the Week of Proper 15 / Ordinary 20
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Myles Coverdale Bible
Leviticus 19:31
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- 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.
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.
Turn ye not unto the ghosts, nor unto familiar spirits; seek them not out, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD 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
Morouer Adam laye with Heua his wyfe, which coceaued & bare Cain, and sayde, I haue opteyned ye man of the LORDE.
There were giauntes also in the worlde at that tyme. For whan the children of God had lyen with the daughters of men, and begotten them children, ye same (children) became mightie in the worlde, and men of renowne.
and sayde vnto Abram: Beholde, the LORDE hath closed me, that I can not beare. Go in (I praye the) vnto my mayde: peraduenture I shalbe multiplied by her, more then by myself. And Abram herkened vnto the voyce of Sarai. Than Sarai
And he wente in vnto Agar, and she conceaued. Now whan she sawe yt she had conceyued, she despysed hir mastresse.
Beholde, I haue two doughters, which yet haue knowne no man: them will I brynge out vnto you, do with them as it liketh you. Onely do nothinge vnto these men of God, for therfore are they come vnder the shadowe of my rofe.
But they sayde: Come thou hither. Then sayde they: Camest not thou onely herin as a straunger, and wilt thou now be a iudge? Wel, we will deale worse with the the with them.And they pressed sore vpon ye man Lot. And whan they ranne to, and wolde haue broken vp the dore,
Then wente Lot forth, and spake to his sonnes in lawe, which shulde haue maried his doughters, and sayde: O stonde vp, and get you out of this place, for the LORDE wyll destroye this cite. Neuertheles they toke it but for a sporte.
and turned his face towarde Sodoma and Gomorra, and all ye londe of that countre, and loked. And beholde, there rose vp a smoke from ye countre, as it had bene ye smoke of a fornace.
And Lot departed out of Zoar, and dwelt in the mountaynes with both his daughters (for he was afrayed to tary at Zoar) and so remayned he in a caue wt both his daughters.
Whan brethren dwell together, and one of them dye with out children, then shall not ye wife of the deed take a straunge man without, but hir kynsman shal go in vnto her, and take her to wyfe:
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 אל תפנו אל האבת "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 God’s 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, “bottles”. 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 “a knowing man”, or, “a cunning man”.
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 — ידענים yiddeonim, the wise or knowing ones, from ידע 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.
