa, page 115 sq.); and as the ancients read fearful signs in the faeces of animals (Virgil, Georg. 1:469), the savage Bakmains indicate the presence of the terrible alligator with their boleo ki bo, "there is sin" (Livingstone's Trav. in S. Africa, page 225). SEE SUPERSTITION.
This art "of taking an aim of divine matters by human, which cannot but breed mixture of imaginations" (Bacon, Ess. 17), accordingly has been universal in all ages and all nations, alike civilized and savage. It arises from an impression that, in the absence of direct, visible guiding Providence, the Deity suffers his will to be known to men, partly by inspiring those who from purity of character or elevation of spirit were susceptible of the divine afflatus (θεομάντεις, ἐνθουσιασταί, ἐκστατικοί), and partly by giving perpetual indications of the future. which must be learned by experience and observation (Cicero, Div. 1:18; Pliny, 30:5).
(a.) The first kind of divination was called natural (ἄτεχνος, ἀδίδακτος), in which the medium of inspiration was transported from his own individuality, and became the passive instrument of supernatural utterances (Virg. AEn. 6:47; Ovid, Met. 2:640, etc.). As this process involved violent convulsions, the word , μαντική, soothsaying, is derived from μαίνεσθαι, to rave, and alludes to the foaming mouth and streaming hair of the possessed seer (Plato, Tim. 72, B, where the μάντις is carefully distinguished from the προφήτης). But even in the most passionate and irresistible prophecies of Scripture we have none of these unnatural distortions (Num_23:5; Psa_39:3; Jer_20:9), although, as we shall see, they were characteristic of pretenders to the gift. SEE SOOTHSAYER.
(b.) The other kind of divination was artificial (τεχνική), and probably originated in an honest conviction that external nature sympathized with and frequently indicated the condition and prospects of mankind-a conviction not in itself ridiculous, and fostered by the accidental synchronism of natural phenomena with human catastrophes (Thucyd. 3:89; Josephus, War, 6:5, 3; Foxe's Martyrs, 3:406, etc.). When once this feeling was established the supposed manifestations were infinitely multiplied, and hence the numberless forms of imposture or ignorance called capnomancy, pyromancy, arithmomancy, libanomancy, botanomancy, cephalomancy, etc., of which there are abundant accounts in Cicero, De Div.; Cardan, De Sapientia; Anton. 5. Dale, De Orig. Idol.; Fabricius, Bibl. Antiq. pages 409-426; Carpzov, App. Crit. pages 540-549; Potter's Antiq. 1, chapter 8 sq. Indeed, there was scarcely any possible event or appearance which was not pressed into the service of augury; and it may be said of the ancient Greeks and Romans, as of the modern New Zealanders, that, "after uttering their karakias (or charms), the whistling of the wind, the moving of trees, the flash of lightning, the peal of thunder, the flight of a bird, even the buzz of an insect, would be regarded as an answer" (Taylor's New Zealand, page 74; Bowring's Siam, 1:153 sq.). A system commenced in fanaticism ended in deceit. Hence Cato's famous saying that it was strange how two augurs could meet without laughing in each other's face. But the supposed knowledge became in all nations an engine of political power, and hence interest was enlisted in its support (Cicero, De Legg. 2:12; Livy, 6:27; Sophocles, Antig. 1055; comp. Mic_3:11). It fell into the hands of a priestly caste (Gen_41:8; Isa_47:13; Jer_5:31; Dan_2:2), who in all nations made it subservient to their own purposes. Thus in Persia, Chardin says that the astrologers would make even the shall rise at midnight and travel in the worst weather in obedience to their suggestions. SEE ASTROLOGER.
The invention of divination is ascribed to Prometheus (AEschylus, Pr. Vinct. 492), to the Phrygians and Etrurians, especially sages (Cicero, De Div. 1; and Clem. Alex. Strom. 1:326, where there is a great deal more on the subject), or (as by the fathers generally) to the devil (Firmic. Maternus, De Errore, Prooem; Lactant. 2:16; Minuc. Felix. October 27). In the same way Zoroaster ascribes all magic to Ahriman (Nork, Bram. und Rab. page 97). Similar opinions have prevailed in modern times (Sir Thomas Browne, Vulgar Errors, 1:11). SEE MAGIC.
Egypt, the cradle of arts and sciences, if she did not give it birth, seems to have encouraged the practice of divination at an early age; and, whether any of its forms had become objects of popular superstition, or were resorted to for the purposes of gain in the days of Joseph, it is well known that at the time of the Hebrew Exodus there were magicians in that country whose knowledge of the arcana of nature, and whose dexterity in the practice of their art, enabled them, to a certain extent, to equal the miracles of Moses. By what extraordinary powers they achieved those feats, how they changed their rods into serpents, the river water into blood, and introduced frogs in unprecedented numbers, is an inquiry that has occasioned great perplexity to many men of learning and piety. SEE JANNES (AND JAMIBRES).
It is reasonable to suppose that as Moses never had been in any other civilized country, all the allusions contained in his writings to the various forms of divination were those which were practiced in Egypt; and: indeed, so strong a taste had his countrymen imbibed there for this species of superstition, that throughout the whole course of their history it seems to have infected the national character and habits. Nor was it confined to the vicinity of Palestine, for as early as the time of Balaam (q.v.) we find it practiced by professional characters to the very banks of the Euphrates (Num_22:5; Num_22:7; see Biedermann, De mercede divinitoria, Vitemb. 1717). The diviners, who abounded both amongst the aborigines of Canaan and their Philistine neighbors (Isa_2:6), proved a great snare to the Israelites after their settlement in the promised land; and yet, notwithstanding the stern prohibitions of the law, no vigorous efforts were made to put an end to the crime by extirpating the practitioners of the unhallowed art until the days of Saul, who himself, however, violated the statute on the night previous to his disastrous fall (1 Samuel 28). But it was Chaldmea to which the distinction belongs of being the mother-country of diviners. SEE CHALDAEAN. Such a degree of power and influence had they attained in that country, that they farmed the highest caste and enjoyed a place at court; nay, so indispensable were they in Chaldaean society, that no step could be taken, not a relation could be formed, a house built, a journey undertaken, a campaign begun, until the diviners had ascertained the lucky day and promised a happy issue. A great influx of these impostors had at various times poured from Chaldaea and Arabia into the land of Israel to pursue their gainful occupation, more especially during the reign of the later kings (Isa_8:19), and we find Manasseh not only their liberal patron, but zealous to appear as one of their most expert accomplices (2Ki_21:6; 2Ch_33:6). The long captivity in Babylon spread more widely than ever among the Jews a devoted attachment to this superstition; for after their return to their own country, having entirely renounced idolatry, and, at the same time, no longer enjoying the gift of prophecy or access to the sacred oracles, they gradually abandoned themselves, as Lightfoot has satisfactorily shown, before the advent of Christ, to all the prevailing forms of divination (Comment. on Matt.). SEE EXORCISM.
