Deuteronomy 18:10-14
10There must never be found among you anyone who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, ▼▼tn Heb “who passes his son or his daughter through the fire.” The expression “pass…through the fire” is probably a euphemism for human sacrifice (cf. NAB, NIV, TEV, NLT). See also Deut 12:31.
anyone who practices divination, ▼ an omen reader, ▼ a soothsayer, ▼ a sorcerer, ▼▼tn Heb “a doer of sorcery” (מְכַשֵּׁף, mekhashef). This has to do with magic or the casting of spells in order to manipulate the gods or the powers of nature (cf. Lev 19:26-31; 2 Kgs 17:15b-17; 21:1-7; Isa 57:3, 5; etc.). See M. Horsnell, NIDOTTE 2:735-38.
11one who casts spells, ▼ one who conjures up spirits, ▼ a practitioner of the occult, ▼▼tn Heb “a knowing [or “familiar”] [spirit]” (יִדְּעֹנִי, yiddeʿoniy), i.e., one who is expert in mantic arts (cf. Lev 19:31; 20:6, 27; 1 Sam 28:3, 9; 2 Kgs 21:6; Isa 8:19; 19:3).
or a necromancer. ▼▼tn Heb “a seeker of the dead.” This is much the same as “one who conjures up spirits” (cf. 1 Sam 28:6-7).
12Whoever does these things is abhorrent to the Lord, and because of these detestable things ▼▼tn Heb “these abhorrent things.” The repetition is emphatic. For stylistic reasons, to avoid redundancy, the same term used earlier in the verse has been translated “detestable” here.
the Lord your God is about to drive them out ▼▼tn The translation understands the Hebrew participial form as having an imminent future sense here.
from before you. 13You must be blameless before the Lord your God. 14Those nations that you are about to dispossess listen to omen readers and diviners, but the Lord your God has not given you permission to do such things.
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