The Fallible · Synthetic · Study Bible
Sorcery Forbidden
Deuteronomy 18:9–14 — Sorcery Forbidden. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.
9When you enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not imitate the detestable ways of the nations there.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
kî ’at·tāh bā ’el- hā·’ā·reṣ ’ă·šer- Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā nō·ṯên lāḵ lō- ṯil·maḏ la·‘ă·śō·wṯ kə·ṯō·w·‘ă·ḇōṯ hag·gō·w·yim hā·hêm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“When you are coming into the land that Yahweh your God is giving to-you, you-shall-not-learn to-do according-to-the-abominations of-those nations.”
Where the English smooths the original
Was it possible that a people so blessed with Divine institutions, should ever be in any danger of making those their teachers whom God had made their captives? They were in danger; therefore, after many like cautions, they are charged not to do after the abominations of the nations of Canaan.
Moses groups together all the words which the language contained for the different modes of exploring the future and discovering the will of God, for the purpose of forbidding every description of soothsaying, and places the prohibition of Moloch-worship at the head, to show the inward connection between soothsaying and idolatryOn why the catalogue of vv. 10–11 opens with child-sacrifice.
they might learn, as Jarchi observes, to know how corrupt their works were, and to show to their children, that they might not do so; but they were not to learn them so as to practise them, but to have them in the utmost abhorrenceThe rabbinic distinction Gill cites: study to abhor, never to practice.
10Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, practices divination or conjury, interprets omens, practices sorcery,
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
lō- yim·mā·ṣê ḇə·ḵā ma·‘ă·ḇîr bə·nōw- ū·ḇit·tōw bā·’êš qə·sā·mîm qō·sêm mə·‘ō·w·nên ū·mə·na·ḥêš ū·mə·ḵaš·šêp̄
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“There-shall-not be-found among-you one-who-makes-pass his-son or-his-daughter in-the-fire, one-who-divines divinations, a-soothsayer, or-one-who-reads-omens, or-a-sorcerer,”
Where the English smooths the original
That seeketh to know or foretel things secret, or to come, by unlawful arts and practices.Benson’s definition of the diviner (qōsēm).
one that useth divination ] Heb. kôsem kesamîm . From its root and certain Ar. forms which = ‘to divide’ or ‘allot,’ the vb appears to have meant originally to divine by the lotOn the etymology of qōsēm — to allot, hence to cast lots/arrows.
To pass through the fire; either by a superstitious lustration or purgation, or by a cruel sacrificing of them.Poole leaves the nature of the Molech-rite an open question.
Observer of times. —This is the Rabbinical explanation of the word. In Hebrew the idea of “time” is not so clear. It seems to mean practising hidden arts.Ellicott’s caution about mə‘ônēn — even the “times” gloss is uncertain.
11casts spells, consults a medium or spiritist, or inquires of the dead.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
wə·ḥō·ḇêr ḥā·ḇer wə·šō·’êl ’ō·wḇ wə·yid·də·‘ō·nî wə·ḏō·rêš ’el- ham·mê·ṯîm
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“or-one-who-binds a-binding, or-one-who-inquires-of a-medium or-a-spiritist, or-one-who-seeks unto the-dead.”
Where the English smooths the original
Charmer. —Literally one who ties knots, used here for the first time in Old Testament.On ḥōḇēr ḥāḇer — the knot-tier.
It must be observed that the eastern people were much addicted to divination of all kinds, and undertook no enterprise of importance without consulting their soothsayers; and therefore Moses uses these sundry expressions that he might prohibit it in all its forms.Benson explains why the list is so exhaustive: to ban divination in every form.
The purpose of the text is obviously to group together all the known words belonging to the practices in question.Barnes states the rhetorical aim of the eight-fold list: exhaustiveness, to leave no loophole.
Four of the above practices are ascribed to king Manasseh in 2Chronicles 33:6 . It is hardly possible that all of them were mere imposture and deceit.Ellicott resists reducing the whole list to fraud — a candid, debatable judgment — and points ahead to the Manasseh indictment.
12For whoever does these things is detestable to the LORD. And because of these detestable things, the LORD your God is driving out the nations before you.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
kî- kāl- ‘ō·śêh ’êl·leh ṯō·w·‘ă·ḇaṯ Yah·weh ū·ḇiḡ·lal hā·’êl·leh hat·tō·w·‘ê·ḇōṯ Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā mō·w·rîš ’ō·w·ṯām mip·pā·ne·ḵā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“For everyone doing these-things is an-abomination to-Yahweh; and because-of these abominations Yahweh your God is-dispossessing them from-before-you.”