Superstition not unfrequently goes hand in hand with skepticism, and hence, amid the general infidelity prevalent through the Roman empire at our Lord's coming, imposture was rampant, as a glance at the pages of Tacitus will suffice to prove. Hence the lucrative trades of such men as Simon Magus (Act_8:9), Bar-jesus (Act_13:6; Act_13:8), the slave with the spirit of Python (Act_16:16), the vagabond Jews, exorcists (Luk_11:19; Act_19:13), and other mountebanks (γόηες, 2Ti_3:13; Rev_19:20, etc.), as well as the notorious dealers in magical writings (Ε᾿φέσια γράμματα), and the jugglers (περίεργα) at Ephesus (Act_19:19). Among the Jews these flagrant impostors (ἀπατεῶνες, Josephus) had become dangerously numerous, especially during the Jewish war; and we find them constantly alluded to in Josephus (War, 6:5, 1, 2; comp. Mat_24:23-24; Tacit. Hist. 5:12; Joseph. Ant. 20:5, 1, etc.). As was natural, they, like most Orientals, especially connected the name of Solomon with their spells and incantations (Joseph. Ant. 8:2). The names of the main writers on this wide and interesting subject will be found mentioned in the course of this article, and others are referred to in Fabricius, Bibl. Antiq. cap. 12, and Bottcher, De Inferis, page 101 sq. SEE CURIOUS ARTS.
Against every species and degree of this superstition the sternest denunciations of the Mosaic law were directed (Exo_22:18; Lev_19:26; Lev_19:31; Lev_20:27; Deu_18:10-11), as fostering a love for unlawful knowledge (comp. the Koran, chapter 5; Cato, De Re Rust. 5; "vana superstitione rudes animos infestant;" Columell. 2:1); because prying into the future beclouds the mind with superstition, and because it would have been (as indeed it proved to be, Isa_2:6; 2Ki_21:6) an incentive to idolatry; indeed, the frequent denunciations of the sin in the prophets tend to prove that these forbidden arts presented peculiar temptations to apostate Israel (Hottinger, Juris Hebr. leges, pages 253, 254). But God supplied his people with substitutes for divination, which would have rendered it superfluous, and left them in no doubt as to his will in circumstances of danger, had they continued faithful. It was only when they were unfaithful that the revelation was withdrawn (1Sa_28:6; 2Sa_2:1; 2Sa_5:23, etc.). According to the Rabbis, the Urim and Thummim lasted until the Temple; the spirit of prophecy until Malachi; and the Bath-Kol, as the sole means of guidance from that time downwards (Maimonides, de Fundam. Leg. cap. 7; Abarbanel, Prolegg. in Daniel.). See below.
How far Moses and the Prophets believed in the reality of necromancy, etc., as distinguished from various forms of imposture, is a question which at present does not concern us. But even if, in those times, they did hold such a belief, no one will now urge that we are bound to do so at the present day. Yet such was the opinion of Bacon, Bishop Hall, Baxter, Sir Thos. Browne, Lavater, Glanville, Henry More, and numberless other eminent men. Such also was the opinion which led Sir M. Hale to burn Amy Duny and Rose Cullenden at Bury in 1664 and caused even Wesley to say, that "to give up a belief in witchcraft was to give up the Bible." (For a curious statute against witchcraft [5 Eliz. cap. 15], see Collier's Eccl. Hist. 6:366.) Much discussion, moreover, has been carried on by learned men to determine the question whether the ancient tribe of diviners merely pretended to the powers they exercised, or were actually assisted by daemoniacal agency. The latter opinion is embraced by almost all the fathers of the primitive Church, who appeal, in support of their views, to the plain language of Scripture; to the achievements of Jannes and Jambres in the days of Moses; to the divine law, which cannot be chargeable with the folly of prohibiting crimes that never existed; and to the strong presumption that pretensions to interpret dreams, to evoke the dead, etc., would never have met with credit during so many ages had there not been some known and authenticated instances of success. On the other hand, it has been maintained with great ability and erudition that the whole arts of divination were a system of imposture, and that Scripture itself frequently ridicules those who practiced them as utterly helpless, and incapable of accomplishing anything beyond the ordinary powers of nature (Isa_47:11-13; Isa_44:25; Jer_14:14; Jon_2:8). SEE WITCHCRAFT.
I. Of the many instances of divination which occur in Holy Scripture, some must be taken in a good sense. These have accordingly been classed by J. C. Wichmannshausen (Dissert. de Divinat. Babyl. [ed. Hichius et Messerer.],Viteb. 1720 sq.) as truly "divine." (See Peucer, De praecipuis divinationum generibus, Zerbst. 1591; F.a.M. 1607.) SEE INSPIRATION.
1. Cleromancy (κληρομαντεία), divination by lot. This mode of decision was used by the Hebrews in matters of extreme importance, and always with solemnity and religious preparation (Jos_7:13). The land was divided by lot (גּוֹרָל, κλῆροι, sors; Num_26:55-56; Jos_14:2); Achan's guilt was detected by lot (Jos_7:16-19); Saul was elected king by lot (1Sa_10:20-21); and, more remarkable still, Matthias was chosen to the vacant apostleship by solemn lot, and invocation of God to guide the decision (Act_1:26). This solemnity and reverence it is which gives force to such passages as Pro_16:33; Pro_18:18. (See Augustine, De Doctr. Christ. 1:28; Thom. Aquin. 2:2, qu. 95, art. 8.) Under this process of גּוֹרָל, or lot, were appointed the interesting ordinances of the scape-goat and the goat of the sin-offering for the people (Lev_16:8-10). SEE LOT.
2. Oneiromancy (—νειρομαντεία), divination by dreams (Deu_13:2-3; Jdg_7:13; Jer_23:32; Josephus, Ant. 17:6, 4). The interpretation of Pharaoh's dreams by the divinely-gifted Joseph (Gen_41:25-32), and the retracing and interpretation of those of Nebuchadnezzar by the inspired prophet (Dan_2:27, etc. and again Dan_4:19-28), as opposed to the diviners of false dreams (Zec_10:2), are very prominent cases in point; and, still more, the dreams themselves divinely sent (as those in Gen_20:6; Jdg_7:15; 1Ki_3:5; so those in Mat_1:20; Mat_2:12-13; Mat_2:19; Mat_2:22), must he regarded as instances of divination in a good sense, a heavenly oneiromancy (comp. Mohammed's dicta: "Good dreams are from God;" "Goodd reams are one of the great parts of prophecy," Lane's Arab. Nights, 1:68). This is clear from Num_12:6 (where dreams [to the sleeping] and visions [to the awake] are expressly mentioned as correlative divinations authorized by God), compared with 1Sa_28:6. Many warnings occur in Scripture against the impostures attendant on the interpretation of dreams (Zec_10:2, etc.). We find, however, no direct trace of seeking for dreams such as occurs in Virgil, AEn. 7:81; Plautus, Curcul. 1:1, 2, 61. SEE DREAM.
