Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 7:11
Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.
11. wise men ] cf. Gen 41:8, Isa 19:11-12.
magicians ] Heb. arummim, a word of unknown etymology, but found only in connexion with Egypt (Gen 41:8; Gen 41:24, Exo 7:11; Exo 7:22; Exo 8:7; Exo 8:18-19; Exo 9:11), and (borrowed from Gen.) in Daniel (Exo 1:20, Exo 2:2; Exo 2:10, &c.). RVm. in Genesis sacred scribes: and probably the word did in fact correspond to the Greek , the term applied by Numenius to Jannes and Jambres. Magic flourished in ancient Egypt; and many magical formulae are known to us from the inscriptions: see Erman, pp. 289, 308, 353 ff., 373.
with their secret arts (RVm.)] i.e. with their usual mystic words or movements. So v. 22, Exo 8:7; Exo 8:18 (not elsewhere in this sense).
The Jerus. Targ., both here and on Exo 1:15, following a Jewish tradition gives the names of the magicians whom Pharaoh called as Jannes and Jambres (cf. 2Ti 3:8): the same two names are also given elsewhere, as Evang. Nicod. 5; Numenius, the Pythagorean philosopher the 2nd cent. a.d., as cited in Eus. Praep. Ev. ix. 8; see also Buxtorf, s.v. , or Levy, Chald. Wrterb. s.v. ; and Schrer, 32 (ed 3, iii. 292 ff.), with the references.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
11, 12. The Egyptian magicians do the same. The art of serpent-charming is indigenous in the East: there are allusions to it in Psa 58:5, Jer 8:17, Ecc 10:11; and it is practised in Egypt to the present day. Modern Egyptian serpent-charmers possess an extraordinary power over serpents, drawing them forth, for instance, by noises made with the lips, from their hiding-places, and by pressure applied to the neck throwing them into such a state of hypnotic rigidity that they can be held as rods by the tip of the tail (Lane, Mod. Eg., ch. 20, in ed. 1871, ii. 93 f.; DB. iii. 889 a ; EB. iv. 4394: see further references in Di.). The serpent commonly used for the purpose is a species of cobra. As Di., however, remarks, we hear elsewhere only of serpents becoming rods, not of rods becoming serpents: the latter, a also the swallowing up of the magicians’ rods by Aaron’s rod, is ‘peculiar to the Hebrew story ( Sage).’
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Three names for the magicians of Egypt are given in this verse. The wise men are men who know occult arts. The sorcerers are they who mutter magic formulae, especially when driving away crocodiles, snakes, asps, etc. It was natural that Pharaoh should have sent for such persons. The magicians are the bearers of sacred words, scribes and interpreters of hieroglyphic writings. Books containing magic formulae belonged exclusively to the king; no one was permitted to consult them but the priests and wise men, who formed a council or college, and were called in by the Pharaoh on all occasions of difficulty.
The names of the two principal magicians, Jannes and Jambres, who withstood Moses, are preserved by Paul, 2Ti 3:8. Both names are Egyptian.
Enchantments – The original expression implies a deceptive appearance, an illusion, a jugglers trick, not an actual putting forth of magic power. Pharaoh may or may not have believed in a real transformation; but in either case he would naturally consider that if the portent performed by Aaron differed from that of the magicians, it was a difference of degree only, implying merely superiority in a common art. The miracle which followed Exo 7:12 was sufficient to convince him had he been open to conviction. It was a miracle which showed the truth and power of Yahweh in contrast with that of others.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Exo 7:11-12
They also did in like manner with their enchantments.
Moses and the magicians
I. Moses divinely warned of Pharaohs demand for a supernatural credential. When men profess to bring a message from God, they should be prepared to substantiate it by satisfactory evidence.
