AUGUR. The name of Augur is taken principally for those who concern themselves in foretelling what is to come, by the flight, the crowing, singing, or the feeding of Birds. I do not observe any presages made after this manner in the Scripture; but there are others in great number. The name of Augurs has been understood in a comprehensive sense, to signify all those who foretell what is to come by the view of Birds, the Heavens and Elements, of Animals, Lightning, the Entrails of Victims, Water, Wands, &c. and in this enlarged sense we sometimes find auguror & augurium1 in Scripture; signifying all sorts of Magick or Divination. God had commanded his people, upon pain of death, to forbear consulting of Magicians; and had expresly forbidden them to suffer any Magicians or Diviners in the land belonging to the Hebrews.
Gen. xliv. 5. Heb. 70.We read in Genesis, that Joseph ordered the Cup which he made use of in divining, to be concealed in Benjamin’s sack. Josephus ipse est in quo bibit Dominus meus, & in quo augurari solet. No one pretends to say, that Joseph made use of the art of divining in a superstitious manner; he was too wise and religious to practise any thing so vain, and so contrary to Religion, as Divinations, of what nature soever they might be; but his people might speak to Joseph’s Brethren according to the opinion of the Egyptians, who held Joseph to be a great Soothsayer a. Or the word Augurari in this place may be understood to mean foretelling what is to come: thus the Cup here mentioned is that which Joseph used in offering libations to God, when he had a mind to consult him about any thing future2. The Eastern people have always been very superstitious; they brought the generality of Divinations into vogue. Some of them have pretended to understand the language of Birds; upon which the art of Augury is founded. Notwithstanding the Romans made use of it in their most serious undertakings, the most sensible of them in their hearts laughed at it3.
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Footnotes
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Translators’ note. The Hebrew words thus translated in the Latin Vulgate are, אובand ,אבחwhich differ pretty much in significa- tion from Augur and Augurium. The Πνεῦμα Πύθωνος, in Acts xvi. 16. seems to come nearer the meaning par- ticularly of ,אובwhich by Buxtorf is rendred Pytho and Utres. Hinc, says he, Pythonis significatio juxta Aben Ezram, quod ex tumido ventre, quasi Utre oracula deponent inde ἐγγαστρίμυθος dictus fuit. But we know of no sort of Divination among the Hebrews, like that expressed properly by the word Augurium. ↩
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Grot. in Gen. xliv. ↩
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Translators’ note. And not only ridiculed it tacitly within themselves, but more explicitely and expresly. Cicero in his Book de Senectute takes notice of Fabius Maximus’s Contempt of this Art, Augurque cum esset, says he, dicere ausus est; optimis auspiciis ea geri. quæ pro Reipublicæ salute gererentur: quæ contra Rempublicam fierent, contra auspicia fieri. Ennius ranks Augurs among other publick Cheats and Impostors who are named by him. Non enim sunt ii aut arte Divini, aut scientiâ, sed superstitiosi Vates, impudentesque Arioli, &c. And Accius, Nihil credo Auguribus, qui aures verbis divitant alienas, suas ut auro locupletent domos. ↩