Necromancy

How Nave’s arranged it

• General scriptures concerningDeuteronomy 18:11Deuteronomy 26:14Isaiah 8:19Isaiah 29:4
• INSTANCE OF
• The witch of En-dor1 Samuel 28:7–19
• See Familiar Spirits
• See Sorcery
• See Witchcraft

The passages, in Bible order (5)

The same references, sorted Genesis to Revelation. The first 5 are quoted in full; the rest are one click beneath them, book by book.

1. Deuteronomy 18:11

   casts spells, consults a medium or spiritist, or inquires of the dead.

   ›Commentary on Deuteronomy 18:112 voices

   “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 - Hebrew. a knowing man, who by any forbidden way's undertakes the Revelation of secret things.

   “A charmer - i. e., one who fascinates and subdues noxious animals or men, such as the famous serpent-charmers of the East Psa 58:4-5. A consulter with familiar spirits ... a wizard - Compare Lev 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 2Ch 33:6.

   Everything gathered on Deuteronomy 18:11→

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2. Deuteronomy 26:14

   I have not eaten any of the sacred portion while in mourning, or removed any of it while unclean, or offered any of it for the dead. I have obeyed the LORD my God; I have done everything You commanded me.

   ›Commentary on Deuteronomy 26:142 voices

   “The first was appropriated to the Levites (Nu 18:21). The second, being the tenth of what remained, was brought to Jerusalem in kind; or it was converted into money, and the owner, on arriving in the capital, purchased sheep, bread, and oil (De 14:22, 23).

   “I have not eaten thereof in my mourning,.... When in grief and sorrow on account of any afflictive circumstance, for these were to be eaten with joy, Deu 16:11; and especially of the loss of relations by death, when holy things were not to be eaten by such persons; see Lev 10:19; and particularly tithes, though it is said (n),"What is doubtful of tithing (whether it has been tithed or no) might be eaten by a mourner;''and a man was reckoned such an one until his dead was buried.

   Everything gathered on Deuteronomy 26:14→

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3. 1 Samuel 28:7–19

   Then Saul said to his servants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, so I can go and consult her.” “There is a medium at Endor,” his servants replied.

   ›Commentary on 1 Samuel 28:7–192 voices

   “Enquire - A different word from that in 1Sa 28:6, though nearly synonymous with it. It is more frequently applied to inquiry of a false god, as e. g. 2Ki 1:2; Isa 8:19; Isa 19:3. En-dor (see Jos 11:2 note) was seven or eight miles from the slopes of Gilboa, on the north of little Hermon, where the Philistines were encamped; so that Saul must have run great risks in going there.

   “He knew the heinousness of the sin of witchcraft, else he would not have cut off those that had familiar spirits; yet now he had recourse to that as an oracle which he had before condemned as an abomination. It is common for men to inveigh severely against those sins which they are in no temptation to, but afterwards to be themselves overcome by them.

   Everything gathered on 1 Samuel 28:7–19→

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4. Isaiah 8:19

   When men tell you to consult the spirits of the dead and the spiritists who whisper and mutter, shouldn’t a people consult their God instead? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?

   ›Commentary on Isaiah 8:192 voices

   “Hence the Septuagint renders the Hebrew for "necromancers" here "ventriloquists" (compare Isa 29:4). mutter--moan. should not, &c.--The answer which Isaiah recommends to be given to those advising to have recourse to necromancers. for the living, &c.--"should one, for the safety of the living, seek unto (consult) the dead?" [GESENIUS].

   “(Verse 19 and following) And when they say to you, seek from the Pythons and the diviners, who make their enchantments, whether not the people seeks from their God for the living from the dead? To the law more and to the testimony. If they do not speak according to this word, it will not be morning light for them. And they will pass through it: they will fall down and be hungry: and when they are hungry, they will become angry and curse their king and their God.

   Everything gathered on Isaiah 8:19→

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5. Isaiah 29:4

   You will be brought low, you will speak from the ground, and out of the dust your words will be muffled. Your voice will be like a spirit from the ground; your speech will whisper out of the dust.

   ›Commentary on Isaiah 29:42 voices

   “Jerusalem shall be as a captive, humbled to the dust. Her voice shall come from the earth as that of the spirit-charmers or necromancers (Isa 8:19), faint and shrill, as the voice of the dead was supposed to be. Ventriloquism was doubtless the trick caused to make the voice appear to come from the earth (Isa 19:3).

   “Second, the humiliation of the besieged: you shall be humbled; and the sign of their humiliation, you shall speak out of the earth, that is, just as if you were under the earth, so shall you humbly be heard, bearing the words of the python, …

   Everything gathered on Isaiah 29:4→

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