Deuteronomy 18:11

Deu 18:11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.

Ver. 11. Or a necromancer.] Bellarmine and other Papists play the necromancers, when they would prove a Purgatory from the apparitions of spirits, that tell of themselves or others there tormented.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Deu 18:11. Or a charmer — One that charmeth serpents or other creatures. Or rather, as the Hebrew חבר חבר, chober chaber, seems to mean, an astrologer, or such as, by the conjunction of the planets, pretended to foretel the events of men’s lives, or other future things. It must be observed that the eastern people were much addicted to divination of all kinds, and undertook no enterprise of importance without consulting their soothsayers; and therefore Moses uses these sundry expressions that he might prohibit it in all its forms. A consulter with familiar spirits — The original words שׁאל אוב, shoel ob, are here rendered by the Seventy, εγγαστριμυθος, one that speaks out of his belly: but literally, it is one that consults or inquires of Ob. This word originally means a bottle, and was the name which the Hebrews gave to the spirit which was supposed to agitate these ventriloquists, because their bodies were violently distended, like leather bottles full of wine and ready to burst. See Doddridge on Act 16:16, where both St. Paul and St. Luke evidently consider the girl spoken of as being really possessed by what is there termed πνευμα πυθωνος, a spirit of python, or divination, because the Greeks supposed it to be an inspiration from their god Apollo, whom they termed Pythius.

A wizard — Hebrew, A knowing man; who by any forbidden ways undertakes the revelation of secret things. The Seventy render the word τερατοσκοπος, an observer of prodigies. A necromancer — Hebrew, One that seeketh unto the dead; that calleth up and inquires of them, as the witch of Endor is represented to have done. Dr. Waterland, after the Seventy, renders it, very properly, one that consults the dead. Their manner of doing this is stated to have been by visiting their graves in the night, and there lying down and muttering certain words with a low voice, by which means they pretended to have communion with them by dreams, or by the dead appearing to them. To this Isaiah has been thought to allude, Deu 8:19; Deu 29:4.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

18:11 cast spells: These incantations wereto destroy or injure others by invoking curses on them. The false prophet Balaam was hired for this purpose against Israel (Num 22:2-6). • Mediums and psychics were especially adept at conjuring up and communicating with the spirits of the dead (see 1 Sam 28:3-25).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 11. A charmer] חבר חבר chober chaber, one who uses spells; a peculiar conjunction, as the term implies, of words, or things, tying knots, c., 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 Clarke on Le 19:31.

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 Clarke on Ex 22:13, and See Clarke on Le 19:31.

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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(11) Charmer.—Literally one who ties knots, used here for the first time in Old Testament.

Consulter with familiar spirits.—Literally, one who consulteth ôb (see Lev_19:31).

A Wizard.—One who knows or pretends to know the secrets of the unseen world. (See Lev_19:31.)

Necromancer.—One who inquires of the dead. Four of the above practices are ascribed to king Manasseh in 2Ch_33:6. It is hardly possible that all of them were mere imposture and deceit.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

11. a charmer] With Sam. LXX omit or: the name is in apposition to the preceding. Heb. ḥober heber, weaving spells, spell-binder; either of the tying of knots as malignant charms, common among Semites and other races (Campbell Thompson, Sem. Magic 162–173, Frazer, Golden Bough i. 394 ff.; mentioned in the Korân, Sur. cxiii, ‘the mischief of women blowing on knots’; also practised in Europe, cp. the French ‘nouer l’éguillette’), or of the weaving of incantations and spells (W. R. Smith), so LXX ἐπαείδων ἐπαοιδήν. In Psa_58:5 (6) of charming serpents. For spell-makers in Arabia, see Doughty i. 258, 333, 464 f.

a consulter with a ghost or familiar spirit] Heb. sho’el’ôb weyiddeonî; ’ôb was the spirit of a dead person, also applied to the medium, whose body it inhabited, speaking out from this in a chirping, twittering voice (probably imitated from the sound of bats haunting sepulchres), LXX ἐνγαστρίμυθος; see Lev_20:27, 1Sa_28:3; 1Sa_28:7; 1Sa_28:9, Isa_8:19; Isa_29:4, 2Ki_22:6; 2Ki_23:24. Yiddeonî means either instructor (the form may be causative) or knower (cp. Scot. wise = with powers of magic, wise-wife = witch, wise-folk = fairies) or acquaintance, familiar (W. R. Smith). LXX, τερατοσκόπος.

a necromancer] Heb. enquirer of, or resorter to (doresh, see on seek, Deu_12:5), the dead: a general description of the consulter of ghosts and familiar spirits. With Sam. LXX omit or.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 Act 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 Lev 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.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

A charmer - i. e., one who fascinates and subdues noxious animals or men, such as the famous serpent-charmers of the East Psa 58:4-5.

