the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
Click here to join the effort!
Bible Dictionaries
Divination
American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
or The Eastern people were fond of divination, magic, and the pretended art of interpreting dreams and acquiring a knowledge of futurity. When Moses published the law, this disposition had long been common in Egypt and the neighboring countries; and to correct the Israelites inclination to consult diviners, wizards, fortune-tellers, and interpreters of dreams, it was forbidden them under very severe penalties, and the true spirit of prophecy was promised to them as infinitely superior, Exodus 22:18 Leviticus 19:26,31 20:27 . Those were to be stoned who pretended to have a familiar spirit, or the spirit of divination, Deuteronomy 18:9-12; and the prophecies are full of invectives against the Israelite who consulted such, as well as against false prophets, who seduced the people, Isaiah 8:19 47:11 - 14 Ezekiel 13:6-9 . A fresh impulse to these superstitions was gained from intercourse with the Chaldeans, during the reign of the later kings of Judah and the captivities in Babylon, 2 Kings 21:6 2 Chronicles 33:6 . See MAGIC , SORCERERS.
Divination was of several kinds: by water, fire, earth, air; by the fight of birds, and their singing; by lots, dreams, arrows, clouds, entrails of sacrifices, pretended communication with spirits, etc., Ezekiel 21:21 .
These files are public domain and are a derivative of the topics are from American Tract Society Bible Dictionary published in 1859.
Rand, W. W. Entry for 'Divination'. American Tract Society Bible Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/ats/d/divination.html. 1859.