Where the English smooths the original
it must be very abominable in the people of Israel to encourage such persons and practices, who had the knowledge of the true God, and him to consult on all occasions; had his law and testimony to attend unto as the rule of their conduct, and his prophets to advise with in matters of difficultyGill sets Israel’s privilege — law, testimony, prophets — against the abomination of divining.
Whoever did this was an abomination to the Lord, and it was because of this abomination that He rooted out the Canaanites before IsraelThe moral logic of the conquest stated plainly.
They are connected here with the Moloch-worship, because of the intimate relation between idolatry and the use of magical artsThe Pulpit affirms the idolatry–magic link even while disputing Keil’s stronger claim.
13You must be blameless before the LORD your God.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
tih·yeh tā·mîm ‘im Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“Blameless shall-you-be with Yahweh your God.”
Where the English smooths the original
The word translated "per-feet" properly means entire , whole , answering to the Latin integer ; it is used only in a moral sense, and is best rendered by "upright;"On tāmîm as wholeness/integer.
Thou shalt walk with Him in sincerity, and wait for Him. And thou shalt not pry into the future. But whatsoever cometh upon thee, take it with simplicity, and then thou shalt be with Him, and be His portion.Ellicott preserving Rashi’s note — blamelessness as trust that does not pry.
Cp. Luke 16:31 : if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, if one rise from the deadCambridge ties the necromancy ban to the rich man’s plea — the dead are not Israel’s oracle; Moses and the prophets are.
14Though these nations, which you will dispossess, listen to conjurers and diviners, the LORD your God has not permitted you to do so.
Berean Standard Bible · CC0
Hebrew — tap a word ↓
kî hā·’êl·leh hag·gō·w·yim ’ă·šer ’at·tāh yō·w·rêš ’ō·w·ṯām yiš·mā·‘ū wə·’at·tāh ’el- mə·‘ō·nə·nîm wə·’el- qō·sə·mîm Yah·weh ’ĕ·lō·he·ḵā lō nå̄·ṯan ḵên lə·ḵā
Literal — word-for-word from the original
“For these nations, which you are-dispossessing, unto soothsayers and unto diviners they-listen; but-as-for-you, not so has Yahweh your God given to-you.”
Where the English smooths the original
ואתּה is placed first as a nominative absolute, for the sake of emphasis: "but thou, so far as thou art concerned, not so."On the emphatic fronted pronoun.
as for thee, not so are they whom the Lord thy God giveth thee" (n); that is, the prophets whom the Lord would give unto them would not be like the diviners of the Heathens, who imposed on the people and deceived themGill’s alternative reading of nāṯan — God gives prophets, not diviners (footnote marker (n) retained as in source).
The contrast between the miserable resources of idolatrous nations in their anxiety, and the light and comfort promised to Israel and to us, in the One Mediator, is very marked here.Ellicott reads the verse forward to the One Mediator — the prophet greater than all diviners.
The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.
AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.
The unit opens not with a list but with a verb of learning: לֹא־תִלְמַד, “you shall not learn to do” the abominations of the nations. The danger Moses names is pedagogical — that a redeemed people, set down among masters of the occult, would enroll as their pupils. Matthew Henry frames the absurdity exactly: would Israel “ever be in any danger of making those their teachers whom God had made their captives?” (Henry, on v. 9). The answer the law presupposes is yes. Gill, citing Rashi (Jarchi), preserves the rabbinic nuance that one might study the nations’ ways only “to know how corrupt their works were… but they were not to learn them so as to practise them” (Gill, on v. 9). The keyword that governs everything is tô‘ēḇah, “abomination” — sounded here, and three times more before the unit closes. Keil and Delitzsch read the catalogue that follows as a single deliberate sweep: Moses “groups together all the words which the language contained for the different modes of exploring the future and discovering the will of God… for the purpose of forbidding every description of soothsaying” (Keil & Delitzsch, on v. 9). The prohibition is total because the temptation is total.
