Micaiah "saw the Lord sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead? And one said on this manner, and another said on that manner. And there came forth a spirit, and stood before the Lord, and said, I will persuade him. And the Lord said unto him, Wherewith? And he said, I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets. And he said, Thou shalt persuade him, and prevail also: go forth, and do so. Now therefore, behold, the Lord hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets, and the Lord hath spoken evil concerning thee," 1 Kings 22:19-23.
When Paul was in the house of Lydia, he says, "It came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination, met us, which brought her masters much gain by her soothsaying: the same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which show unto us the way of salvation. And this she did many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour," Acts 16:16-18.
By sorcery, enchantment, &c., they performed wonders, or _miracles_, either real or pretended. "There was a certain man called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries," Acts 8:9-11. When "Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent, then Pharaoh also called the wise men, and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods," Ex. 7:10-12. When Aaron turned the water of the river to blood, "the magicians did so with their enchantments," v. 22. In like manner they "brought up frogs upon the land of Egypt," 8:7. But when Aaron changed the dust to lice, the magicians attempted the same with their enchantments, "but they could not," Ex. 8:18. These sorcerers who withstood Moses, we learn by Paul, were "Jannes and Jambres," 2 Tim. 3:8. They belonged to an ancient profession in Egypt; for, when Pharaoh dreamed his dreams, he first "sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all the wise men thereof: and Pharaoh told them his dreams; but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh," Gen. 41:8. In like manner Nebuchadnezzar "commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to show the king his dreams. So they came, and stood before the king," Dan. 2:2.