II. Moses divinely sustained in meeting the demand.
1. God will never forsake those who go forth to implicitly work His will.
2. God often permits His enemies to temporarily triumph.
III. Moses commanded to appeal again to Pharaoh (Exo 7:14-17).
1. Gods knowledge of the human heart.
2. Gods knowledge of the purposes and plans of men.
3. Gods recognition of free agency, and its correlative responsibility.
4. God deals with men on the basis of their moral freedom, and according to their constitutional nature.
Lessons:
1. Here we have a type of the conflict of ages.
(1) In its spirit.
(2) In its aims.
(3) In its result.
2. The side to which we lean, and for which we fight, shows the party to which we really belong. (D. C. Hughes, M. A.)
Lessons
1. Miracles from God will not persuade wicked hearts to believe.
2. Unbelieving sinners are apt to call in all instruments of Satan to gainsay God.
3. Providence hath of old suffered wisdom to be abused to sorcery and pernicious acts (Exo 7:11).
4. God hath suffered creatures by Satans help to do some like things to His miracles.
5. Under Gods permission Satan may work strange changes in creatures, but no miracles.
6. Gods true miracles devour all lying wonders of Satan (Exo 7:12).
7. Wicked hearts harden themselves by lying wonders against God, and therefore are hardened by Him.
8. The fruit of such hardening is rebellion against Gods word and will.
9. Gods word is made good in all the disobedience of the wicked foretold (Exo 7:13). (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Mans effort to repudiate the message of God by an imitation of its miraculous credentials
I. That man has a right to expect that any special revelation from God should be accompanied by infallible and unimpeachable credentials. (Exo 7:9).
1. We require these credentials to vindicate the authority of the speaker. The Bible contains the evidences of its Divine origin on its own pages, for on every page we see the miracle repeated, the rod is turned into a serpent. And the miracles which the book contains, and the miracle which it is in itself, are sufficient token to the honest mind that it comes from God. This evidence is equal to the case. It leaves disobedience without excuse.
2. We require these credentials to vindicate the credibility of the speaker. God would never give men power to work a miracle to authenticate a lie. The miracle not only demonstrated the authority of these men, but also the unimpeachable honesty and verity of their statements. And so men take the Bible to-day; they perhaps say that in general terms the hook has come from God, and has His authority, and yet how many question the verity of its corn tents. They call one part of the message a myth, another part a fable, until, indeed, there is very little remaining as true.
3. That God anticipates these requests on the part of man, and provides His messengers with the needed credentials. Any one who rejects the claims of the Bible, rejects the highest proof, the most reliable evidence; hence his condemnation will be awful as that of the rebellious king.
4. The spirit in which these credentials should be investigated and received–
(1) Thoughtfully.
(2) Devoutly.
(3) Never sceptically.
(4) Remember that the messengers of God can only offer the credentials divinely permitted to them.
II. That men have recourse to many devices to weaken and nullify the credentials which are presented to them in token and support of a Divine message and claim. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.
1. We find that men in the investigation of a Divine message are not satisfied with the evidence they themselves propose. A sceptical mind will not yield even when it has attained evidence for the truth of its own seeking. It is most criminal in its unbelief.
2. We find that men in the investigation of a Divine message often seek others to supply them with sceptical arguments they are not clever enough to produce themselves.
3. We find that men endeavour to confirm their comrades in scepticism by imitating the credentials of the messengers of God. But in vain. The truth-seeker can distinguish between the productions of the two; he never mistakes the enchantment of the Egyptian for the miracle of Moses.
4. That the men who endeavour to confirm their comrades in scepticism respecting the Divine credentials are subject to the truth. The rods of the Egyptian magicians were swallowed up by Aarons rod.
