Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 18:11
Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
11. a charmer ] With Sam. LXX omit or: the name is in apposition to the preceding. Heb. ober 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 Korn, Sur. cxiii, ‘the mischief of women blowing on knots’; also practised in Europe, cp. the French ‘nouer l’guillette’), or of the weaving of incantations and spells (W. R. Smith), so LXX . 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’b w e yidd e on; ’b 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 ; 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. Yidd e on 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, .
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.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
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.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 11. A charmer] 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] 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] 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.] 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.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
A charmer; one that charmeth serpents or other cattle, Psa 58:5; or, a
fortune-teller, that foretelleth the events of mens 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.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
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 Ac 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 comments on Le 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.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(11) Charmer.Literally one who ties knots, used here for the first time in Old Testament.
Consulter with familiar spirits.Literally, one who consulteth b (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.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
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 , one who consults a sorcerer. 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, , 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 by , 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, . 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.”]
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Ver. 11. Or a charmer in the Hebrew chober chober, jungens junctionem. The word chober, says Parkhurst, signifies to charm, or, by pretended incantations, to collect serpents, and other noxious animals together, without harm: thus Buxtorf, Psa 58:5. A passage from the author of The conformity of the East Indians with the Jews, and other ancient nations, ch. 28: may throw some light on the subject: “Their enchantments, or at least such as I have had any knowledge of, have not very much in them, and extend no farther than to the taking of adders, and making them dance to the music of a flute. They have several kinds of adders, which they keep in baskets; these they carry about from house to house, and make them dance whenever any body will give them money. When any of these reptiles get into the houses or gardens, the people employ these Indians to drive them out; who have the art to bring them to their feet by the sound of their flutes, and by singing certain songs; after which they take them up by handfuls, without receiving the least hurt.” To which he adds, from the Ceremonies and Religious Customs of all Nations, vol. 3: p. 268 the following note: “As to serpents, it is very probable, that they may be delighted with musical sounds, and that the whole enchantment of the Bramins may centre there. Baldeus, author of the Description of Coromandel in Dutch, relates, that he himself was an eye-witness to this conjuration with serpents.The Psylli and Thessalians also, amongst the ancients, pretended to enchant serpents, and to handle them without receiving any hurt.” Nor was the effect of music on serpents unknown to the Romans. Thus Virgil:
Frigidus in pratis cantando rumpitur anguis. The torpid snake by incantation bursts. ECOLOG. 8.
Silius Italicus, speaking of the Marmarides, a people of Africa, says,
Ad quorum cantus serpens oblita veneni, Ad quorum cantus mites jacuere cerastae.
Their song divests the serpent of his sting, The fell cerastes by their song’s disarm’d.
The reader would do well to consult, on this curious subject, the learned Bochart, vol. 3: p. 385, & seq.
Or a consulter with familiar spirits,or a necromancer Familiar spirit; Hebrew ob, rendered the spirit of Pytho. Ob originally signifies a bottle, and thereupon is taken for that spirit which speaks out of the womb of the Pythoness. The woman is called esheth-baalath: and ob, is rendered by the LXX a woman that speaks out of her belly. Maimonides says, she who was initiated held in her hand a myrtle wand, and received suffumigations; and R. Ab. Ben-David, that these rites were usually performed at some dead man’s tomb. This and the other divinations mentioned here were those in use among the Chaldeans, comprehended under the general name of Mecathphim. Houbigant renders this very properly, qui consulat Pythones, “one who consults Pythos;” concerning which, see Lev 19:31. A necromancer is rendered, very justly, by Dr. Waterland, one who consults the dead; a superstitious practice, which was performed by visiting the 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 the dead by dreams, or by the dead appearing to them. See Isaiah, chap. Deu 8:19 Deu 29:4. We have a remarkable instance of this in the witch of Endor, 1Sa 28:7. The emperor Julian is accused of practising this horrid superstition upon the bodies of young boys and girls whom he had killed to satisfy his impious curiosity, both for the consulting of their entrails, and the evoking of their souls. See Life of Julian, p. 220. These horrors were not only practised among the heathens in secret; but they had their public establishments in places consecrated to religion, where they used solemnly to evoke and consult the dead. See Herodot. lib. 5: cap. 7 and Plutarch’s Life of Cimon. The Cabalists distinguish a threefold soul; one divine, and perfectly detached from the body, which they call nethama, the same as Virgil, aurai simplicis ignem: the second is the rational soul, which they call ruah; it participates of body and divinity, and unites them together: the third is wholly corporeal, a sort of image or shade, and as it were the slough of the body: this they say is sometimes visible, and wanders for a time about the sepulchre where the body is laid; and this, according to them, is what magicians and necromancers call forth by their spells. See Leonis Allat. Syntag. de Engastromytho, and Shuckford’s Connection, vol. 2: p. 9.
Ver. 13. Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God The Hebrew word tamim, which we render perfect, or entire, does especially denote here a perfection of sentiment, in respect to the point in hand. See Pro 28:18. It is as if Moses had said, “You shall be sincerely and unreservedly devoted to the Lord; not giving into those superstitions, which wholly obliterate the sentiments due to his majesty, and to him alone.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
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.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
familiar spirits. See note on Lev 19:31.
necromancer = a seeker unto the dead; a medium.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
or a necromancer: 1Sa 28:11-14
Reciprocal: Exo 22:18 – General 1Sa 15:23 – witchcraft 1Sa 28:3 – put away 1Sa 28:7 – a familiar spirit 1Sa 28:8 – I pray thee Psa 58:5 – charming never so wisely Isa 8:19 – Seek Isa 65:4 – remain
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Deu 18:11. Or a charmer One that charmeth serpents or other creatures. Or rather, as the Hebrew , chober chaber, seems to mean, an astrologer, or such as, by the conjunction of the planets, pretended to foretel the events of mens 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 , shoel ob, are here rendered by the Seventy, , 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 , 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 , 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.