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Read the Bible

THE MESSAGE

Exodus 7:11

Pharaoh called in his wise men and sorcerers. The magicians of Egypt did the same thing by their incantations: each man threw down his staff and they all turned into snakes. But then Aaron's staff swallowed their staffs.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Egypt;   Jambres;   Jannes;   Magician;   Miracles;   Sorcery;   Wise Men;   Thompson Chain Reference - Lying Wonders;   Magic;   Magicians;   Moses;   Wonders;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Divination;   Egypt;   Miracles through Evil Agents;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Egypt;   Exodus;   Jannes;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Egypt;   Magic;   Moses;   Pharaoh;   Snake;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Magic;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Enchantments;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Divination;   Egypt;   Jannes and Jambres;   Joseph;   Magi;   Serpent, Brazen;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Aaron's Rod;   Exodus, Book of;   Jannes and Jambres;   Plagues;   Rod, Staff;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Dragon;   Jannes and Jambres;   Magic, Divination, and Sorcery;   Moses;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Jannes and Jambres;   Sorcery;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Miracles;   Serpent;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Balaam;   Finger;   Magicians;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Chief parables and miracles in the bible;   Egypt;   Plagues of egypt;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Enchantments;   Jan'nes;   Magic, Magicians;   Plagues, the Ten,;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Moses;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Enchantment;   Exodus, the Book of;   Jannes and Jambres;   Wise-Men;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Balaam;   Egypt;   Jannes and Jambres;  

Parallel Translations

Hebrew Names Version
Then Par`oh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers. They also, the magicians of Mitzrayim, did in like manner with their enchantments.
King James Version
Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.
Lexham English Bible
And Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did likewise with their secret arts.
New Century Version
So the king called in his wise men and his magicians, and with their tricks the Egyptian magicians were able to do the same thing.
New English Translation
Then Pharaoh also summoned wise men and sorcerers, and the magicians of Egypt by their secret arts did the same thing.
Amplified Bible
Then Pharaoh called for the wise men [skilled in magic and omens] and the sorcerers [skilled in witchcraft], and they also, these magicians (soothsayer-priests) of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts and enchantments.
New American Standard Bible
Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers, and they too, the soothsayer priests of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Then Pharaoh called also for the wise men and sorcerers: and those charmers also of Egypt did in like maner with their enchantmens,
Legacy Standard Bible
Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts.
Contemporary English Version
Then the king called in the wise men and the magicians, who used their secret powers to do the same thing—
Complete Jewish Bible
But Pharaoh in turn called for the sages and sorcerers; and they too, the magicians of Egypt, did the same thing, making use of their secret arts.
Darby Translation
And Pharaoh also called the sages and the sorcerers; and they too, the scribes of Egypt, did so with their enchantments:
Easy-to-Read Version
So Pharaoh called for his wise men and magicians. These men used their magic, and they were able to do the same thing as Aaron.
English Standard Version
Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers, and they, the magicians of Egypt, also did the same by their secret arts.
George Lamsa Translation
Then Pharaoh called the wise men and the magicians; now the magicians of Egypt, they also did the same with their magic.
Good News Translation
Then the king called for his wise men and magicians, and by their magic they did the same thing.
Christian Standard Bible®
But then Pharaoh called the wise men and sorcerers—the magicians of Egypt, and they also did the same thing by their occult practices.
Literal Translation
And Pharaoh also called wise men and the sorcerers. And they, the priests of Egypt, also performed by their secret arts.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Then Pharao called for ye wyse men & Sorcerers. And the Sorcerers of Egipte also dyd like wyse with their Sorceries,
American Standard Version
Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers: and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did in like manner with their enchantments.
Bible in Basic English
Then Pharaoh sent for the wise men and the wonder-workers, and they, the wonder-workers of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Then Pharao called for the wyse men, and enchaunters: and those sorcerers of Egypt dyd in like maner with their sorcerie.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers; and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did in like manner with their secret arts.
King James Version (1611)
Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers; now the Magicians of Egypt, they also did in like maner with their enchantments.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
But Pharao called together the wise men of Egypt, and the sorcerers, and the charmers also of the Egyptians did likewise with their sorceries.
English Revised Version
Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers: and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did in like manner with their enchantments.
Berean Standard Bible
But Pharaoh called the wise men and sorcerers and magicians of Egypt, and they also did the same things by their magic arts.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Forsothe Farao clepide wise men, and witchis, and thei also diden bi enchauntementis of Egipt, and bi summe priuy thingis in lijk maner;
Young's Literal Translation
And Pharaoh also calleth for wise men, and for sorcerers; and the scribes of Egypt, they also, with their flashings, do so,
Update Bible Version
Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers: and the sacred scholars of Egypt also did in like manner with their witchcraft.
Webster's Bible Translation
Then Pharaoh also called the wise-men, and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.
World English Bible
Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers. They also, the magicians of Egypt, did in like manner with their enchantments.
New King James Version
But Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers; so the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments.
New Living Translation
Then Pharaoh called in his own wise men and sorcerers, and these Egyptian magicians did the same thing with their magic.
New Life Bible
Then Pharaoh called for his wise men and wonder-workers. They did the same thing using their secret ways.
New Revised Standard
Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers; and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same by their secret arts.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Then called Pharaoh also for the wise men and for the magicians, - and they too, the sacred scribes of Egypt with their secret arts, did in like manner;
Douay-Rheims Bible
And Pharao called the wise men and the magicians; and they also by Egyptian enchantments and certain secrets, did in like manner.
Revised Standard Version
Then Pharaoh summoned the wise men and the sorcerers; and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same by their secret arts.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers, and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did the same with their secret arts.