What follows is the Bible’s fullest single inventory of the occult — eight terms, several of them rare, several of them cognate-doubled in a way English cannot show: qōsēm qəsāmîm (“a diviner who divines divinations”), ḥōḇēr ḥāḇer (“a binder who binds a binding”). Alexander Maclaren orders them with care: “Of the eight terms employed, the first three refer to different means of reading the future, the next two to different means of influencing events, and the last three to different ways of consulting the dead” (Maclaren, on v. 9). The list runs from the Molech-fire — מַעֲבִיר, the child “made to pass through” — down to the necromancer who seeks “unto the dead.” Benson explains the sheer length of it: “the eastern people were much addicted to divination of all kinds… and therefore Moses uses these sundry expressions that he might prohibit it in all its forms” (Benson, on v. 11). The scholars are candidly honest about how much remains obscure. Ellicott concedes that even the standard gloss for mə‘ônēn is a guess — “In Hebrew the idea of ‘time’ is not so clear. It seems to mean practising hidden arts” (Ellicott, on v. 10) — and Cambridge traces qōsēm to a root meaning “to divide or allot,” hence to “divine by the lot” (Cambridge, on v. 10). Maclaren reads the whole grim register with compassion as well as condemnation: it is “a grim catalogue, bearing witness to the deep-rooted longing in men to peer into the darkness ahead… The longing is here recognised as legitimate, while the methods are branded as bad” (Maclaren, on v. 9).
The verse turns from prohibition to verdict, and the keyword returns as a judgment: tô‘ăḇaṯ Yahweh, “an abomination of Yahweh.” The construct is stark — the diviner does not merely do what is detestable; in the Hebrew he is the abomination. Keil states the moral logic of the conquest without flinching: “Whoever did this was an abomination to the Lord, and it was because of this abomination that He rooted out the Canaanites before Israel” (Keil & Delitzsch, on v. 12). Canaan is not arbitrarily seized; it is justly forfeited. Gill sharpens the indictment against Israel specifically: it would be “very abominable in the people of Israel to encourage such persons and practices, who had the knowledge of the true God… had his law and testimony… and his prophets to advise with” (Gill, on v. 12). The Pulpit Commentary affirms the deep tie between idolatry and magic while honestly disputing Keil’s stronger claim that Molech-worship was especially magical — “an assertion for which there is no evidence.” The disagreement is left standing; the commentators are not made to agree.
Against eight participles of restless agency the law sets a single quiet imperative of being: תָּמִים תִּהְיֶה, “whole you shall be, with Yahweh your God.” The Pulpit Commentary recovers the root: the word “properly means entire, whole, answering to the Latin integer… best rendered by ‘upright’” (Pulpit, on v. 13). It is the word said of Noah and required of Abraham. Ellicott, preserving Rashi, gives it a tender turn — blamelessness as trust that refuses to pry: “Thou shalt walk with Him in sincerity, and wait for Him. And thou shalt not pry into the future. But whatsoever cometh upon thee, take it with simplicity” (Ellicott, on v. 13). To consult the dead is to be whole-with the dead; to be tāmîm is to be whole-with God and with no rival oracle. Cambridge draws the line forward to the Gospels: “if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, if one rise from the dead” (Cambridge, on v. 13, citing Luke 16:31).
The unit closes on an emphatic pronoun. וְאַתָּה, “but as for you,” stands fronted as a nominative absolute — Keil: “‘but thou, so far as thou art concerned, not so’” (Keil & Delitzsch, on v. 14). The nations hearken to soothsayers and diviners; Israel is not so. And here the Hebrew opens a door the BSB necessarily narrows. The verb is nāṯan, “to give” — God has not granted Israel the practice; but Gill records that the same consonants will bear another reading: “as for thee, not so are they whom the LORD thy God giveth thee” — that is, God has given Israel prophets, not diviners (Gill, on v. 14). Both readings serve one truth, and Ellicott names it: “The contrast between the miserable resources of idolatrous nations in their anxiety, and the light and comfort promised to Israel and to us, in the One Mediator, is very marked here” (Ellicott, on v. 14). The prohibition is not a closed fist but a cleared space — for the very next verse, just past this unit, will promise the Prophet whom Israel is to hear.
Set this passage against the rule that Scripture alone is God’s sufficient word, and three things stand out — offered as a reading to be tested, not a verdict to be trusted. First, the ban on divination is a positive doctrine of revelation’s sufficiency. Every forbidden art in vv. 10–11 is an attempt to wring hidden knowledge from somewhere other than God’s own speaking. The law forbids them not because the future does not matter but because God will tell His people what they need — through a written law and, the next verse promises, through prophets. The same logic Cambridge heard in Luke 16:31 runs underneath: the people who have Moses and the prophets do not need a voice from the grave. Second, tāmîm (v. 13) defines holiness as undivided loyalty, not sinless perfection. To be “whole with the LORD” is to consult Him and no rival, to be His portion as Rashi said — a wholeness measured by where one looks for one’s answers. Third, the negative ‘not so’ of v. 14 is pregnant with a positive gift. The closing of every illegitimate channel is, in the same breath, the clearing of the one legitimate one — the Word of God, written and prophetic, to which the very next sentence turns.
