Isaiah 3 · a question people ask
"the judge, the prophet, the diviner, the elder" (3:2). Why is the diviner in the list beside the prophet?
The verse doesn't say. It lists all of them as what the LORD "takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah" (3:1), and the list has "the diviner" (3:2) and "the clever enchanter" (3:3) among the judge, the prophet and the elder. The law had said, "There shall not be found with you … one who uses divination" (Deuteronomy 18:10). Later in Isaiah the LORD is the one "who frustrates the signs of the liars, and makes diviners mad" (Isaiah 44:25), where diviners is the verb of diviner in Isaiah 3:2, qasam. Enchanter in 3:3 is lachash, the word of "the charms" in 3:20 (tap charms). The chapter names what is taken and gives no reason for the order of the list, and these notes don't guess one.
The verses
“For, behold, the Lord, GOD of Armies, takes away from Jerusalem and from Judah supply and support, the whole supply of bread, and the whole supply of water; the mighty man, the man of war, the judge, the prophet, the diviner, the elder, the captain of fifty, the honorable man, the counselor, the skilled craftsman, and the clever enchanter.”
“the headdresses, the ankle chains, the sashes, the perfume containers, the charms,”
“There shall not be found with you anyone who makes his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who tells fortunes, or an enchanter, or a sorcerer,”
“who frustrates the signs of the liars, and makes diviners mad; who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolish;”