4. Amongst all the several ways of Idolatry that Manasseh set up, or caused to be set up, this is one וְעָשָׂה אוֹב, & fecit Pythonem, or fecissetq; Pythonem, he made Ob, or Pytho; and though Translators have been much perplexed, and hard put to it, to give a signification agreeable to their preconceived opinion, yet have they, were it right or wrong, brought it to their minds, though it be utterly false and erroneous; for Tremellius renders it, instituitq; Pythonem, which though pretty near, yet is altogether short of the propriety, and the most of the rest have run quite Counter; but our English Translators the worst of all others, who give it, and dealt with a familiar spirit. When it is plain that this word must be taken in this place, as it is in the third verse of this Chapter, he made groves, fecitq; lucos, because the words are both from the same root which is עָשָׂה fecit, confecit, perfecit, and so it is, and must be taken in other places; and is especially manifest in these. God said to Noah, make thee an Ark of Gopher wood, and after, a window shalt thou make to the Ark. The Psalmist saith: But our God is in heaven, he hath done whatsoever he pleased, and again, To him who alone doth great wonders. We might add forty places more, where the word is used that cometh from this root and hath the same punctual signification; so that from hence we may conclude, 1. That Manasseh could not make a Devil nor a Spirit, and therefore that the word Ob doth not intend nor bear forth any such matter in true and genuine signification. 2. That he could not make a Man or Woman, and therefore the word properly doth signifie neither. 3. That he only could make, and cause to be contrived the Groves, in such an order, as the Idol-Priests might direct, as most fit for them to play their couzening and Jugling feats and delusions in. So he might make or cause to be contrived the μαντείον or place for the Oracle, and prepare those knacks and implements, wherewith and in which place the Diviner might either by him, or her self, or with the help of confederates bring to pass strange things, which they made the blind and ignorant people believe were performed by the God worshipped in and by those Idols, or by Demons and Spirits, or the calling up of the dead. When in truth there was nothing at all performed, but either in raptures, feigned and forced Furies, Trances; and thereby lying predictions and ambiguous equivocations were uttered, whereby the people were deluded and drawn unto Idolatry: or by giving dark and obscure responsions by Ventriloquy, speaking in Bottles, or through hollow Pipes and cavities, whereby they did peep and mutter; or lastly by having knavish confederates hidden in secret, and cunningly contrived places, and suitably habited to personate those that were desired to be raised up, as is most probable in this Woman of Endor and the forged and pretended Samuel: So that there was no Devil nor familiar but a couzening Knave or a Quean, more crafty than the Demons themselves.
Isai. 8. 19.
Id. 29. 4.
Calvin in loc.
5. That they had no familiar Spirit is manifest, if we consider the manner how they carried themselves in these cheating actions and performances, for the Prophet tells us thus: And when they shall say unto you, seek unto הָאֹבוֹת ad Pythones, unto Oraclers, and unto Wizards that peep, and mutter; If they had a familiar Spirit or Demon, what need they chirp, peep, or mutter? could it not speak loud and plain enough? Yea doubtless it could if they had any such, but it is to conceal their own deceit and knavery, lest it should be found forth and discovered: And without such chirping and muttering they could neither perform their Jugling delusions, nor keep them from being known, and derided. Tremellius his note upon this place is very remarkable: “The Prophet (saith he) aggravateth the heinous crime of those Witches from the vanity of those Divinations, which the very manner of them betrayeth: those seducers have not so much wit, that they dare speak to the people the thing they pretend to speak in plain and open terms, with an audible clear voice, as they that are Gods Prophets, who speak the word of God as loud as may be, and as plain as they can to the people; but they chirp in their Bellies, and very low in their Throats, like Chickens half out of the shells in their hatching.” And this doth plainly declare their knavery and cheating Juglings. The same Prophet in another place speaking of the destruction, and bringing low of Jerusalem he saith: And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust. And thy voice shall be as of a Pythonist, Ob, or as of an Oracler, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper, peep or chirp out of the dust. The word there, and in the former place used is from the root, צַפְצֵף garrivit more avium, he hath peeped or chirped like a Bird. Now this doth plainly allude to these kind of Pythonists, or Oraclers, who in giving their Oracles, or Divinations, did speak out of the ground, that was from hollow Vaults and Caves contrived on purpose for them to perform their tricks in, and such a place as this, called in the Hebrew Ob, did Manasseh make and prepare, And thy speech shall be low out of the dust, like these deceivers who fall into Trances, and lie upon their faces the better to conceal and hide their Impostures, and so do change their voice, and mutter as it were out of the dust, thereby to make the people believe that it is the Demon’s or Spirit’s voice that speaketh in them, when it is nothing but their own counterfeiting. And thy voice shall be like one of these Oraclers, out of a low and hollow place, to whisper and chirp like a Chicken coming forth of the shell, the more to make them believe that it is the voice of a Spirit, and not their own, by craft and cunning altered and changed. Upon which place learned and judicious Calvin saith thus much: “For the voice of them, who before were so lofty and cruel, he compareth to the speech of Pythonists, who when they did utter the Oracles, did give forth I know not what kind of murmur, from some low and dark place under the earth.”
