Deuteronomy 18:11

Verse Deuteronomy 18:11. A charmer] חבר חבר chober chaber, one who uses spells; a peculiar conjunction, as the term implies, of words, or things, tying knots, c., for the purposes of divination. This was a custom among the heathen, as we learn from the following verses: -

Necte TRIBUS NODIS ternos, Amarylli, colores:

Necte, Amarylli, modo et Veneris, dic, vincula necto.

Virg. Ecl. viii., ver. 77.

"Knit with three KNOTS the fillets, knit them straight;

Then say, these KNOTS to love I consecrate."

DRYDEN.

A consulter with familiar spirits] שאל אוב shoel ob, a Pythoness, one who inquires by the means of one spirit to get oracular answers from another of a superior order. Leviticus 19:31.

A wizard] ידעני yiddeoni, a wise one, a knowing one. Wizard was formerly considered as the masculine of witch, both practising divination by similar means. Exodus 22:13, and Leviticus 19:31.

Or a necromancer.] דרש אל המתים doresh el hammethim, one who seeks from or inquires of the dead. Such as the witch at Endor, who professed to evoke the dead, in order to get them to disclose the secrets of the spiritual world.