come.
The next term, 'ov, appears in 1 Sam 28 which recounts the well known story of the spiritist of
Ein Dor. The term yide`oni also appears in this passage and in fact in every instance of its usage
in Scripture always appears with 'ov. In fact, they can be understood as one term:
'ov ve-yide`oni.
The final phrase, doresh 'el hametim, has to do with consulting the dead. The only other
occurrence of this phrase is in Isa 8:19. In this verse in Isaiah are found the same final two
phrases that appear in Deut 18:11. From Isa 8:19 it may be that doresh 'el hametim is
synonymous with sho'el 'ov ve-yide`oni. Based on this some explain that doresh 'el hametim
serves to explains sho'el 'ov ve-yide`oni in Deut 18:11.
McConville has an apt summary of the reason why the above practices were widespread:
esoteric arts and practices grew up around it, together with various kinds of experts in them.
The felt needs of the ancients and how they went about finding solutions to the those needs as
seen in this brief survey are striking in similarity to the contexts in which the church in the third
world is finding expression. To sum up the discussion so far, guidance and power seem to be the
issues of importance in this passage. Let us now look to the solution that Yahweh offered to the
children of Israel in the third and final part of this exegesis of Deut 18.
C. The Prophet 18:15-22
In v. 15 the teshema`un especially highlights the concern not only that Yahweh has that his
people receive revelation from him and through appropriate means, but also that Yahweh is
sensitive to the concern of the people that they will have an appropriate channel to ,,hear or to
have access to revelation from him. The concern in ,,hearing is not simply for receiving eternal
principles with which the people should guide their lives (like the ten commandments or the
Torah, although, of course, that is a crucial part of it), but also for the more personal and specific
kind of guidance that drives people in situations of desperation to seek magic and the occult for
help in what to do, or help in trying circumstances, similar to the felt needs of those in the Third
World mentioned in the case studies above. There are examples of this personal kind of
guidance received by kings in the OT (1 Sam 9:20; 16:12), but there are also instances of it in
the lives of common people. One example would be Elisha and the widow (2 Kng 4:1-7). This
woman was on the verge of financial ruin, but Elisha, implicitly through revelatory power