The Mekhilta observes that the nations surrounding Israel relied on one consistent tool to guide their decisions: divination. The evidence runs through multiple books of the Torah and the Prophets, painting a picture of cultures thoroughly dependent on supernatural fortune-telling.
The Torah itself testifies in Deuteronomy: "These nations that you are to inherit resort to soothsayers and diviners" (Devarim 18:14). This was not a marginal practice or the province of fringe practitioners. Divination was woven into the political and military decision-making of entire civilizations.
The evidence grows more specific. When the elders of Moav and the elders of Midian went to hire Bilaam to curse Israel, they brought "instruments of divination in their hands" (Numbers 22:7). These were physical objects — tools of the trade, carried openly by national leaders. Divination was as standard a part of diplomatic missions as credentials or gifts.
Bilaam himself represents the pinnacle of this tradition. The book of Joshua identifies him bluntly: "Bilaam the son of Beor the augur" (Joshua 13:22). His professional title was diviner. His expertise was reading signs and manipulating supernatural forces. And he was killed by the sword — his powers ultimately unable to protect him from Israel's advance.
The Mekhilta notes one final detail: the elders of Midian, after consulting their divination tools, turned back. Whatever the instruments revealed, the message was clear enough to make them retreat. Even divination, the tool the nations trusted most, confirmed that pursuing Israel was a doomed enterprise. Their own methods told them what they refused to believe — that the God of Israel could not be outmaneuvered.