III. That the men who reject the credentials of Divine messengers commence a conflict which will be productive of great woe and of final overthrow to them. And He hardened Pharaohs heart that he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said. Lessons:
1. That the messengers of God can always produce Divine credentials.
2. That Divine credentials are often rejected by men of high social position.
3. That a continued rejection of Divine credentials will end in destruction.
4. That the servants of God are often perplexed by the conduct of men in rejecting Divine claims. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Imitation of the good
The mode in which the magicians withstood Moses (see 2Ti 3:1-9) was simply by imitating, so far as they were able, whatever he did. From this we learn the solemn truth that the most Satanic resistance to Gods testimony in the world is offered by those who, though they imitate the effects of the truth, have but the form of godliness, and deny the power thereof. Persons of this class can do the same things, adopt the same habits and forms, use the same phraseology, profess the same opinions, as others. How needful to understand this! How important to remember that as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do those self-loving, world-seeking, pleasure-hunting professors resist the truth! They would not be without a form of godliness; but while adopting the form, because it is customary, they hate the power, because it involves self-denial. The power of godliness involves the recognition of Gods claims, the implanting of His kingdom in the heart, and the consequent exhibition thereof in the whole life and character; but the formalist knows nothing of this, nor does he desire to know it. He does not want his lusts subdued, his pleasures interfered with, his passions curbed, his affections governed, his heart purified. He wants just as much religion as will enable him to make the best of both worlds. (A. Nevin, D. D.)
Egyptian magicians
They must have possessed a knowledge of nature beyond that of their countrymen, who had sufficient experience of the utility of such knowledge to reverence teachers endued with any rare portion of it. The magicians must have considered this knowledge as Divine; and have come more and more to regard the different powers of nature and the different objects in which these powers were exhibited, as themselves Divine. They will have been politicians as well as naturalists, ready to employ their lore and the mastery which it gave them over the things of the earth, to uphold the authority of the monarch, or to promote his plans. They will therefore have fallen into a scheme of trick and dissimulation, which would have been ineffectual and impossible if there had not been some truths lying at the root of it; and some real assurance in their own minds both of those truths and of their own capacities. It is this mixture of faith with insincerity–of actual knowledge with the assumption of knowledge, of genuine power with the desire to make the power felt and worshipped, a readiness therefore to abuse it to low grovelling purposes–which we have to recognize in the impostures of all subsequent ages, and to which we are here introduced in one of its primitive manifestations. It was most natural for a politic monarch to wish that a body of strangers, who were doing little good in a certain portion of his land, should be made slaves, and so become agents in carrying out what seemed to him magnificent projects. It was most natural that a body of politic priests–disliking these strangers, for the traditions and customs which separated them from their influence–should readily co-operate with him in that plan, or should be the first suggesters of it. It is equally natural that his Egyptian subjects should sympathize with the design, and should feel that they were raised in the degradation of another race. But it was impossible that king, priests, and people, should effect this seemingly sage and national purpose, without forging new chains for themselves, without losing some perceptions of a moral order in the world and a moral Ruler of it, which had been implied in their government and worship, and which Josephs arrangements had drawn out; it was impossible but that with the loss of this feeling, they should sink further and further into natural and animal worship. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.)
Aarons rod swallowed up their rods.
The power of Aarons rod
I. Let us turn aside to see this great sight–the Divine triumphant over the diabolical: the spiritual subduing the natural–Aarons rod swallowing all its rivals.
1. Let us take the case of the awakened sinner. That man was, a few days ago, as worldly, as carnal, as stolid, as he well could be. If any one should propose to make that man heavenly-minded, the common observer would say, Impossible! As in old Roman walls, the cement has become so strong, that the stone is no longer a separate piece, but has become a part of the wall itself–so this man is cemented to the world, he cannot lie separated from it. You must break him in pieces with the hammer of death; you cannot separate him in any other way from the cares of life. Ah, but Aarons rod shall swallow up this rod. The man listens to the Word; the truth comes with power into his soul; the Holy Ghost has entered him; and the next day, though he goes to his business, he finds no true contentment in it, for he pants after the living God. Now, his spirit pleads its needs, and outstrips the body in the contest for its warmest love. He spurns the trifles of a day: he seeks the jewels of eternity. Grace has won the day, and the worldling seeks the world to come.
