Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Leviticus 19:31
Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I [am] the LORD your God.
31. familiar spirits wizards ] Cp. ch. Lev 20:6; Lev 20:27. For the difference between the two see Driver on Deu 18:11. The former expression ( ’b) may be rendered ghost. Its oracles were uttered in a twittering voice, which, through ventriloquism, appeared to rise from the ground. Accordingly the LXX. mostly renders the word by , ventriloquists. See the narrative of the witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28). The latter of the two appellations, lit. knowing (but Rob.-Sm. Journal of Philology, xiii. 273 ff.; xiv. 113 ff., prefers acquaintance), may fitly be rendered familiar spirit. The distinction between the two modes of divination will then be that ‘those who divine by the former profess (1Sa 28:11) to call up any ghost; those who divine by the latter consult only the particular spirit which is their familiar’ (Driver as above).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The devotion of faith, which would manifest itself in obedience to the commandment to keep Gods Sabbaths and to reverence His sanctuary Lev 19:30, is the true preservative against the superstition which is forbidden in this verse. The people whose God was Yahweh were not to indulge those wayward feelings of their human nature which are gratified in magical arts and pretensions. Compare Isa 8:19.
Familiar spirits – literally, bottles. This application of the word is supposed to have been suggested by the tricks of ventriloquists, within whose bodies (as vessels or bottles) it was fancied that spirits used to speak. In other cases, the word is used for the familiar spirit which a man pretended to employ in order to consult, or to raise, the spirits of the dead. See 1Sa 28:7-8.
Wizard – A word equivalent to a knowing man, or, a cunning man.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Lev 19:31
Them that have familiar spirits.
Prohibition of traffic with familiar spirits
This verse prohibits all inquiring of them that have familiar spirits, and of wizards, who pretend to make relevations through the help of supernatural powers. According to 1Sa 28:7-11, and Isa 8:19, the familiar spirit is a supposed spirit of a dead man, from whom one professes to be able to give communications to the living. This pretended commerce with the spirits of the dead has been common enough in heathenism always, and it is not strange to find it mentioned here, when Israel was to be in so intimate relations with heathen peoples. But it is truly must extraordinary that in Christian lands, as especially in the United States of America, and that in the full light, religious and intellectual, of the last half of the nineteenth century, such a prohibition should be fully as pertinent as in Israe! For no words could more precisely describe the pretensions of the so-called modern spiritualism, which within the last half century has led away hum]reds of thousands of deluded souls, and those, in many cases, not from the ignorant and degraded, but from circles which boast of more than average culture and intellectual enlightenment. And inasmuch as experience sadly shows that even those who profess to be disciples of Christ are in danger of being led away by our modern wizards and traffickers with familiar spirits, it is by no means unnecessary to observe that there is not the slightest reason to believe that this which was rigidly forbidden by God in the fifteenth century B.C., can now be well-pleasing to Him in the nineteenth century A.D. And those who have most carefully watched the moral developments of this latter-day delusion will most appreciate the added phrase which speaks of this as defiling a man. (S. H. Kellogg, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 31. Regard not them that have familiar spirits] The Hebrew word oboth probably signifies a kind of engastromuthoi or ventriloquists, or such as the Pythoness mentioned Lev 16:16; Lev 16:18; persons who, while under the influence of their demon, became greatly inflated, as the Hebrew word implies, and gave answers in a sort of phrensy. See a case of this kind in Virgil, AEneid, l. vi., ver. 46, c.: –
“—-Deus ecce, Deus! cui talla fanti
Ante fores, subito non vultus, non color unus,
Non comptae mansere comae sed pectus anhelum,
Et rabie fera corda tument; majorque videri,
Nec mortale sonans, afflata est numine quando
Jam propiore Dei.”
——————-Invoke the skies,
I feel the god, the rushing god, she cries.
While yet she spoke, enlarged her features grew,
Her colour changed, her locks dishevelled flew.
The heavenly tumult reigns in every part,
Pants in her breast, and swells her rising heart:
Still swelling to the sight, the priestess glowed,
And heaved impatient of the incumbent god.
PITT.
Neither seek after wizards] yiddeonim, the wise or knowing ones, from yada, to know or understand; called wizard in Scotland, wise or cunning man in England; and hence also the wise woman, the white witch. Not only all real dealers with familiar spirits, or necromantic or magical superstitions, are here forbidden, but also all pretenders to the knowledge of futurity, fortune-tellers, astrologers, &c., &c. To attempt to know what God has not thought proper to reveal, is a sin against his wisdom, providence, and goodness. In mercy, great mercy, God has hidden the knowledge of futurity from man, and given him hope – the expectation of future good, in its place. See Clarke on Ex 22:18.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Them that have familiar spirits; that have entered into covenant with the devil, by whose help they foretell many things to come, and acquaint men with secret things. See Lev 20:27; Deu 18:11; 1Sa 28:3,7,9; 2Ki 21:6.
