Ver. 11. Or a charmer— in the Hebrew חבר חבר chober chober, jungens junctionem. The word חבר chober, says Parkhurst, signifies to charm, or, by pretended incantations, to collect serpents, and other noxious animals together, without harm: thus Buxtorf, Psalms 58:5. A passage from the author of The conformity of the East Indians with the Jews, and other ancient nations, ch. 28: may throw some light on the subject: "Their enchantments, or at least such as I have had any knowledge of, have not very much in them, and extend no farther than to the taking of adders, and making them dance to the music of a flute. They have several kinds of adders, which they keep in baskets; these they carry about from house to house, and make them dance whenever any body will give them money. When any of these reptiles get into the houses or gardens, the people employ these Indians to drive them out; who have the art to bring them to their feet by the sound of their flutes, and by singing certain songs; after which they take them up by handfuls, without receiving the least hurt." To which he adds, from the Ceremonies and Religious Customs of all Nations, vol. 3: p. 268 the following note: "As to serpents, it is very probable, that they may be delighted with musical sounds, and that the whole enchantment of the Bramins may centre there. Baldeus, author of the Description of Coromandel in Dutch, relates, that he himself was an eye-witness to this conjuration with serpents.—The Psylli and Thessalians also, amongst the ancients, pretended to enchant serpents, and to handle them without receiving any hurt." Nor was the effect of music on serpents unknown to the Romans. Thus Virgil:
Frigidus in pratis cantando rumpitur anguis. The torpid snake by incantation bursts. ECOLOG. 8.
Silius Italicus, speaking of the Marmarides, a people of Africa, says,
Ad quorum cantus serpens oblita veneni, Ad quorum cantus mites jacuere cerastae.
Their song divests the serpent of his sting, The fell cerastes by their song's disarm'd.
The reader would do well to consult, on this curious subject, the learned Bochart, vol. 3: p. 385, & seq.
Or a consulter with familiar spirits,—or a necromancer— Familiar spirit; Hebrew ob, rendered the spirit of Pytho. Ob originally signifies a bottle, and thereupon is taken for that spirit which speaks out of the womb of the Pythoness. The woman is called esheth-baalath: and ob, is rendered by the LXX a woman that speaks out of her belly. Maimonides says, she who was initiated held in her hand a myrtle wand, and received suffumigations; and R. Ab. Ben-David, that these rites were usually performed at some dead man's tomb. This and the other divinations mentioned here were those in use among the Chaldeans, comprehended under the general name of Mecathphim. Houbigant renders this very properly, qui consulat Pythones, "one who consults Pythos;" concerning which, see Leviticus 19:31. A necromancer is rendered, very justly, by Dr. Waterland, one who consults the dead; a superstitious practice, which was performed by visiting the graves in the night, and there lying down, and muttering certain words with a low voice; by which means they pretended to have communion with the dead by dreams, or by the dead appearing to them. See Isaiah, chap. Deuteronomy 8:19 Deuteronomy 29:4. We have a remarkable instance of this in the witch of Endor, 1 Samuel 28:7. The emperor Julian is accused of practising this horrid superstition upon the bodies of young boys and girls whom he had killed to satisfy his impious curiosity, both for the consulting of their entrails, and the evoking of their souls. See Life of Julian, p. 220. These horrors were not only practised among the heathens in secret; but they had their public establishments in places consecrated to religion, where they used solemnly to evoke and consult the dead. See Herodot. lib. 5: cap. 7 and Plutarch's Life of Cimon. The Cabalists distinguish a threefold soul; one divine, and perfectly detached from the body, which they call nethama, the same as Virgil, aurai simplicis ignem: the second is the rational soul, which they call ruah; it participates of body and divinity, and unites them together: the third is wholly corporeal, a sort of image or shade, and as it were the slough of the body: this they say is sometimes visible, and wanders for a time about the sepulchre where the body is laid; and this, according to them, is what magicians and necromancers call forth by their spells. See Leonis Allat. Syntag. de Engastromytho, and Shuckford's Connection, vol. 2: p. 9.
Ver. 13. Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God— The Hebrew word תמים tamim, which we render perfect, or entire, does especially denote here a perfection of sentiment, in respect to the point in hand. See Proverbs 28:18. It is as if Moses had said, "You shall be sincerely and unreservedly devoted to the Lord; not giving into those superstitions, which wholly obliterate the sentiments due to his majesty, and to him alone."