2. The same fact, with equal distinctness, is to be observed in the individual when he becomes a believer in Jesus Christ; his faith destroys all other confidences.
3. The same fact is very manifest after faith in all who truly love the Saviour. They who love Christ aright, love no one in comparison with Him.
4. You will notice this in the man who makes his delight in the Lord Jesus. He who makes his delight in Christ after a true sort, will discover that this delight swallows up all other delights.
5. Yet more is it so in a man who is devoted to Gods service. The service of God swallows up everything else when the man is truly Gods servant. When a man gets fully possessed with an enthusiastic love for Jesus, difficulties to him become only things to be surmounted, dangers become honours, sacrifices pleasures, sufferings delights, weariness rest.
II. We now draw an inference. If it be so, that wherever true religion–the finger of God–comes into a man, it becomes a consuming passion, till the zeal of Gods house eats the man up. Then there are many persons who profess religion, who cannot have found the right thing. Those who are mean, miserly, and miserable in the cause of Christ, whose only expenditure is upon self, and whose main object is gain, what can we say of them? Why, that they look upon religion as some great farmers do upon their little off-hand farms. They think it is well to have a little religion; they can turn to it for amusement sometimes, just to ease them a little of their cares; besides, it may be very well, after having had all in this world, to try to get something in the next. They are moral and decent in all ways; they can pray very nicely in prayer-meetings, yet they never dream of consecrating their secular employments unto God. Aarons rod, in their case, has never swallowed up their rods.
III. Now, I will give some reasons why i put the service of God so prominent, and think that Aarons rod ought to swallow up all other rods. What does the great gospel revelation discover to us? Does it not show us an awful danger, and one only way of escape from it? Does not our religion also reveal to us the joyous reward of another world? It opens to us yonder pearly gates, and bids us gaze on angels and glorified spirits. By hell, and by heaven, therefore, I do entreat you, let Aarons rod swallow up all other rods; and let love and faith in Jesus be the master passion of your soul. Moreover, do we not learn in our holy faith of a love unexampled? Where was there love such as that which brought the Prince of Glory down to the gates of death, and made Him pass the portals amid shame and scoffing? Shall such love as this have half our hearts? (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 11. Pharaoh – called the wise men] chacamim, the men of learning. Sorcerers, cashshephim, those who reveal hidden things; probably from the Arabic root [Arabic] kashafa, to reveal, uncover, c., signifying diviners, or those who pretended to reveal what was in futurity, to discover things lost, to find hidden treasures, &c. Magicians, chartummey, decypherers of abstruse writings. See Clarke on Ge 41:8.
They also did in like manner with their enchantments.] The word lahatim, comes from lahat, to burn, to set on fire and probably signifies such incantations as required lustral fires, sacrifices, fumigations, burning of incense, aromatic and odoriferous drugs, c., as the means of evoking departed spirits or assistant demons, by whose ministry, it is probable, the magicians in question wrought some of their deceptive miracles: for as the term miracle signifies properly something which exceeds the powers of nature or art to produce, (see Ex 7:9,) hence there could be no miracle in this case but those wrought, through the power of God, by the ministry of Moses and Aaron. There can be no doubt that real serpents were produced by the magicians. On this subject there are two opinions:
1st, That the serpents were such as they, either by juggling or sleight of hand, had brought to the place, and had secreted till the time of exhibition, as our common conjurers do in the public fairs, &c.
2dly, That the serpents were brought by the ministry of a familiar spirit, which, by the magic flames already referred to, they had evoked for the purpose.
