You must not allow a sorceress to live.
Parallel translations
- WEB “You shall not allow a sorceress to live.
- KJV Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
- NKJV “You shall not permit a sorceress to live.
- NASB “You shall not allow a sorceress to live.
- NLT “You must not allow a sorceress to live.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
A sorceress must not be allowed to live. Occult practices rebel against God and corrupt His covenant people.
Overview
Sorcery sought power apart from God and drew Israel toward idolatry and demonic influence, so it was treated as a grave covenant offense. The law guarded the community's exclusive devotion to the Lord. While the civil penalty belonged to Israel's theocracy, the warning against occultism stands, and the gospel offers deliverance from every dark power through Christ's victory (Colossians 2:15).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Lev 20:27A man or a woman who is a medium or spiritist must surely be put to death. They shall be stoned; their blood is upon them.’”
- Deut 18:10–11Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, practices divination or conjury, interprets omens, practices sorcery,
- 1 Sam 28:3Now by this time Samuel had died, and all Israel had mourned for him and buried him in Ramah, his own city. And Saul had removed the mediums and spiritists from the land.
- Lev 20:6Whoever turns to mediums or spiritists to prostitute himself with them, I will also set My face against that person and cut him off from his people.
- Rev 22:15But outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
- Lev 19:31You must not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out, or you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.
- Lev 19:26You must not eat anything with blood still in it. You must not practice divination or sorcery.
- Isa 19:3Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be emptied out from among them, and I will frustrate their plans, so that they will resort to idols and spirits of the dead, to mediums and spiritists.
- Gal 5:20idolatry and sorcery; hatred, discord, jealousy, and rage; rivalries, divisions, factions,
- Acts 19:19And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books and burned them in front of everyone. When the value of the books was calculated, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas.
- Acts 8:9–11Prior to that time, a man named Simon had practiced sorcery in the city and astounded the people of Samaria. He claimed to be someone great,
- 1 Sam 28:9But the woman replied, “Surely you know what Saul has done, how he has killed the mediums and spiritists in the land. Why have you set a trap to get me killed?”
- Acts 16:16–19One day as we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl with a spirit of divination, who earned a large income for her masters by fortune-telling.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 22:18 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.