Prognosticator
Prognosticator The phrase "monthly prognosticators" occurs in the A.V. as a rendering of לֶחַדָשַׁים מוֹדַיעַים, making known as to the months, in Isa 47:13, where the prophet is enumerating the astrological superstitions of the Chaldaeans. It is known that the Chaldaean astrologers professed to divine future events by the positions, aspects, and appearances of the stars, which they regarded as having great influence on the affairs of men and kingdoms; and it would seem, from the present text, that they put forth accounts of the events which might be expected to occur from month to month, like our old almanac-makers. Some carry the analogy further, and suppose that they also gave monthly tables of the weather; but such prognostications are only cared for in climates where the weather is uncertain and variable; while in Chaldea, where (as we know from actual experience) the seasons are remarkably regular in their duration and recurrence, and where variations of the usual course of the weather are all but unknown, no prognosticator would gain much honor by foretelling what every peasant knows. SEE ASTROLOGY; SEE DIVINATION.
