Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
A charmer - 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. 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 - 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 - 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 - 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.
Other commentary entries containing this verse:
Acts 16:16
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