Contextual Overview

8Then God spoke to Moses and Aaron. He said, "When Pharaoh speaks to you and says, ‘Prove yourselves. Perform a miracle,' then tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down in front of Pharaoh: It will turn into a snake.'" 10 Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did what God commanded. Aaron threw his staff down in front of Pharaoh and his servants, and it turned into a snake. 11Pharaoh called in his wise men and sorcerers. The magicians of Egypt did the same thing by their incantations: each man threw down his staff and they all turned into snakes. But then Aaron's staff swallowed their staffs. 13 Yet Pharaoh was as stubborn as ever—he wouldn't listen to them, just as God had said.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

wise men: Genesis 41:8, Genesis 41:38, Genesis 41:39, Isaiah 19:11, Isaiah 19:12, Isaiah 47:12, Isaiah 47:13, Daniel 2:2, Daniel 2:27, Daniel 4:7-9, Daniel 5:7, Daniel 5:11, 2 Timothy 3:8, Revelation 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: Exodus 7:22, Exodus 8:7, Exodus 8:18, Deuteronomy 13:1-3, Matthew 24:24, Galatians 3:1, Ephesians 4:14, 2 Thessalonians 2:9, Revelation 13:11-15

enchantments: By the word lahatim, from lahat, to burn, may be meant such incantations as required lustral fires, fumigations, etc.

Reciprocal: Exodus 9:11 - General Leviticus 19:26 - use 1 Samuel 6:2 - called Jeremiah 27:9 - hearken Daniel 1:20 - the magicians Acts 8:9 - used Acts 13:8 - withstood Acts 16:16 - possessed Acts 19:19 - used Revelation 13:13 - he doeth

