Deuteronomy - 18:11



11 or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Deuteronomy 18:11.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
Nor charmer, nor any one that consulteth pythonic spirits, or fortune tellers, or that seeketh the truth from the dead.
or a charmer, or one that inquireth of a spirit of Python, or a soothsayer, or one that consulteth the dead.
and a charmer, and one asking at a familiar spirit, and a wizard, and one seeking unto the dead.
Or anyone using secret force on people, or putting questions to a spirit, or having secret knowledge, or going to the dead for directions.
or a charmer, or one that consulteth a ghost or a familiar spirit, or a necromancer.
nor one who uses spells, nor one who consults demonic spirits, nor a diviner, nor one who seeks the truth from the dead.
Colligans colligationes, consulens Pythonem, prognostes, (vel, ariolus,) et qui sciscitatur a mortuis.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

A charmer - i. e., one who fascinates and subdues noxious animals or men, such as the famous serpent-charmers of the East Psalm 58:4-5.
A consulter with familiar spirits a wizard - Compare Leviticus 19:31 note.
Recromancer - literally, "one who interrogates the dead." The purpose of the text is obviously to group together all the known words belonging to the practices in question. Compare 2-Chronicles 33:6.

A charmer - חבר חבר chober chaber, one who uses spells; a peculiar conjunction, as the term implies, of words, or things, tying knots, etc., for the purposes of divination. This was a custom among the heathen, as we learn from the following verses: -
Necte Tribus Nodis ternos, Amarylli, colores:
Necte, Amarylli, modo; et Veneris, dic, vincula necto.
Virg. Ecl. viii., ver. 77.
"Knit with three Knots the fillets, knit them straight;
Then say, these Knots to love I consecrate."
Dryden.
A consulter with familiar spirits - שאל אוב shoel ob, a Pythoness, one who inquires by the means of one spirit to get oracular answers from another of a superior order. See on Leviticus 19:31 (note).
A wizard - ידעני yiddeoni, a wise one, a knowing one. Wizard was formerly considered as the masculine of witch, both practising divination by similar means. See on Exodus 22:13 (note), and Leviticus 19:31 (note).
Or a necromancer - דרש אל המתים doresh el hammethim, one who seeks from or inquires of the dead. Such as the witch at Endor, who professed to evoke the dead, in order to get them to disclose the secrets of the spiritual world.

Or a charmer,.... That pretends to cure diseases by charms, or a charmer of serpents; according to Jarchi, one that gathers together serpents and scorpions, and other animals, into one place; with which agree the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem,"which bind serpents and scorpions, and all kind of creeping things;''but, according to Aben Ezra, one that says certain words to gather demons together:
or a consulter with familiar spirits; or the inquirer of "Ob", or the bottle, which the Jews interpret of Python, or one that has the spirit of Python; see Acts 16:16, a ventriloquist, one that spoke or seemed to speak out of his belly, or from under his armpits; so it is said in the Misnah (h) of Ob, this is Python, one that speaks out of his arm holes; agreeably to which, Jarchi says, this is that sort of witchcraft which is called Python, and he speaks from his arm holes, and brings up the dead thither: of Baal Ob, or the master of the bottle, say some Jewish writers, one way he uses is, he takes the skull of a dead man, the flesh of which is consumed from it, and he hides it and burns incense to it, and mutters words by it, and hears from it, as if from a dead man (k): or a wizard: a knowing one, as the word signifies, such an one as we call a cunning man; See Gill on Leviticus 19:31.
or a necromancer that inquiries of the dead, or seeks instruction from them, as the Targum of Jerusalem. Aben Ezra describes him as one that goes to burying grounds, and takes the bone of a dead man, and because of his wild imagination there appears to him the likeness of forms; or as Maimonides (l), better still, he is one that fasts and sleeps in graveyards, and utters words; and, according to his imagination, sees future things in dreams.
(h) Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 7. sect. 7. (k) Maimon. & Bartenora in ib. (l) In ib.

A charmer - One that charmeth serpents or other cattle. Or, a fortune - teller, that foretelleth the events of men's lives by the conjunctions of the stars. Spirits - Whom they call upon by certain words or rites. A wizard - Hebrews. a knowing man, who by any forbidden way's undertakes the revelation of secret things. A necromancer - One that calleth up and enquireth of the dead.

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