ORACLE
265
ORACLE
the 11th day of the montli of Abti of this year, within
tliese hundred days and these hundred nights . . .
within this fixed space of time will Kashtariti with
his troops, or the troops of the Cimmerians ... or
all other enemy, succeed in their designs? By as-
sault, by force ... by starvation, by the names of
the god and goddess, by parley and amicable confer-
ence, or by any other method and stratagem of siege,
shall they take the town of Kishassu? shall they enter
the walls of this town of Kishassu? . . . shall it fall
into their hands? Thy great godhead knoweth it. Is
the taking of this town of Kishassu, by whatsoever
enemy it be, from this day unto the [last] day ap-
pointed, ordained and decreed by the order and man-
date of thy great godhead, O Shamash, great Lord?
Shall we see it? Shall we hear it? etc. Observe the
preoccupation of leaving the god no avenue of elusion —
every possible contingency is named.
Among the nomad Arabs the priest is primarily a giver of oracles (by means of arrow-shafts, cf . Ezech., xxi, 21), though named Kahin the Hebrew 'fC- But since in Hebrew, Phoenician, Aramaic, and Ethiopian Kohen means priest, and cannot be etymologically con- nected with 'divination", we must conclude (La- grange, op. cit., 218) that the Arabian oracle-monger is a degenerate priest, not (Wellhausen) that all Se- mitic priests were aboriginally oracle-mongers.
II. The Hebrews. — Oracles were vouchsafed to the Hebrews by means of the Urim and Thummim, which are to be connected with the Ephod. The "ilCX (see Ephod) was (i) a linen dress worn in ritual circum- stances (by priests, I Sara., xxii, 18, the child Samuel, ibid., ii, 18; David, II Sam., vi, 14); (ii) 'the' ephod, described in Exod., xxviii, peculiar to the high-priest; over it was worn the pectoral containing Urim and Thummim; (iii) an idolatrous, oracular image, con- nected with the Teraphim (also oracular) ; that which Gideon erected weighed 1700 sikels of gold (Judges, viii, 27; xvii, 5; xviii, 14, 20; Osee, iii, 4 etc.). But why was this image called an ephod (a dress)? In Isaias, XXX, 22, 'icy the silver overlaying of idols, is parallel to ~~iN, their golden sheath. If then the Israelites were already familiar with an oracle operating in close connexion wit h a j ewelled ephod, it will have been easy to transfer this name to a richly plated oracular image. See van Hoonacker, "Sacerdooe levitique" (Louvain, 1899), .372.
The law directs (Num., xxvii, 18) that the leader of the people shall stand before the priest, and proffer his request: the priest shall "inquire for him by the judg- ment of Urim and Thummim before Yahweh". The priest alone [for the Ahi-jah of I Sam., xiv, 3, 18, is the Ahi-melek of x-x-i, 1; x.xii, 9, with the Divine name corrected] carries the ephod before Israel, and inquires on behalf of the chief alone (for Ahiraelek, I Sam., xxii, 1.3-1.5, denies having inquired for David while Saul still is king: see van Hoonacker, op. cit., 376). Thus history would agree with the Law as to the unity of the oracle, and its exclusive use by priest and prince.
Josephus thought the B"?:."!! C^'X were stones of changing lustre. The meaning of the names is un- known. Though they seem to have been used for sacred lots, and though I Sam., xiv, 37sqq. (especially in LXX) makes it fairly clear that they gave answer by Yes and Xo (in I Sam., x.xiii, 2, 4, 11, 12; x.xx, 8, the long phrasing is priestly commentary), and though I Sam., xiv, 42 (if indeed this still refers to the oracle and not to a private ordeal offered by Saul to, and rejected by, the people) by using the word "^'CD /SdXXtTf, "throw (between me and Jonathan) ", suggests a casting of lots, yet the U and T were not mere pebbles (e. g., black and white), for besides answering Yes and No, they could refuse answer altogether. This happened when the inquirer was ritually unclean (so Saul, in the person of his son, I Sam., xiv, 37; cf. the exclusion from the new-moon meal, ibid., xx, 26; sexual inter-
course precludes from eating sacred bread, ibid., xxi,
4). — Observe the lack, in Yahweh's oracle, of the
magical element, and extreme complication, which
disfigure those quoted in I. Notice, too, how Hebrew
priest and prince alike submit unquestioningly to the
Divine communication. The prince docs not dare
to seek to cajole or terrify the priest; nor the priest to
distort or invent the answer. Finally, when once the
era of the great prophets opens, it is through them
God manifests His will; the use of the ephod ceases;
the Urim and Thummim are silent and ultimately
lost.
III. Greece and Rome. — ["Oraculum: quod inest in his deorum oratio", Cic, "Top.", xx, "Voluntas divina hominis ore enuntiata", Senec, "Controv.", I. prf. 'Mai/Teiof. .j/MA as in /ialvo/iai, mens. The ixavm was the mouthpiece, the irpo(p^TTj!, the interpreter of the oracle (so already Plato, "Tim.", l.xxii, B). XpTi^Tiipiov: xP<^w, "furnish what is needful"; hence (active), to give (middle), to consult an oracle].
Oracles in the familiar sense flourished best in Greek or hellenized areas, though even here the ec- static element probably came, as a rule, from the East. The local element, however (for Hellenic oracles es- sentially localize divination), and the practice of in- terpreting divine voices as heard in wind, or tree, or water (^W'? Bidv; Sa-ira, AiJs a-niiaivei — the oracles began) spoke to the priestesses in the oak, the echoing bronze, the waterfall ; the underground Trophonius oracle in Le- badsea, with its violent and extraordinary ritual (Paus., IX, 39, 11: Plut., "Gen. Soer.", 22); and the incubation oracles of Asklepios, where the sleeping sick awaited the epiphany of the hero, and miraculous cure. Thousands of votive models of healed wounds and straightened limbs are unearthed in these shrines; and at Dodona, leaden tablets inquire after a vanished blanket, whether it be lost or stolen; or by prayer to what god or hero faction-rent Corcyra may find peace. Other especially famous oracles were those of Apollo at Abse, Delos, Patara, Clares; of Poseidon at Onches-
