The Torah assigns the death penalty to practitioners of certain forms of witchcraft and divination; the Holiness Code of Leviticus ascribes the death penalty for two of the three necromanticpractices, namelyBa'al ob and Yidde'oni, while the Covenant Code of Exodus ascribes it for kashaph. According to Ann Jeffers, necromancy was practiced throughout Israel's history, as evidenced by the presence of laws forbidding it. The Masoretic Text forbids:
nahash; as a noun, nahash translates as snake, and as a verb it literally translates as hissing. The verb form can be extended to mean whispering.
onan; onan literally translates as clouds, possibly referring to nephomancy.
kashaph; kashaph is of ambiguous meaning, being either from a root meaning mutter, or from a compound of the wordskash and hapalah - hence meaning herb user. The Septuagint renders the same phrase as pharmakia.
being a ba'al ob; ba'al ob literally means master of spirits. The corresponding parts of the Septuagint refer toeggastrimuthos.. This term is also used to describe the Witch of Endor, whom Saul enlists to summon the shade of Samuel in 1 Samuel 28
being a yidde'oni; yidde'oni literally means gainer of information from ghosts
being a doresh el ha-metim; doresh el ha-metim literally means questions corpses
qasam qesem; qasam qesem literally means distributes distributions.
khabar kheber; khabar kheber literally means join joinings.
Specific verses
Micah 5:12 expresses that witchcraft, as specified, will be eliminated among those of Israel.
The silver chalice that is placed in Benjamin's sack when he leaves Egypt is described as being used by Joseph for divination, which is often taken as a reference to its use for scrying.
Numbers 5;11-31 describes a practice of making a wife who has been accused of adultery drink a mixture of water and dust from the floor of the Tabernacle in order to prove her guilt or innocence.
1 Samuel 28: Saul enlists a woman to summon the spirit of the deceased prophet Samuel
Description
Many of these condemnations come from Deuteronomy 18:9-14 which is the only part of the Hebrew Bible referring to legal precepts which portrays these forms of divination as of foreign origin. Leviticus makes no such claim. The exact difference between the three forbidden forms of necromancy is a matter of uncertainty; yidde'oni is always used together with ob, and its semantic similarity to doresh el ha-metim raises the question of why all three are mentioned in the same verse of Deuteronomy. Rashi describes the doresh el ha-metim as a person who would sleep in cemeteries, after having starved themselves, in order to become possessed.
