• See James Sibree, * Divination among the Malagasy,' Folk- iore, iii. [1892] 193 fif.
t F. Granger, The Worship of the Romans, 1S95, p. ISO ; Cicero, de Dicinatione, ii. Sb, etc. ; W. Smith. Diet. <>/ Greek and Roman Antiquities, 1S75, artt. 'Oraculum,' '.Sortes'; Thomas Gataker, Treatise of the Nature and Use of Lots-, 1627, and A just Defence of certain Passages in [the preceding\ Treatise, 1623, p. 75.
J W. R. Halliday, Greek Divination, 1913, ch. x. ; Smith, loc. eit., art. ' Dicastes' ; The Martyrdom of Poly carp, vi.
§ The Qur'an (sura v. 4, Sale's Prcl. Disc, v.) prohibits the procuringr of a Divine sentence by drawing a lot at the sanctuary with headless arrows.
II \f. Robertson Smith, ' Divination and Magic in Dt ISi"- 11/ in JPh xiii. [IsSo] 277.
IT W. Robertson Smith, v6.
•♦ h'CV may mean (a) ' cast into,' or (jS) ' cast about in ' {HDB iv. 840). pT, may mean the bosom of (a) a person ; O) a gar- ment ; (y) a thing, as a chariot or altar, hence misht possibly mean an urn (Smith's DB ii. 146). The meaning is almost certainly that under (^).
tt W.R. Smith, RS-, 1S94. p. 196, and comment thereon by G. B. Gray in Com. on Sumhers{ICC, 1903).
J31.V19 » ijnder the form known as the Urim and tlie Thummim it was or became a mode used only by the priests, t Kleromancy had, of course, its largest sphere in acts directly connected with Jahweh. The decision as to which goat should be for sacrifice to Jahweh and which to Azazel was determined by lot (Lv le*"'^"). A war was the war primarily not of Israel but of Jahweh, and that specially if it was for the punishment of wrong- doing ; hence the members of a punitive expedition were chosen by lot (Jg 20"), hence also the spoil taken in war (Jg 5^"), whether captives (2 S 8^ Nail 3'°, Jl 3^) or sections of a conquered city (Ob ''). The services of the sanctuary Avere sacred ; hence the priestlv functions were assigned to the orders by lot (1 'Ch 24^-^, Lk 1"), Shemaiah the scribe writing out the lots in the presence of a committee consisting of the king, the high priest, and other functionaries (1 Ch 24^- 2'). The musi- cians (1 Ch 25*), the custodians (1 Ch 26^- "), and the persons who should bring the wood and other ofi'erings to the temple (Neh 10^''), were all chosen by lot. So sacred was this procedure that a special official was entrusted with 'superintending the daily casting of the lots for determining the particular parts of the service that were to be apportioned to the various officiating priests' (E. Schiirer, HJP II. i. 269, 293). It was even maintained by some Jews in later times that the high priest had been chosen by the same method (Jos. BJ IV. iiL 7, 8 ; c. Ap. ii. 24). As the king was the official representative of Jahweh, Saul was chosen by lot (1 S 10'**"'-'), Godless or indiscriminate work is where no lot is cast (Ezk 24"). When the 0-1.- or ban had been pronounced and violated, then the guilty person was detected whether the c-in was permanent (Jos 7i'*-i*) or temporary (1 S 14""'*-), in both cases presumably by the Urim and the Thummim. J As the Semites regarded the land inhabited by a nation as the possession of the god of the nation, Palestine belonged, as an allotment, to Jahweh (Dt 32**) ; hence it was His right and duty to put His people into actual possession (Ps 105", 1 Ch 16'«), which He did (Ps 78*^ 13512^ Ac 13'**), and to divide it up by kleromancy into allotments to the various tribes (Nu 26*"-"^ 33^-' 36'-).§ This accordingly was done in regard to the nine and a half tribes (Nu 34'=*, Jos 14^ 15^ 16^ 171. 14-17 Ps 7S55j^ ^ t^jjQ conquered land, to the land still unconquered after the first great effort (Jos IS^-n 19i-^»), and at the death of Joshua (Jos \2>^) ; also in regard to the towns for the Levites (Jos 21*, 1 Ch 6*^ ; Jos 2P, 1 Ch 6" ; Jos 21«, 1 Ch 6«2 ; 1 Ch 6*» ; Jos 2P, 1 Ch Q^). This was done ' before Jahweh ' (Jos 18^) and under the direction of a committee consisting of the high priest, the political chief, and the heads of the fathers' houses of the tribes (Jos 14'"-).
In course of time the procedure which had been primarily and essentially sacred was applied to secular afiairs such as the selection of people to inhabit and guard a city (Neh 11'). A study of the Old Testament reveals how kleromancy coloured the thought and the theology of the Hebrew thinkers and poets.
* See also Ps 915.
t As was the ephod (1 S 1418) ; LXX and J. Wellhansen, Prolegomena to the History of Israel, 1S85, p. 133 ; HDB iv. 838, with the literature there mentioned, and v. 662b.
t 1 S l4-'i-'*2 as amended from LiX bv A. Kuenen, The Re- ligion of Israel, i. [1874] 98; A. R. S. Kennedy, HDB iv. 839*' ; G. B. Gray, in Mansneld College Essays, 1909, p. 120 ; S. R. Driver, Text of the Books of Samuel, 1890.