EasyEnglish Bible 2018
Leviticus 19:31
31They must not ask people who do magic to help them. That would make Israel's people unclean. I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 19:31 in other versions
- 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.
- New International Version (NIV)“ ‘Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God.
- English Standard Version (ESV)"Do not turn to mediums or necromancers; do not seek them out, and so make yourselves unclean by them: I am the Lord your God.
- New King James Version (NKJV)‘Give no regard to mediums and familiar spirits; do not seek after them, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.
Context of Leviticus 19:31
29He must not sell his daughter for sex. You would make her ashamed. If he does this, all the people might do the same. The whole land would become full of sin. 30God has said what the people can do on the Sabbath day of rest. On the day of rest, the people must do only those things. They must respect the Lord's house. I am the Lord. They must not ask people who do magic to help them. That would make Israel's people unclean. I am the Lord your God. 32The people must stand up when they are with old people. They must respect the old people. They must give honour to their God. I am the Lord your God. 33A foreign person may live in your land. You must be kind to him or to her.
Read all of Leviticus 19Leviticus 19:31 word by word
אַל־תִּפְנ֤וּ אֶל־הָאֹבֹת֙ וְאֶל־הַיִּדְּעֹנִ֔ים אַל־תְּבַקְשׁ֖וּ לְטָמְאָ֣ה בָהֶ֑ם אֲנִ֖י יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Leviticus 19:31
- Leviticus 19:26You must not eat any meat that has the blood in it. You must not do magic. You must not use magic to learn about future times.
- Leviticus 20:6A person must not ask someone who does magic for help. They are turning away from the Lord. He will send them away from his people.
- Exodus 22:18You must punish with death any woman who is a magician.
- Deuteronomy 18:10Nobody among you must ever burn your child in a fire, as an offering. Nobody must use magic or other things to learn about future times. There must not be any magicians or diviners.
- 1 Samuel 28:3Samuel had died before this. All the Israelites had been very sad at his death. They had buried him in Ramah, the town where he had lived. When Samuel had been alive, Saul had removed magicians from Israel. Saul removed everyone who used magic to speak to the spirits of dead people.
- 2 Kings 17:17They burned their sons and their daughters in fire as offerings to Baal. They used magic to find out what would happen in the future. They chose to do things that the Lord said were evil. That made him very angry.
- 2 Kings 21:6He burnt his own son with fire as a sacrifice. He used magic and false gods to find out what would happen in the future. He took advice from magicians and people who talked to the spirits of dead people. He did many things that the Lord said were very evil. This made the Lord very angry.
- 1 Chronicles 10:13Saul died because he turned away from the Lord. He did not obey the Lord's commands. He even tried to get advice from the spirits of dead people.
- 2 Chronicles 33:6He burnt his own sons with fire as a sacrifice in Ben Hinnom valley. He used magic and false gods to find out what would happen in the future. He took advice from magicians and people who talked to the spirits of dead people. He did many things that the Lord said were very evil. This made the Lord very angry.
- Isaiah 8:19They will say to you, ‘Go to the people who speak to the spirits of dead people. Go to the magicians who speak magic words. They will tell you what you should do. People should ask their gods and spirits to give them messages. People who are alive should ask the spirits of dead people to help them.’
- Isaiah 29:4Then you will fall down to the ground. While you lie there, you will speak. Your words will come quietly from deep down in the dirt. It will seem like the voice of a dead person's spirit. You will sound like a magician who is speaking magic words.
- Isaiah 47:13You receive a lot of advice, and it has made you become tired. Let your advisors come and stand there. They study the sky and the stars to decide what will happen. They say what will happen each month. So let them come and help you! See if they can rescue you from the trouble that is coming!
- Acts 8:11Simon had used his magic for a long time and he had surprised them all very much. Because of that, they listened to him carefully.
- Acts 13:6They travelled across the whole island and they arrived at a town called Paphos. There they met a man called Bar-Jesus. He was a Jew. He used magic to do surprising things. He said that he was a prophet from God. But his messages were not true.
- Acts 16:16One day, we were going to the place where people prayed to God. On the way there, we met a slave girl. A bad spirit was living inside her. This spirit told her what would happen soon. People gave her masters a lot of money when she told them about these future things.
- Acts 19:19Some of them had used magic to do powerful things. These people brought all their special books and they burned them in a fire. Everybody saw what they did. The books had cost a lot of money. The value of all the books was 50,000 silver coins.
Commentaries on Leviticus 19:31
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 31Regard 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…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 31The 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…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 31mediums: Compare 1 Samuel 28:7–25. The Hebrew term for spiritists (yidde‘oni) comes from a root meaning "to know." It describes people who claim to have secret or occult knowledge and who try to communicate with the dead.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 3131. Regard not them that have familiar spirits--The Hebrew word, rendered "familiar spirit," signifies the belly, and sometimes a leathern bottle, from its similarity to the belly. It was applied in the sense of this passage to ventriloquists, who pretended to have communication with the invisible world. The Hebrews were strictly forbidden to consult them as the vain but high pretensions of those impostors were derogatory to the honor of God and…Read the comment
Topics related to Leviticus 19:31
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Leviticus 19
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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