It was said of Ahithophel that his counsel was “as if a man had inquired at the oracle of God,” or at the “word” of God (2 Sam. 16:23). In all other places in the Old Testament the word “oracle” applies to the holy of holies. It is doubtless so called because God said, “There I will meet with thee, and I will commune with thee from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all things which I will give thee in commandment unto the children of Israel” (Exod. 25:22). And it was from there that Moses received many of the laws (1 Kings 6:5-31; 1 Kings 7:49; 1 Kings 8:6,8; 2 Chron. 3:16; 2 Chron. 4:20; 2 Chron. 5:7,9; Psa. 28:2).
In the New Testament the word thus translated is λόγιον; it is applied to the law given to Moses, and committed to Israel; and also to truths revealed in New Testament times (Acts 7:38; Rom. 3:2; Heb. 5:12; 1 Peter 4:11). It signifies “a message or answer given by God,” and thence the place from which such were given.
In the learned heathen world, Satan had places in imitation of this, at which it was professed that an answer from their gods could be obtained; but the answers were often purposely vague in order that afterward they could be interpreted differently according as the event turned out. Thus the persons were duped who asked the questions.