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JPS Old Testament
Leviticus 19:31
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- AmericanEncyclopedias:
- InternationalParallel Translations
Don't turn to those who have familiar spirits, nor to the wizards; don't seek them out, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.
Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.
"‘You shall not turn to the mediums and to the soothsayers; you shall not seek them to become unclean with them; I am Yahweh your God.
"‘Do not go to mediums or fortune-tellers for advice, or you will become unclean. I am the Lord your God.
Do not turn to the spirits of the dead and do not seek familiar spirits to become unclean by them. I am the Lord your God.
'Do not turn to mediums [who pretend to consult the dead] or to spiritists [who have spirits of divination]; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.
'Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.
Ye shall not regarde them that worke with spirites, neither soothsayers: ye shall not seeke to them to be defiled by them: I am the Lorde your God.
‘Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am Yahweh your God.
Don't make yourselves disgusting to me by going to people who claim they can talk to the dead.
"‘Do not turn to spirit-mediums or sorcerers; don't seek them out, to be defiled by them; I am Adonai your God.
—Turn not unto necromancers and unto soothsayers; seek not after them to make yourselves unclean: I am Jehovah your God.
"Do not go to mediums or wizards for advice—they will only make you unclean. I am the Lord your God.
"Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.
You shall not go after diviners, neither after the soothsayers, nor shall you consult them to be defiled by them; I am the LORD your God.
"Do not go for advice to people who consult the spirits of the dead. If you do, you will be ritually unclean. I am the Lord your God.
“Do not turn to mediums or consult spiritists, or you will be defiled by them; I am the Lord your God.
You shall not turn to mediums, and you shall not seek to spirit-knowers to be defiled by them; I am Jehovah your God.
Ye shal not turne yor selues to ye Soythsayers, and axe nothinge at the expounders of tokes, that ye be not defyled by them: for I am the LORDE youre God.
Turn ye not unto them that have familiar spirits, nor unto the wizards; seek them not out, to be defiled by them: I am Jehovah your God.
Do not go after those who make use of spirits, or wonder-workers; do not go in their ways or become unclean through them: I am the Lord your God.
Ye shall not regarde them that worke with spirites, neither seeke after soothsayers to be defiled by them: I am the Lorde your God.
Regard not them that haue familiar spirits, neither seeke after Wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.
Ye shall not attend to those who have in them divining spirits, nor attach yourselves to enchanters, to pollute yourselves with them: I am the Lord your God.
Turn ye not unto them that have familiar spirits, nor unto the wizards; seek them not out, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.
You must not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out, or you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.
Bowe ye not to astronomyers, nether axe ye ony thing of fals dyuynours, that ye be defoulid bi hem; Y am youre Lord God.
`Ye do not turn unto those having familiar spirits; and unto wizards ye do not seek, for uncleanness by them; I [am] Jehovah your God.
Do not turn to the spiritists or to the wizards; do not seek them out, to be defiled by them: I am Yahweh your God.
Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I [am] the LORD your God.
Don't turn to those who have familiar spirits, nor to the wizards; don't seek them out, to be defiled by them: I am Yahweh your God.
"Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.
"Do not defile yourselves by turning to mediums or to those who consult the spirits of the dead. I am the Lord your God.
‘Do not ask what you should do from those who speak with bad spirits or talk to the dead. Do not find them or you will be unclean. I am the Lord your God.
Do not turn to mediums or wizards; do not seek them out, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.
Do not turn unto mediums, Nor, for oracles, make search, To render yourselves unclean with them, I - Yahweh, am your God.
Go not aside after wizards: neither ask any thing of soothsayers, to be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God.
"Do not turn to mediums or wizards; do not seek them out, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.
"Don't dabble in the occult or traffic with mediums; you'll pollute your souls. I am God , your God.
'Do not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out to be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Leviticus 19:26, Leviticus 20:6, Leviticus 20:7, Leviticus 20:27, Exodus 22:18, Deuteronomy 18:10-14, 1 Samuel 28:3, 1 Samuel 28:7-9, 2 Kings 17:17, 2 Kings 21:6, 1 Chronicles 10:13, 2 Chronicles 33:6, Isaiah 8:19, Isaiah 29:4, Isaiah 47:13, Acts 8:11, Acts 13:6-8, Acts 16:16-18, Acts 19:19, Acts 19:20, Galatians 5:20, Revelation 21:8
Reciprocal: Genesis 41:8 - the magicians of Egypt 2 Kings 23:24 - that he might Isaiah 2:6 - and are
Cross-References
And the man knew Eve his wife; and she conceived and bore Cain, and said: 'I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.'
The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bore children to them; the same were the mighty men that were of old, the men of renown.
And Sarai said unto Abram: 'Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing; go in, I pray thee, unto my handmaid; it may be that I shall be builded up through her.' And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.
And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes.
