Leviticus 19:31
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.
American King James Version (AKJV)
Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.
American Standard Version (ASV)
Turn ye not unto them that have familiar spirits, nor unto the wizards; seek them not out, to be defiled by them: I am Jehovah your God.
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Do not go after those who make use of spirits, or wonder-workers; do not go in their ways or become unclean through them: I am the Lord your God.
Webster's Revision
Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.
World English Bible
"'Don't turn to those who are mediums, nor to the wizards. Don't seek them out, to be defiled by them. I am Yahweh your God.
English Revised Version (ERV)
Turn ye not unto them that have familiar spirits, nor unto the wizards; seek them not out, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your God.
Clarke's Leviticus 19:31 Bible Commentary
Regard not them that have familiar spirits - The Hebrew word אבות oboth probably signifies a kind of engastromuthoi or ventriloquists, or such as the Pythoness mentioned Acts 16:16, Acts 16:18; persons who, while under the influence of their demon, became greatly inflated, as the Hebrew word implies, and gave answers in a sort of frenzy. See a case of this kind in Virgil, Aeneid, l. vi., ver. 46, etc.: -
" - Deus ecce, Deus! cui talla fanti
Ante fores, subito non vultus, non color unus,
Non comptae mansere comae; sed pectus anhelum,
Et rabie fera corda tument; majorque videri,
Nec mortale sonans, afflata est numine quando
Jam propiore Dei."
- Invoke the skies, I feel the god, the rushing god, she cries.
While yet she spoke, enlarged her features grew,
Her color changed, her locks dishevelled flew.
The heavenly tumult reigns in every part,
Pants in her breast, and swells her rising heart:
Still swelling to the sight, the priestess glowed,
And heaved impatient of the incumbent god.
continued...
Barnes's Leviticus 19:31 Bible Commentary
The devotion of faith, which would manifest itself in obedience to the commandment to keep God's Sabbaths and to reverence His sanctuary Leviticus 19:30, is the true preservative against the superstition which is forbidden in this verse. The people whose God was Yahweh were not to indulge those wayward feelings of their human nature which are gratified in magical arts and pretensions. Compare Isaiah 8:19.
Familiar spirits - literally, "bottles". This application of the word is supposed to have been suggested by the tricks of ventriloquists, within whose bodies (as vessels or bottles) it was fancied that spirits used to speak. In other cases, the word is used for the familiar spirit which a man pretended to employ in order to consult, or to raise, the spirits of the dead. See 1 Samuel 28:7-8.
Wizard - A word equivalent to "a knowing man", or, "a cunning man".
Wesley's Leviticus 19:31 Bible Commentary
19:31 Wizards - Them that have entered into covenant with the devil, by whose help they foretel many things to come, and acquaint men with secret things. See Lev 20:27 Deu 18:11 1Sam 28:3,7,9 2Kings 21:6.
