Determining the Future in the Ancient Near East

When people in the Tigris-Euphrates valley wanted to understand the future they usually did not go to a prophet. They usually read omens. Normally they would sacrifice an idol and look at the shape of the animal's liver. They had a great many models of livers, and each shape meant something different. The interesting reality is that someone had to determine what these various shapes and sizes meant.

When we look south of Israel to Ancient Egypt we can find a great deal of material that can be called very loosely prophetic. The vast literature of the Coffin Spells was sold as words of the gods, words faithfully recorded and preserved by the priests; however, these texts were not descriptions of the future, they were magic spells needed for survival in the underworld. Egyptians did have a regularly established school of prophets. A few of their prophecies have been recorded and handed down to us. One example from Egypt comes from the beginning of the nineteenth dynasty. In this text, the deceased King Seti I is depicted as addressing his son Ramses the Great. Seti promised his son long life, health, and great military victories.

Turning north from Egypt, prophecies were also common closer to Israel. Lawrence Boat quotes an Aramaic example of prophecy and an Ugaritic example in his book Ezekiel's Oracles Against Egypt: A Literary and Philological Study of Ezekiel 29-32. He notes that the Stella Zachir of Hammoth quotes the oracle's response at Baal-Shammon. In this deal the god told the king not to be afraid. The god had formed him and would protect him from the kings who were besieging him. Then the god promised to destroy all of the kings who were opposed to him. A similar text comes from the Ugaritic literature. In this text one god made a prophetic promise to another god. The Craftsman god promised to deliver Baal from his enemies and to help him conquer his foes. He then promised that Baal would then cease his eternal kingship and reign forever.

These prophecies of course have not come true. The fact that none of them have been fulfilled proves that the prophets were false. On the flip side, the faithful fulfillment of Israel's prophecies proves that their prophets were and are true Prophets.