A consulter with familiar spirits ... a wizard - Compare Lev 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 2Ch 33:6.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Charmer of serpents, Psalm lvii. 6. One who makes a compact with the devil. --- Spirits. Python was the name of the serpent which Apollo slew. It might be derived from the Hebrew patah, "to seduce," because a serpent seduced Eve, and dealers with the devil generally deceived those who consult them. Septuagint, "a belly talker," as these impostors muttered some sounds, imitating that a spirit gave answers from their belly, See Isaias xxix. 4. --- Tellers. Hebrew, "wise men." (Haydock) --- Those who promise great knowledge from the secrets of the caballa, or magic. --- Dead. Necromancy was already very common. Thus the witch of Endor made the ghost of Samuel appear to Saul, 1 Kings xxviii. 7. The Rabbins say that the person took a bone, or the skull of the dead, when he intended to enquire into futurity. (Drusius)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

A charmer; one that charmeth serpents or other cattle, Psa 58:5; or, a

fortune-teller, that foretelleth the events of men’s lives by the conjunctions of the stars, &c. See Poole "Lev 19:31"; See Poole "Lev 20:6".

A consulter with familiar spirits, whom they call upon by certain words or rites to engage them in evil designs.

A wizard, Heb. a knowing or cunning man, who by any superstitious or forbidden ways undertakes the revelation of secret things:

A necromancer; one that calleth up and inquireth of the dead, 1Sa 28:8; Isa 8:19.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

11. A charmer — Hebrew, spell-binder, one who binds by incantations, pretends to subdue some dreadful enemy. In Psa_58:5, the word is applied to the serpent charmer.

A consulter with familiar spirits — שׁאל אוב, one who consults a sorcerer. אוב properly denotes a leathern bottle for carrying water or wine: then it was applied to the “hollow belly of conjurers,” in which the conjuring spirit, πυθων, resides, and speaks hollow, as if out of the earth; then it was used for this spirit which was interrogated for enchantment, and sometimes for the enchanter himself. The Septuagint usually renders אוב by εγγαστριμυθος, ventriloquist. In Act_16:16, the woman who had a pythonic spirit was regarded by the heathen inhabitants of Philippi as inspired by Apollo; in later times, a pythonic spirit was considered the same as a ventriloquist, εγγαστριμυθος. Augustine, indeed, calls this female slave ventriloqua femina. Comp. Lev_19:31; Lev_20:27.

A wizard — A knowing one. The meaning of the word must be, one who claims extraordinary wisdom and foresight.

A necromancer — One who makes inquiry of the dead, referring to those who pretended to have power to secure answers from the spirits of the departed. All these are only species of the same genus.

They are false prophets. They pretend to possess supernatural powers, to foresee the future, to protect from evil, to have communion with deity.*

[*In Thomson’s The Land and The Book, (vol. i, p. 214, et seq.,) may be found a long account of the modern pretenders to supernatural powers, “clumsy imitators of these ancient adepts.”]

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

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 - Hebrew. a knowing man, who by any forbidden way's undertakes the Revelation of secret things. A necromancer - One that calleth up and inquireth of the dead.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

וחבר חבר OR A CHARMER — One who charms snakes or scorpions or other creatures into one spot (חבר = “an assembly”) (Sifrei Devarim 172:1).

ושאל אוב OR A CONSULTER OF THE SPIRIT אוב — This is a kind of sorcery brought about by a spirit whose name is פיתום (in Greek: πύξον) who speaks out of his (the charmer’s) arm-pit, having raised a corpse beneath his arm-pit (Sifrei Devarim 172:2).

וידעני is one who puts a bone of an animal, the name of which is יִדּוֹעַ, into his mouth and the bone speaks by way of sorcery (Sanhedrin 65a; cf. Rashi on Leviticus 19:31 and Note thereon).

ודרש אל המתים OR A NECROMANCER — as, for instance, one who raises a corpse, placing it on his genitals, or who consults a skull (Sifrei Devarim 172:4; cf. Sanhedrin 65b).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.