Exodus 7:11 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

Then Pharaoh also called the wise-men, &c.— Moses and Aaron performing their commission according to the commandment of the Lord, and working the miracle, which, no doubt, Pharaoh demanded, in proof of their Divine legation; he, desirous to know whether the God of Israel was superior to his gods, sent for the wise-men and the sorcerers to counterwork this miracle of Moses and Aaron; and they also did in like manner, we are told, with their inchantments. The word להטי lahati, the LXX and Theodotion render by φαρμακειαι, inchantments by drugs; and the word, says Parkhurst upon it, properly refers to the burning or heating their magical drugs in incantations, which frequently made a part in those infernal ceremonies, and, no doubt, was originally designed to do honour to, and procure the assistance of their gods, the fire and air. Thus the witch Canidia, in Horace, orders her abominable ingredients, flammis aduri colchicis, to be burnt in magic flames, Epod. 5: and Ovid in his Metamorphoses, lib. 7: describes Medea, "firing the infected wood on the flagrant altars; purging thrice with flames, and thrice with sulphur, while the medicine boils in hollow brass, and, swelling high, labours in foaming bubbles." The same word is used Genesis 3:24. Other derivations are given of the word; but none which appear more satisfactory. That the wise-men and sorcerers are only other appellations for the magicians, is evident from the verse itself. For an explanation of the word magicians, see note on Genesis 41:8. The two chief of these magicians are mentioned by St. Paul, 2 Timothy 3:8. Artapanus, in Eusebius, calls them priests, inhabiting the country above Memphis. The word, rendered sorcerers, is derived from an Arabic original, signifying to disclose or reveal; it is always, in the Hebrew Bible, applied to some species of conjuring; and may therefore have particular reference to the pretended discovery of things hidden or future by magical means. The LXX constantly render it by φαρμακον, a drug, or some of its derivatives, to use pharmaceutic inchantments, or to apply drugs, whether vegetable, mineral, or animal, to magical purposes. The reader may find some account of these abominable processes, as practised by the later heathens, in Archbishop Potter's Antiquities of Greece, b. 2 Chronicles 18.; see Parkhurst and Stockius.