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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Deuteronomy 18:9 - 18:14
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Warning Against Heathen Abominations
v. 9. When thou art come into the land which the Lord, thy God, giveth thee, thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations, those customs which the Lord particularly abhorred and loathed.
v. 10. There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, as the worshipers of Moloch, or Molech, did, or that useth divination, to uncover the future, Num_23:23, or an observer of times, a whispering magician, Lev_19:26, or an augur who fostered superstition, or an enchanter, one who interprets signs, down to the hissing of a serpent, or a witch, the ordinary conjurer,
v. 11. or a charmer, a magician, or a consulter with familiar spirits, one who has power over spirits and inquires of them, or a wizard, a man with all the wisdom of the occult arts, or a necromancer, one who cites the spirits of the dead. All these practices, as they grow out of idolatry, are found to the present day, and the loathing of the Lord has not changed since that time.
v. 12. For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord, abhorred and cursed of Him, to this day; and because of these abominations the Lord, thy God, doth drive them out from before thee. Cf Lev_18:24-25; Lev_20:23.
v. 13. Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord, thy God. The Hebrew text at this point is very emphatic: Sincere, upright, irreproachable shalt thou be before Jehovah, thy God, namely, as a people consecrated to Him and His service.
v. 14. For these nations which thou shalt possess, by taking possession of their country, hearkened unto observers of times, to conjurers and magicians, and unto diviners, and so they will receive their punishment; but as for thee, the Lord, thy God, hath not suffered thee so to do. Israel should remain absolutely undefiled by such practices, even as all true believers of all times abhor them from the bottom of their hearts.