What Does Deuteronomy 18:10 Mean?
No one is found among you who makes his son or his daughter cross through the fire, who divines divinations, who reads clouds, who hisses, or who works spells.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch,THE KEY
The Hebrew pairs a child forced through fire with a “diviner of divinations,” placing bodily harm and the pursuit of hidden knowledge under one boundary.
THE MEANING
This verse draws a boundary around the reader’s present life: a child is not to be made to pass through fire, and uncertainty is not to be managed through omens, spirits, or sorcery. It places bodily danger and the pursuit of hidden knowledge under one prohibition; a ritual name does not make harm harmless.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a ritual or a promise of hidden knowledge can make violence toward a child acceptable.
THE ROOT
קְסָמִים
qesamim
GROWS FROM
קסם
To divine or seek an oracle.
“who divines divinations” in this verse is qesamim. The Hebrew pairs קֹסֵם (qōsēm), “a diviner,” with קְסָמִים (qesamim), “divinations.” That repetition makes the practice itself visible, not just the person who performs it.
ALSO GROWS
qōsēm: One who divines.
קֹסֵם
The person and the practice are formed from the same root.
qesem: Divination or an oracle.
קֶסֶם
This singular form makes the shared seed of “diviner” and “divinations” clear.
מַעֲבִיר
maʿavīr
GROWS FROM
עבר
To pass, cross over, or go beyond.
“makes ... cross through” in this verse is maʿavīr. The verb makes the adult the agent who causes the crossing. The child is not described as choosing this passage; the Hebrew keeps responsibility with the one who makes it happen.
ALSO GROWS
ʿāvar: To pass or cross over.
עָבַר
This is the verbal root beneath the verse’s causative form.
maʿavār: A passage or crossing.
מַעֲבָר
It carries the same idea of crossing into a noun for the route or place of passage.
מְנַחֵשׁ
menachēsh
GROWS FROM
נחש
To practice divination; the same consonants also form the Hebrew word for serpent.
“who hisses” in this verse is menachēsh. The divination verb נִחֵשׁ (niḥēsh) and the word נָחָשׁ (nāḥāš), “serpent,” share the consonants נחש. The echo links the enchanter’s title with the serpent’s name, though the precise historical derivation of the two senses is uncertain.
ALSO GROWS
niḥēsh: He divined or practiced augury.
נִחֵשׁ
This verb names the practice carried by the enchanter.
nāḥāš: Serpent.
נָחָשׁ
Its shared consonants create a sound-link between the enchanter and the serpent.
THE PATTERN
Scripture strips occult practices of authority by forbidding their consultation, promising their removal, and depicting their tools discarded.
Do not turn your faces to those who speak from the pit, nor seek the ones who know, to be soiled by them; I am the LORD your God.And I will cut off the mutterings from your hand, and there will be no more cloud-readers for you.Many of those who had practiced the meddling arts also brought their scrolls together and burned them before all people; and they counted the price, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.THE THREAD
The LORD your God raises up for you a prophet from your midst, from your brothers, like me. To him you hear and respond.The same chapter names a source of guidance immediately after drawing this boundary: a prophet from among the people, whom they are to hear. The contrast places divination beside a spoken word received in the community.
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