Various forms of witchcraft and

divination Divination (from Latin ''divinare'', 'to foresee, to foretell, to predict, to prophesy') is the attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of an occultic, standardized process or ritual. Used in various forms throughout histor ...

are mentioned in the Hebrew Bible ( Tanakh or

Old Testament The Old Testament (often abbreviated OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew writings by the Israelites. The ...

), generally (but not always) in a disapproving tone.

Prohibitions

Laws prohibiting various forms of witchcraft and divination can be found in the books of

Exodus Exodus or the Exodus may refer to: Religion * Book of Exodus, second book of the Hebrew Torah and the Christian Bible * The Exodus, the biblical story of the migration of the ancient Israelites from Egypt into Canaan Historical events * Ex ...

, Leviticus and

Deuteronomy Deuteronomy ( grc, Δευτερονόμιον, Deuteronómion, second law) is the fifth and last book of the Torah (in Judaism), where it is called (Hebrew: hbo, , Dəḇārīm, hewords Moses.html"_;"title="f_Moses">f_Moseslabel=none)_and_th ...

. These include the following (as translated in the King James Version): *Exodus 22:18 – ''Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.'' *Leviticus 19:26 – ''Ye shall not ... use enchantment, nor observe times.'' *Leviticus 20:27 – ''A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.'' *Deuteronomy 18:10-11 – ''There shall not be found among you any ... that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.'' The forms of divination mentioned in Deuteronomy 18 are portrayed as being of foreign origin. This is the only part of the Hebrew Bible to make such a claim. According to Ann Jeffers, the presence of laws forbidding necromancy proves that it was practiced throughout Israel's history. The exact difference between the three forbidden forms of necromancy mentioned in Deuteronomy 18:11 is a matter of uncertainty; ''yidde'oni'' ("wizard") is always used together with ''ob'' ("consulter with familiar spirits"), and its semantic similarity to ''doresh el ha-metim'' ("necromancer", or "one who directs inquiries to the dead") raises the question of why all three are mentioned in the same verse. The Jewish tractate '' Sanhedrin'' makes the distinction that a ''doresh el ha-metim'' was a person who would sleep in a cemetery after having starved himself, in order to become

possessed Possessed may refer to: Possession * Possession (disambiguation), having some degree of control over something else ** Spirit possession, whereby gods, demons, animas, or other disincarnate entities may temporarily take control of a human body *** ...

. A prophetic passage in the Book of Micah states that witchcraft and soothsaying will be eliminated in the Messianic Age (Micah 5:12).

Instances in Biblical narrative

* The Levites made use of the Urim and Thummim and various forms of sacrifice as instruments of divination to determine guilt and innocence in law cases (see, for instance, Deuteronomy 33:8-10). *

The silver chalice ''The Silver Chalice'' is a 1952 English language historical novel by Thomas B. Costain. It is the fictional story of the making of a silver chalice to hold the Holy Grail (itself here conflated with the Holy Chalice) and includes 1st century b ...

that is placed in

Benjamin Benjamin ( he, ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the last of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel (Jacob's thir ...

's sack when he leaves Egypt is described as being used by Joseph for divination, which is often taken as a reference to its use for scrying. * Numbers 5:11-31 describes a practice of making a wife who has been accused of adultery drink a mixture of water and dust from the floor of the Tabernacle in order to prove her guilt or innocence. * In

1 Samuel The Book of Samuel (, ''Sefer Shmuel'') is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Samuel) in the Old Testament. The book is part of the narrative history of Ancient Israel called the Deuteronomistic history, a series of books (Josh ...

28, Saul enlists the Witch of Endor to summon the spirit of the deceased prophet

Samuel Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bibl ...

Prohibitions

Instances in Biblical narrative

See also

References

Further reading