Exodus 22 · Verse 18

Exodus 22:18

Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
Exodus 22:18, King James Version

Exodus 22:18 in other translations

BSBYou must not allow a sorceress to live.
WEB“You shall not allow a sorceress to live.
ASVThou shalt not suffer a sorceress to live.
YLT‘A witch thou dost not keep alive.
DARBY— Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
BBEAny woman using unnatural powers or secret arts is to be put to death.
WebsterThou shalt not suffer a witch to live.

What does Exodus 22:18 mean?

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 18 Thou 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 had no existence, or whether they really possessed the power commonly attributed to them, are questions which it would be improper to discuss at length in a work of this kind; but that witches, wizards, those who dealt with familiar spirits, etc., are represented in the sacred writings as actually possessing a power to evoke the dead, to perform, supernatural operations, and to discover hidden or secret things by spells, charms, incantations, etc., is evident to every unprejudiced reader of the Bible. Of Manasseh it is said: He caused his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom: also he observed times [ועונן, veonen, he used divination by clouds] and used enchantments, and used witchcraft, [וכשף vechishsheph], and dealt with a familiar spirit, [ועשה אוב veasah ob, performed a variety of operations by means of what was afterwards called the πνευμα πυθωνος, the spirit of Python], and with wizards, [ידעוני yiddeoni, the wise or knowing ones]; and he wrought much evil in the sight of the Lord; 2Chr 33:6. It is very likely that the Hebrew כשף cashaph, and the Arabic cashafa, had originally the same meaning, to uncover, to remove a veil, to manifest, reveal, make bare or naked; and mecashefat is used to signify commerce with God. See Wilmet and Giggeius. The mecashshephah or witch, therefore, was probably a person who professed to reveal hidden mysteries, by commerce with God, or the invisible world. From the severity of this law against witches, etc., we may see in what light these were viewed by Divine justice. They were seducers of the people from their allegiance to God, on whose judgment alone they should depend; and by impiously prying into futurity, assumed an attribute of God, the foretelling of future events, which implied in itself the grossest blasphemy, and tended to corrupt the minds of the people, by leading them away from God and the revelation he had made of himself. Many of the Israelites had, no doubt, learned these curious arts from their long residence with the Egyptians; and so much were the Israelites attached to them, that we find such arts in repute among them, and various practices of this kind prevailed through the whole of the Jewish history, notwithstanding the offense was capital, and in all cases punished with death.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Exodus 22:18 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

מְכַשֵּׁפָ֖הme.kha.she.Faha sorceressH3784
לֹ֥אlo'notH3808
תְחַיֶּֽה\׃\ \סte.chai.Yehyou will let liveH2421

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Exodus 22:18

  • Leviticus 20:27

    A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.

  • Deuteronomy 18:10-11

    There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.

  • 1 Samuel 28:3

    Now Samuel was dead, and all Israel had lamented him, and buried him in Ramah, even in his own city. And Saul had put away those that had familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land.

  • Leviticus 20:6

    And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.

  • Revelation 22:15

    For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

  • Leviticus 19:31

    Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.

  • Isaiah 19:3

    And the spirit of Egypt shall fail in the midst thereof; and I will destroy the counsel thereof: and they shall seek to the idols, and to the charmers, and to them that have familiar spirits, and to the wizards.

  • Leviticus 19:26

    Ye shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use enchantment, nor observe times.

  • Galatians 5:20

    Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,

  • Acts 8:9-11

    But there was a certain man, called Simon, which beforetime in the same city used sorcery, and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one: To whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God. And to him they had regard, because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries.

  • Acts 19:19

    Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.

  • 1 Samuel 28:9

    And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those that have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land: wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die?

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Le 19:26,31; 20:6,27; De 18:10,11; 1Sa 28:3,9; Isa 19:3; Ac 8:9-11
Ac 16:16-19; 19:19; Ga 5:20; Re 22:15

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Exodus 22:17

    If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins.

  • Exodus 22:18

    Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.

  • Exodus 22:19

    Whosoever lieth with a beast shall surely be put to death.

Read all of Exodus 22

Exodus 22:18 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		A la hechicera no dejarás que viva.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		Quiconque couche avec une bête sera certainement mis à mort.
German
Elberfelder 1871		Eine Zauberin sollst du nicht leben lassen. -
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Maleficos non patieris vivere.