Witchcraft

Witchcraft and other occult practices such as divination, sorcery and consulting the dead are forbidden in both the Old and New Testaments. This page lists those verses.

Forbidden in the law

• Deuteronomy 18:10-12
  ¹⁰There 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, ¹¹Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer. ¹²For 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.
  Show context · Read Deuteronomy 18 →
• Leviticus 19:31
  Regard not them that have familiar spirits, neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the Lord your God.
  Show context · Read Leviticus 19 →
• Leviticus 20:6
  And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.
  Show context · Read Leviticus 20 →
• Exodus 22:18
  Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.
  Show context · Read Exodus 22 →

In the prophets and history

• Isaiah 8:19
  And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?
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• 1 Samuel 15:23
  For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being king.
  Show context · Read 1 Samuel 15 →
• 1 Chronicles 10:13-14
  ¹³So Saul died for his transgression which he committed against the Lord, even against the word of the Lord, which he kept not, and also for asking counsel of one that had a familiar spirit, to enquire of it; ¹⁴And enquired not of the Lord: therefore he slew him, and turned the kingdom unto David the son of Jesse.
  Show context · Read 1 Chronicles 10 →

In the New Testament

• Acts 16:16-18
  ¹⁶And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying: ¹⁷The same followed Paul and us, and cried, saying, These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation. ¹⁸And this did she many days. But Paul, being grieved, turned and said to the spirit, I command thee in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her. And he came out the same hour.
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• Acts 19:18-19
  ¹⁸And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds. ¹⁹Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver.
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• Galatians 5:19-21
  ¹⁹Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, ²⁰Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, ²¹Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
  Show context · Read Galatians 5 →

See also

• Sin
• Holy Spirit

Notes

1. Verses are quoted in the translation chosen in the Translation menu at the top of the page. See Translations for sources and copyright notices.
2. Each reference links to the full chapter so the verse can be read in context.