Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897)/Soothsayer

by Matthew George Easton

Soothsayer: one who pretends to prognosticate future events. Balaam is so called (Joshua 13:22; Heb. kosem, a "diviner," as rendered 1 Samuel 6:2; rendered "prudent," Isaiah 3:2). In Isaiah 2:6 and Micah 5:12 (Heb. yonenim, i.e., "diviners of the clouds") the word is used of the Chaldean diviners who studied the clouds. In Daniel 2:27; 5:7 the word is the rendering of the Chaldee gazrin, i.e., "deciders" or "determiners", here applied to Chaldean astrologers, "who, by casting nativities from the place of the stars at one's birth, and by various arts of computing and divining, foretold the fortunes and destinies of individuals.", Gesenius, Lex. Heb. (See SORCERER.)