Leviticus 20:6

Lev 20:6 And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.

Ver. 6. And will cut him off.] Nemo cum serpente securus ludit, nemo cum diabolo iocatur impune. {a}

{a} Chrysolog., Serm. 155.

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.

Lev 20:6. To go a whoring — To seek counsel or help from them.

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

To esteem sorcerers or conjurers is spiritual whoredom, or idolatry.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 6. Familiar spirits] See Clarke on Le 19:31; and "Ex 22:18".

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

(6) And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits.—The same punishment will be visited upon the man who consults necromancers. For the nature of this sin, see Lev_19:31, and for the execution of this sentence see 1Ch_10:13-14. The soothsayers themselves were stoned to death by the community. (See Lev_20:27.)

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

6. familiar spirits … wizards] See on Lev_19:31.

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.

The soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits,.... The man or woman that has respect unto them, seeks after them, and inquires of them, in order to get knowledge of things:

and after wizards who pretend to tell fortunes, and discover lost and stolen goods; see Gill on Lev 19:31,

to go a whoring after them; for to consult them is to forsake the Lord, and have recourse to Satan and his instruments; to relinquish their trust in God, and put confidence in them, and attribute such things to them as only belong to God, even the knowledge of things future; and this is to commit idolatry, which is spiritual adultery:

I will even set my face against that soul; show like resentment and indignation as at him that gives his seed to Molech:

and will cut him off from among his people; in case his people do not bear witness against him, but hide their eyes, and wink at his crimes, or the civil magistrate does not condemn and punish him; the Targum of Jonathan is,"I will destroy him by the pestilence.''

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

Them. To have recourse to them, is to deal with the devil and commit idolatry. See chap. xix. 31.

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).

To go a whoring after them; to seek knowledge, or counsel, or help from them.

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

6. Familiar spirits — See Lev_19:31, note. The tendency to resort to necromancy among the Hebrews demonstrates their belief in the existence and activity of disembodied spirits, so that Sadducism is refuted in the Pentateuch. There is nothing in either of these chapters which can be quoted in proof of the reality of the sorcerer’s communications with the spirits of the dead. On the statute books of England there are now laws against an imaginary crime, the pretence of power to bewitch, claimed by designing negroes in Jamaica for the purpose of controlling, terrifying, and blackmailing their superstitious countrymen.

Wizards — See Lev_19:31, note.

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

God will also himself cut off from among his people any that, not content with lawful and godly knowledge, turn after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them.

Vers. 6, 27. The pursuit of knowledge by right means

is one of the highest and noblest occupations of the intellect of man, but the seeking after knowledge by unlawful means is so criminal as to lead God to cut off the presumptuous seeker from among his people. It was grasping after a forbidden knowledge by unrighteous means that brought death into the world. (Gen_3:6) All dealing in necromancy and witchcraft involves this sin on the part of the inquirer into futurity, whether those whom they consult be merely deceivers or not.

Credulity and faith.

This, also, is an injunction which Moses had given before, and which he was instructed to repeat. (see Lev_19:31) Our thought may be directed to

I THE PREVALENCE OF IMPOSTURE. There has never been a time nor a land without its "familiar spirits," its "wizards," or impostors of some kind and name. Men have claimed the power of gaining extraordinary access to the spiritual world, or superhuman knowledge of the future, and they have imposed on the ungoverned curiosity of their simple neighbours. The presence of such workers in magic is almost universal. The love of power and the love of money will account for it. So must it be while there is

II THE CORRESPONDING PREVALENCE OF CREDULITY. The number of "the simple" is very large everywhere. Men and women are always to be found, in pitiful abundance, who will respond to any claim made upon their belief. There is hardly an absurdity too glaring, a falsehood too palpable to be discredited by all. Let the impostor only he confident and pretentious enough, and he will find a number who will listen with eagerness and believe without question or proof.

III ITS UTTER DELUSIVENESS. The entire system is false and rotten throughout; it is a mass of trickery, delusion, and disappointment.

1. Those who practice it soon impose upon themselves; they come to believe that they are really admitted to the secrets of the other world, and they are the victims of their own roguery. Sin tests no one so hard as the sinner himself; its rebound is terrible and deadly. He who, with guilty selfishness, would deceive his fellows, will soon entangle his foot in his own net and perish in his own snare. (Psa_7:15 Psa_9:15)

2. They also grossly deceive their neighbours. They who listen to their voice believe that they are holding intercourse with heaven, or are gaining instruction from those supernaturally endowed, when the truth is they are only dealing with men who are unusually wicked, and who should only be heard to be disregarded or denounced.

IV ITS SINFULNESS IN THE SIGHT OF GOD. Resort to imposture is positively wrong. In this book God uttered and repeated his Divine prohibition, and he strengthened his law by attaching the heaviest penalties to disobedience: "I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off," etc. The heinousness of the practice probably lay in the fact that it was a deliberate departure from the Lord himself. There was his house, and there were his prophets to resort unto; to pass these by in order to consult pretenders and impostors was to forsake God and to go "a whoring" after other beings and other things. And thus our thought is directed to

V THE EXCELLENCY OF A REASONABLE FAITH. The children of Israel had such access to the spiritual world and such knowledge of the future as it was good for men to have. Was not God himself, in manifested presence and in revealing grace, in their camp? Was he not speaking to them as to the future that was before them? Was he not ready to give them prophets who would not impose on them with shameful lies, but guide them with the word of truth? We, too, have all we need without having recourse to subtle and spiritualistic arts. We have:

1. The Word of God upon our tables and in our minds.

2. The devout counsels of wise and holy men.

3. The promised guidance of the Spirit of God.

Fictitious arts are sinful and delusive. The wisdom that is from God is not only sound bat sufficient. That which is more than this "cometh of evil. C.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

To go a whoring - To seek counsel or help from them.

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

He would also do the same to every soul that turned to familiar spirits and necromantists (Lev 19:31, cf. Exo 22:17), "to go a whoring after them," i.e., to make himself guilty of idolatry by so doing, such practices being always closely connected with idolatry.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

so as to prostitute themselves with them

This phrase compares the unfaithful people to prostitutes. AT: "by doing that, they seek advice from the spirits rather than from me" (See: Metaphor)

I will set my face against that person

This idiom means he "firmly decided." AT: "I have made up my mind that I will oppose that person" (See: Idiom)

will set my face against

"will stare angrily at"

translationWords

turn

die

spirit

prostitute

face

cut off

people group

consecrate

holy

Yahweh

God

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.