Wizard

A wizard (Hebrew yid'oni, "a knowing one," from yada', "to know") was a person who claimed to possess secret knowledge through contact with a familiar spirit — a spirit of the dead or a demonic being who provided information about hidden or future things. The Mosaic law prohibited seeking wizards (Leviticus 19:31; 20:6) and decreed death for anyone who possessed a familiar spirit or was a wizard (Leviticus 20:27). Wizards are frequently paired with mediums ('ovot) in the law and the historical books, representing two related forms of divination through contact with the spirit world. Saul expelled wizards and mediums from Israel early in his reign (1 Samuel 28:3) but later consulted the medium of Endor in desperation — a final apostasy. Isaiah's condemnation of the people for consulting "wizards that peep and that mutter" (Isaiah 8:19) uses the imagery of faint spirit-sounds to expose the futility and debasement of seeking the dead rather than the living God.