RHABDOMANCY— LOTS— DREAMS— SEERS 429 



who " looked in the hver "), the Bible reveals signs and omens 

 resembhng or identical with those in use elsewhere. 



We read, for instance, of Rhabdomancy, or divination by 

 rods, " my people asketh counsel at their stock, and their 

 staff declareth unto them." 1 Drawing of Lots, probably by 

 different coloured stones, 2 Astrology,^ and Oneiromancy, or 

 dream divination.* 



Strabo reports as attached to the Temple at Jerusalem a 

 class of official dreamers, apparently for purposes of divination 

 or prophetic deliverances. Of the important part played by 

 dreams in both the Old and New Testaments, those of Jacob, 

 Joseph, Solomon, and Joseph the husband of Mary, are inter 

 alia evidence. In the Temple institution ^ may possibly be 

 detected the continuance of the Semitic pre-Mosaic custom 

 of sleeping places before a temple (as at Serabit-al-Khadim) 

 for dreamers ^ in quest of omens, although the references to 

 it in the O.T. itself are very slight, and only occur in connection 

 with Bethel stones and Seers.' 



The Seers were a recognised class of persons, who by an 

 exceptional gift could disclose to inquirers secrets of the present 

 and immediate future (i Sam. ix. 6, and x. 2-6). Samuel 

 himself belonged to the college or class of Seers. Like the 

 diviners, they received fees ; thus Saul's servant suggests the 

 giving to the Seer, whose words invariably come to pass, " a 

 quarter of a shekel of silver." 



* Hosea, iv. 12. Cf. Herodotus, IV. 67. 



2 I Sam. xiv. 41-2. Urim and Thummin seem pebbles kept in the Ephod. 



* Isaiah, xlvii. 13. 



* Gen. xxxi. 10-13; Judges, vli. 13. 



* Petrie, op, cit., p. 49. 



* Cf. the custom at certain Greek temples, whereby every person, who 

 paid the fee and compHed with the rules laid down, was allowed to sleep in or 

 near the sanctuary for the purpose of receiving omens in a dream. The men 

 slept in the east, the women in the west of the dormitory. Frazer, op. cit., 

 II. 44. A good monograph on the subject is by Miss M. Hamilton, Incubation, 

 London, 1906. Oneiromancy was highly esteemed in Israel, as in Egypt and 

 elsewhere. Joseph's skill (Gen. xl. and xli.) no doubt aided his rapid 

 advancement by Pharaoh. 



' " Sacred stones or monoliths were regular features of Canaanite or Hebrew 

 sanctuaries : many of these have been excavated in modern times." Some 

 of these Bethel stones are described " as uttering oracles in a whistUng voice, 

 which only a wizard was able to interpret." Frazer, op. cit., II., p. 59 and 

 p. 76. 