Wizards; another name expressing the same thing for substance, to wit, persons in league with the devil, with some difference only in the manner of their operation,
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
31. Regard not them that havefamiliar spiritsThe Hebrew word, rendered “familiarspirit,” signifies the belly, and sometimes a leathern bottle,from its similarity to the belly. It was applied in the sense of thispassage to ventriloquists, who pretended to have communication withthe invisible world. The Hebrews were strictly forbidden to consultthem as the vain but high pretensions of those impostors werederogatory to the honor of God and subversive of their covenantrelations with Him as His people.
neither seek afterwizardsfortunetellers, who pretended, as the Hebrewword indicates, to prognosticate by palmistry (or an inspection ofthe lines of the hand) the future fate of those who applied to them.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Regard not them that have familiar spirits,…. The word used signifies “bottles”, and that sort of diviners here intended go by this name, either because what they sat on when they divined was in the form of a bottle, or they divined by one, or they were swelled and inflated as bottles when they delivered out their answers, or spoke as out of a bottle or hollow place; hence they are called masters or mistresses of the bottle: they seem to be the same with the ventriloquists, and so the Septuagint version here calls them; such whose voice seemed to come out of their bellies, and even the lower parts of them; and such was the Pythian prophetess at Delphos, and very probably the maid in the times of the apostles, who had a spirit of divination, or of Python,
Ac 16:16; and so the words may be rendered here, “look not to the Python” n, or those who have the spirit of Python; so Jarchi from the Misnah o interprets the word here used, “Baal Ob” or the master of the bottle, this is Python, one that speaks from under his arm holes:
neither seek after wizards; such as pretend to a great deal of knowledge, as the word signifies; such as are called cunning men, who pretend to know where lost or stolen goods are, and to tell people their fortunes, and what will befall them hereafter:
to be defiled by them; for by seeking to them, and believing what is said by them, and trusting thereunto, and expecting events answerable to their predictions, they would be guilty of a gross sin, and so bring pollution and guilt on them; according to the Jewish canons p, such sort of persons as are cautioned against were to be stoned, and they that consulted them to be reproved;
I [am] the Lord your God; who only is to be regarded and sought unto for advice and assistance; see Isa 8:19.
n “ne respiciatis ad Pythonas”, Montanus; so Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. o Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 7. sect. 7. p lbid.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Verse 31:
This statute forbids all forms of occult practices. Included are:
1. Familiar spirits, or spirit mediums.
2. Wizards, yiddeoni, “knowing one,” male or female magician or sorcerer; one who knows (or claims to know) the secrets of the supernatural.
De 18:10-12 gives a more complete list of those who engage in occult practices.
Modern “psychics,” spiritual advisers, fortune tellers, spirit mediums, psychic doctors and surgeons, fall into this category. This includes the use of the ouija board, tarot cards, tea leaves, etc. God’s view of these practices remains the same as when He prescribed the death penalty for this sin, Le 20:27. All these are to be strictly avoided, and the paraphernalia associated with them should be burned, Ac 19:18-20.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(31) Regard not.Better, Turn ye not unto, as the Authorised Version renders this very phrase in Lev. 19:4.
Them that have familiar spirits.This phrase represents the single word oboth in the original, and the translators of our Authorised Version by adopting it implied that those who practised this craft were supposed to be attended by an invisible spirit who was subject to their call to supply them with supernatural information. According to the authorities during the second Temple it denotes one who has a spirit speaking from under his arm-holes, or chest, with a hollow voice, as if it came out of a bottle, which is the meaning of ob in Job. 32:19. They identified it with the spirit of Python, by which the ancient Chaldee Version renders it.
Neither seek after wizards.The expression wizard, which in old English denotes wise man, sage, is almost the exact equivalent of the word in the original. These cunning men pretended to tell people their fortunes, where their lost property was to be found, &c. According to ancient tradition, these wizards took in their mouth a bone of a certain bird called yadu, burned incense, thus producing fumes which sent them off into an ecstacy, and then foretold future events. Hence their name, yidonee, as it is in the original. It occurs eleven times in the Bible, and always together with the word translated familiar spirit.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
31. Familiar spirits The Hebrew oboth signifies skins used for bottles, Job 32:19. Its secondary meaning is the hollow belly of conjurers, supposed to be inflated by the spirit. Hence the obh properly denotes, not the conjurer himself but the spirit which is conjured by him, and is supposed to speak in him. See the Seventy, who render it by , ventriloquists. The “familiar” is not in the Hebrew; it comes from the idea that the necromancers, soothsayers, and the like had spirits or demons whom they could summon from the unseen world to wait upon them as famuli, servants, and execute their commands. The ventriloquists “peeped and muttered,” (Isa 8:19; Isa 29:4,) to imitate the voice of the revealing “familiar.” All the descriptions of the ancient necromancy are strikingly like the practices of modern spirit-circles. The sin in such consultations of the dead is the implied abandonment of God and his word as man’s only and sufficient light on all questions respecting the future state, and the resort to unauthorized sources of revelation, whose utterances are repugnant to the Holy Scriptures, and frequently grossly immoral.
