Leviticus 19:31
Go not aside after wizards, neither ask any thing of soothsayers, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.
Open Leviticus 19:31 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Non declinetis ad magos, nec ab ariolis aliquid sciscitemini, ut polluamini per eos. Ego Dominus Deus vester.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- οὐκ ἐπακολουθήσετε ἐνγαστριμύθοις, καὶ τοῖς ἐπαοιδοῖς οὐ προσκολληθήσεσθε ἐκμιανθῆναι ἐν αὐτοῖς. ἐγώ εἰμι Κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὑμῶν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- אַל תִּפְנ֤וּ אֶל הָאֹבֹת֙ וְאֶל הַיִּדְּעֹנִ֔ים אַל תְּבַקְשׁ֖וּ לְטָמְאָ֣ה בָהֶ֑ם אֲנִ֖י יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵיכֶֽם
Haydock's commentary
Wizards. Hebrew oboth, denotes familiar spirits, (1 Kings viii.[xxviii.?] 7,) which gave answers from the belly or breast, as from a bottle; whence such wizards are called by the Greeks, engastrimuthoi; and by Sophocles, sternomanteis. (Calmet)
Soothsayers, are properly those who judge what will happen by inspecting victims. (Menochius)
Hebrew yiddehonim, means connoisseurs, intelligent people, gnostics, or those who pretend that they can penetrate the secrets naturally impenetrable to the mind of man. Septuagint epaoidoi, "enchanters," who undertake to keep off all misfortunes. "Surely, (says Pliny, xxx. 1,) to learn this art, (of magic) Pythagoras....and Plato undertook long voyages by sea, or rather went into banishment. This they extolled at their return; this they kept as a secret. Hanc in arcanis habuere."
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Origen Origen Against Celsus, Chapter XXVI
But let us see the manner in which this Celsus, who professes to know everything, brings a false accusation against the Jews, when he alleges that “they worship angels, and are addicted to sorcery, in which Moses was their instructor.” Now, in what part of the writings of Moses he found the lawgiver laying down the worship of angels, let him tell, who professes to know all about Christianity and Judaism; and let him show also how sorcery can exist among those who have accepted the Mosaic law, and read the injunction, “Neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them.” Moreover, he promises to show afterwards “how it was through ignorance that the Jews were deceived and led into error.” Now, if he had discovered that the ignorance of the Jews regarding Christ was the effect of their not having heard the prophecies about Him, he would show with truth how the Jews fell into error. …
The Apostolic Constitutions Book VII. Concerning the Christian Life, and the Eucharist, and the Initiation into Christ, Sec. I. On the Two Ways, The Way of Life and the Way of Death
VI . Be not a diviner, for that leads to idolatry; for says Samuel, “Divination is sin;” and, “There shall be no divination in Jacob, nor soothsaying in Israel.” Thou shalt not use enchantments or purgations for thy child. Thou shall not be a soothsayer nor a diviner by great or little birds. Nor shalt thou learn wicked arts; for all these things has the law forbidden. Be not one that wishes for evil, for thou wilt be led into intolerable sins. Thou shalt not speak obscenely, nor use wanton glances, nor be a drunkard; for from such causes arise whoredoms and adulteries. Be not a lover of money, lest thou “serve mammon instead of God.” Be not vainglorious, nor haughty, nor high-minded. For from all these things arrogance does spring. …
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).