Cross-References

Genesis 6:17
"I'm going to bring a flood on the Earth that will destroy everything alive under Heaven. Total destruction.
Genesis 7:5
Noah did everything God commanded him.
Genesis 7:6
Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters covered the Earth. Noah and his wife and sons and their wives boarded the ship to escape the flood. Clean and unclean animals, birds, and all the crawling creatures came in pairs to Noah and to the ship, male and female, just as God had commanded Noah. In seven days the floodwaters came.
Genesis 7:11
It was the six-hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month that it happened: all the underground springs erupted and all the windows of Heaven were thrown open. Rain poured for forty days and forty nights.
Genesis 7:24
The floodwaters took over for 150 days.
2 Kings 7:2
The attendant on whom the king leaned for support said to the Holy Man, "You expect us to believe that? Trapdoors opening in the sky and food tumbling out?" "You'll watch it with your own eyes," he said, "but you will not eat so much as a mouthful!"
Isaiah 24:19
The Landscape Will Be a Moonscape Danger ahead! God 's about to ravish the earth and leave it in ruins, Rip everything out by the roots and send everyone scurrying: priests and laypeople alike, owners and workers alike, celebrities and nobodies alike, buyers and sellers alike, bankers and beggars alike, the haves and have-nots alike. The landscape will be a moonscape, totally wasted. And why? Because God says so. He's issued the orders. The earth turns gaunt and gray, the world silent and sad, sky and land lifeless, colorless. Earth is polluted by its very own people, who have broken its laws, Disrupted its order, violated the sacred and eternal covenant. Therefore a curse, like a cancer, ravages the earth. Its people pay the price of their sacrilege. They dwindle away, dying out one by one. No more wine, no more vineyards, no more songs or singers. The laughter of castanets is gone, the shouts of celebrants, gone, the laughter of fiddles, gone. No more parties with toasts of champagne. Serious drinkers gag on their drinks. The chaotic cities are unlivable. Anarchy reigns. Every house is boarded up, condemned. People riot in the streets for wine, but the good times are gone forever— no more joy for this old world. The city is dead and deserted, bulldozed into piles of rubble. That's the way it will be on this earth. This is the fate of all nations: An olive tree shaken clean of its olives, a grapevine picked clean of its grapes. But there are some who will break into glad song. Out of the west they'll shout of God 's majesty. Yes, from the east God 's glory will ascend. Every island of the sea Will broadcast God 's fame, the fame of the God of Israel. From the four winds and the seven seas we hear the singing: "All praise to the Righteous One!" But I said, "That's all well and good for somebody, but all I can see is doom, doom, and more doom." All of them at one another's throats, yes, all of them at one another's throats. Terror and pits and booby traps are everywhere, whoever you are. If you run from the terror, you'll fall into the pit. If you climb out of the pit, you'll get caught in the trap. Chaos pours out of the skies. The foundations of earth are crumbling. Earth is smashed to pieces, earth is ripped to shreds, earth is wobbling out of control, Earth staggers like a drunk, sways like a shack in a high wind. Its piled-up sins are too much for it. It collapses and won't get up again. That's when God will call on the carpet rebel powers in the skies and Rebel kings on earth. They'll be rounded up like prisoners in a jail, Corralled and locked up in a jail, and then sentenced and put to hard labor. Shamefaced moon will cower, humiliated, red-faced sun will skulk, disgraced, Because God -of-the-Angel-Armies will take over, ruling from Mount Zion and Jerusalem, Splendid and glorious before all his leaders.
Ezekiel 26:19
"The Message of God , the Master: ‘When I turn you into a wasted city, a city empty of people, a ghost town, and when I bring up the great ocean deeps and cover you, then I'll push you down among those who go to the grave, the long, long dead. I'll make you live there, in the grave in old ruins, with the buried dead. You'll never see the land of the living again. I'll introduce you to the terrors of death and that'll be the end of you. They'll send out search parties for you, but you'll never be found. Decree of God , the Master.'"

Gill's Notes on the 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,

:-. 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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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, 2 Timothy 3:8. Both names are Egyptian.

Enchantments - The original expression implies a deceptive appearance, an illusion, a juggler’s 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 Exodus 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.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Exodus 7:11. Pharaoh - called the wise men — חכמים chacamim, the men of learning. Sorcerers, כשפים 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, חרטמי chartummey, decypherers of abstruse writings. Genesis 41:8.

They also did in like manner with their enchantments. — The word להתים lahatim, comes from להט 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 Exodus 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, Exodus 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.


 
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