To PRACTISE DIVINATION — to read omens. Joseph's steward says of the silver cup that his master 'indeed divines by it' (44:5), and Joseph repeats the claim to the brothers' faces (44:15). The practice is real and Egyptian: LECANOMANCY, reading the shapes made by oil dropped into water in a bowl, is attested across the ancient Near East. ⚠️ It is also flatly prohibited by the Torah later (Leviticus 19:26; Deuteronomy 18:10), which leaves an honest question the text never answers: is Joseph describing what he does, or maintaining an Egyptian persona that includes a magician's reputation? This is the man who told Pharaoh 'not I — God will answer' (41:16), so the second is at least as likely. Genesis reports the claim and declines to comment; the versions all keep it plain (KJV 'whereby indeed he divineth'). → first discussed at Gen 44:5