Behold now, I have two daughters that have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes; only unto these men do nothing; forasmuch as they are come under the shadow of my roof.'
And they said: 'Stand back.' And they said: 'This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs play the judge; now will we deal worse with thee, than with them.' And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and drew near to break the door.
And Lot went out, and spoke unto his sons-in-law, who married his daughters, and said: 'Up, get you out of this place; for the LORD will destroy the city.' But he seemed unto his sons-in-law as one that jested.
And he looked out toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the Plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a furnace.
And Lot went up out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountain, and his two daughters with him; for he feared to dwell in Zoar; and he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.
If brethren dwell together, and one of them die, and have no child, the wife of the dead shall not be married abroad unto one not of his kin; her husband's brother shall go in unto her, and take her to him to wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Regard not them that have familiar spirits,.... The word used signifies "bottles", and that sort of diviners here intended go by this name, either because what they sat on when they divined was in the form of a bottle, or they divined by one, or they were swelled and inflated as bottles when they delivered out their answers, or spoke as out of a bottle or hollow place; hence they are called masters or mistresses of the bottle: they seem to be the same with the ventriloquists, and so the Septuagint version here calls them; such whose voice seemed to come out of their bellies, and even the lower parts of them; and such was the Pythian prophetess at Delphos, and very probably the maid in the times of the apostles, who had a spirit of divination, or of Python,
Acts 16:16; and so the words may be rendered here, "look not to the Python" n, or those who have the spirit of Python; so Jarchi from the Misnah o interprets the word here used, "Baal Ob" or the master of the bottle, this is Python, one that speaks from under his arm holes:
neither seek after wizards; such as pretend to a great deal of knowledge, as the word signifies; such as are called cunning men, who pretend to know where lost or stolen goods are, and to tell people their fortunes, and what will befall them hereafter:
to be defiled by them; for by seeking to them, and believing what is said by them, and trusting thereunto, and expecting events answerable to their predictions, they would be guilty of a gross sin, and so bring pollution and guilt on them; according to the Jewish canons p, such sort of persons as are cautioned against were to be stoned, and they that consulted them to be reproved;
I [am] the Lord your God; who only is to be regarded and sought unto for advice and assistance; see Isaiah 8:19.
n ×× ×ª×¤× × ×× ×××ת "ne respiciatis ad Pythonas", Montanus; so Junius & Tremellius, Piscator. o Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 7. sect. 7. p lbid.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
The devotion of faith, which would manifest itself in obedience to the commandment to keep Godâs Sabbaths and to reverence His sanctuary Leviticus 19:30, is the true preservative against the superstition which is forbidden in this verse. The people whose God was Yahweh were not to indulge those wayward feelings of their human nature which are gratified in magical arts and pretensions. Compare Isaiah 8:19.
Familiar spirits - literally, âbottlesâ. This application of the word is supposed to have been suggested by the tricks of ventriloquists, within whose bodies (as vessels or bottles) it was fancied that spirits used to speak. In other cases, the word is used for the familiar spirit which a man pretended to employ in order to consult, or to raise, the spirits of the dead. See 1 Samuel 28:7-8.
Wizard - A word equivalent to âa knowing manâ, or, âa cunning manâ.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse 31. Regard not them that have familiar spirits — The Hebrew word oboth probably signifies a kind of engastromuthoi or ventriloquists, or such as the Pythoness mentioned Leviticus 16:16; Leviticus 16:18; persons who, while under the influence of their demon, became greatly inflated, as the Hebrew word implies, and gave answers in a sort of phrensy. See a case of this kind in Virgil, AEneid, l. vi., ver. 46, c.: -
"----Deus ecce, Deus! cui talla fanti
Ante fores, subito non vultus, non color unus,
Non comptae mansere comae sed pectus anhelum,
Et rabie fera corda tument; majorque videri,
Nec mortale sonans, afflata est numine quando
Jam propiore Dei."
-------------------Invoke the skies,
I feel the god, the rushing god, she cries.
While yet she spoke, enlarged her features grew,
Her colour changed, her locks dishevelled flew.
The heavenly tumult reigns in every part,
Pants in her breast, and swells her rising heart:
Still swelling to the sight, the priestess glowed,
And heaved impatient of the incumbent god.
PITT.
Neither seek after wizards — ×××¢× ×× yiddeonim, the wise or knowing ones, from ×××¢ yada, to know or understand; called wizard in Scotland, wise or cunning man in England; and hence also the wise woman, the white witch. Not only all real dealers with familiar spirits, or necromantic or magical superstitions, are here forbidden, but also all pretenders to the knowledge of futurity, fortune-tellers, astrologers, &c., &c. To attempt to know what God has not thought proper to reveal, is a sin against his wisdom, providence, and goodness. In mercy, great mercy, God has hidden the knowledge of futurity from man, and given him hope - the expectation of future good, in its place. Exodus 22:18.
