Abarim Publications' online Biblical Hebrew Dictionary
קסם
The root קסם (q-s-m) occurs all over the Semitic language basin and primarily appears to derive from the idea of dividing and dispensing lots (i.e. portions of resources), which is an activity performed by a dominant agent and done to a submissive recipient. In Old English, such a dominant agent would be known as the hlafweard, or "loaf warden": the person who controlled the provisions and decided who got some and who didn't. From this term hlafweard evolved the more recognizable word "lord", which still describes a person with the authority over a group of subservients, and decides who gets any.
The crucial difference between the Body of Christ and any other form of government is that the lords of the world hold positions of power (and use power to stay in power), whereas the Body of Christ consists of equals (called brothers or friends: John 15:15) and nobody is anybody's master (1 Corinthians 15:24) and everybody serves the other guy rather than lord it over them (Matthew 20:25-28).
The lords of the world are lords because they hold power, and they sustain their power by surrounding themselves with sycophants, who in turn derive their own position from that of their lord. Anybody else who needs something that the lord or his puckering posse holds sway over will have to first publicly acknowledge the dominance of these lords. Whatever resources are then forked over are in fact payment for the virtue of keeping the lord in power. This is what all worldly lords are after and what they will reward.
The Lord of Life — who is known about via the Word of God — works entirely different, because his sovereignty cannot be challenged and only partaken in (2 Peter 1:4). Whatever can be done in the universe can be done when the doer knows how to do it (John 14:12). There's no need to beg and plead, because God so loved the world that he sent into the world his Word, who embodies the Theory of Everything (Ephesians 1:10), from whom all things emerge and in whom all things hold together (Colossians 1:16-17, Romans 8:28), to which everything is subjected (1 Corinthians 15:27, Ephesians 1:22, Hebrews 2:8), in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3), and who teaches everything that can be taught (2 Timothy 2:7, John 14:26) to anybody free of charge (2 Corinthians 9:15, Revelation 22:17).
People who don't know this and still want to control nature, resort to magic. They dispense concoctions and pronounce spells, hoping that something might work, and sometimes it does (the witch of En-dor comes to mind) but when it does, it usually causes more damage than good. Technological skill is the very gift of God that allowed Bezalel to construct the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 31:1-11), but the hiddenness of technological skills is a safety that is built into nature. If all secrets of nature had been accessible to our ancestors before they had developed the intellectual maturity that allows peaceful co-existence with folks of other nature or leaning, humanity would have nuked itself out of existence a long time ago.
In the words of Zechariah: "The קוסמים (qosemim) see lying visions and tell false dreams. They comfort in vain and therefore the people wander like sheep. They are afflicted, because there is no shepherd" (Zechariah 10:2, and see Deuteronomy 18:20-22).
God gives proper and useful knowledge for free to anyone who isn't going to abuse that knowledge in order to dominate or oppress weaker members of society. And he does that, cleverly, by giving it to those weaker ones first. Society's alphas are much more interested in maintaining the status quo, and keeping the world in which they are so very successful the way it is. It's the people who cry out for change who find God and his Word.
From our root קסם (q-s-m) derive:
- The noun קסם (qesem), meaning witchcraft or divination: the "art" of people who lack proper knowledge or intellectual maturity and still want to control the forces of nature and other people, or do it for personal gain (Balaam) rather than the common good or the glory of God. Such irresponsible abuse of the forces of nature is widely condemned in the Bible (Deuteronomy 18:10, 1 Samuel 15:23, Ezekiel 13:6-23, 21:21-29, Jeremiah 14:14), but a responsible use of it certainly isn't (Proverbs 16:10, Isaiah 3:2, Micah 3:6). From this noun in turn derives:
- The denominative verb קסם (qasam), to divine, to practise witchcraft, to attempt to control nature without understanding what one is doing or doing it for personal gain (Numbers 22:7, Joshua 13:22, 1 Samuel 28:8, 2 Kings 17:17, Jeremiah 27:9).
- The noun מקסם (miqsam) also meaning divination, but rather the art or place or activity of it (Ezekiel 12:24 and 13:7 only).