the Third Week after Easter
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Christian Standard Bible ®
Exodus 22:18
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- AmericanEncyclopedias:
- CondensedParallel Translations
"You shall not allow a sorceress to live.
Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
"‘You will not let a witch live.
"Put to death any woman who does evil magic.
"You must not allow a sorceress to live.
"You shall not allow a woman who practices sorcery to live.
"You shall not allow a sorceress to live.
Thou shalt not suffer a witch to liue.
"You shall not allow a sorceress to live.
Death is the punishment for witchcraft.
"Whoever has sexual relations with an animal must be put to death.
—Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
"You must not allow any woman to do evil magic. If she does magic, you must not let her live.
"You shall not permit a sorceress to live.
You shall not suffer a witch to live.
"Put to death any woman who practices magic.
You shall not allow a sorceress to live.
Thou shalt not suffre a witch to lyue.
Thou shalt not suffer a sorceress to live.
Any woman using unnatural powers or secret arts is to be put to death.
Thou shalt not suffer a witche to lyue.
Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death.
Thou shalt not suffer a witch to liue.
Ye shall not save the lives of sorcerers.
Thou shalt not suffer a sorceress to live.
You must not allow a sorceress to live.
Thou schalt not suffre witchis to lyue.
`A witch thou dost not keep alive.
You shall not allow a witch to live.
Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
"You shall not allow a sorceress to live.
"You shall not permit a sorceress to live.
"You must not allow a sorceress to live.
"Do not allow a woman to live who does witchcraft.
You shall not permit a female sorcerer to live.
A sorceress, shalt thou not suffer to live.
Wizards thou shalt not suffer to live.
"You shall not permit a sorceress to live.
"Don't let a sorceress live.
"You shall not allow a sorceress to live.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Leviticus 19:26, Leviticus 19:31, Leviticus 20:6, Leviticus 20:27, Deuteronomy 18:10, Deuteronomy 18:11, 1 Samuel 28:3, 1 Samuel 28:9, Isaiah 19:3, Acts 8:9-11, Acts 16:16-19, Acts 19:19, Galatians 5:20, Revelation 22:15
Reciprocal: 1 Samuel 15:23 - witchcraft 1 Chronicles 10:13 - a familiar Isaiah 2:6 - and are Acts 13:6 - certain
Cross-References
Abraham is to become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him.
After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!”
So Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took with him two of his young men and his son Isaac. He split wood for a burnt offering and set out to go to the place God had told him about.
On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.
Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go over there to worship; then we’ll come back to you.”
Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” Then the two of them walked on together.
When they arrived at the place that God had told him about, Abraham built the altar there and arranged the wood. He bound his son Isaac and placed him on the altar on top of the wood.
Then Abraham reached out and took the knife to slaughter his son.
“Therefore, this is the declaration of the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘I did say that your family and your forefather’s family would walk before me forever. But now,’ this is the Lord’s declaration, ‘no longer! For those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disgraced.
May his name endure forever;as long as the sun shines,may his fame increase.May all nations be blessed by himand call him blessed.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Thou shall not suffer a witch to live. Such that had familiar spirits, and conversed with them, and by means thereof got knowledge of many things relating to persons, at least pretending they did; and who did or seemed to do many strange and surprising feats, as even to raise the spirits of departed persons, to converse with them and gain knowledge by them, though in reality they did not, and could not do such things, but used some juggling tricks to deceive the people, and in which they might be assisted by evil spirits; as appears from the case of the witch of Endor, who was surprised at the appearance of Samuel, it being out of the ordinary course of her art and practice really to bring up the spirit of a man deceased, whatever pretensions might be made to it; however, such being deceivers of the people, and leading them into unwarrantable practices, and off of a dependence on God and his providence, and from seeking to him, and asking counsel of him, they are by this law condemned to death, such an one was not to be suffered to live; not that it was lawful for anybody to kill her, or that any private person might or must do it that knew her, or took her to be a witch; but she was to be had before a court of judicature and tried there, and, if found guilty, to be put to death by the civil magistrate: so Jarchi's note is,
"but she shall die by the house of judgment;''
or the sanhedrim; for these words are spoken to Moses the chief judge, and to those that were under him, and succeeded him and them; though the Targum of Jonathan prefaces them thus:
"and my people, the children of Israel, thou shalt not, c.''
and though only a witch is mentioned, or this is only expressed in the feminine gender, because a multitude of this sort of people were found among women, as Ben Melech observes, and so Aben Ezra yet wizards, or men that dealt with familiar spirits, are included; and it may be reasonably concluded from hence, that if women, who generally have more mercy and compassion shown them, yet were not suffered to live when found criminal in this way, then much less men: and this law is thought by some to follow upon the other, concerning enticing and lying with a virgin not betrothed; because such sort of persons were made use of to entice and decoy maids to gratify the lusts of men.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live - See the marginal references. and Leviticus 20:27. The witch is here named to represent the class. This is the earliest denunciation of witchcraft in the law. In every form of witchcraft there is an appeal to a power not acting in subordination to the divine law. From all such notions and tendencies true worship is designed to deliver us. The practice of witchcraft was therefore an act of rebellion against Yahweh, and, as such, was a capital crime. The passages bearing on the subject in the Prophets, as well as those in the law, carry a lesson for all ages. Isaiah 8:19; Isaiah 19:3; Isaiah 44:25; Isaiah 47:12-13; Micah 5:12, etc.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Exodus 22:18. Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. — If there had been no witches, such a law as this had never been made. The existence of the law, given under the direction of the Spirit of God, proves the existence of the thing. It has been doubted whether ×××©×¤× mecash-shephah, which we translate witch, really means a person who practised divination or sorcery by spiritual or infernal agency. Whether the persons thus denominated only pretended to have an art which had no existence, or whether they really possessed the power commonly attributed to them, are questions which it would be improper to discuss at length in a work of this kind; but that witches, wizards, those who dealt with familiar spirits, c., are represented in the sacred writings as actually possessing a power to evoke the dead, to perform, supernatural operations, and to discover hidden or secret things by spells, charms, incantations, c., is evident to every unprejudiced reader of the Bible. Of Manasseh it is said: He caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times [××¢×× ×, veonen, he used divination by clouds] and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, [××שף vechishsheph,] and dealt with a familiar spirit, [××¢×©× ××× veasah ob, performed a variety of operations by means of what was afterwards called the ÏÎ½ÎµÏ Î¼Î± ÏÏ Î¸ÏνοÏ, the spirit of Python,] and with wizards, [×××¢×× × yiddeoni, the wise or knowing ones] and he wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord 2 Chronicles 33:6. It is very likely that the Hebrew ×שף cashaph, and the Arabic [Arabic] cashafa, had originally the same meaning, to uncover, to remove a veil, to manifest, reveal, make bare or naked; and [Arabic] mecashefat is used to signify commerce with God. See Wilmet and Giggeius. The mecashshephah or witch, therefore, was probably a person who professed to reveal hidden mysteries, by commerce with God, or the invisible world.
From the severity of this law against witches, c., we may see in what light these were viewed by Divine justice. They were seducers of the people from their allegiance to God, on whose judgment alone they should depend and by impiously prying into futurity, assumed an attribute of God, the foretelling of future events, which implied in itself the grossest blasphemy, and tended to corrupt the minds of the people, by leading them away from God and the revelation he had made of himself. Many of the Israelites had, no doubt, learned these curious arts from their long residence with the Egyptians; and so much were the Israelites attached to them, that we find such arts in repute among them, and various practices of this kind prevailed through the whole of the Jewish history, notwithstanding the offence was capital, and in all cases punished with death.