Both these opinions admit the serpents to be real, and no illusion of the sight, as some have supposed. The first opinion appears to me insufficient to account for the phenomena of the case referred to. If the magicians threw down their rods, and they became serpents after they were thrown down, as the text expressly says, Ex 7:12, juggling or sleight of hand had nothing farther to do in the business, as the rods were then out of their hands. If Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods, their sleight of hand was no longer concerned. A man, by dexterity of hand, may so far impose on his spectators as to appear to eat a rod but for rods lying on the ground to become serpents, and one of these to devour all the rest so that it alone remained, required something more than juggling. How much more rational at once to allow that these magicians had familiar spirits who could assume all shapes, change the appearances of the subjects on which they operated, or suddenly convey one thing away and substitute another in its place! Nature has no such power, and art no such influence as to produce the effects attributed here and in the succeeding chapters to the Egyptian magicians.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Under the general title of
wise men he seems to comprehend all who were most eminent in any sort of wisdom, either natural, or civil, or divine, who were all called to give their opinion and advice in these matters.
The magicians, the same now called
sorcerers, who acted by the power of the devil, whom by certain rites and ceremonies they engaged to their assistance. Of these the two chief were Jannes and Jambres, 2Ti 3:8.
They also did in like manner, in show and appearance, which was not difficult for the devil to do, either by altering the air and the spectators sight, and by causing their rods both to look and move like serpents; or by a sudden and secret conveyance of real serpents thither, and removing the rods. Nor is it strange that God permitted those delusions, partly because it was a just punishment upon the Egyptians for their horrid and manifold idolatry, and barbarous cruelty towards the Israelites, and their other wickedness; and partly because there was a sufficient difference made between their impostures, and the real miracles wrought by Moses and Aaron, as appears from the next verse, and from Exo 8:18, and from other passages. And this is a great evidence of the truth of Scripture story, and that it was not written by fiction and design. For if Moses had written these books to deceive the world, and to advance his own reputation, (as some have impudently said,) it is ridiculous to think that he would have put in this, and many other passages, which might seem so much to eclipse his honour, and the glory of his works.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. Then Pharaoh also called thewise men and the sorcerers, &c.His object in calling themwas to ascertain whether this doing of Aaron’s was really a work ofdivine power or merely a feat of magical art. The magicians of Egyptin modern times have been long celebrated adepts in charmingserpents, and particularly by pressing the nape of the neck, theythrow them into a kind of catalepsy, which renders them stiff andimmovablethus seeming to change them into a rod. They conceal theserpent about their persons, and by acts of legerdemain produce itfrom their dress, stiff and straight as a rod. Just the same trickwas played off by their ancient predecessors, the most renowned ofwhom, Jannes and Jambres (2Ti 3:8),were called in on this occasion. They had time after the summons tomake suitable preparationsand so it appears they succeeded bytheir “enchantments” in practising an illusion on thesenses.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers,…. The cunning men and wizards, a sort of jugglers and deceivers, who pretended to great knowledge of things, to discover secrets, tell fortunes, and predict things to come, and by legerdemain tricks, and casting a mist before people’s eyes, pretended to do very wonderful and amazing things; and therefore Pharaoh sent for these, to exercise their art and cunning, and see if they could not vie with Moses and Aaron:
now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments; or by their secret wiles and juggles, making things seem to appear to the sight when they did not really, but by dazzling the eyes of men by their wicked and diabolical art, they fancied they saw things which they did not; for the word has the signification of flames of fire, or of a flaming sword, or lance, which being brandished to and fro dazzles the sight. The Targum of Jonathan gives the names of two of these magicians, whom he calls Jannes and Jambres, as does the apostle,
[See comments on 2Ti 3:8]. Josephus t calls these magicians of Egypt priests, and Artapanus u says, they were priests that lived about Memphis. According to the Arabs w, the name of the place where they lived was Ausana, a city very ancient and pleasant, called the city of the magicians, which lay to the east of the Nile: their name in the Hebrew language is either from a word which signifies a style, or greying tool, as Fuller x thinks, because in their enchantments they used superstitious characters and figures; or, as Saadiah Gaon y, from two words, the one signifying a “hole”, and the other “stopped”; because they bored a hole in a tree to put witchcrafts into it, and stopped it up, and then declared what should be, or they had to say.
