Commentary - Exodus 22:18

Bird's-eye view

Exodus 22:18 is a stark and frequently misunderstood command situated within the "Book of the Covenant," a collection of case laws that apply the principles of the Ten Commandments to the life of the nation of Israel. This particular law, mandating capital punishment for a sorceress, is not an isolated outburst against black magic but a foundational statement about spiritual allegiance. In a covenant community where Yahweh is the exclusive King, sorcery is not merely a private religious preference; it is high treason. It represents a direct appeal to rival, demonic powers for knowledge and control, fundamentally repudiating God's sovereignty, His providence, and His revealed Word. The severity of the penalty underscores the gravity of the crime: to traffic with other gods and spiritual forces is to attack the very constitution of Israel and to invite the curse of demonic influence into the land. This law, therefore, is about protecting the nation from the ultimate spiritual poison.

The principle behind this law transcends the specific judicial context of ancient Israel. At its heart, it is about the antithesis between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. The Christian life is a repudiation of all attempts to manipulate reality, control others, or gain secret knowledge through forbidden means. The gospel shows us that the ultimate penalty for our own treasonous traffic with sin and rebellion was borne by Jesus Christ. He entered the realm of darkness and death to disarm the principalities and powers, triumphing over them on the cross. Therefore, while Christians do not apply this specific civil penalty today, we recognize the "general equity" of it: a society built on Christian principles must resist and refuse to tolerate the open promotion of that which is demonic.

Outline

Context In Exodus

This command comes directly after God has given the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai (Exodus 20) and is part of a larger block of material known as the Book of the Covenant (Exodus 20:22–23:33). This section is intensely practical, moving from the high principles of the Decalogue to specific case laws that govern Israel's daily life. The immediate context of verse 18 is a trio of capital crimes that are fundamentally religious in nature. It is placed alongside the prohibition of bestiality (v. 19) and sacrificing to other gods (v. 20). This grouping is significant. All three offenses represent a grotesque violation of created order and covenantal boundaries. Bestiality is a confusion of the boundary between man and beast. Sacrificing to other gods is a direct violation of the first and second commandments. Sorcery, in this context, is the functional equivalent; it is an act of worship and reliance upon a spiritual power other than Yahweh. It is an attempt to go around God, to get power and information from a forbidden source, making it an act of ultimate spiritual adultery and rebellion against the covenant Lord who has just revealed Himself as Israel's sole Redeemer and King.

Key Issues

The Covenant and the Cauldron

When modern people read a verse like this, they often picture a cartoon witch from a fairy tale. But the Bible's concern is not with pointy hats and broomsticks; it is with the stark reality of demonic power. The Hebrew word here, kashaph, refers to someone who uses spells, incantations, drugs, or potions to manipulate people or circumstances. This is not about sleight of hand or stage magic; it is about trafficking with the demonic realm to achieve a desired outcome.

We must understand the difference between corrupt magic and a true miracle. A miracle, as performed by Moses or the Lord Jesus, is an act of God exercising His rightful authority as the Creator and Lord of all things. Corrupt magic, which is what sorcery is, is an act of rebellion. It is the creature attempting to seize the levers of power for himself. It is an appeal to a rival authority, a demonic power, in order to get what you want. It is a refusal to submit to the providence of God, a refusal to ask God, and a refusal to live by faith. The sorceress is one who says, "I will not have God rule over me. I will find another source of power."

In the covenant nation of Israel, where God Himself was the king, this was not simply a religious foible. It was sedition. It was treason. It was like a citizen of a country during wartime actively collaborating with the enemy. The spiritual realm is real, the devil is real, and his demons are real. To engage in sorcery was to open a door for these enemies to come into the camp of Israel. The penalty was severe because the threat was existential. A nation that tolerates treason in its midst will not long remain a nation. A covenant people that tolerates traffic with demons will not long remain a covenant people.

Verse by Verse Commentary

18 “You shall not allow a sorceress to live.

The phrasing is direct and absolute. The verb is not simply "you shall not be a sorceress," but rather a command to the community as a whole. The responsibility for purging this evil rests with the civil authorities of Israel. The command is to "not allow to live," which is a clear mandate for capital punishment. The reason it is stated so bluntly is that the crime itself is a blunt assault on the foundations of their society.

The term is feminine, "sorceress," which may indicate that this was a practice more commonly associated with women in that culture, just as the Witch of Endor was a woman. However, the principle applies equally to men who practiced such arts (as seen in Deuteronomy 18:10). The issue is the practice, not the gender of the practitioner.

This law establishes a fundamental principle of antithesis. There can be no peaceful coexistence between the worship of Yahweh and the practices of the occult. One must be removed for the other to flourish. This is not about God being insecure; it is about God, as a loving father, protecting His children from a spiritual cancer that would destroy them from within. To allow a sorceress to live and practice her craft would be to sanction a rival religion, a rival source of power, and a rival claim to sovereignty right in the heart of God's kingdom. It would be like allowing an enemy embassy to operate freely, recruiting spies and saboteurs. God's law required that such spiritual treason be dealt with decisively.

And for us, the principle remains. All our attempts to control our lives apart from God, all our manipulations, all our refusals to trust His providence, are a form of this same rebellion. We are all guilty of this spiritual witchcraft. And the law says that the witch must die. The glorious news of the gospel is that the penalty has been paid. Jesus Christ went to the cross and was treated as the ultimate covenant-breaker. He bore the curse that our treason deserved. He was cut off from the land of the living so that we, the guilty, might be brought into the kingdom of God.

Application

It is easy for us to read a law like this and feel a sense of distance. We are not members of the theocratic nation of Israel, and our civil governments do not (and should not) enforce this specific penalty. But to dismiss it as irrelevant is to miss the point entirely. The "general equity" of this law, its underlying and permanent moral principle, is that God's people must have nothing to do with the occult. Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft (1 Sam. 15:23).

The spirit of sorcery is alive and well today. It is present in any system of thought or practice that seeks power, knowledge, or control apart from humble submission to the Triune God. It is there in the overt practices of paganism, astrology, and fortune-telling. But it is also there in more subtle forms. It is present in the manipulative tactics we use in relationships, in the prosperity gospel that treats God like a cosmic vending machine that can be operated with the right formula of "faith," and in the godless ideologies of secularism that promise man he can be his own god, shaping his own reality.

Every time we choose our own way over God's way, every time we trust in our own schemes instead of His providence, every time we try to force an outcome instead of praying "Thy will be done," we are tapping into the spirit of the sorceress. The application for the Christian is first to repent. We must recognize our own heart-witchcraft and confess it as the treason it is. Secondly, we must flee to the cross, where the penalty for our treason was paid in full. Christ is our only hope. He did not just die for our respectable sins; He died for our witchcraft. Finally, we must live in the light. We are to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them (Eph. 5:11). We must not be ignorant of the devil's devices, but we must also not be fascinated by them. Our fascination is to be with Christ, the one who has all power and authority, and who shares His victory with all who are His.