27:9 So do not listen to your prophets or to those who claim to predict the future by divination,24 by dreams, by consulting the dead,25 or by practicing magic. They keep telling you, ‘You do not need to be26 subject to the king of Babylon.’
sn Various means of divination are alluded to in the OT. For example, Ezek 21:26–27 alludes to throwing down arrows to see which way they fall and consulting the shape of the liver of slaughtered animals. Gen 44:5 alludes to reading the future through pouring liquid in a cup. The means alluded to in this verse were all classified as pagan and prohibited as illegitimate in Deut 18:10–14. The Lord had promised that he would speak to them through prophets like Moses (Deut 18:15, 18). But even prophets could lie. Hence, the Lord told them that the test of a true prophet was whether what he said came true or not (Deut 18:20–22). An example of false prophesying and the vindication of the true as opposed to the false will be given in the chapter that follows this.
tn The verb in this context is best taken as a negative obligatory imperfect. See IBHS508–9§31.4g for discussion and examples. See Exod 4:15 as an example of positive obligation.