Hebrews fell into idolatry, divination, which always accompanied idolatry, revived and flourished, but all during their history it is evident that secretly and again more openly wrongful arts were used, and as a result condemnations were frequent (I K., xv, 23; IV K., xvii, 17; Zach., x, 2: Is.. xliv, 25 etc.). It should be borne in mind that their history is a very long one, and when we reflect how completely other nations were given over to all kinds of impious arts and silly observances we shall readily admit that the He- brews were in comparison remarkably free from super- stitions. When later on these flourished more strongly and permanently it was during the decay of faith pre- ceding and following the time of Christ (see Jos., Ant. Jud., XX, v, i, viii, 6; Bell. Jud., VI, v, 2). The Talmud shows the downward tendency.
The various methods of divining and kinds of diviners are not always clearly distinguished in Scripture, the Hebrew words being differently interpreted and metimes merely synonyins. The following list is based mainly upon Lesêtre's article in Vigouroux's "Dict. de la Bible":
1. Divination by consulting the Ṭerāphîm ((
Hebrew characters)),
or small household gods of which we first read in the
time of Abraham and Laban (Gen., xxxi, 19). How
they were consulted is not known. It was apparently
a Chaldean form, as Laban came from that country.
They are met with in Judges, xvii, 5; IV K., xxiii, 24,
and elsewhere. They sometimes deceived their in-
quirers (Zach., x, 2).
2. The Ḥártummîm ((Hebrew characters)), a name translated by "interpreters" (Vulg. conjectores) in the Douay version (Gen., xli, 8), but elsewhere (Dan., ii, 2) by "diviners" (Vulg. arioli) and other names, especially "Chaldeans".
3. The Ḥakāmîm ((Hebrew characters)) are the wise men (Vulg.
sapientes) of the Bible (Gen., xli, 8), a name given
to those skilled in divination in Egypt, Idumea
(Abd., 8), Persia (Esth., i, 13), and Babylon (Jer.,
1, 35).
4. Qéṣém or Miqṣām ((Hebrew characters), (Hebrew characters)) designated divination in general and is always used in the Scripture in a bad sense except in Prov., xvi, 10. By it the
witch of Endor raised up the dead Samuel (I K.,
xxviii, 8). "The king of Babylon stood in the high-
way, at the head of two ways, seeking divination
[géṣém], shuffling arrows; he inquired of the idols
(ṭerāphîm), and consulted entrails" (Ezech., xxi, 21).
The arrows bore the signs or names of towns, and
the first name drawn was the one to be attacked. This
was a Babylonian mode. The Arabs practised it so:
three arrows were prepared and the first inscribed
"The Lord wills it", the second "The Lord wills it
not", and the third was blank. If the blank came a
new drawing followed until an inscribed arrow was
taken. The last method mentioned in text quoted
was aruspicy (Vulg. exta consuluit).
5. Náḥásh ((Hebrew characters)) is soothsaying (Vulg. augurium) in
the Bible (Num., xxiii, 23). The precise method
signified by it is in dispute. The versions make it
equivalent to divination by the flight of birds, but this
mode, so common among the Greeks and Romans, was
apparently not used by the Hebrews except towards
the time of Christ. From its derivation, as commonly accepted, it would mean divination by serpents,
ophiomancy, but on the other hand it is never in this
sense in the Scriptures. Balaam's divination by animal sacrifices is so termed (Num., xxiv, 1) and
also Joseph's (Gen., xliv, 5, 15) which remains a
vexed question in spite of Calmet's triumphant
solution (Dict. of the Bible, III, p. 30) except
the reasonable explanation of Grotius be accepted
(Hummelauer, Com. in Gen., p. 561).
6. Mekáshsheph ((Hebrew characters)) is the magician (Vulg. maleficus) in Ex., vii, 11, and the wizard in Deut., xviii, 10,
who not only seeks the secrets of the future but works
wonders. St. Paul mentions two of their leaders,
Jannes and Mambres, and their modes are styled sor
ceries (Vulg. veneficia) in IV K., ix, 22 and (Vulg.
maleficia) Micheas, v, 11.
