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Saturday, July 12th, 2025
the Week of Proper 9 / Ordinary 14
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Read the Bible

Christian Standard Bible ®

Deuteronomy 18:11

cast spells, consult a medium or a spiritist, or inquire of 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

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.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
a sorcerer employing incantation, one who has in him a divining spirit, and observer of signs, questioning the dead.
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“When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not imitate the detestable customs of those nations. 10No one among you is to sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire, practice divination, tell fortunes, interpret omens, practice sorcery, 11cast spells, consult a medium or a spiritist, or inquire of the dead. 12Everyone who does these acts is detestable to the Lord, and the Lord your God is driving out the nations before you because of these detestable acts. 13You must be blameless before the Lord your God. 14Though these nations you are about to drive out listen to fortune-tellers and diviners, the Lord your God has not permitted you to do this.

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
Abraham fell facedown. Then he laughed and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a hundred-year-old man? Can Sarah, a ninety-year-old woman, give birth?”
Genesis 17:24
Abraham was ninety-nine years old when the flesh of his foreskin was circumcised,
Genesis 18:11
Abraham and Sarah were old and getting on in years. Sarah had passed the age of childbearing.
Genesis 18:12
So she laughed to herself: “After I am worn out and my lord is old, will I have delight?”
Genesis 18:18
Abraham is to become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him.
Genesis 18:21
I will go down to see if what they have done justifies the cry that has come up to me. If not, I will find out.”
Genesis 31:35
She said to her father, “Don’t be angry, my lord, that I cannot stand up in your presence; I am having my period.” So Laban searched, but could not find the household idols.
Leviticus 15:19
“When a woman has a discharge, and it consists of blood from her body, she will be unclean because of her menstruation for seven days. Everyone who touches her will be unclean until evening.
Luke 1:7
But they had no children because Elizabeth could not conceive, and both of them were well along in years.
Luke 1:18
“How can I know this?” Zechariah asked the angel. “For I am an old man, and my wife is well along in years.”

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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