Deuteronomy 18:11 - Clarke's commentary and critical notes on the Bible

Bible Comments

Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. A charmer - חבר חבר chober chaber, one who uses spells; a peculiar conjunction, as the term implies, of words, or things, tying knots, etc., 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. Ecclesiastes 8. ver. 77.

"Knit with three Knots the fillets, knit them straight;

Then say, these Knots to love Iconsecrate."

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. See on Leviticus 19:31 (note).

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. See on Exodus 22:13 (note), and Leviticus 19:31 (note).

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.

Deuteronomy 18:11

11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.