For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver.
For the king of Babylon stood at the parting - literally, 'mother of the way.' Since "head of the two ways" follows, which seems tautology after "parting of the way," Havernick translates, according to Arabic idiom, the highway or principal road. The English version, however, is not tautology, "head of the two ways" defining more accurately "parting of the way."
He made his arrows bright, х qilqal (H7043), from qaalal (H7043), to be light] - rather, 'he shook,' from an Arabic root.
Arrows. Divination by arrows is here referred to: they were put into a quiver, marked with the names of particular places to be attacked, and then shaken together; whichever came forth first intimated the one selected as the first to be attacked (Jerome). The same usage existed among the Arabs, and is mentioned in the Koran. In the Nineveh sculptures the king is represented with a cup in his right hand, his left resting on a bow; also, with two arrows in the right and the bow in the left, probably practicing divination.
He consulted with images - Hebrew tªraapiym (H8655): household gods, worshipped as a family talisman, to obtain direction as to the future, and other blessings. First mentioned in Mesopotamia, whence Rachel brought them (Genesis 31:19; Genesis 31:34); put away by Jacob (Genesis 35:4); set up by Micah as his household gods (Judges 17:5); stigmatized as idolatry, (1 Samuel 15:23, Hebrew; cf. Zechariah 10:2, margin)
He looked in the liver. They judged of the success or failure of an undertaking by the healthy or unhealthy state of the liver and entrails of a sacrifice.