t Antiqu. l. 2. c. 13. sect. 3. u Apud Euseb. ut supra. (Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 27. p. 435.) w Arab. Geograph. Climat. 2. par. 4. lin. 21. x Miscell. Sacr. l. 5. c. 11. y Comment. in Dan. i. 20.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
11. Then Pharaoh also called. The impiety of the tyrant, which had before lain hid in the recesses of his heart, now breaks forth; when he does not hesitate to enter into the lists with God. For he was sufficiently instructed in the wonderful power of God, had not his iniquity urged him onwards into desperate madness. In asking for a sign, he thought (as I before said) that he should have had just cause for despising Moses; as the wicked trust that they may do anything with impunity, unless God should openly appear from heaven to prohibit them; but, because inflexible perversity altogether has possession of their hearts, they do not hesitate to resist the manifest power of God. Thus the wickedness of Pharaoh blinded his eyes, that, seeing the light, he saw it not; but, though convinced, still he sought for darkness to hide the sight of the light from him. He received, therefore, the just reward of such impious and diabolical arrogance, when he was deceived by the juggles of his own magicians. This is an example of great use, and well worthy to be noted; by which we are, first of all, taught, that the wicked, whatever disposition to be taught they may assume, still remain inwardly rebellious and stubborn; and, moreover, that they are not only inclined to error, but are eagerly borne towards it with all their heart. This vice is not always conspicuous in every individual; but when God brings His light nearer to them, it is easily detected, and betrays itself. How many, now-a-days, among the Papists are followers of wicked superstitions under the pretext of simplicity? As long as, under the garb of ignorance, they deceive themselves and others, they seem to be worthy of pity; but, as soon as the truth shines forth, they demonstrate their love for the impostures by which they perish, and their delight in falsehoods. Assuredly (as Paul says) they have “received not the love of the truth.” ( 2Th 2:10.) Are we surprised at Pharaoh calling for the magicians, in order to repel from himself his sense of God’s power? As if there were not many at this time, who hire for themselves certain impious brawlers, (83) by whose fascinating and fair words they may become besotted in their errors. It is remarkable, that they are honourably called “wise men” by courtesy, although they were but inventors of deceit, and destitute of sound learning. For although astronomy flourished among them, and the study of liberal arts was cultivated, it yet appears from the context that they were devoted to many foolish imaginations, nay, that all their degenerate science was but vanity. For מכשפים, (84) makshephim, and חרתמים, chartumim, are the names of superstitious arts; the former signifying jugglers, or those who deceive the eyes and the senses by their enchantments; but the latter is used for those who cast nativities, telling people’s fortunes by the horoscope, and prognosticating by the aspect of the stars. Therefore, although the Egyptian magicians had departed from genuine philosophy, they still retained the name of “wise men,” that they might obtain credit for their delusions: as the devil, in order to appropriate God’s glory, or to change himself into an angel of light, is wont to conceal his falsehoods by specious titles. Doubtless Pharaoh sought, as in a case of perplexity, to examine it more certainly by comparison; but yet for no other reason than to conceal his impiety under a fresh covering. The word להט, (85) lahat, although properly signifying the blade of a sword, is here used for enchantment. I think, however, that they mistake, who assign the reason for this to be, that they exercised their sorceries by a sword, or some similar weapon. It rather designates metaphorically the versatile motion, by which the magicians exhibit one thing for another; for it properly signifies “a flame.” This severe and terrible vengeance upon Pharaoh ought to inspire us with terror, lest, in our hatred of truth, we should seek after deceptions. For this is intolerable profaneness, if designedly we desire to pervert the distinction between truth and falsehood. Therefore it is not to be wondered at, if God plunges into the deepest darkness of error, those who shut their eyes against the light presented to them; and if He hands those over to be the disciples of Satan, who refuse to listen to Him as their master.
