trologers in this passage are "the dividers of the heavens"; the star-gazers, "the reviewers of the heavens"; the monthly prognosticators, "those who give predictions from month to month." The word translated "a consulter with familiar spirits" is from a term whose literal meaning is equivalent to that of our ordinary word ventriloquist, drawn from the fact that such persons chirp, mutter, speak as one from the ground, or from the abdomen. The only place where the word "witchcraft" occurs in the Authorized Version of the New Testament is Galatians v, 20, where among the works of the flesh are named "idolatry and witchcraft." Witchcraft is there translated from φαρμακεία, signifying "enchanters with drugs."
The laws of Moses and the maledictions of the prophets show an attempt to prohibit, punish, and extirpate the whole host of occult practices of Egypt, Babylon, and Media, Persia, Phœnicia, and every other nation with which the Israelites came in contact. The theocratic nature of the government of God as set forth by Moses could not allow any rival; the attempt was rebellion and treason, the punishment death.
Against the conclusion which we draw that the attempt, and the attempt only, was to be considered in the trial of a case, it is said, "How, then, could an Israelitish judge decide the case of a person arraigned under this law? Would not the whole issue of the case depend upon the proof that the accused really had an attendant spirit? And is not the law an express declaration, not merely of the possibility, but also of the actual occurrence of such connections?" Not at all. Unless the Israelitish judges had the power of supernatural perception, the only thing that they could take cognizance of would be the attempt.
Those who reject this conclusion, if they would be