8. The next word that followeth in this place of Deuteronomy is יִדְּעֹנִי from the root יָדַע novit, sivit, proprie est (ut Avenarius inquit) mentis & intellectus. Which word our Translators (contrary to their usual custom) have kept a constancy in, and alwaies have rendered a Wizard, a name (as we conjecture) not improper, for we, in the North of England, call such as take upon them to foretel where things are that have been stoln, or to take upon them to help Men or Goods, that the vain credulity of the common people have thought to be bewitched, we (I say) call them Wise Men, or Wise Women, without regard had to the way or means by which they undertook to perform these things. Divers others do render it sciolus, which is proper and consonant to the former. The other Translations that we have either seen, or were able to understand, are so uncertain, various, wide and wilde, that it were lost labour to examine or recite them; and the word Wizard (though a general one) is the most proper that we can find. But we must conclude, that hitherto we find no such word as signifieth a Witch in that sense we have allowed, and endeavoured to confute.
9. The last word mentioned in this Text of Deuteronomy, is a Necromancer, or one that consulteth with the dead. Now whether this were some special kind of Divination, or but a comprehension of all the kinds, being but in all their several sorts, a leading of the people to inquire of dumb and dead Idols, may be a great and material question. And though no Interpreter or Commentator that we have seen, read, or do remember, do hint at any such, matter, but still strike upon the common string, that it should be some kind of Magick, whereby they could make the dead appear, and consult with them: yet notwithstanding all this we cannot but propose our doubts in these reasons following.
1. Moses in this Text doubtlesly did not set down all the particular sorts of Divinations and Impostures used amongst the Heathen, for that had hardly been possible, but the chiefest kinds of them. And this is not rationally probable that he would do it by a Tautology, or repetition of the same thing twice. For inquiring of the dead, or consulting with them, was intended in the word Ob, and the Woman of Endor said; Whom shall I raise up, or cause to ascend unto thee? Whereby it appeareth that she pretended (and also Saul vainly believed, who said; Divine unto me in or by Ob) that she could cause the dead to ascend, and to have answers from them of things to come, as is manifest in the Story of the pretended apparition and prediction of Samuel. And so this thing should be twice repeated in this place, which is not probable that Moses would have done.
Isai. 44. 19.
2. He doth not forbid these several sorts of Divination only because they were evil and unlawful in themselves (for some of them might be lawful, and performed by natural or artificial means) but because of the thing they all centred in, and the end they all tended to, which was to lead and draw the people to inquire of and to serve deaf, dumb and dead Idols. For though the Idols were Silver and Gold, the work of Mens hands, and had eyes and saw not, ears and heard not, feet and walked not, mouths and spoke not, neither was there breath in their Nostrils: And though the common people could not but know this, for as Isaiah saith they were so blinded that, None considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge or understanding to say, I have burnt part of it in the fire; yea also I have baked bread with the coals thereof, I have roasted flesh and eaten it, and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a tree? Yet notwithstanding were they so deluded by the crafty Impostures, and subtile Divinations of all the several sorts of these Jugling Priests, that they ran to ask counsel at these dead Idols, who (as they falsly perswaded the people) did inspire them, and gave them answers, when the Idols were all dead things, and gave no answers at all. And this is that consulting with the dead, that all these couzening Priests did draw the people unto, and therefore in general is here forbidden.