Laws prohibiting various forms of witchcraft and divination can be found in the books ofExodus,Leviticus andDeuteronomy. These include the following (as translated in theRevised JPS, 2023:
Exodus 22:18 – "You shall not tolerate a sorceress [Biblical Hebrew:מְכַשֵּׁפָ֖ה,romanized: mək̲aššēp̄ā]."[1]
Leviticus 19:26 – "You shall not eat anything with its blood. You shall not practice divination or soothsaying [תְנַחֲשׁ֖וּ וְלֹ֥א תְעוֹנֵֽנוּtənaḥăšu wəlo t̲əʿonēnu]."[2]
Leviticus 20:27 – "A man or a woman who has a ghost or a familiar spirit [א֛וֹב א֥וֹ יִדְּעֹנִ֖יob̲ o yiddəʿoni] shall be put to death; they shall be pelted with stones—and the bloodguilt is theirs."[3]
Deuteronomy 18:10-11 – "Let no one be found among you who consigns a son or daughter to the fire, or who is an augur, a soothsayer, a diviner, a sorcerer, one who casts spells, or one who consults ghosts or familiar spirits, or one who inquires of the dead [דֹרֵ֖שׁ אֶל־הַמֵּתִֽיםdorēš el-hammēt̲im]."[4]
The forms of divination mentioned in Deuteronomy 17 are portrayed as foreign; this is the only part of theHebrew Bible to make such a claim.[5] According to Ann Jeffers, the presence of laws forbidding necromancy proves that it was practiced throughout Israel's history.[6]
The exact difference between the three forbidden forms ofnecromancy mentioned in Deuteronomy 18:11 is a matter of uncertainty;yiddeʿoni ("wizard") is always used together withov "consulter with familiar spirits",[7] and its semantic similarity todoresh el hametim ("necromancer", or "one who directs inquiries to the dead") raises the question of why all three are mentioned in the same verse.[citation needed] The Jewish tractateSanhedrin makes the distinction that adoresh el hametim was a person who would sleep in acemetery after having starved himself, in order to becomepossessed.[8]
A prophetic passage in theBook of Micah states that witchcraft and soothsaying will be eliminated in theMessianic Age (Micah 5:12).
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