the Fourth Week of Advent
Click here to join the effort!
Bible Encyclopedias
Prognosticators
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
or The phrase 'monthly prognosticators' occurs in the Authorized Version of , where the prophet is enumerating the astrological superstitions of the Chaldeans. The original might perhaps be more exactly rendered, as by Dr. Henderson, 'prognosticators at the new moons.' It is known that the Chaldean astrologers professed to divine future events by the positions, aspects, and appearances of the stars, which they regarded as having great influence on the affairs of men and kingdoms; and it would seem, from the present text, that they put forth accounts of the events which might be expected to occur from month to month, like our old almanac-makers. Some carry the analogy further, and suppose that they also gave monthly tables of the weather; but such prognostications are only cared for in climates where the weather is uncertain and variable; while in Chaldea, where (as we know from actual experience) the seasons are remarkably regular in their duration and recurrence, and where variations of the usual course of the weather are all but unknown, no prognosticator would gain much honor by foretelling what every peasant knows.
Public Domain.
Kitto, John, ed. Entry for 'Prognosticators'. "Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature". https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/kbe/p/prognosticators.html.
