Deuteronomy 18:11
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
American King James Version (AKJV)
Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
American Standard Version (ASV)
or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Or anyone using secret force on people, or putting questions to a spirit, or having secret knowledge, or going to the dead for directions.
Webster's Revision
Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
World English Bible
or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
English Revised Version (ERV)
or a charmer, or a consulter with a familiar spirit, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
Definitions for Deuteronomy 18:11
Clarke's Deuteronomy 18:11 Bible Commentary
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.
Barnes's Deuteronomy 18:11 Bible Commentary
A charmer - i. e., one who fascinates and subdues noxious animals or men, such as the famous serpent-charmers of the East Psalm 58:4-5.
A consulter with familiar spirits ... a wizard - Compare Leviticus 19:31 note.
Recromancer - literally, "one who interrogates the dead." The purpose of the text is obviously to group together all the known words belonging to the practices in question. Compare 2 Chronicles 33:6.
Wesley's Deuteronomy 18:11 Bible Commentary
18:11 A charmer - One that charmeth serpents or other cattle. Or, a fortune - teller, that foretelleth the events of men's lives by the conjunctions of the stars. Spirits - Whom they call upon by certain words or rites. A wizard - Heb. a knowing man, who by any forbidden way's undertakes the revelation of secret things. A necromancer - One that calleth up and enquireth of the dead.