fabricator of material charms or amulets," if ^311, when i simplest explanation seems to be tliat Balaam was never used of practicing sorcery, means to bind magical knots, and not to bind a person by spells. G. SIX >X'J is "an inquirer by a familiar spirit." The second term signi- fies a bottie, a familiar sjiirit consulted by a soothsayer, and a soothsayer having a familiar spirit. The Sept. usually render the plural n^X by iyyafT7-p(ju(''3'oi, which has been rashly translated ventrilocpiists, for it may not signify what we understand by the latter, but refer to the mode in which soothsayers of this kind gave out their responses: to this subject we shall recur later. The consulting of familiar siiirits may mean no more than inviiking them ; but in the Acts we read of a dam- sel possessed with a spirit of divination (xvi, IG-l.S) in A^ry distinct terms. This kind of sorcery— divination by a familiar spirit— was practiced by the witch of En- dor. 7. ■'2i."n'i, which we rcjulcr " a wizard," is properly "a wise man," but is always applied to wizards and false prophets. Gesenius (r^c^a^//-. s. v.) supposes that in Lev. xx, 27 it is used of a familiar spirit, but surely the reading " a wizard" is there more probable. 8. The
last term, d'ir'2Jl~PX 'C'y^, is verj- explicit, meaning "a consulter of the dead;" necromancer is an exact translation if the original signification of the latter is retained, instead of the more general one it now usually bears. In the law it was commanded that a man or woman who had a familiar spirit, or a wizard, should be stoned (Lev. xx, 27). An " enchantress" (HS'li'^'?) was not to live (Exod. xxii, 18 [Heb. 17]). LTsing augurj' and hidden arts was also forbidden (Lev. xix, 2G). See Divination.
5. The history of Balaam shows the belief of some ancient nations in the powers of soothsayers. When the Israelites had begun to conquer the Land of Prom- ise, Balak, the king of Jloab, and the elders of Midian, resorting to Pharaoh's expedient, sent by messengers with "the rewards of divination (?D'i^&p) in their hands" (Numb, xxii, 7) for Balaam the diviner (CD".|?il, .Josh, xiii, 22), whose fame was known to them, though he dwelt in Aram. Balak's message shows what he believed Balaam's powers to be : " Behold, there is a people come out from Egypt: behold, they cover the face of the earth, and they abide over against me : come now therefore, I pray thee, curse me this people; for they [are] too mighty for me : peradventure I shall prevail, [that] we may smite them, and [that] I may drive them out of the land : for I wot that he whom thou blessest [is] blessed; and he whom thou cursest is cursed" (Numb, xxii, 5, G). We are told, however, that Balaam, wamed of God, first said that he could not speak of himself, and then by inspiration blessed those whom he had been sent for to curse. He appears to have received inspiration in a vision or a trance. In one place it is said, "And Balaam saw that it was good in the eyes of the Lord to bless Israel, and he went not, now as before, to the meeting of enchantments (B'^^'Hi), but he set his face to the wilderness" (xxiv, 1). From this it would seem that it was his wont to use enchant- ments, and that when on other occasions he went away after the sacrifices had been offered, he hoped that he could prevail to obtain the wish of those who had sent for him, but was constantly defeated. The building of new altars of the mystic number of seven, and the offer- ing of seven oxen and seven rams, seem to show that Balaam had some such idea ; and the marked man- ner in which he declared " there is no enchantment (Cn;) against Jacob, and no divination (CCp) against Israel" (xxiii, 23), proves that he had come in the hope that they -would have availed, the diviner here being made to declare his own powerlessness while be blessed those whom he was sent for to curse. The case is a very difficult one, since it shows a man who was used as an instrinuent for declaring (uid's will trusting in ])ractices that coidd only have incurred his displeasure. The
a true prophet but on this occasion, when the enemies of Israel -were to be signally confour.ded. This history affords a notable instance of the failure of magicians in attempting to resist the divine will. See Balaam.
G. The account of Saul's consulting the witch of En- dor is the foremost place in Scripture of those which re- fer to magic. The supernatural terror of which it is full cannot, however, be proved to be due to this art, for it lias always been held by sober critics that the appear- ing of Samuel was permitted for the purpose of declaring the doom of Saul, and not that it was caused by the in- cantations of a sorceress. As, however, the narrative is allowed to be very difficult, we may kiok for a moment at the evidence of its authenticity. The details are strictly in accordance with the age: there is a simplic- ity in the manners described that is foreign to a later time. The circumstances are agreeable with the rest of the history, and especially with all we know of Saul's character, llcre, as ever, he is seen resolved to gain his ends without caring what wrong he does : he wishes to considt a prophet, and asks a witch to call up his shade.