3. The Urim and Thummim (Numbers 27:27), which seem to have had the same relation in true divination that the Teraphimn (q.v.), or idolomnncy, had in the idolatrous system (see Hos_3:4). SEE URIM AND THUMMIM. Similar to this was divination by means of the Ephod (q.v.).
4. Phonomancy, by means of the Bath-Kol (בִּת קוֹל, daughter of the voice, i.e., direct vocal communication), which God vouchsafed especially to Moses (see Deu_34:10). Various concomitants of revelation were employed by the Deity: as the Rod-Serpent (Exo_4:3); the Leprous Hand (Exo_4:4); the Burning Bush (Exo_3:4); the Plagues (Exo_3:7-12); the Cloud (Exo_16:10-11); but most instances are without phenomena (Deu_4:15; 1Ki_19:12-13; 1Ki_19:15, and perhaps Mat_3:13). This, the true Bath-Kol, must not be confounded with the fabulous one of the Rabbis, which Dr. Lightfoot calls "a fiction of their own brain to bring their doctors and their doctrines into credit" (Works, 3:132). SEE BATH-KOL.
5. The Oracles: first, of the Ark of the Testimony, or Covenant (הָעֵדוּת אֲרוֹן), described in Exo_25:22, and 1Ki_6:16-31 (comp. Psa_28:2); secondly, of the Tabernacle of the Congregation, or Testimony (אֹחֶל הָעֵדוּת), described in Exo_29:42-43. In the account of the Temple, both in 1 Kings 6 and 2 Chronicles, the word דְּבַירis used fifteen times to designate the "Oracle," i.e., the Holy of Holies (see 1Ki_6:16), in which was placed the Ark of the Covenant (1Ki_6:19), whose golden cover, called the Mercy-seat, was the actual situs oraculi (Hottinger, Thes. Philip. page 366). That there were several oracles of heathen gods known to the Jews we may infer both from the mention of that of Baal-zebub at Ekron (2Ki_1:2-6), and from the towns named Debir. "Debir quod nos oraculum sive responsunz possumus appellare, et ut contentiosius verbum exprimamus e verbo λαλητήριον, vel locutorium dicere" (Jerome, ad Ephesians 1). The word "oracles" is applied in the N.T. to the Scriptures (Act_7:38; Rom_3:2, etc.). On the general subject of oracles, see Anton. 5. Dale, De oraculis; Smith, Dict. of Class. Ant. art. Oraculum; Potter's Antiq. 1:286-326; Sir T. Browne, Tract 11, and Vulg. Err. 7:12, etc. SEE ORACLE.
6. The Angelic Voice, דְּבִר מִלְאָךְ(e.g. Gen_22:15; Jdg_13:3; Jdg_13:13). SEE ANGEL.
7. The Prophetic Institution (נְבוּאָה, see Buxtorf, Lex. Rabb. col. 1286). This was the most illustrious and perfect means of holy divination (as the oracular system in the heathen world was the most eminent perversion and imitation of it), and was often accompanied with symbolical action (2Ki_13:17; Jer_51:63-64). We may learn the importance of the place it was designed to occupy in the Theocracy as a means of divination, by the express contrast drawn between it, on the one hand, and the divinations of idolatry on the other. Comp. Jer_51:14 with Jer_51:15 of Deuteronomy 18 :(See Michaelis's Laws of Moses, art. 36.) Under this head of prophecy we must, of course, include the רוּחִ חִקּדֶשׁ, as the Jews call the Inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The revelations of the Old Testament are most suitably included in these heavenly utterances, Λόγια Θεοῦ. (See Heb_5:12; 1Pe_4:11.) Such are the chief modes of divine communication to men, or inspired divination: they are referred to in Heb_1:1. The antithesis there points to the Son of God as the Ultimate Oracle (the Logos of John), the fulfiller of the promise, which Moses gave when he prohibited all spurious divination. SEE PROPHET.
8. Before we close our notice of divination in a good sense, we must adduce two instances of the Hebrew word at the head of this article, קסם(ksm). Of the thirty-one occurrences of this expressive term in the O.T., no less than twenty-nine bear an evil meaning. In Pro_16:10, and Isa_3:2, we claim for it a good sense. In the former of these passages the noun קֶסֶם(Sept. μαντεῖον; Vulg. divinatio) is rendered in the A.V. a divine sentence [marg. "divination"], and denotes "sagacity such as of diviners" (Poli Synops. in loc. Melancthon, as quoted by bishop Patrick in loc., refers to the acute wisdom of Solomon in his celebrated judgment, and of Gonzaga in his sentence on the governor of Milan, as instances of this קסם; we might add the case supposed by Solomon himself of the sagacious poor man who successfully defended the city against the mighty invader, Ecc_9:15). In Isa_3:2, the word occurs in the Poel form, קסֵם(Sept. στοχαστής; Vulg. ariolus), and is rightly rendered in the A.V. prudent; the company in which the term is found requires for it a good signification. See above.
9. It only remains under this head to allude to the fact that great importance was peculiarly attached to the words of dying men. Now although the observed fact that "men sometimes, at the hour of their departure, do speak and reason above themselves" (Relig. Medici, 11), does not, of course, take away from. the death-bed prophecies of Scripture their supernatural character (Genesis 49; 2 Kings 13, etc.), yet it is interesting to find that there are analogies which resemble them (Il. 22:355; and the story of Calanus; Cicero, De Div. 1:30; Shaksp. Rich. Il. 2:1; Daniell, Civil Wars, 3:62, etc.).
II. Forms of divination expressly forbidden in Scripture. Allusion has already been made in this article to Deu_18:10-12. As these verses contain the most formal notice of the subject, we will first take the seven or eight kinds of diviners there denounced in the order in which they are mentioned.
