DEUT922 The subordination of the Gods to magic is a universal characteristic of paganism. "Pagan religion even in its highest manifestation, is amenable to believe in magic" because there is "the ever present assumption of a realm of forces apart from the Gods." Magical rites that supposedly have access to these forces "are viewed as automatically effective, or even capable of coercing the Gods to do the will of the practitioner." Kaufmann, The Faith of a Heretic. New York: Doubleday, 1961; p. 40. The Biblical-Rabbinic tradition is unequivocally opposed to magic [this verse and two preceding]. Few things so clearly distinguish Judaism from all forms of paganism as Judaism's insistence that God is in no way subject to magic or coercion of any kind. The holy righteous man ever bears in mind that God owes him nothing.... (Job 41:3).