The line set off above is this tool’s own interpretive summary, not a verse of Scripture. It is offered to be weighed against the text and kept only so far as the Word supports it.
Read under Sola Scriptura: the prohibitions of vv. 10–11 are, positively stated, a confession that God’s revelation is sufficient — His people are forbidden every back-channel to the unseen because He has promised to speak to them openly, through a written law and (v. 15, just beyond this unit) through a prophet like Moses. The demand to be tāmîm (v. 13) is not a call to flawlessness but to undivided loyalty: to seek one’s answers from God alone. And the curt “not so for you” of v. 14 is no mere denial; it clears the ground for the gift, the living word of the living God, to which the passage immediately turns. The whole law against sorcery is, underneath, a doctrine of the Word — offered here as a reading to be tested, not asserted as a verdict to be trusted.
Every locked door in this law guards a single open one — the mouth of God, who would rather speak to His people than be spied on by them.
AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.
The eight-fold list of vv. 10–11 is not abstract: it returns almost intact as the bill of indictment against King Manasseh. The Chronicler writes that he “made his sons pass through the fire… practised soothsaying, used enchantments and sorcery, and dealt with mediums and spiritists” — re-using the very Hebrew roots of this law. The link is verbal and rare: ‘ânan (H6049, only 11 verses) and kâshaph (H3784, only 6 verses) are scarce enough that their co-occurrence is a deliberate echo, not shared vocabulary by chance. Ellicott noted it on v. 11: “Four of the above practices are ascribed to king Manasseh in 2 Chronicles 33:6.” What Moses forbade the nation, the worst of its kings embodied — and his reign became the reason given for the exile, as the Canaanites’ practices were the reason for their dispossession (v. 12).
Deuteronomy 18:10 · Deuteronomy 18:11 · 2 Chronicles 33:6 · 2 Kings 21:6
basis: Verifier: rare shared lexemes H6049 ʻânan (11 vv) and H3784 kâshaph (6 vv), plus H784 ʼêsh (the Molech-fire) and H5172 nâchash; the same scarce vocabulary recurs in the indictment of Manasseh (2 Chr 33:6; 2 Kgs 21:6).
2 Kings 17 narrates why the northern kingdom fell, and it reaches for this passage’s words: Israel “caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination and enchantments.” The shared lexemes are precisely the rare divination-terms of v. 10 — qeçem/qâçam (H7081/H7080, 11 and 20 verses) and the Molech-’êsh (H784). The thread runs the law forward into its tragic fulfilment: the abominations for which God dispossessed the Canaanites (Deut 18:12) became the abominations for which He dispossessed Israel itself. The catalogue of vv. 10–11 thus functions across the canon as a fixed checklist of covenant-betrayal, applied first to the nations, then to the apostate kingdoms.
Deuteronomy 18:10 · 2 Kings 17:17 · 2 Kings 21:6
basis: Verifier: shared rare lexemes H7081 qeçem (11 vv), H7080 qâçam (20 vv), H5172 nâchash (9 vv), with H784 ʼêsh — the same divination + Molech-fire cluster recurs in 2 Kgs 17:17.
Cambridge unlocks the qōsēm of v. 10 by pointing to Ezekiel 21:21, where the verb’s root sense — “to divide / allot,” hence “to divine by the lot” — is shown in action: the king of Babylon halts at the parting of the way “to use divination; he shakes the arrows, he consults the teraphim, he looks at the liver.” The shared lexeme is the same scarce qeçem (H7081, 11 verses) with its verb qâçam (H7080). The thread is not moralizing but illustrative: the law forbids a craft Ezekiel then paints in concrete detail, letting the reader see exactly what Moses banned — belomancy, the casting of arrows for an omen. Cambridge cites the verse precisely to recover what the bare Hebrew term meant on the ground.
Deuteronomy 18:10 · Ezekiel 21:21
basis: Verifier: rare shared lexeme H7081 qeçem (only 11 vv) and its verb H7080 qâçam; the qōsēm of Deut 18:10 is shown in concrete action — divination by arrows — in Ezek 21:21, the verse Cambridge cites to explain the term.