1. At the very outset we encounter in the phrase קֹסֵם קְסָמַים, kosem' kesamim', one divining divinations (Sept. μαντευόμενος μαντείαν, Vulg. qui ariolos sciscitatur, A.V. "that useth divination"), the same word which we have just noticed in a good sense. The verb קָסִם, like the Arabic equivalent, primarily signified to cleave or divide (Meier, Hebr. Wiirtzelworterbuch, page 344; Fürst, Hebr. Worterb. 2:322; Hottinger, Lex. Heptagl. 44:1); thence it acquired the sense of deciding and determining, and became a generic phrase for various kinds of divination. Rabbi David de Pomis says, "It is a word of large signification, embracing many specific senses, such as geomancy, necromancy, oneiromancy, cheiromancy, and others." Maimonides (in his treatise : וכו88 הלכות עבודת כוכבים, cap. 11, § 6) includes besides these methods, gastromancy, lithomancy, and catoptromancy; and Rashi (on Deu_18:10) makes קסםmainly concerned with the process of rhabdomancy. Amid the uncertainty arising from this generic sense of the word, the Sept. has rendered it by the general phrase μαντεύεσθαι μαντείαν, to divine a divination; wherein it is followed by the Targum of Jonathan, as well as by the Syriac and Arabic versions (J. Clodius, Dissert. de Magia Sagittar. [Viteb. 1675] 1:5; and Wichmannshausen, Dissert. 1:4). The word is used of Balaam (Jos_13:22), of the Philistine soothsayers (1Sa_6:2), of the Hebrew false prophets (Mical 3:3, 6, 7, 11, and in other passages), without specifying any mode of divination. We therefore regard this as a general phrase introductory to the seven particular ones which follow. The absence of the copulative ו, which is prefixed to every other word but מעונּן, confirms this view. As the word, however, involves the notion of "cutting," some connect it with the Chald. גָּזְרַין(from גָּזִר, to cut), Dan_2:27; Dan_4:4, etc., and to be taken to mean astrologers, magi, genethliaci, etc. (Juv. 6:582 sq.; Diod. Sic. 2:30). Others refer it to the κληρομάντεις (Schol. ad Eur. Hipp. 1057), since the use of lots was very familiar to the Jews (Gataker on Lots, ad init.); but it required no art to explain their use, for they were regarded as directly under God's control (Num_26:55; Est_3:7; Pro_16:33; Pro_18:18). Both lots and digitorum micatio (odd and even) were used in distributing the duties of the Temple (Otho, Lex. Rab. s.v. Digitis micando). See above.
2. מְעוֹנֵן, meönen'. This word is variously derived and explained. In our A.V. it is, in two out of seven times of its occurrence (besides the praet. and fut.), rendered "observer of times" (as if from עוֹנֶה, a set time, Fuller, Misc. Sac. 1:16, after Rashi). The idea is, the assigning certain times to things, and distinguishing by astrology lucky from unlucky days, and even months (as when Ovid [Fasti] says, "Mense malum maio nubere vulgus ait") and years (Maimonides, Aboda Sarac cap. 9; Spencer, De Leg. Hebr. 1:387). So perhaps in Job_3:5; just as the Greeks and Romans regarded some days as candidi, others as atri (Hesiod. Opp. et D. 770; Sueton. Aug. 92, etc.). It is not necessary to refer Gal_4:10 to this superstition; the Mosaic institution of sacred seasons is itself there prohibited, as being abrogated to Christians (Selden, De ann. civil. vet. Jud. c. 21; and Alford, in loc.). The Sept. version, by the verb and part. κληδονίζεσθαι (in four places), and the noun κληδονισυός, (in two others), refers to divination by words and voices (Suidas, κληδινισμοί, αί διά τῶν λόγων παρατηρήσεις). Festus derives omen itself (quasi oramen), because it proceeds from the mouth (qua fit ab ore). Words of ill omen (δυσφημἱαι, which Horace calls nale omninata verba, and Plautus obscenata [prob. obscaevata]), were exchanged for bona nomina, as when Cicero reported to the Senate the execution of Lentulus and others by the word "vixerunt," they have ceased to live, instead of "mortui sunt," they are dead. So Leotychides embraced the omen of Hegesistratus (Herodot. 11:91). Hebrew instances of this observing of words occur in Gen_24:14, and 1Sa_14:9-10, where a divine interposition occurred; in 1Ki_20:33, the catching at the word of the king of Israel was rather a human instinct than a παρατήρεσις, or marking, in its proper (superstitious) sense. Akin to and arising from this observance of verbal omens arose the forms of biblomancy called Sortes Homericae, Virgiliance, Bibliae, etc. The elevation of Severus is said to have been foretold by his opening at Virgil's line, "Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, rhemento. "Most remarkable were the responses which it is said Charles I and Lord Falkland obtained, when they consulted their Virgils before the civil war. The former opened AEneid 4, where Dido predicts a violent death to AEneas, while the latter, chanced upon AEneid 11, at Evander's lamentation over his son. According to Nicephorus Gregoras, the Psalter was the best book for the Sortes Biblicae, but Cedrenus informs us that the N.T. was more commonly used (Niceph. Greg., 8, Aug. Ep. 119; Prideaux, Connect. 2:376, etc.; Cardan, De Varietate, page 1040). This superstition became so rife that it was necessary to denounce it from the pulpit as forbidden by the divine precept, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." The Moslems consult the Koran in similar manner, but they take their answer from the seventh line of the righthand page (see Occult Sciences, page 332). A belief in the significance of chance words was very prevalent among the Egyptians (Clem. Alex. Strom. 1:304; Plutarch, De Isaiah 14), and the accidental sigh of the engineer was sufficient to prevent even Amasis from removing the monolithic shrine to Sais (Wilkinson, Anc. Egypt. 4:144). The universality of the belief among the ancients is known to every scholar (Cicero, De div. 1; Herod. 2:90; Virgil, AEn. 7:116, etc.). SEE BIBLOMANCY.
Another origin for מעונן is found by some (comp. Vitringa, Comment. ad Isa_2:6) in the noun עִיַן, the eye, the root of which occurs once only (1Sa_18:9) as a verb, "Saul eyed David." This derivation would point to fascination, the Greek βασκανία and the Latin fascinum. Vossius derives these words from φάεσι καίνειν, to kill with the eyes. Pliny (Holland's transl. 1:155) says: "Such like these are among the Triballians and Illyrians, who with their very eiesight can witch (effascinent), yea, and kill those whom they looke wistly upon any long time" (comp. Aul. Gell. 9:4, 8; Plutarch, Sympos. 5:7). Reginald Scot speaks of certain Irish witches as “eyebiters" (Discovery of Witchcraft, 3:15). Whole treatises have been written on this subject, such as the De Fascino, by the Italian Vairus in 1589; the Opusculum de Fascino, by Gutierrez, a Spaniard, in 1563; and the Tractatus de Fascinatione in 1675, by a German physician called Frommann. (See also Shaw, Trav. page 212.) In Martin's Description of IV. Isles of Scotland, "Molluka beans"' are mentioned as amulets against fascination. Dallaway (Account of Constantinople as quoted in Occult Sciences, page 210) says that "nothing can exceed the superstition of the Turks respecting the evil eye of an enemy or infidel. Passages from tne Koran are painted on the outside of houses, etc., to divert the sinister influence." A belief in the "evil eye," —φθαλμὸς βάσκανος (עִיַן רָע), was universal, and is often alluded to in Scripture (Deu_23:3; Mat_20:15; Tob_4:7, μὴ φθονησάτω σου ὁ —φθαλμός; 1Sa_18:9, "Saul eyed David"). The passages of the ancients on the subject are collected in Potter's Ant. 1:383 sq. SEE EYE.
