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Monday, July 21st, 2025
the Week of Proper 11 / Ordinary 16
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Read the Bible

Brenton's Septuagint

Deuteronomy 18:11

a sorcerer employing incantation, one who has in him a divining spirit, and observer of signs, questioning the dead.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Abomination;   Charmers and Charming;   Familiar Spirits;   Necromancy;   Sorcery;   Thompson Chain Reference - Magic;   Necromancy;   The Topic Concordance - Abomination;   Hate;   Learning;   Paganism;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Canaanites, the;   Divination;   Jews, the;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Divination;   Enchantments;   Necromancer;   Witch and Wizard;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Magic;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Divination;   False Prophet;   Magic;   Necromancy;   Priest, Priesthood;   Prophet, Prophetess, Prophecy;   Punishment;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Alms;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Charmer;   Divination;   Enchantments;   Familiar Spirit;   Magic;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Necromancers;   Prophet;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Divination and Magic;   Incantations;   Inquire of God;   Medium;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Crimes and Punishments;   Deuteronomy;   Dreams;   Eschatology;   Magic, Divination, and Sorcery;   Molech, Moloch;   Prophecy, Prophets;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Lots;   King James Dictionary - Charmer;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Divination;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Necromancer;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Witch and wizard;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Inchantments;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Astrology;   Communion with Demons;   Consult;   Divide;   Enchantment;   En-Dor, Witch of;   Familiar;   Molech;   Sheol;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Ancestor Worship;   Commandments, the 613;   Deuteronomy;   Divination;   Gentile;   Geomancy;   Hammurabi;   Jurisdiction;   Magic;   Necromancy;   Witchcraft;   Zodiac;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
cast spells, consult a medium or a spiritist, or inquire of the dead.
Hebrew Names Version
or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
King James Version
Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
Lexham English Bible
or one who casts magic spells, or one who consults a spirit of the dead, or spiritist, or one who inquires of the dead.
English Standard Version
or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead,
New Century Version
Don't let anyone try to control others with magic, and don't let them be mediums or try to talk with the spirits of dead people.
New English Translation
one who casts spells, one who conjures up spirits, a practitioner of the occult, or a necromancer.
Amplified Bible
or one who casts a charm or spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or a necromancer [who seeks the dead].
New American Standard Bible
or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who consults the dead.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Or a charmer, or that counselleth wt spirits, or a soothsaier, or yt asketh counsel at ye dead.
Legacy Standard Bible
or one who is an enchanter or a medium or a spiritist or one who inquires of the dead.
Complete Jewish Bible
a spell-caster, a consulter of ghosts or spirits, or a necromancer.
Darby Translation
or a charmer, or one that inquireth of a spirit of Python, or a soothsayer, or one that consulteth the dead.
Easy-to-Read Version
Don't let anyone try to put magic spells on other people. Don't let any of your people become a medium or a wizard. And no one should try to talk with someone who has died.
George Lamsa Translation
Or a charmer or a consulter with familiar spirits or a sorcerer or a necromancer.
Good News Translation
or charms, and don't let them consult the spirits of the dead.
Literal Translation
or a magic charmer, or one consulting mediums, or a spirit-knower, or one inquiring of the dead.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
or a witch, or a coniurer, or soythsayer, or an expounder of tokens, or yt axeth eny thinge of the deed.
American Standard Version
or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
Bible in Basic English
Or anyone using secret force on people, or putting questions to a spirit, or having secret knowledge, or going to the dead for directions.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or that coucelleth with spirites, or a soothsayer, or that asketh counsayle of the dead.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
or a charmer, or one that consulteth a ghost or a familiar spirit, or a necromancer.
King James Version (1611)
Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wyzard, or a Necromancer.
English Revised Version
or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
Berean Standard Bible
casts spells, consults a medium or familiar spirit, or inquires of the dead.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
nethir an enchauntere, `that is, that disseyueth mennus iyen that a thing seme that is not; nether a man take counsel at hem that han a feend spekynge `in the wombe, nether take counsel at false dyuynouris nethir seke of deed men the treuthe.
Young's Literal Translation
and a charmer, and one asking at a familiar spirit, and a wizard, and one seeking unto the dead.
Update Bible Version
or one casting spells, or one requesting a spirit, or a wizard, or one inquiring of the dead.
Webster's Bible Translation
Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
World English Bible
or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
New King James Version
or one who conjures spells, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.
New Living Translation
or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead.
New Life Bible
or uses secret power on people, or helps people talk to spirits, or talks to spirits himself, or talks with the dead.
New Revised Standard
or one who casts spells, or who consults ghosts or spirits, or who seeks oracles from the dead.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Or who bindeth with spells, - Or who asketh of a familiar spirit or an oracle, Or who seeketh unto the dead.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Nor charmer, nor any one that consulteth pythonic spirits, or fortune tellers, or that seeketh the truth from the dead.
Revised Standard Version
or a charmer, or a medium, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.

Contextual Overview

9 And when thou shalt have entered into the land which the Lord thy God gives thee, thou shalt not learn to do according to the abominations of those nations. 10 There shall not be found in thee one who purges his son or his daughter with fire, one who uses divination, who deals with omens, and augury, 11 a sorcerer employing incantation, one who has in him a divining spirit, and observer of signs, questioning the dead. 12 For every one that does these things is an abomination to the Lord thy God; for because of these abominations the Lord will destroy them from before thy face. 13 Thou shalt be perfect before the Lord thy God. 14 For all these nations whose land thou shalt inherit, they will listen to omens and divinations; but the Lord thy God has not permitted thee so to do.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

or a necromancer: 1 Samuel 28:11-14

Reciprocal: Exodus 22:18 - General 1 Samuel 15:23 - witchcraft 1 Samuel 28:3 - put away 1 Samuel 28:7 - a familiar spirit 1 Samuel 28:8 - I pray thee Psalms 58:5 - charming never so wisely Isaiah 8:19 - Seek Isaiah 65:4 - remain

Cross-References

Genesis 17:17
And Abraam fell upon his face, and laughed; and spoke in his heart, saying, Shall there be a child to one who is a hundred years old, and shall Sarrha who is ninety years old, bear?
Genesis 17:24
And Abraam was ninety-nine years old, when he was circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin.
Genesis 18:11
And Abraam and Sarrha were old, advanced in days, and the custom of women ceased with Sarrha.
Genesis 18:12
And Sarrha laughed in herself, saying, The thing has not as yet happened to me, even until now, and my lord is old.
Genesis 18:18
But Abraam shall become a great and populous nation, and in him shall all the nations of the earth be blest.
Genesis 18:21
I will therefore go down and see, if they completely correspond with the cry which comes to me, and if not, that I may know.
Genesis 31:35
And she said to her father, Be not indignant, Sir; I cannot rise up before thee, for it is with me according to the manner of women. Laban searched in all the house, and found not the images.
Leviticus 15:19
And the woman whosoever shall have an issue of blood, when her issue shall be in her body, shall be seven days in her separation; every one that touches her shall be unclean until evening.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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 Acts 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; Acts 16:16- :

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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

A consulter with familiar spirits ... a wizard - Compare Leviticus 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 2 Chronicles 33:6.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Deuteronomy 18:11. 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. Leviticus 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. Exodus 22:13, and Leviticus 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.


 
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