In view of the importance in local
religion of the ancestor cult, the practice of necromancy should come as no
surprise. In spite of the Deuteronomistic censure of the phenomenon, many
people found it entirely legitimate to ask a prophet to consult ghosts: “should
not a people consult their gods, the dead on behalf of the living?” (Isa 8:19 NRSV).
With the synonymous parallelism between the gods (‘ĕlōhîm)
and the dead (mētîm), the question is another
indication of the divine status of the ancestors. In addition, the circumstance
that the question is addressed to prophets—the disciples of Isaiah, according
to Isa 8:16—proves that the professional activities of prophecies did, at least
on occasion, include necromancy. The Deuteronomistic portrait of the prophets
as preachers of true religion is misleading. Historically, both male and female
prophets were active in the entire spectrum of inspired divination—as distinguished
from the more technical form of divination practiced by priests. In local
religion, those with a gift for divination used many ways to get in touch with
the divine: from spirit possession and visionary experience to necromancy and
the interpretation of dreams. To those who came for an oracle of God or a word
from the ancestors, it did not matter. As long as they got an answer that would
allow them to go on with their lives, they were unlikely to question the
divinatory method. (Karel van der Toorn, Israelite Religion: From Tribal
Beginnings to Scribal Legacy [The Anchor Yale Bible Reference Library; New
Haven: Yale University Press, 2025], 151-52)