But the derivation of מעונןwhich finds most favor with modern authorities deduces the word from עָנָן, a cloud, so that the diviner would ply his art by watching clouds, thunders, lightnings (Meier, Hebr Wurzelwb. 5:6, page 92; Fürst, Worterb. 2:167, who, however, finds room for all the derivations; and Gesenius, s.v. ענן, leans to the figurative sense of to cloud, viz. to use covert arts). Rosenmüller, Scholia in Lev_19:26, follows Aben Esra, who thinks this diviner obtained his omens from observation of the clouds. The notion that the terms קֶדֶם east, אָחֹר west, יָמַין, south, שְׂמאֹל, north, were derived from the position of the Planetarius as he faced the east, taking his celestial observations (Goodwin's Moses and Aaron, 4:10), is rejected by his annotator Carpzov with the greatest disgust. Jeremiah (Jer_10:2) clearly refers to this divination, which had its counterpart in Greek and Latin literature (e.g. in Il. 2:352, Nestor speaks of right-hand flashes as being lucky (see also Odys. 15:304). Diodorus Siculus (3:340, ed. Bipont.) mentions the divination by means of thunder (κεραυνοσκοπία, and the αἱ ἐν τοῖς κεραυνοῖς διοσημεῖαι) of the Etrurians (comp. "fulguratores hi fulgurum inspectores," Cato, De Mor. Claud. Neron.; Nonius, 63:21; Cicero, De Div. 2:53. [In Orelli. 2301, fuiguriator.]) Pliny, in 2:43, treats of the physical, and in 2:54, of the oracular qualities of thunder, lightning, etc.; as does L.A. Seneca in Natur. Quast. 2:41. Statius mentions the winds for purposes of divination (Thebaid. 3:512-538). See Humboldt, Kosmos, 2:135, for the probable scientific adaptations by the Etrurians of their divining arts. To this class we must refer "the astrologers" ( שָׁמִיַם חֹבְרֵיhere only found); "the star-gazers, or rather star-prophets" (בִּכּוֹכָבַים
הִחֹזַים); and "the monthly prognosticators," or rather they that make known at the new moons what will happen to thee (מֵאֲשֶר יָבאֹוּ עָלָיַךְ מוֹדַיעַים לֶחַדָשַׁים; see Rosenmiller, in loc.), which are all mentioned in the sublime challenge of God to the Chaldee sorcerers in Isa_47:13. Astrology retained a long hold even on the minds of astronomers; e.g. Stoffler from its evaluation predicted a deluge for 1524; Cardan his own death: Wallenstein was a great amateur of astrology; Tycho Brahe studied and practiced it; so did Morinus; Kepler supposed that the planets by their configurations exercised certain influences over sublunary nature; Lord Bacon, moreover, thought that astrology needed only to be reformed, not rejected (Arago, Pop. Astron. [by Smyth and Grant] 2:8; Brewster, Martyrs of Science, 150, 211). SEE PROGNOSTIGATOR.
In Jdg_9:37, the expression "oak of Meonenim (enchantments)" refers not so much to the general sacredness of great trees (Homer, Od. 14:328, as to the fact that (probably) here Jacob had buried his amulets (Gen_35:4; Stanley, Sin. and Pal. Page 142). SEE MEONENIM.
3. The next word in our list (Deu_18:10) is מְנִחֵשׁ, menachesh', "an enchanter," (Sept. οἰωνιζόμενος; Vulg. qui observat auguria). In Gen_44:5; Gen_44:15, this somewhat general word is used of divining by the cup, or cylicomancy (κυλικομαντεία). Primitively this was the drinking-cup which contained the libation to the gods (Potter). This divination prevailed more in the East and in Egypt. The κόνδυ, used in the Sept. to designate Joseph's cup, resembles both the Arabic adn: and the Hindu kundi, sacred chalice: (Schleusner, Lex. V.T. s.v.; Kitto, Bib. Illus. 1:398). One of the Assyrian kings, in the sculptures from Nimroud, holds a divining-cup in his right hand (Bonomi's Nineveh, etc. page 306). The famous cup of Jemshid, which is the constant theme of the poetry and mythology of Persia, was said to have been discovered full of the elixir of immortality, while digging to lay the foundation of Persepolis. It possessed the property of representing the whole world in its concavity, and all things good and bad then going on in it. Homer describes Nestor's cup in similar manner; and Alexander the Great had a mystic cup of a like kind. In the storming of Seringapatam the unfortunate Tippoo Saib retired to gaze on his divining-cup; after standing a while absorbed, he returned to the fight and soon fell. The "great magitien" Merlin's cup is described (Spenser's Faerie Queene, 3:2, 19), "Like to the world it'selfe, it seem'd a world of glas." In Norden's Travels in Egypt, and Capt. Cook's Voyages, the use of divining-cups in modern Nubia and at Tongataboo, one of the Friendly Islands, is mentioned (compare Kitto, Daily Bible Illustrat. 1:424). The Orientals ascribe much of Solomon's wisdom to his possession of a sacred cup; a Giamschid, or vase of the sun (D'Herbelot, s.v. Giam, Occult Sciences, page 317). Parkhurst and others, denying that divination is intended, make it a mere cup of office (Bruce's Travels, 2:657), "for which he would search carefully." But in all probability the A.V. is right. The Nile was called the cup of Egypt, and the silver vessel which symbolized it had prophetic and mysterious properties (Havernick, Einl. z.d. Pentat.). The divination was by means of radiations from the water, or from magically- inscribed gems, etc., thrown into it (a sort of ὑδρομαντεία, κατοπτρομαντεία, or κρυσταλλομαντεία Cardan, De rerum Variet. cap. 93), like the famous mirror of ink (Lane, Mod. Eg. 2:362), and the crystal divining-globes, the properties of which depend on a natural law brought into notice in the recent revivals of Mesmerism. Jul. Serenus (De Fato, 9:18) says that after certain incantations a daemon was heard in the water. For illustrations of Egyptian cups, see Wilkinson, 3:258. This kind of divination is not the same as cyathomancy (Suidas, s.v. κοτταβίζειν), which consists in drawing omens from a common drinking-cup; much like the vulgar practice, still prevalent, of reading fortunes in the fantastic forms assumed by the grounds in a teacup. SEE CUP.
