Éxodo 7:11

11 Entonces Faraón llamó también a los sabios y a los hechiceros, y también ellos, los magos de Egipto, hicieron lo mismo con sus encantamientos;

Éxodo 7:11 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 7:11

Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers
The cunning men and wizards, a sort of jugglers and deceivers, who pretended to great knowledge of things, to discover secrets, tell fortunes, and predict things to come, and by legerdemain tricks, and casting a mist before people's eyes, pretended to do very wonderful and amazing things; and therefore Pharaoh sent for these, to exercise their art and cunning, and see if they could not vie with Moses and Aaron:

now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their
enchantments;
or by their secret wiles and juggles, making things seem to appear to the sight when they did not really, but by dazzling the eyes of men by their wicked and diabolical art, they fancied they saw things which they did not; for the word has the signification of flames of fire, or of a flaming sword, or lance, which being brandished to and fro dazzles the sight. The Targum of Jonathan gives the names of two of these magicians, whom he calls Jannes and Jambres, as does the apostle, (See Gill on 2 Timothy 3:8). Josephus ^F20 calls these magicians of Egypt priests, and Artapanus ^F21 says, they were priests that lived about Memphis. According to the Arabs ^F23, the name of the place where they lived was Ausana, a city very ancient and pleasant, called the city of the magicians, which lay to the east of the Nile: their name in the Hebrew language is either from a word which signifies a style, or greying tool, as Fuller ^F24 thinks, because in their enchantments they used superstitious characters and figures; or, as Saadiah Gaon ^F25, from two words, the one signifying a "hole", and the other "stopped"; because they bored a hole in a tree to put witchcrafts into it, and stopped it up, and then declared what should be, or they had to say.

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 Antiqu. l. 2. c. 13. sect. 3.
F21 Apud Euseb. ut supra. (Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 27. p. 435.)
F23 Arab. Geograph. Climat. 2. par. 4. lin. 21.
F24 Miscell. Sacr. l. 5. c. 11.
F25 Comment. in Dan. i. 20.

Éxodo 7:11 In-Context

9 Cuando os hable Faraón, y diga: "Haced un milagro", entonces dirás a Aarón: "Toma tu vara y échala delante de Faraón para que se convierta en serpiente."

10 Vinieron, pues, Moisés y Aarón a Faraón e hicieron tal como el SEÑOR les había mandado; y Aarón echó su vara delante de Faraón y de sus siervos, y ésta se convirtió en serpiente.

11 Entonces Faraón llamó también a los sabios y a los hechiceros, y también ellos, los magos de Egipto, hicieron lo mismo con sus encantamientos;

12 pues cada uno echó su vara, las cuales se convirtieron en serpientes. Pero la vara de Aarón devoró las varas de ellos.

13 Pero el corazón de Faraón se endureció y no los escuchó, tal como el SEÑOR había dicho.