Magicians

Magicians in the Old Testament translates the Hebrew hartumim, a term for the sacred scribes and ritual specialists of Egypt and Babylonia who practiced divination, dream interpretation, and occult arts. The word is used in Daniel 1:20 and in the Egyptian narratives of Genesis and Exodus. In Genesis 41:8, 24, Pharaoh summons his magicians to interpret his dreams of the seven fat and seven lean cows — dreams none of them can interpret, setting the stage for Joseph's divine gift of interpretation. The same word describes the Egyptian specialists who replicated some of Moses's signs before Pharaoh (Exodus 7:11, 22; 8:7) but were ultimately unable to imitate the plague of lice and admitted: "This is the finger of God" (Exodus 8:19).

In Daniel 2 and 4, the Babylonian hartumim — grouped with astrologers, sorcerers, and Chaldeans — repeatedly fail where Daniel succeeds, because Daniel's wisdom comes from God rather than from occult technique. The pattern in both Genesis-Exodus and Daniel is consistent: human magical arts fail at the critical moment, while divine revelation through the Spirit-endowed servant prevails.