Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
Therefore hearken not ye to your prophets - Who pretend to have a revelation from heaven.
Nor to your diviners - kosemeychem , from kasam , to presage or prognosticate. Persons who guessed at futurity by certain signs in the animate or inanimate creation.
Nor to your dreamers - chalomotheychem , from chalam , to break in pieces; hence chalom , a dream, because it consists of broken fragments. Dream-interpreters, who, from these broken shreds patch up a meaning by their own interpolations.
Nor to your enchanters - oneneychem , from anan , a cloud - cloud-mongers. Diviners by the flight, color, density, rarity, and shape of clouds.
Nor to your sorcerers - cashshapheychem , from kashaph , to discover; the discoverers, the finders out of hidden things, stolen goods, etc. Persons also who use incantations, and either by spells or drugs pretend to find out mysteries, or produce supernatural effects. Every nation in the world had persons who pretended to find out hidden things, or foretell future events; and such were gladly encouraged by the ignorant multitude; and many of them were mere apes of the prophets of God. Man knows that he is short-sighted, feels pain at the uncertainty of futurity, and wishes to have his doubts resolved by such persons as the above, to put an end to his uncertainty.
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