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Casting Lots

Nehemiah 11:1

Casting lots was common among ancient cultures. It was practiced by the Persians (Esth. 3:7), the pagan sailors on whose ship Jonah was running from God (Jonah 1:7), and the Roman soldiers vying for Christ's clothes at the crucifixion (Matt. 27:35). It is also mentioned in other settings (Joel 3:3; Nah. 3:10; Obad. 11). The Hebrew people in the OT used lots to determine the scapegoat (Lev. 16:8), assign the tribes to their inheritance in the Promised Land (Josh. 18:10), discover a guilty person (Josh. 7:14), select a king (1 Sam. 10:20, 21), and assign priests to their divisions (1 Chron. 24:3–49). Lots were probably made of pieces of stone or bone with markings on them, analogous to modern dice.

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