New King James Version
Exodus 22:18
18“You shall not permit a sorceress to live.
Exodus 22:18 in other versions
Context of Exodus 22:18
16“If a man entices a virgin who is not betrothed, and lies with her, he shall surely pay the bride-price for her to be his wife. 17If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money according to the bride-price of virgins. “You shall not permit a sorceress to live. 19“Whoever lies with an animal shall surely be put to death. 20“He who sacrifices to any god, except to the Lord only, he shall be utterly destroyed.
Read all of Exodus 22Exodus 22:18 word by word
מְכַשֵּׁפָ֖ה לֹ֥א תְחַיֶּֽה׃ סRead the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Exodus 22:18
- Leviticus 19:26‘You shall not eat anything with the blood, nor shall you practice divination or soothsaying.
- Leviticus 20:6‘And the person who turns to mediums and familiar spirits, to prostitute himself with them, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from his people.
- Deuteronomy 18:10There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, or one who practices witchcraft, or a soothsayer, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer,
- 1 Samuel 28:3Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had lamented for him and buried him in Ramah, in his own city. And Saul had put the mediums and the spiritists out of the land.
- Isaiah 19:3The spirit of Egypt will fail in its midst; I will destroy their counsel, And they will consult the idols and the charmers, The mediums and the sorcerers.
- Acts 8:9But there was a certain man called Simon, who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great,
- Acts 16:16Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling.
- Acts 19:19Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver.
- Galatians 5:20idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
- Revelation 22:15But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie.
Commentaries on Exodus 22:18
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 18Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live - If there had been no witches, such a law as this had never been made. The existence of the law, given under the direction of the Spirit of God, proves the existence of the thing. It has been doubted whether מכשפה mecash -shephah, which we translate witch, really means a person who practiced divination or sorcery by spiritual or infernal agency. Whether the persons thus denominated only pretended to have an art which…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 18Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live - See the marginal references. and Leviticus 20:27. The witch is here named to represent the class. This is the earliest denunciation of witchcraft in the law. In every form of witchcraft there is an appeal to a power not acting in subordination to the divine law. From all such notions and tendencies true worship is designed to deliver us. The practice of witchcraft was therefore an act of rebellion against Yahweh…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 18The practices of a sorceress (a woman who uses magic or calls on spirits) reflected the pagan worldview (a way of understanding life that does not follow the true God). God was rescuing his people from this way of thinking and living. This worldview was completely different from the biblical one. The Lord had already commanded his people not to worship other gods (see 20:3; 23:13).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1-311-4. If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep--The law respects the theft of cattle which constituted the chief part of their property. The penalty for the theft of a sheep which was slain or sold, was fourfold; for an ox fivefold, because of its greater utility in labor; but, should the stolen animal have been recovered alive, a double compensation was all that was required, because it was presumable he (the thief) was not a practised adept in dishonesty…Read the comment
Topics related to Exodus 22:18
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Exodus 22
- 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
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
New King James Version — © 1982 Thomas Nelson, Inc
Commentaries