From the beginning to the end of this strange history we have no warrant ibr attributing supernatural power to magicians. Viewed reasonably, it refers to the ques- tion of apparitions of the dead as to which other places in the Bible leave no doubt. The connection with mag- ic seems purely accidental. The witch is no more than a by-stander after the first : she sees Samnel, and that is all. The apparition may have been a terrible fulfil- ment of Saul's desire, but this does not prove that the measures he used were of any power. 'We have exam- ined the narrative very careful!}-, from its detail and its remarkable character : the result leaves the main ques- tion unanswered. See Incantation'.
7. In the later days of the two kingdoms magical practices of many kinds prevailed among the Hebrews, as we especially learn frfim the condemnation of them by the proj)liL'ts. Every form of idolatry which the fjcople had adojited in succession doubtless brought with it its magic, which seems always to have remained with a strange tenacity that probably made it outlive the false worship with which it was connected. Thus the use of teraphim, dating from the patriarchal age, was not abandoned when the worship of the Canaanitish. Phivnician, and Syrian idols had been successively adofited. In the historical books of Si-ripture there is little notice of magic, except that wherever the false prophets are mentioned we have, no doubt, an indication of the prevalence of magical practices. We are espe- cially tokl of Josiah that he put away the workers with familiar spirits, the wizards, and the terajihim, as well as the idols and the <ither abominations of Judah and Jerusalem, in i>erforniance of the commands of the buok of the law which had been found ('2 Kings xxiii, 2^).
But in the prophets we find several notices of the magic of the Hebrews in their times, and some of the magic of foreign nations. Isaiah says that the people had be- come workers of hidden arts (C^iii") like the Philis- tines, and apparently alludes in the same place to the practice of magic by the Bene-Kedem (ii, 6). The na- tion had not only abandoned true religion, but had be- I come generally addicted to magic in the manner of the Philistines, whose Egyptian origin [see Caphtok] is consistent with such a condition. The origin of the Bene-Kedem is doubtful, but it seems certain that as late as the time of the Egyptian wars in Syria, under the xixth dynasty, B.C. cir. 1300, a race, partly at least Mongolian, inhabited the valley of the Orontes, among whom, therefore, we should again expect a national prac- tice of magic, and its prevalence with their neighbors. Balaam, too, dwelt with the Bene-Kedem, though he may not have been of their race. In another place the prophet reproves the people for seeking "unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto the wizards that chirp, and that mutter" (viii, 19). The practices of one class of magicians are stiU more distinctly described where it thus said of Jerusalem: "And I will camp against thee round about, and will lay siege against thee with a mount, and I will raise forts against thee. And thou shalt be brought down, [and] shall speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a fa- miliar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust" (xxix, 3, 4). Isaiah alludes to the magic of the Egj-ptians when he says that in their calamity " they shall seek to the idols, and to the charm- ers [S'^IpN?], and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards" (xix, 3). And in the same manner he thus taunts Babylon : " Stand now with thy charms, and with the multitude of thine enchantments, wherein thou hast labored from thy youth ; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail. Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the viewers of the heavens [or astrologers], the star- gazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up and save thee from [these things] that shall come upon thee" (xlvii, 12, lo). The magic of Babylon is here charac- terized by the prominence given to astrology, no magi- cians being mentioned exccjiting practlcers of this art; unlike the case of the Egyptians, with whom astrology seems always to have held a lower place than with the Chaktean nation. In both instances the folly of those who seek the aid of magic is shown.
Micah, declaring the judgments coming for the crimes of his time, speaks of the prevalence of divination among prophets who most ]n-obably were such pretended proph- ets as the opponents of Jeremiah, not avowed prophets of idols, as Ahab's seem to have been. Concerning these prophets it is said, " Night [shall be] unto you, that ye shall not have a vision ; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them. Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners con- founded; yea, they shall all cover their lip; for [there is] no answer of Cod" (iii, G, 7). Later it is said as to Jerivsalem, " The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money; yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, [Is] not the Lord among us? none evil cau come upon us" (vcr. 11). These prophets seem to have practiced unlawful arts, and yet to have expected reve- lations.