7. The word 'ôbh ((Hebrew characters)) signifies the spirit called and
the person calling him, the necromancer. In Deut.,
xviii, 11, it is expressed by "seeking the truth from the
dead" (the best known case is that of the witch of
Endor) and elsewhere by Pythons (Is., viii, 19), divin-
ing spirits (I K., xxviii, 7). The Septuagint trans-
lates the words by "ventriloquist" because when the
necromancers failed or wished to deceive the people
they muttered as if from under the ground as though
spirits so spoke; it recalls Shakespeare's "squeak and
gibber". (Cf. Is., xxix, 4.) A bottle or skin water-
bag is 'ôbh; the use of the word here may come from the
diviner containing the spirit or being inflated by it.
8. The 'Yidde 'onîm ((Hebrew characters)) were diviners whom we
generally find connected with necromancers, and the
two terms are perhaps practically synonymous (I K.,
xxviii, 3; IV K., xxi, 6; etc.).
9. Divining by Me'ôn{sSubst:e-}}n ((Hebrew characters)) included apparently many methods: divination by chance words, as
when Abraham's servant sought a wife for Isaac (Gen.,
xxiv, 14; I K., xiv, 9; III K., xx, 33); auguries (Is.,
xi, 6); observers of dreams (Deut., xviii, 10), etc.
There were also modes by charming serpents (Jer.,
viii, 17). astrology (Is., xlvii, 13), and by consulting
the Ephod (I K., xxiii, 9).
In the N. T. diviners are not specifically mentioned except in Acts, xvi, 16, concerning the girl who had a pythonical spirit; but it is altogether likely that Simon Magus (Acts, viii, 9), Elymas (Acts, xiii, 6), and others (II Tim., iii, 13), including the possessors of the magical books burnt at Ephesus (Acts, xix, 19), practised divination and that it is included in the wonders by which Antichrist will seduce many (Apoc., xix, 20). Under the New Law all divination is forbidden because, placed on a higher plane than under the Old Dispensation, we are taught not to be solicitous for the morrow (Matt., vi, 34), but to trust Him perfectly Who numbers the very hairs of our heads (Matt., x, 30). In divination, apart from the fraud of the Father of Lies, there was much merely human fraud and endless deception; the predictions were generally as vague and as worthless as modern fortune-telling, and the general result then as now favoured vice and in- jured virtue. (See ASTROLOGY.)
TYLOR, Researches into the Early Hist. of Mankind (London, 1865); IDEM, Primitive Culture (London, 1891); SALERTE Philosophy of Magic (New York, 1862); ENNERMOSER, Hist. of Magic (Bonn); ANTHON-SMITH, Dict. of Gr. and Rom. Antiq., JEVONS in HAST., Dict. of the Bible (New York, 1905), s. v. Divination; WHITEHOUSE, ibid., s. v. Soothsaying; LENORMANT, Chaldaan Magic (London, 1875), tr. of La Divination... chez les Chaldéens (Paris, 1875); LESETRE in VIG., Dict. de la Bible (Paris); LECLERQ, Hist. de la divination dans l'antiquité (Paris); SCHOLZ, Gotzendienst und Zauberwesen (Ratisbon, 1877); SCHANZ in Kirchenlex., s. v. Wahrsagerei; CICERO, De Divinatione: PLUTARCH, De Oraculis; ST. CLEMENT OF ALEX, Stromata, I; DELRIO, Disquisitiones Magicæ (Louvain, 1599) often reprinted; compendium in French (Paris, 1611); SLATER, Moral Theology (New York, 1908); HUNTER, Outlines of Dogm. Theol. (New York, 1896); LEHMкUHL, Theol. Moralis (Freiburg, 1888); D'ANNIBALE, Summula Theol. Mor. (Rome, 1908); ST. THOMAS, Summa.II-II, Q. xcv; IDEM, Con. Gentes, III; IDEM, Opusc. de Sortibus.
All works on magic and ancient religions treat of divination.
E. P. GRAHAM.
Divine Charity, SOCIETY OF (SOCIETAS DIVINA CHARITATIS), founded at Maria-Martental near Kaisersesch, in 1903, by Joseph Tillmanns for the solution of the social question through the pursuit of agriculture and trades (printing, etc.) as well as by means of intellectual pursuits. The society consists of both priests and laymen.
TILLMANNS AND OEHMEN, Die wahre Lösung der sozialen Frage (Martental, 1905).
SISTERS OF DIVINE CHARITY, founded at Besançon, in 1799, by a Vincentian Sister, and modelled on the Sisters of Mercy of St. Vincent de Paul. The mother-house, originally at Naples, is now in Rome, and there are many filial establishments in Italy, in Malta, and