The rare cognate pair of v. 11, ḥōḇēr ḥāḇer (“one who binds a binding”), surfaces again in Psalm 58, where the wicked are likened to a serpent that stops its ear “so that it does not heed the voice of charmers, charming ever so skilfully.” The link rests on the scarce noun cheber (H2267, only 7 verses) with its verb châbar (H2266). The Psalm illumines the law: the “charmer” of Deuteronomy is the same figure whose spells the Psalmist invokes as a picture — and whose craft, the law insists, has no place in Israel. The thread is verbal but thematically pointed: the binder’s art appears in Scripture only to be either forbidden (here) or made a foil for the incorrigible wicked (there).
Deuteronomy 18:11 · Psalm 58:5
basis: Verifier: rare shared lexeme H2267 cheber (only 7 vv) and its verb H2266 châbar; the cognate ḥōḇēr ḥāḇer of Deut 18:11 recurs in the serpent-charming image of Ps 58:5.
The demand of v. 13, tāmîm tihyeh (“whole shall you be”), uses the adjective tāmîm that Cambridge flags as appearing in this moral sense only of Noah (“blameless in his generations,” Genesis 6:9) and Abraham (“walk before Me and be blameless,” Genesis 17:1). The thread is structural and lexical: the same single word that defines the patriarchs’ covenant standing is now laid on the whole nation as the alternative to divination. To be tāmîm is to belong to the line of those who walked with God undividedly — the wholeness of Noah and Abraham democratized to all Israel, and (the New Testament will press) to all who are God’s.
Deuteronomy 18:13 · Genesis 6:9 · Genesis 17:1
basis: Shared keyword tāmîm (H8549) in its moral sense, noted by Cambridge as paralleled in P only at Gen 6:9 (Noah) and Gen 17:1 (Abraham); a pattern/standing link, no quotation claimed.
The unit ends at v. 14 with a cleared space — “not so for you” — and the very next sentence (Deut 18:15, just past this unit) fills it: “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me… him you shall hear.” Maclaren reads the divination-ban precisely as the dark foil for this promise: the prophetic order “sweeps them off the field, because it is truly what they pretend to be” (Maclaren, on v. 9). The New Testament, at Pentecost and in Stephen’s defense, hears this promise fulfilled in Christ (Acts 3:22–23; 7:37). Held honestly: the explicit citation falls on v. 15, one verse beyond this unit’s close, so the link here is structural — the prohibition of vv. 9–14 is the necessary setup for the prophet-promise, not itself the quoted text. The cross-Testament tie to Acts cannot rest on shared Strong’s numbers (Greek↔Hebrew), and is offered as thematic/structural, argued not asserted.
Deuteronomy 18:14 · Deuteronomy 18:15 · Acts 3:22 · Acts 7:37
basis: Structural: vv. 9–14 set up the prophet-promise of v. 15; the NT citation (Acts 3:22–23; 7:37) lands on v. 15, not on this unit. Cross-Testament Greek↔Hebrew — no shared Strong’s lexeme possible; tied by argued theme, not verbal quotation.
The scarce verb ‘ânan (“soothsayer,” H6049, 11 verses) that Deuteronomy forbids becomes a recurring charge in the writing prophets: Isaiah indicts Judah for being “full of soothsayers like the Philistines” (Isaiah 2:6); Micah promises to “cut off soothsayers” (Micah 5:12); Jeremiah warns against the “diviners and soothsayers” of the nations (Jeremiah 27:9). Cambridge sees in these protests “the real basis of this law of D, as well as the example of its form.” The thread is verbal on a rare lexeme and shows the law and the prophets speaking with one voice: the canon is internally consistent in branding divination as covenant-treason, from Moses’ command to the prophets’ enforcement of it.
Deuteronomy 18:10 · Isaiah 2:6 · Micah 5:12 · Jeremiah 27:9
basis: Verifier: shared rare lexeme H6049 ʻânan (only 11 vv) across Deut 18:10, Isa 2:6, Micah 5:12, Jer 27:9 — the same scarce soothsayer-word the prophets reuse to enforce this law.
AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.
