1

Deut. 18:9-11:

9–11 The people of Israel must not “learn to follow the abominable practices.” The verb למד, “learn,” has to do with forbidden customs: the magic and the oracles of the inhabitants of the land (18:10–11) and the Canaanite cultic practice (20:18; see G. Braulik, Theology of Deuteronomy [1994] 195). The list reads as though it was intended to include all known designations of occult activities.

Scholars debate what it means to “pass one’s son or daughter through the fire.” Mayes noted that a reference to child sacrifice would be out of place here, for the context is concerned solely with forms of divination ([1981] 280). Tigay says, “Modern scholarship has not been able to resolve the question of whether Deuteronomy 18:10 refers to a lethal or a nonlethal practice. Because of this, we cannot say whether or how passing children through fire is related to the dedication of the first-born, to Canaanite child sacrifice, or to the worship of Molech” ([1996] 465).

“One who practices divination” (קסם קסמים) includes hepatoscopy (the “art” of reading the liver from a sacrificial animal), belomancy (use of arrows shaken from a quiver), necromancy (consulting spirits of the

dead), and also false prophecy (Ezek 21:28 [Eng. 29]; Jer 14:14). The term “soothsayer”(מעונן ) cannot be defined with any certainty, since all conjectures are based on etymology. For instance, Ibn Ezra derived the term from ˓anan, “cloud,” and suggested that it “refers to those who draw omens from the appearance and

movements of clouds” (Tigay [1996] 173). The term rendered “omen reader” ( (מנחׁש seems to refer to divination based on mixing liquids, such as oil and water (oleomancy), which may also be the manner in which

Joseph’s silver goblet was used in matters of divination (Gen 44:5). “A sorcerer” ( מכׁש ף) refers to a

practioner of black magic in Exod 22:17, where it is a capital offense. The phrase חבר חבר, translated as a “caster of magic spells,” appears in Ps 58:6 (Eng. 5), where it refers to magic of some sort used against venomous snakes. Finkelstein (JBL 75 [1956] 328–31) suggests the meaning “muttering” a spell and compares the Akkadian habaru,� “be noisy.” For a different view see M. Held, “Studies in Biblical Lexicography in the

Light of Akkadian,” EI 16 (1982) 78–79. “One who asks of a ghost” (אל אוב refers to the practice of (ׁש

necromancy. A common interpretation of the term אוב is that of a hole in the ground through which offerings

and requests for information were made to the dead. “A medium” (ידעני) is sometimes translated as “familiar

spirit,” the ghost of a deceased person. It always appears with the term אוב, and may function simply as an

adjective to the term אל אוב to describe a ghost [Page 409] functioning as a medium. In the story of King ׁשSaul and the “witch of Endor,” ghosts of the dead ascend from the depths of the earth and are seen by the

medium. The phrase “one who inquires from the dead” (אל־המתים (דרׁש probably means one who performs necromancy by any other means than the two previous terms mentioned (Tigay [1996] 173, following Ramban).1

JBL Journal of Biblical Literature

EI Ereṣ Israel

1 Duane L. Christensen, Deuteronomy 1-21:9, „Word Biblical Commentary”, vol. 6A, Word, Incorporated, Dallas, 2002, pp. 408-409.