(83) Des caphars, et causeurs effrontez, — Fr.
(84) The explanation of those words must be understood to be rather conjectural than gathered from any knowledge of their etymology. In Dan 2:0, the same words are employed to designate the sorcerers and magicians of Babylon. — W.
(85) להט, C. has here said that each of two different significations is the proper one. As a verb, להט, is to burn with a flame; as a substantive it is a flame or flash; and hence the flashing of a sword; and sometimes that rapid crossing of the fingers which confuses the eye. But in Exo 7:22, and in Exo 8:3, the same word occurs with the omission of the middle letter; and this omission will justify its being regarded as belonging to the root לוט, which signifies hiding, involving in obscurity, practising deceitful arts. — W
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(11) The magicians of Egypt.These persons are called indifferently khkmim, wise men, m-kashshphim, mutterers of charms, and khartum-mim, scribes, perhaps writers of charms. Magic was very widely practised in Egypt, and consisted mainly in the composition and employment of charms, which were believed to exert a powerful effect, both over man and over the brute creation. A large part of the Ritual of the Dead consists of charms, which were to be uttered by the soul in Hades, in order to enable it to pass the various monsters which it would encounter there. Charms were also regarded as potent in this life to produce or remove disease, and avert the attacks of noxious animals. Some Egyptian works are mere collections of magical receipts, and supply strange prescriptions which are to be used, and mystic words which are to be uttered. A Jewish tradition, accepted by the Apostle Paul (2Ti. 3:6), spoke of two magicians as the special opponents of Moses, and called them Jannes and Jambres. (See the Tar-gums of Jerusalem and of Jonathan, and comp. Numen, ap. Euseb. Prp. e. ix. 8.) The former of these, Jannes, obtained fame as a magician among the classical writers, and is mentioned by Pliny (H. N. xxx. 1) and Apuleius (Apolog. p. 108). It has been supposed by some that the magicians were really in possession of supernatural powers, obtained by a connection with evil spirits; but, on the whole, it is perhaps most probable that they were merely persons acquainted with many secrets of nature not generally known, and trained in tricks of sleight-of-hand and conjuring.
They also did in like manner.The magicians had entered into the royal presence with, apparently, rods in their hands, such as almost all Egyptians carried. These they cast down upon the ground, when they were seen to be serpents. This was, perhaps, the mere exhibition of a trick, well known to Egyptian serpent-charmers in all ages (Description de lEgypte, vol. i. p. 159), by which a charmed serpent is made to look like a stick for a time, and then disenchanted. Or it may have been effected by sleight-of-hand, which seems to be the true meaning of the word lhtim, translated enchantments. (Rosenmller, Scholia in Exodum, p. 110.)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers Literally, mutterers, (of magic formulas . )
Now the magicians Priestly scribes who were skilled in the hieroglyphic wisdom .
