III. Forms of divination merely referred to in the Bible, without special sanction or reprobation. . We here find the same general phrase as in the foregoing passage of Dent, introductory to another but much shorter catalogue ; for in the remarkable passage of Ezek. xxi, 21 [or 26 in the Hebrew], we have the three funous divinations of the king of Babylon. The prophet represents the monarch as standing *' at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to \ divination'' (dDg QDJjb).
1. He ** made the arrows bright** (rather, he shook 1kemtogether,Yu\g,eomwi»c€msagitkis,^'^^Ty^ ^P^F?, Sept. Ayappatrat papSia), "each arrow having in- scribed on it the name of some town to be assaulted. From the quiver the arrows were drawn one by one, and the city which was written on the first arrow drawn out was the first to be beleaguered" (Jerome, in loc). In tliis instance Jerusalem was the ill-feted ob- ject of this divination, as we learn from the next verse, where the divinationfor Jerus, (d^tS^^*^ ^^P9 signifies the arrow bearing the inscription of the doom- ed capital, as it first emerged from the divining-quiver (Frideaux, Connect, i, 86). Estius says '* he threw up a bundle of arrows to see which way they would light, and, felling on the right hand, he marched towards Je- rusalem." We have here a case of belomancy (JitXo- fiamiay. This superstition, which is prohibited in the Koran (chap, iii, 89 ; v, 4), was much practised by the idolatrous Arabs (D'Herbelot, Bibl. Or. s. v. Ac- dah). Their arrows, which were consulted before any thing of moment was undertaken, as when a man was about to marry, or undertake a journey, or the like, used to be without heads or feathers, and were kept in the temple of some idol. Seven such arrows were kept at the temple of Mecca, but in divination they generally used but three. On one of these was writ- ten, my Lord hath bidden me ; on the second was in- scribed, oiy Lord hath forbidden me ; while the third was blank. If the first was drawn, it gave the god*s sanction to the enterprise; the second prohibited it; but the third being drawn required that the arrows should again be mixed and again drawn until a deci- sive answer was obtained (Pococke*s Spec, Arab^ p. 324,
etc. ; Gesenius, TV*, p. 1224; Sale's Karm, Mrtp.90; do^UA, Diss, de Mag. aagitLm,t^ Valla, however, says (p. 276), ^ I saw at Akpp» hammedan who caused two perBons to sit OB the opposite each other, and gave tben fomr ami their hands, which both of them held vih tbsrpii downward,** etc The Ueo arrows in tiie r^ \ai^ the Assyrian king (sculptured oo one of tlttla;^^! brought from Nimrond) are conjectared t» be laA that difoination by arrow was practised in odaJb eveh. The king is represented as attesdcdl^taft vinities with fir<x>ne and basket, and i^oAk bu religious and not a martial occupation (Bsie.^ veh and its Palaces, 8d edit. p. 806). Three ti^mi an Eastern princess decided their daim brdkoAi each an arrow inscribed with his own mmL !k most distant arrow indicated the name of tiic msm ful competitor (Boberts^s OTieml.JUniUp.mj. \ read of a somewhat similar custom in use mn^k ancient Teutons (Tadtos, Gemu x), sad tme^k Alani (Am. MarcelL xxxi) ; also among tk wm Egyptians (Lane, ii, 111). This sort of (£T^iia< the king of Babylon must not be ccmfeonded vMk arrow shot (jStXo^Xia) of Jonathan, the t&tsam expedient of his secret warning to I>iTid,ISa.& 20, etc, in which, thon^ there were three smm,^ was no uncertain divination, bat an mtdw^inri s$ (Browne, Vulg. Errors, v, 28, 27). Again, a tbe M ing of arrows l>y Joash, king of Israel, at tibe «ad of the dying prophet (2 Kings xm, 17, Ig^tet f s the three arrows only an accidental, not anal n» blance ; moreover, we have in this actioa set a a authorized superstition, bat a symbdieal pi#i? (comp. the symbol with Yirgil, ^ia. ix, S3). Seeii
BOW.
2. '*He consulted with the images,"* trtri )4 (Sept imp^riioai iv role yXvwrolQ; Valg.Bar^ vit idola), litenOly terc^kins^ These hmelaU pi of the Shemitic nations are often nwntMnda^ Old Testament from the dme of tibt Sjiio IM (Gen. xxxi, 19) to this of the Chaldee NehKbih» sar (see Aug. Pfeifier, De Terapkim, m U|8^ ^ soar, xxiii, 666, who, unnecessarily indeed, n^ on grammatical grounds, that the kxag <f l&i^ may have used tiiese three divinatat^ .p«h" * his leaving home). Dr. Fairbaim (ob EmLxs.S says, "This is the only passage when Of « ^ teraphim is expressly ascribed to a beaOa.' Bi fenn of idohwuxney (tUuikofio^Tfid) is, kflwnK ^ where named (Zedi. z, 2; 1 Sam. xr, % TT^ inquirer). These were wooden fanagei (1 So- a 13) consulted as '* idols," ftomiHiSchtheext^^ shippers fancied that they received oncalarreffM The notion that they were the embalmed ks^ fl* fsnts on a gold pla^ inscribed with iht smt rfa unclean spirit is RabU Elieser*s inveadea (^ Rabbis think that they mean *' astrolabe^ etc" ^ Teraphim.
8. "He looked in the Kver," ^QM W" (5*^ KaraoKoirrioao^at v. r. lyyanw m) jripgaffStti ; Tn^ eaeta constUuiC). Here we have a case of a «S*i^ branch of splandknomancy (<rxXoyx»'0f'''^^ 'J inaOon by the inspection of entrails, "mioAwtm extisptdum (or art of the hamspices), prsctistdiiB* by the Etrurian soothsayers, and nn^ leiinifcj both Greek and Latin authors. Oeero (A^*^ 15) mentions the importance of the Smr m £n^ of this kind; hence this brandi was caBedif*^ (rprarooKoiria, Herodian. viii, 8, 17; see rii»J*J xi, 87; Ovid, i/«eamo>y*. XT, 136). ArTaB(ifc* 18) mentions an evO prognostication ia lefciu** the deaths of Alexander and Hephaestiaa; sad^ nius (^1^. xcv, 2) a happy one. Strabo ^»2* ed. Casaub.) mentions this divination as pw^' the Lusitani : not only animals ofllerrd ia SBoi^' cop^fves m irarfrimished these barbaiiauwilb^