SEV Biblia, Chapter 18:11
ni fraguador de encantamientos, ni quien pregunte a pitón, ni mago, ni quien pregunte a los muertos.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Deuteronomy 18:11
Verse 11. A charmer] rbj rbj chober chaber, one who uses spells; a peculiar conjunction, as the term implies, of words, or things, tying knots, &c., for the purposes of divination. This was a custom among the heathen, as we learn from the following verses:-Necte TRIBUS NODIS ternos, Amarylli, coloures: Necte, Amarylli, modo; et Veneris, dic, vincula necto.Virg. Ecl. viii., ver. 77. "Knit with three KNOTS the fillets, knit them straight; Then say, these KNOTS to love I consecrate." DRYDEN.
A consulter with familiar spirits] bwa laŤ 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 "Lev. xix. 31".
A wizard] yn[dy yiddeoni, a wise one, a knowing one. Wizard was formerly considered as the masculine of witch, both practising divination by similar means. See on "Exod. xxii. 13", and See "Lev. xix. 31".
Or a necromancer.] µytmh la Ťrd 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.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 11. Or a charmer , etc.] That pretends to cure diseases by charms, or a charmer of serpents; according to Jarchi, one that gathers together serpents and scorpions, and other animals, into one place; with which agree the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem, “which bind serpents and scorpions, and all kind of creeping things;” but, according to Aben Ezra, one that says certain words to gather demons together: or a consulter with familiar spirits ; or the inquirer of “Ob”, or the bottle, which the Jews interpret of Python, or one that has the spirit of Python; (see Acts 16:16), a ventriloquist, one that spoke or seemed to speak out of his belly, or from under his armpits; so it is said in the Misnah of Ob, this is Python, one that speaks out of his arm holes; agreeably to which, Jarchi says, this is that sort of witchcraft which is called Python, and he speaks from his arm holes, and brings up the dead thither: of Baal Ob, or the master of the bottle, say some Jewish writers, one way he uses is, he takes the skull of a dead man, the flesh of which is consumed from it, and he hides it and burns incense to it, and mutters words by it, and hears from it, as if from a dead man f220 : or a wizard: a knowing one, as the word signifies, such an one as we call a cunning man; (See Gill on “ Leviticus 19:31”) or a necromancer that inquiries of the dead , or seeks instruction from them, as the Targum of Jerusalem. Aben Ezra describes him as one that goes to burying grounds, and takes the bone of a dead man, and because of his wild imagination there appears to him the likeness of forms; or as Maimonides f221 , better still, he is one that fasts and sleeps in graveyards, and utters words; and, according to his imagination, sees future things in dreams.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 9-14 - Was it possible that a people so blessed with Divine institutions should ever be in any danger of making those their teachers whom God had made their captives? They were in danger; therefore, after man like cautions, they are charged not to do after the abominations of the nations of Canaan. All reckoning of lucky or unlucky days, all charm for diseases, all amulets or spells to prevent evil, fortune-telling &c. are here forbidden. These are so wicked as to be a chief cause of the rooting out of the Canaanites. It is amazing to think that ther should be any pretenders of this kind in such a land, and day of light as we live in. They are mere impostors who blind and cheat their followers.
Original Hebrew
וחבר 2266 חבר 2267 ושׁאל 7592 אוב 178 וידעני 3049 ודרשׁ 1875 אל 413 המתים׃ 4191