But the versions of the Sept. and Vulg. give quite a different turn to our מנחשׁ, and point to that part of the augurial art which consisted of omens from birds, i.e., ornithomancy (—ρνιθομαντεία, οἰωνισμός, — ρνιθοσκοπική). The Syriac and Arabic versions favor this view (augurari ab animali alato). Birds in their flight over the earth were supposed to observe men's seeret actions, and to be cognizant of accidents, etc. (comp. Ecc_10:20). Aristophanes (Birds) says, “None but some bird, perhaps, knows of my treasure:" so that the birds assume prerogatives of deity; "We are as good as oracles and gods to you," etc. The notes, the flight, and the feeding of birds were the main phenomena (Bochart, ed. Leusd. 2:19). Homer is full of this divination (Il. 12:310; Od. 15:160, et passim). So the Latin classics; see Servius, Virg. zn. 3:361 ("aves oscines, praepetes"); also Cicero, Fam. 6:6, 13; De Divin. 2:72, etc.; and Livy, 10:40 (tripudium solistimum). For qualities of various birds, see Potter, 15, and Occult Sciences, pages 142, 143. This divination was much in vogue in the East also; so Philostratus (Vit. Apollon. 1:14) and Porphyry (De Abstin. Animal. 3) say. Rabbinical doctors discover augury among King Solomon's attainments, in such passages as Ecc_10:20, and 1Ki_4:30. Rashi comments חכם בלשון העוּפות, learned in the tongue of birds; so Kimchi and the Mid. bar Rabba, 19. SEE ENCHANTER. The root נחשׁ: has the primary sense of a low hissing, whispering sound; from this arises the derivative נָחָשׁ, a serpent, of frequent occurrence in the O.T. Gesenius, Thes. page 875; Lex. by Robinson, page 665; and Furst, Hebr. Worterb. page 31, prefer to derive from the primary sense (q.d. divinare vel augurari as general terms); but Bochart, 2:21, 22, peremptorily derives from the secondary sense of the serpent, and discovers in this מְנִחֵשׁthe divination called ophiomancy (—φιομαντεία). Fürst admits this as "tolerable." Classical instances of divining by serpents occur in Iliad, 2:308; AEneid, 5:84; Cicero, De Div. 1:18,36; Valer. Maxim. 1:6, 8; Terent. Phorm. 4:4, 26; Clem. Alex. Strom. 7; Horace, Carm. 3:27, 5. (According to Hesychius, s.v. οἰωνός, and Suidas, s.v. οίωνιστική, omens from serpents as well as from birds formed a usual branch of the augur's art; hence probably the general phrase employed in the Sept. and other versions.) Serpent-charming, referred to in Psa_58:5, and Jer_8:17. is a part of this divination. Frequent mention of this art also occurs in both ancient and modern writers. (See Kalisch on Exo_7:12, who refers to AElian, Hist. Anim. 17:5; Sil. Italic. 3:300; Strabo, 12:814; Gellius, Noct. Attic. 16:11; Shaw, Travels, page 354; Niebuhr, Travels, 1:189; Bochart, Hieroz. 3:162; Description de l'Egypte 8:108; 18:1, 333 [in 1:159, there is a description of the feats of some Cairo jugglers with the serpent Haje]; Quatremere, Mem. sur l'Egypte, 1:202; Minutoli, Travels, page 226; Hengstenberg, Mos. and Egypt, pages 97- 103; Lane, Mod. Egypt, 2:230). The serpent was the symbol of health and healing (Plin. 24:4, 22); Moses's brazen serpent (Num_21:9), which was a symbol of deliverance (Wis_16:6; comp. Joh_3:14), was at length made an object of idolatrous worship. Hezekiah, to destroy the charm, reduced-its name to its mere material ( נְחִשׁ הִנְּחשֶׁת=נְחֻשְׁתִּן), 2Ki_18:4. SEE NEHUSHTAN. These menacheshim, therefore, were probably ophiomants-people who, like the ancient Psylli (Pliny, H.N. 7:2; 18:4) and Marmaridae (Sil. Ital. 3:301), were supposed to render serpents innocuous and obedient (Exo_7:9; Jer_8:17; Ecc_10:11), chiefly by the power of music (Nicand. Meriac. 162; Lucan, 9:891; AEn. 7:753), but also, no doubt, by the possession of some genuine and often hereditary secret (Lane, Mod. Egypt, 2:106 sq.; Arnob. adv. Gent. 2:32). They had a similar power over scorpions (Francklen's Tour to Persia). SEE CHARMER.
4. מְכִשֵׁ, mekashsheph' (Sept. φαρμακός; Vulg. maleficus; Auth. Vers. "witch"). This word has always a bad sense in the Old Test. in the twelve instances in which the verb [always Piel] and the noun are used. The Syriac, however (kasap), bears the good sense of prayer and public service to God .( δέησις, λειτουργία, in Act_4:31; Act_13:2). The Arabic (kashaf) suggests the meaning of the missing Kal — "to reveal." In Exo_7:11, this word describes (in plur.) the magicians of Pharaoh, who are also there called חֲכָמַים, sages, and (as also in 7:22; comp. Gen_41:8; Gen_41:24) חִרְטֻמַּים, ἱερογραμματεῖς (Clem. Alex. 6:633), or sacred scribes of Egypt. This latter title identifies these with the Magi, or sacerdotes, of the Chaldaean court (see Dan_2:10; Dan_2:27). The prophet was himself made by the king of Babylon רִב חִרְטֻמַּין, "master of the magicians" (Dan_5:11). The arts of these diviners (לְהָטַים, Exo_7:11, לָטַים, Exo_7:22), which enabled them to withstand Moses, were doubtless imposing, but so inferior to the miracles by which they were ultimately foiled (8:19), and their gods confounded (12:12). The conjecture of Aben Ezra, that it was "their skill in the secrets of physical science" (quoted in Carpzov, Apparatus, page 543), such as is attributed to the Etrurianfulguratores by Humboldt (Kosmos, 1.c.), which enabled them to sustain their impious contest, is not unreasonable. The names of two of these chartummim (or מְכִשְּׁפַים) are given by Paul, 2Ti_3:8. (For Talmudic traditions about these, see Buxtorf, Lex. Tal. col. 945; comp. Pliny, Hist. Nat. 30:1, who associates Jamnes and Jotapes with Moses as Jews; Apuleius, Apol. 108 [ed. Casaub.], who mentions Moses, Jannes, etc., as inter magos celebrati; Numenius Pythag. in Eusebius, Praep. Evang. 9:8, who mentions Ι᾿αννῆς καὶ Ι᾿αμβρῆς Αἰγύπτιοι and Μουσαῖος οΙ῾᾿ουδαῖος. The Moslems call these magicians Sadur and Gadur; D'Herbelot, s.v. Mousa; and Sale, Koran, page 237; Schoettgen, Hor. Hebr. page 893; Rosenmüller, on Exodus 1.c.). How:they produced the wonders which hardened the heart of Pharaoh, whether by mechanical or chemical means, or by mere legerdemain, or by dtemoniacal assistance (as supposed by the fathers, and Josephus, Ant. 2:5), we can only conjecture. The N.T. gives us the names of other diviners also-in this respect differing observably from the reserve of the O.T. — e.g. of Simon Magus (Act_8:9, μαγεύων); of Barjesus or Elymas (Act_13:6; Act_13:8, ὁ μάγος); the sons of Sceva (Act_19:13-14, ἐξορκισταί). We have alluded to the supposed scientific basis of the arts of these מכשפים, or חכמים, or חרטמים(for the identity of these, see Kalisch, on Exodus p. 114; and Keil and Delitzsch's Bibl. Commentar, 1:357). The term under consideration might no doubt involve the use of divining-rods for the purpose of finding water (aqurelicium), etc., dependent on physical laws only partially understood (Mayo's Pop. Superstitions). SEE MAGICIAN.
