Soothsayer: One who pretends to prognosticate future events. Baalam 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; 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.
