Deuteronomy 18:12

For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

18:9-14 Was it possible that a people so blessed with Divine institutions, should ever be in any danger of making those their teachers whom God had made their captives? They were in danger; therefore, after many like cautions, they are charged not to do after the abominations of the nations of Canaan. All reckoning of lucky or unlucky days, all charms for diseases, all amulets or spells to prevent evil, fortune-telling, &c. are here forbidden. These are so wicked as to be a chief cause of the rooting out of the Canaanites. It is amazing to think that there should be any pretenders of this kind in such a land, and day of light, as we live in. They are mere impostors who blind and cheat their followers.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A charmer - i. e., one who fascinates and subdues noxious animals or men, such as the famous serpent-charmers of the East Psalm 58:4-5.

A consulter with familiar spirits ... a wizard - Compare Leviticus 19:31 note.

Recromancer - literally, "one who interrogates the dead." The purpose of the text is obviously to group together all the known words belonging to the practices in question. Compare 2 Chronicles 33:6.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

De 18:9-14. The Abominations of the Nations Are to Be Avoided.

9-14. thou shalt not learn to do after the abominations of those nations—(See on [152]Le 18:21; [153]Le 19:26; [154]Le 19:31; [155]Le 20:4). In spite of this express command, the people of Canaan, especially the Philistines, were a constant snare and stumbling block to the Israelites, on account of their divinations and superstitious practices.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The people of the land which thou art going to possess, mentioned above, Deu 18:9.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For all that do these things are an abomination to the Lord,.... Not that do all these things, but whoever does any of them, as Jarchi notes; all such persons that use such unlawful methods, or any of them, to gain knowledge; and likewise all those that consult them, and make use of them; and especially it must be very abominable in the people of Israel to encourage such persons and practices, who had the knowledge of the true God, and him to consult on all occasions; had his law and testimony to attend unto as the rule of their conduct, and his prophets to advise with in matters of difficulty; see Isaiah 8:20.

and because of these abominations the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee; as well as other sins mentioned in Leviticus 18:24 and, as before observed from Cicero, all nations have been addicted to the arts of divination here condemned.

Geneva Study Bible

For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD: and because of these abominations the LORD thy God doth drive them out from before thee.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

12. abomination] See Deuteronomy 18:9.

unto the Lord] Sam. LXX add thy God, and LXX B omits this in next clause.

doth drive them out] Heb. is to dispossess them, see on Deuteronomy 9:5; cp. Deuteronomy 4:38.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 12. - All who practiced such arts were an abomination unto the Lord, and his people are forbidden to have anything to do with them. They are connected here with the Moloch-worship, because of the intimate relation between idolatry and the use of magical arts; and Moloch-worship is specially mentioned, probably because it was the form of idolatry with which the Israelites were most likely to come in contact, both where they then were and also in Canaan; not, as Keil suggests, because that form "was more intimately connected with soothsaying and magic than any other description of idolatry" - an assertion for which there is no evidence. Deuteronomy 18:12

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Whoever did this was an abomination to the Lord, and it was because of this abomination that He rooted out the Canaanites before Israel (cf. Leviticus 18:24.).