Wizards Wizard is derived from wise and the old English termination ard a wise man, hence a magician or sorcerer. The Hebrew and Greek terms have the same meaning, indicating those that could by any means reveal the future. The rabbins derive the Hebrew word from a certain man-shaped beast, the bones of which the diviner held in his teeth. The Greek wizard ate certain portions of beasts supposed to be endowed with the faculty of divination. “Admitting that the terms ‘witchcraft,’ ‘wizard,’ and the like were used in their modern signification, as implying the possession of supernatural or magical powers by compact with evil spirits, it would follow, upon theocratic principles, that he who so much as pretends to exercise this power, seducing the people from their allegiance to God, would be worthy of death.” The law, like that on the statute books of England against the pretence to witchcraft among the negroes of Jamaica, does not assume the real existence of any such Satanic power attainable by men, but it pronounces its penalty against him or her who assumes to exercise this nefarious art. But Sir Walter Scott observes: “The sorcery or witchcraft of the Old Testament resolves itself into a trafficking with idols and asking counsel of false deities; or, in other words, into idolatry.” R.S. Poole regards it as a distinctive characteristic of the Bible that from first to last it warrants no trust in or dread of charms and incantations as capable of producing evil consequences when used against a man. In the Psalms, the most personal of all the books of Scripture, there is no prayer to be protected against magical influences, though every other kind of evil to body or soul is mentioned. These facts prove that the modern notion of witchcraft was a superstition entirely unknown to the early Hebrews.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Lev 19:31. Regard not them that have familiar spirits The word haobot, rendered familiar spirits, signifies conjurers, pythos; persons, says Parkhurst, who pretended to give prophetic answers, when inspired and inflated by the light and air. Virgil has described a prophetess of this kind, AEneid 6 ver. 46, &c.
Ait, Deus, &c. “The virgin cries, the god, behold the god! And straight her visage and her colour change; Her hair’s dishevell’d, and her heaving breast, And lab’ring heart, are swoll’n with sacred rage: Larger she seems, her voice no mortal sound, As the inspiring god near and more near Seizes her soul.”
This shews what the heathens meant when they spoke of their diviners being? pleni deo, full of the god: and it is evident from Act 16:18 that the devil was sometimes permitted to take advantage of these pretendedly divine inspirations, so as really to seize and actuate the bodies of such pretenders. The learned reader, who would see more concerning this sort of diviners, may consult Leonis Allatii syntagma de engastrimutho. The word rendered wizards, comes from the verb iadang, to know; and signifies those who pretended to a superior degree of knowledge in future events. See Exo 22:18 and Lev 6:27.
Note; 1. Let the vain and sinful customs prohibited above admonish us of the folly and sin of fortune-telling, applying to gypsies, conjurers, &c. amulets, charms, &c. fearing cross days, or cross knives and forks, or spilt salt, and such kinds of fooleries, which are a disgrace to human nature. Shall the dregs of paganism enter amidst the profession of Christianity? To have any dependance on these alilem, (nothings,) is still, in some degree, to have fellowship with devils. 2. Though we have renounced the gods of the heathen, we must remember, that he who deludes the unwary, and sacrifices injured beauty to his own vile lusts, is the votary of these unclean spirits.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Lev 19:31 Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I [am] the LORD your God.
Ver. 31. I am the Lord your God. ] What need you then run to the devil for direction? Is it because there is no God in Israel? Every one that consults with Satan, worships him, though he bow not: neither doth that evil spirit desire any other reverence than to be sought unto.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
familiar spirits. These are evil spirits personating dead human beings, and attaching themselves only to “mediums” and those who give up their will to them. A dread reality is provided against by these enactments. Compare Lev 20:27. Deu 18:10-12. 1Ch 10:13-14. Isa 8:19. The Hebrew ‘ob, borrowed from an Akkadian word, ubi = a charm, used of one who was mistress of the spell, or spirit. Isa 29:4. See Act 16:16, where it is defined as “a spirit of Python” (= Pythius Apollo), i.e. the devil.
Wizards = knowing ones: those having occult knowledge,
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Lev 19:26, Lev 20:6, Lev 20:7, Lev 20:27, Exo 22:18, Deu 18:10-14, 1Sa 28:3, 1Sa 28:7-9, 2Ki 17:17, 2Ki 21:6, 1Ch 10:13, 2Ch 33:6, Isa 8:19, Isa 29:4, Isa 47:13, Act 8:11, Act 13:6-8, Act 16:16-18, Act 19:19, Act 19:20, Gal 5:20, Rev 21:8
Reciprocal: Gen 41:8 – the magicians of Egypt 2Ki 23:24 – that he might Isa 2:6 – and are
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Lev 19:31. Wizards Them that have entered into covenant with the devil, by whose help they foretel many things to come, and acquaint men with secret things; see Lev 20:27; Deu 18:11; 1Sa 28:3; 1Sa 28:7; 1Sa 28:9; 2Ki 21:6.