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319 (with Marduk as head of the pantheon) and later of Assyria (with Ashur as head of the pantheon), a complex plethora of oracle and omen priests, astrologers, dream interpreters, diviners, seers, conjurers, voayers and fortune-tellers filled temples, palaces, and humbler abodes—all claiming to be expert in conveying the Divine Word or being able to guess the Divine Will—"fortune"—from the examination of ani- mal livers, or how oil spreads on water, or celestial conjunctions. In this respect, too, the Israelites were required to act dif- ferently. "Ye shall not practice divination or soothsaying," was the commandment in Leviticus 19:26. "Seek neither seers of spirits nor fortune tellers," admonished Leviticus 19:31. In direct contrast to the inclusion of such "profession- als" within the ranks of the priests of other nations in antiq- uity, the Israelite priests and the Levites selected to serve in the temple were qualified to "stand before Yahweh" by (among other restrictions) never becoming "a magician, a diviner, a wizard or an enchanter, nor one who is a charmer or a seer of spirits, a fortune teller, or one who conjures up the dead; for all of them are an abomination to Yahweh—it how water, or on or was "stand by is because of those abominations that Yahweh thy Elohim doth drive them out before thee." (Deuteronomy 18:10-12). Practices that were—certainly by the time of the Exodus, in the fifteenth century B.C.—part and parcel of the religious practices throughout the ancient world and the worship of "other gods," were thus strictly forbidden by Yahweh in the religion and worship of Israel. How then could the Children of Israel, once in their Promised Land, receive the Divine Word and know the Divine Will? The answers were given by Yahweh himself. First, there will be the Angels, the Divine Emissaries, who would convey the Lord's will and guidance and act in His behalf. "I am sending a Mal'akh to be in front of thee, to guard thee on the way to bring thee unto the place which I have prepared," the Lord said to the Children of Israel through Moses; "beware of him and obey him, be not rebel- lious against him, for he will not forgive your transgressions; my Shem is in him" (Exodus 23:20-21). If so hearkened Prophets of an Unseen God before Yahweh"