7/29/2019 Deuteronom 18 - Magie (WBC)

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Deut. 18:9-11:

9–11 The people of Israel must not “learn to follow the abominable practices.” The verb , “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 referenceto 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 theworship of Molech” ([1996] 465).

“One who practices divination” ( ) 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”(  ) 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” () 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” (  ) refers to a

 practioner of black magic in Exod 22:17, where it is a capital offense. The phrase  , 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 h abaru, “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” ( ) refers to the practice of 

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

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

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

adjective to the term  to describe a ghost [Page 409] functioning as a medium. In the story of King

Saul 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” ( ) 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  Ere  Israel 

1Duane L. Christensen, Deuteronomy 1-21:9, „Word Biblical Commentary”, vol. 6A, Word,

Incorporated, Dallas, 2002, pp. 408-409.