By Umbreit, on Job, and Deyling (Observ. Sacr. 3:129), the words כַּמְרַירֵי יוֹם, "the blackness of the day," in Job_3:5, are taken to mean certain "incantations which darken the day," practiced by magicians (some think them also indicated in the 8th verse by the words אוֹרְרֵיאּיוֹם, "that curse the day") who were able, as the superstitious imagined, to change the brightest day into the darkest midnight. Popular ignorance has always connected magical power with scientific skill. The foretelling of the rise and setting of sun, moon, and stars, and the prediction of eclipses, used to invest astronomers of old with a marvelous reputation (Virgil, AEn. 4:489; Ovid, Metam. 12:263; Horace, Epod. 5:45; Tibull. 1:2, 42. So Shakspeare, Temp. 5:1). In Exo_22:18, the feminine מְכִשֵּׁפָה, mekashshephah', occurs (also translated a witch in the A.V.). In the Theocratic system, where women as well as men were endued with supernatural gifts (such as Deborah, Hannah, Huldah), female pretenders were to be found-indeed, according to Maimonides (Moreh Neb. 3:37), and Babyl. Gemara (Sanhed, in Ugolini Thies. 25:776), they were more rife even than males. Their divination is referred to in Eze_13:23, and described Eze_13:17-22 (comp. Triumphii Dissert. de pulvillis et peplis prophetiss. in Thes. Nov. ad Crit. Sacr. 1:972, and Ephrem Syrus, in Rosenmüller in loc., who supposes the "pillows" to be amulets for divination fitted to their sleeves). SEE WITCH.
5. The next phrase in the Mosaic catalogue of forbidden divination is (Deu_18:11) חֹבֵר, chober', "a charmer" (Sept. ἐπαείδων; Vulg. incantator). The root chabar' denotes binding, or joining together. Gesenius (by Robinson, page 293) refers to a species of magic which was practiced by binding magic knots (comp. Gordian knot). Carpzov (Apparatus, page 544) quotes Rabbinical authority, and Bochart (Hieroz. 2:3, 6), for a kind of divination which drew together noxious creatures (serpentes and scorpiones) for purposes of sorcery; and in Psa_58:6, the very phrase before us is applied to serpent charmers. (See above, under 3.) Gaulmin (in Carpzov) mentions δεσμὸς θεῶν, as if the very gods might be bound by magic arts. The Sept. version suggests our spell-bound. "Spell is a kind of incantation per sermones vel verba," says Somner. Hence the frequent allusions to such a charm in poetry. The refrain in the chorus of the Furies (AEschylus, Eumen. 296, 318, 327), αὐονά (a spell- blight), is imitated by Byron (Manfred, 1:1). So Milton (Comus, 852); Jonson's witch (in the Sad Shepherd) is said "to rivet charms;" comp. Beaum. and Fletcher (The Loyal Subject, 2:2). This last quotation directs us to the best explanation of divination by חבר. Its idea is binding together; the ring has always been regarded as the symbol of such conjunction (comp. wedding-ring, in the marriage service of the Church of England). In the phenomena of dactylomancy (δακτυλομαντεία), or divination by ring (Potter, 2:18; Smedley, Occult Sciences, pages 37-40, 343), we have the most exact illustration of the subject before us. Josephus (Ant. 8:2, 6), among the attributes of king Solomon's wisdom, ascribes to him much magical skill, and, with the rest, necromancy and spells, and goes on to specify an instance of exorcism by virtue of Solomon's magic ring. D'Herbelot (s.v. Giam, already quoted) calls Jemshid the Solomon of Persia; and, according to Minutoli (Reise, page 83), Solomori is ordinarily regarded in Moslem countries as the great master of divination. SEE CHARMER.
6. שֹׁאֵל אוֹב, shod' ob, "a consulter with familiar spirits" (Sept. ἐγγαστρίμυθος; Vulg. qui Pythones consulit). Most writers treat this class of diviners as necromancers (so Gesenius, Thes. page 34). But, whatever be the close connection of the two as deducible from other passages, it is impossible to suppose that in Deu_18:11, אוֹב שֹׁאֵלis synonymous with הִמֵּתַים דֹּרֵשׁים אֶל, which follows almost next. Bottcher, De Inferis, carefully distinguishes between the two expressions (page 108), and then identifies the אוֹב, which occurs in the plural in Job_32:19 (in its primary sense of a leathern bottle, or water-skin), with the noun of the same form which is found in so many other passages with a different meaning. In these the Sept. has invariably used ἐγγαστρίμυθος, which connects our phrase with ventriloquism, as a branch of the divining art. (For the supposed connection between the primary and secondary senses of אוֹב, see Gesenius, Thes. page 34, and Lex. by Robinson, page 20; also Bottcher, page 107. The analogy is also in close consistency with the words of Job. (Umbreit, in loc.) Having settled the sense of the word, Bittcher goes on to draw a noticeable distinction in certain phrases where it occurs. First, אוֹב in the singular number designates the familiar spirit (i.e., what he calls "murmelbauch," venter fremens [in a correct sense], or "murmelwesen," daemon fremens [in a superstitious sense]). Hence we have such phrases as בִּעֲלִת אוֹב, mistress [or owner] of a familiar spirit (1Sa_28:7); שֹׁאֵל אוֹב, a consulter or questioner of a familiar spirit [i.e., says Bottcher, "ventriloquus vates ipse"] (Deu_18:11). Secondly, אוֹב, when governed by the particle בּ, refers not to the vates, or professional consulter, but to the person who requests his aid: thus, while שֹׁאֵל אוֹבis said of the diviner (loc. cit.) לַשְׁאוֹל בָּאוֹב(with the particle) is applied to king Saul, who sought the familiar spirit by the aid of the vates, or pythonissa (1Ch_10:13). "The same distinction," says Bottcher, "is also maintained by the Targumists and Talmudists." (Comp. 1Sa_28:8, "'Divine to me, בָּאוֹב, by the familiar spirit.") Thirdly, אֹבוֹת, in the plural, is used in a concrete sense to indicate the ventriloquists or diviners themselves, and not the " familiar spirits" which were supposed to actuate them (De Inferis, page 101, § 205, where the learned writer adduces similar cases of metonymy from other languages: as γαστέρες ἀργαί, "slow-bellies," Tit_1:12; so our "Wits about town;" the German "Witzkopfe," "Dickbluche," etc.) By this canon we discover the general accuracy of our A.V. in such passages as Lev_19:31, where הָאֹבֹתis well rendered, "Them that have familiar spirits." Comp. Lev_20:6; 1Sa_28:3; 1Sa_28:9; 2Ki_23:24; Isa_8:19; Isa_19:3. In