Ulangan 18:11
Konteks18:11 one who casts spells, 1 one who conjures up spirits, 2 a practitioner of the occult, 3 or a necromancer. 4
Ulangan 18:1
Konteks18:1 The Levitical priests 5 – indeed, the entire tribe of Levi – will have no allotment or inheritance with Israel; they may eat the burnt offerings of the Lord and of his inheritance. 6
1 Samuel 28:3
Konteks28:3 Now Samuel had died, and all Israel had lamented over him and had buried him in Ramah, his hometown. 7 In the meantime Saul had removed the mediums 8 and magicians 9 from the land.
1 Samuel 28:7
Konteks28:7 So Saul instructed his servants, “Find me a woman who is a medium, 10 so that I may go to her and inquire of her.” His servants replied to him, “There is a woman who is a medium in Endor.”
[18:11] 1 tn Heb “a binder of binding” (חֹבֵר חָבֶר, khover khaver). The connotation is that of immobilizing (“binding”) someone or something by the use of magical words (cf. Ps 58:6; Isa 47:9, 12).
[18:11] 2 tn Heb “asker of a [dead] spirit” (שֹׁאֵל אוֹב, sho’el ’ov). This is a form of necromancy (cf. Lev 19:31; 20:6; 1 Sam 28:8, 9; Isa 8:19; 19:3; 29:4).
[18:11] 3 tn Heb “a knowing [or “familiar”] [spirit]” (יִדְּעֹנִי, yiddÿ’oniy), i.e., one who is expert in mantic arts (cf. Lev 19:31; 20:6, 27; 1 Sam 28:3, 9; 2 Kgs 21:6; Isa 8:19; 19:3).
[18:11] 4 tn Heb “a seeker of the dead.” This is much the same as “one who conjures up spirits” (cf. 1 Sam 28:6-7).
[18:1] 5 tn The MT places the terms “priests” and “Levites” in apposition, thus creating an epexegetical construction in which the second term qualifies the first, i.e., “Levitical priests.” This is a way of asserting their legitimacy as true priests. The Syriac renders “to the priest and to the Levite,” making a distinction between the two, but one that is out of place here.
[18:1] 6 sn Of his inheritance. This is a figurative way of speaking of the produce of the land the
[28:3] 7 tn Heb “in Ramah, even in his city.”
[28:3] 8 tn The Hebrew term translated “mediums” actually refers to a pit used by a magician to conjure up underworld spirits (see 2 Kgs 21:6). In v. 7 the witch of Endor is called the owner of a ritual pit. See H. Hoffner, “Second Millennium Antecedents to the Hebrew ’OñBù,” JBL 86 (1967): 385-401. Here the term refers by metonymy to the owner of such a pit (see H. A. Hoffner, TDOT 1:133).
[28:3] 9 sn See Isa 8:19 for another reference to magicians who attempted to conjure up underworld spirits.
[28:7] 10 tn Heb “an owner of a ritual pit.” See the note at v. 3.