Or a charmer
That pretends to cure diseases by charms, or a charmer of
serpents; according to Jarchi, one that gathers together serpents
and scorpions, and other animals, into one place; with which
agree the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem,
``which bind serpents and scorpions, and all kind of creeping things;''but, according to Aben Ezra, one that says certain words to gather demons together:
or a consulter with familiar spirits;
or the inquirer of "Ob", or the bottle, which the Jews interpret
of Python, or one that has the spirit of Python; see ( Acts 16:16 ) , a
ventriloquist, one that spoke or seemed to speak out of his
belly, or from under his armpits; so it is said in the Misnah
F8 of Ob, this is Python, one that
speaks out of his arm holes; agreeably to which, Jarchi says,
this is that sort of witchcraft which is called Python, and he
speaks from his arm holes, and brings up the dead thither: of
Baal Ob, or the master of the bottle, say some Jewish writers,
one way he uses is, he takes the skull of a dead man, the flesh
of which is consumed from it, and he hides it and burns incense
to it, and mutters words by it, and hears from it, as if from a
dead man F11: or a wizard: a knowing one, as the
word signifies, such an one as we call a cunning man; (See
Gill on
Leviticus 19:31)
or a necromancer that inquiries of the dead,
or seeks instruction from them, as the Targum of Jerusalem. Aben
Ezra describes him as one that goes to burying grounds, and takes
the bone of a dead man, and because of his wild imagination there
appears to him the likeness of forms; or as Maimonides
F12, better still, he is one that fasts
and sleeps in graveyards, and utters words; and, according to his
imagination, sees future things in dreams.
F8 Misn. Sanhedrin, c. 7. sect. 7.
F11 Maimon. & Bartenora in ib.
F12 In ib.