- Ε ΞΞ----
“10 MAGIC, MAGICIAN
Here, as in the case of 4's (Dn 1° 277 47 5), ef. Assyr. asipu), we have probably Babylonian loan words. We have already indicated (art. DEMON) that the Heb. ww (with its Aramaic equivalent) was of like origin. In earlier days than the Exile, especially in the 15th and previous centuries, Canaan was largely under Babylonian influence. From Is 2° we are disposed to conclude that Baby- lonian magic and other foreign superstitions pre- vailed in Israel in the days of Ahaz, if the reading 079 (LXX dz’ ἀρχῆς) is to be accepted as sound. The validity of this reading most recent commentators, including Dillm. and Duhm, admit, though with the addition of 092 or ‘pep before oyP to make better structure and rhythm: ‘They are full of soothsaying from the East.’ Similarly Cheyne in SBOT. It is true that Balaam came trom Pethor (Dt 234 [5 Heb.], cf. Nu 22°), the Pitru of the Assyri- ans, on the western bank of the Euphrates, and that he was regarded as a soothsayer (Nu 297). Yet it must be admitted that the insertion of oop here is mere hypothesis. How deeply soothsaying and magic had infected Judah a century later is shown by Jer 275. The prevalence of the magical arts in early pre-exilian times is clearly evidenced in the most primitive code of Hebrew legislation, which strictly prohibited such practices, and regarded them as closely connected with heathen worship. It is, moreover, significant that in Ex 2218, the passage referred to, it is a woman professor of these arts, 75¥/22 or ‘sorceress,’ who was not to be permitted to live. Similarly in Islam both the witch.and the sorcerer were punished with death. ‘The punishment of drowning was inflicted on the witches of Kufa by the Khalif Valid 1.; see Wellhausen, Reste Arab. Heidenth.? p. 160.
In the list of prohibited practices in Dt 18" the 922 or magician is coupled with those who worked spells (129 135) by tying knots, whereby the victim was bound by an evil charm. Tlustrations of these customs have been already given in the account of Babylonian practice. Closely associ- ated in the Deuteronomic passage with the magi- cian (Av20) and the sorcerer who binds the knots, are the soothsayer (022) and the necromancer, and those who inquire by familiar spirits. On these subjects, nearly allied to magic and sometimes included in it, the reader is referred to the separ- ate articles, DIVINATION, SOOTHSAYING, and Sorcery. In Ps 58*° and Jer 8" we find interest- ing parallels which show that serpent-charming was practised as a mode of conjuring the demons, which the ancient Hebrews like the Arabs considered to reside in serpents. Illustrations of this popular superstition may be found in Baudissin, Stud. zur Semit. Relig. i. p. 279 ff. ; W. R. Smith, RS p. 120, n. 1, and p. 133. The root wn> used in the Biel of the serpent-charmer (Ps 58°) is probably a mimetic word meaning to hiss or whisper,* and thus to con- jure serpents. See W. R. Smith, Journ. of Phil. xiv. p. 122 ff Lagarde, indeed, would be disposed to connect wn3 and wn>, and derive the latter from the former. The Assyrian parallel Pael form luhhusu is obscure as to meaning.
Is 47 is a song (arranged in strophes) concerning the fall of Babylon. Its value for the student of history is the clear evidence it affords that by the Jews of the 6th cent. Babylonia was regarded as the land where magic had been practised from time immemorial (7:7:30 v.4). The prophet utters his warning in the words (vv.*!2)—
‘Yea there shall come over thee both these... childlessness and widowhood in their full measure though thy magic arts (7!5¥>) be many, though thy
*The presence of the significant sibilant w in all these words Wx, v2, vn, wni, suggests an ultimate mimetic origin connected with the sound of hissing or whispering. Cf. 189% in Is 1019 294,
MAGIC, MAGICIAN
spells (3:23q) be very potent... Abide by thy spells * and thy many incantations whereby thou weariest thyself.—Perhaps ye are able to obtain advantage, perhaps ye scare away [the foes].’
The references to popular magie in the OT are not infrequent. The ox of Reuben of which Rachel made use (ene J) seem to be a re- miniscence of some Magic superstitions connected with the worship of the deity a, which the Moabite Stone (line 12) would lead us to regard as a deity of love belonging to the tribe of Gad. There can be little doubt that the earrings buried by Jacob as idolatrous were magical amulets inscribed with words or tokens to avert, the evil eye or other disasters (Gn 354). Simi larly the ‘crescents’ or ‘little moons,’ μηνίσκοι (ov), of which Isaiah speaks in 3'* (Cheyne and Duhm make the passage post-Isaianic), may be compared with the Aild/@t or crescents adorn- ing a modern Arabian maiden. Similar crescents were worn on the camels’ necks (Jg 8”) of the Midianite kings, and were undoubtedly empl ed as amulets or charms (see Delitzsch on Is 318). Lane, in his Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians, observes that horses often wear append- ages consisting of a few verses of the Koran enclosed in cases of metal. That the lady of fashion in Jerusalem, whose attire is described by Isaiah, wore crescents as a charm, is shown by the subsequent mention of the amulets (o'v9)). See chs. xi. xii. in Lane’s work on Hejibs (charms) and Magic.