This whole prohibition exists to make room for a Person. Maclaren read the divination-ban as the deliberate dark backdrop for the prophet-promise that immediately follows — and saw that promise reaching past every human prophet to its consummation: “He is the Prophet, who makes all other means of knowing the divine will unnecessary, hearing whom we hear the very voice of God” (Maclaren, on v. 9). Where the nations strained at fire and lot and the muttering dead to wring out hidden knowledge, God answers not with a better technique but with His Son, “the bright, consummate flower of the prophetic order.” The eight failed channels of vv. 10–11 are answered by the one Word made flesh. Held honestly: the formal citation of the prophet-promise (Acts 3:22–23) falls on Deut 18:15, just past this unit; the typology here is the reading toward which vv. 9–14 deliberately build.
Deuteronomy 18:14 · Deuteronomy 18:15 · Acts 3:22 · John 1:18
Ellicott, reading v. 14, set the contrast in its sharpest light: “The contrast between the miserable resources of idolatrous nations in their anxiety, and the light and comfort promised to Israel and to us, in the One Mediator, is very marked here” (Ellicott, on v. 14). The catalogue of vv. 10–11 is a portrait of humanity in the dark, clawing at the unseen for a word of comfort it cannot get. The gospel answer is not a forbidden art but a given Mediator — the One in whom “are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” who needs no necromancer to speak with the dead because He Himself rose from among them. The whole anxious machinery of divination is rendered obsolete by a Person who is Himself the revelation. This application beyond the immediate sense is offered to be weighed against the text, not asserted as its plain meaning.
Deuteronomy 18:14 · Colossians 2:3 · 1 Timothy 2:5
Verse 13’s tāmîm (“whole / blameless”) names a wholeness Israel was commanded but never sustained — the same word, Cambridge notes, demanded of Abraham as the condition of the covenant. Barnes glosses the verse’s sense: “Israel was to keep the worship of the true God wholly uncontaminated” (Barnes, on v. 13). That uncontaminated wholeness, never achieved by the nation, is fulfilled in the one Israelite who was tāmîm in fact — the unblemished Lamb (1 Peter 1:19), the Son who alone consulted the Father and no rival, and who makes His people whole by union with Himself. The standing of Noah and Abraham (Gen 6:9; 17:1), and the standing required here, finds its ground at last in Him. Offered as a figural reading, to be tested against the Word.
Deuteronomy 18:13 · Genesis 17:1 · 1 Peter 1:19 · Hebrews 7:26
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.
Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:
The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). The Hebrew is the Masoretic tradition; the parses, transliterations, literal renderings, and the “where the English smooths the Hebrew” notes are this tool’s own work (⚙) — careful but fallible; check them against BDB/HALOT and a standard grammar.
The named voices are verbatim excerpts from public-domain commentaries (Ellicott, Maclaren, Henry, Barnes, Benson, Poole, Gill, Geneva, Cambridge, Pulpit, Keil & Delitzsch), each attributed in place. Note a quirk of the source rows: a few authors’ comments are shelved under an adjacent verse on the source page — the long Pulpit note on the “knot-binding” charmer and on necromancy actually sits under v. 10, and several authors (Henry, JFB, Keil) attach one block-comment to the whole 9–14 paragraph rather than to each verse. Voices have been placed where their content belongs.
On the threads: the verbal links (Manasseh, the fall of the North, the king of Babylon at the crossroads, Psalm 58, the prophets’ anti-divination oracles) rest on genuinely rare shared Strong’s lexemes — ‘ânan (11 vv), kâshaph (6 vv), cheber (7 vv), qeçem (11 vv) — confirmed by the Verifier, not on common vocabulary. None of these is a quotation in the strict sense; each is the same scarce word re-used in a fresh setting (a king’s apostasy, a prophet’s indictment, a poet’s simile), and the bodies say so. The verbal badge marks the rarity of the shared lexeme, not a claim that one verse cites another. The two structural threads (tāmîm → Noah/Abraham; “not so for you” → the prophet-promise) claim pattern and standing, not quotation. One honesty flag runs through the Christ section: the explicit New Testament citation of this passage (Acts 3:22–23; 7:37) quotes Deuteronomy 18:15 — one verse past the close of this unit (vv. 9–14). The Christ-readings therefore build toward a promise the unit sets up but does not itself contain, and the cross-Testament ties (Greek↔Hebrew) carry no shared Strong’s number and are argued thematically, never as verbal quotation. The second Christ-reading (“the One Mediator”) is marked novel and offered to be tested.
Two marks govern everything. ✦ = a human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine-generated synthesis, to be verified. “Test all things; hold fast to what is good.”
✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)