“‘Don’t turn to those who are mediums, nor to the wizards. Don’t seek them out, to be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 31. Wizards. Hebrew oboth, denotes familiar spirits, (1 Kennicott. 8:7,) which gave answers from the belly or breast, as from a bottle; whence such wizards are called by the Greeks, engastrimuthoi; and by Sophocles, sternomanteis. Calmet.—Soothsayers, are properly those who will judge what will happen by inspecting victims. Menochius.—Hebrew yiddehonim, means connoisseurs, intelligent people, gnostics, or those who pretend that they can penetrate the secrets naturally impenetrable to the mind of man. Septuagint epaoidoi, “enchanters,” who undertake to keep off all misfortunes. “Surely, (says Pliny, xxx. 1,) to learn this art, (of magic) Pythagoras … and Plato undertook long voyages by sea, or rather went into banishment. This they extolled at their return; this they kept as a secret. Hanc in arcanis habuere.”