Isa_29:4, the same concrete rendering is applied to אוֹבin the singular, contrary to Bottcher's first and third canons; but this rendering is inferior to what Böttcher would suggest, viz. "Thy voice shall be as of a familiar spirit, out of the ground," etc. This is the only passage where the accuracy of our version, thus tested, seems to be at fault; it contrasts strikingly, with the Sept. in this point, which maintains no distinction between the sing. and the plur. of this word, other than the mechanical one of putting ἐγγαστρίμυθος for אוֹב, and ἐγγαστρίμυθοι for אֹבֹת. The Vulgate is more cautious, e.g. it renders most of the plurals magi, rightly, but is, on the whole, inferior to the A.V. in accuracy, for it translates both the sing. אוֹב: of 2Ki_21:6, and the plur. אֹבֹתof 2Ki_23:24, by the same word, Pythones, and similarly Isa_8:19; Isa_19:3. (For a description of the Delphian Pytha, or Pythonissa, and why ventriloquist faculties were attributed to her [whence one of her designations, ἐγγαστρίμυθος], see Potter's Antiq. c. 9.) A vast amount of information touching the Hebrew γαστρομαντεία, and its connection with the witch of Endor, is contained in the treatise of Leo Allatius, and Eustathius Antiochen, De Engastrimytho; and the Samuel redivicus of Michael Rothard, all reprinted in Critici Sacri, 8:303-458. See also St. Chrysostom, Opera (ed. Bened.), 7:445. A concise statement is contained in Bottcher's work, pages 111-115. The identity of אוֹבand אֹבוֹתwith necromancy, contrary to Bottcher's view, is maintained in D. Millii Dissertatio, especially in chapter 6, whom Gesenius follows in Thes. s.v. אוֹב. See the Dissertatio in Ugol. Thesaur. 23:517-528. For ancient Jewish opinions on the apparition of Samuel to Saul, see Josephus, Ant. 6:14, 2, and Whiston's note in loc.; also Sir_46:20. On this subject, the second letter of Sir W. Scott, On Demonology and Witchcraft, with the note in the appendix of the volume, is well worthy of perusal. Whatever reality God may have permitted to this remarkable case of divination, the resort to it by Saul was most offensive to the divine Being; the king's rejection is partly ascribed to it in 1Ch_10:13 : somewhat similar is the reason assigned for God's vengeance on Manasseh (2Ki_21:11. See the remarkable canons 61 and 65 of the Trullan [Quinisextum] Council; Beveregii Synod. 1:227, 235). SEE FAMILIAR SPIRIT.
7. יַדְּעֹנַי, yiddeini', from יָדִע, to know, is uniformly rendered in A.V. by "wizzard," akin to "wise" and to the German verb "wissen" (old German wizan), to know. (Sept. in four places, γνώστης, a knowing one; Vulg. ariolus, most frequently.) This Hebrew noun occurs eleven times, and in every instance is coupled with אוֹב; we may thus regard it as indicating a usual concomitant (perhaps of cleverness and dexterity) with ventriloquism: this view is confirmed by the Sept. ἐγγαστρίμυθος, as the rendering of יַדְּעֹנַיin Isa_19:3, a verse which proves the Egyptian arts of divination were substantially the same as the Hebrew in that age (comp. Bottcher, page 115, § 231; and see Rawlinson's note on Herod. 2:83, in explanation of a seeming discrepancy between the prophet and the historian). In another passage of Isaiah (8:19) there occurs a good description of these הִיּדְּעֹנַים, in the two epithets הִמְּצִפְצְפַים, expressive of the chirping, piping sounds of young birds, and הִמִּהְגַּים, applied to the cooing of the dove, in 8:19. (With the former of these, compare Horace, Sat. 1:8, 40, and with the latter, Virgil, AEneid, 3:39. So in Homer, Il. 11:101, the shade of Patroclus departs with what Shakspeare [Hamlet, 1:1] calls a "squeak and gibber." An unexpected illustration of these arts may be met with in Captain Lyons's Private Journal, page 358, where he de scribes the feats of the Esquimaux ventriloquist Toolemak of Igloolik. Compare the curious account of a modern necromancy left us by Benvenuto Cellini; both of these are narrated in Sir D. Brewster's Letters on Natural Magic, pages 68-75, and 176-178.) The Sept. version, much more inexact than the English, renders the יַדְּעֹנַיof Deu_18:11 by τερατασκόπος, or observer of omens; what the prodigies were, which, according to the extravagant belief of the Rabbinical writers, were used by these diviners, may be seen in Carpzov, Apparatus, pages 545, 546, where, among others, are adduced the bird Jiddoa and the monster Jaddua, to account for the origin of our term. This last was, according to the Rabbis, a certain beast in shape like a man (καταβλεπάδα),'the bones of which the diviner held in his teeth (Maimon. De Idol. 6:3; Bulenger, De Div. 3:33; Delrio, Disquis. Mag. 4:2; Godwyn's Mos. and Aar. 4:10). The Greek diviner ate certain efficacious parts of animals (Porphyr. De Abstinent. 2). For other bone divinations, see Rubruquis's China, page 65, and Pennant's Scotland, page 88 (in Pinkerton). SEE WIZARD.
8. The last designation used by Moses in the great passage before us (Deu_18:10-11) is הִמֵּתַיםדֹּרֵשׁ אֶלאּ, doresh' el ham-methim' (one seeking unto the dead; Sept. ἐπερωτῶν τοὑς νεκρούς; Vulg. qui gucerit a mortuis veritatem). This points to the famous art of necromancy, the νεκρομαντεία, or (as they preferred to write it) νεκυομαντεία of the Greeks. This was a divination in which answers were given by the dead. It was sometimes performed by the magical use of a bone or vein of a dead body, or by pouring warm blood into a corpse, as if to renew life in it (Lucan, Phar. 6:750). Sometimes they used to raise the ghosts of deceased persons by various ceremonies and invocations. Ulysses, in Odyssey, book 0, having sacrificed black sheep in a ditch, and poured forth libations, invites the ghosts, especially that of Tiresias, to drink of the blood, after which they become willing to answer his questions. (Compare the evocation of the shade of Darius, for counsel, after the defeat at Salamis, in the Persae of Eschylus, 630-634.) This evocation of spirits was called ψυχαγωγία; the offerings of the dead on this occasion were mild and unbloody; but Gregory Nazianzen (in Orat. II, contra Julian.) speaks also of "virgins and boys slaughtered at the evocation of ghosts." From Isa_65:4, it would appear that the ancient Jews increased the s
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