They also did in like manner with their enchantments Their secret arts, the black or hidden arts or tricks which constitute magic or sorcery . The Apostle Paul, doubtless following the Jewish traditions, names these magicians Jannes and Jambres, (2Ti 3:8,) and this tradition is found in the Targums and the Talmud.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Exo 7:11. Then Pharaoh also called the wise-men, &c. Moses and Aaron performing their commission according to the commandment of the Lord, and working the miracle, which, no doubt, Pharaoh demanded, in proof of their Divine legation; he, desirous to know whether the God of Israel was superior to his gods, sent for the wise-men and the sorcerers to counterwork this miracle of Moses and Aaron; and they also did in like manner, we are told, with their inchantments. The word lahati, the LXX and Theodotion render by , inchantments by drugs; and the word, says Parkhurst upon it, properly refers to the burning or heating their magical drugs in incantations, which frequently made a part in those infernal ceremonies, and, no doubt, was originally designed to do honour to, and procure the assistance of their gods, the fire and air. Thus the witch Canidia, in Horace, orders her abominable ingredients, flammis aduri colchicis, to be burnt in magic flames, Epod. 5: and Ovid in his Metamorphoses, lib. 7: describes Medea, “firing the infected wood on the flagrant altars; purging thrice with flames, and thrice with sulphur, while the medicine boils in hollow brass, and, swelling high, labours in foaming bubbles.” The same word is used Gen 3:24. Other derivations are given of the word; but none which appear more satisfactory. That the wise-men and sorcerers are only other appellations for the magicians, is evident from the verse itself. For an explanation of the word magicians, see note on Gen 41:8. The two chief of these magicians are mentioned by St. Paul, 2Ti 3:8. Artapanus, in Eusebius, calls them priests, inhabiting the country above Memphis. The word, rendered sorcerers, is derived from an Arabic original, signifying to disclose or reveal; it is always, in the Hebrew Bible, applied to some species of conjuring; and may therefore have particular reference to the pretended discovery of things hidden or future by magical means. The LXX constantly render it by , a drug, or some of its derivatives, to use pharmaceutic inchantments, or to apply drugs, whether vegetable, mineral, or animal, to magical purposes. The reader may find some account of these abominable processes, as practised by the later heathens, in Archbishop Potter’s Antiquities of Greece, b. 2 Chronicles 18.; see Parkhurst and Stockius.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Exo 7:11 Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.
Ver. 11. The wise men and the sorcerers. ] Magic is either pure and natural, or impure and diabolical, which implieth a compact with the devil; either overt or covert. The chief of these magicians here were Jannes and Jambres, 2Ti 3:8 whose names are also mentioned in the Talmud; Tract. de Oblat., cap. 9. Numenius also, the Pythagorean philosopher, speaketh of them.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
wise men, &c. Two sets of men mentioned. Pharaoh “called for the wise men, and for the magi cians-and these also (the sacred scribes of Egypt) did in like manner with their secret arts”. Two of these named by the Holy Spirit in 2Ti 3:8, “Jannes and Jambres”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
like CF. 2Ti 3:8; Exo 8:18
Neither Satan nor his tools can create life: Rev 13:15 will be a “lying wonder”: 2Th 2:9
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
wise men: Gen 41:8, Gen 41:38, Gen 41:39, Isa 19:11, Isa 19:12, Isa 47:12, Isa 47:13, Dan 2:2, Dan 2:27, Dan 4:7-9, Dan 5:7, Dan 5:11, 2Ti 3:8, Rev 19:20
sorcerers: Mechashshaphim, probably from the Arabic kashapha, to discover, reveal, signifies diviners, or those who pretended to reveal futurity, to discover things lost, or to find hidden treasures.
they also: Exo 7:22, Exo 8:7, Exo 8:18, Deu 13:1-3, Mat 24:24, Gal 3:1, Eph 4:14, 2Th 2:9, Rev 13:11-15
enchantments: By the word lahatim, from lahat, to burn, may be meant such incantations as required lustral fires, fumigations, etc.
Reciprocal: Exo 9:11 – General Lev 19:26 – use 1Sa 6:2 – called Jer 27:9 – hearken Dan 1:20 – the magicians Act 8:9 – used Act 13:8 – withstood Act 16:16 – possessed Act 19:19 – used Rev 13:13 – he doeth
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Exo 7:11. Moses had been originally instructed in the learning of the Egyptians, and was suspected to have improved in magical arts in his long retirement. The magicians are therefore sent for to vie with him. The two chief of them were Jannes and Jambres. Their rods became serpents, probably by the power of evil angels, artfully substituting serpents in the room of the rods, God permitting the delusion to be wrought for wise and holy ends. But the serpent which Aarons rod was turned into, swallowed up the others: which was sufficient to have convinced Pharaoh on which side the right lay.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
7:11 Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the {d} sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.
(d) It seems that these were Jannes and Jambres; 2Ti 3:8 so the wicked maliciously resist the truth of God.