I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 22-24.

Every year when I read this I search for what I want to write.   Unlike some passages it is not that I have trouble finding meaning in the passage.  Instead. I find that the commands given here do not easily get summed up in the few words I write in my blog each day.    After going over it a couple of times I had decided where I was going to start, but as I went back over the passage to find the exact verses I wanted to comment on I came across something someone had made a passing comment on that I found interesting.

In verse 22:18 it says, “Do not allow a sorceress to live.”  A few weeks ago someone told me that the Hebrew word translated there as sorceress would be better translated as “poisoner”, and that such a translation would make more sense.  I do not know Hebrew, so I did a little Internet searching this morning to see if that was true.  I found two separate lines of commentary related to that.  One set of sources supported that idea by comparing the Hebrew word to similar words in other ancient languages which are related to Hebrew.  This line of reasoning concluded that the word could be translated as “herbalist”, but with connotations which implied evil in a way which would be consistent with “poisoner”.  The other set of sources claimed the Hebrew word meant “mutterer of charms”.  They supported this by showing how it related to other Hebrew words used in the Bible.  Considering that I have never seen the passage translated as anything other than as “sorceress” or a word synonymous with sorceress, I believe the second line of reasoning is correct.  More importantly, the second line of reasoning connected this instance of the word, where the Hebrew word is feminine, with instances of a masculine form of the word (which have similar levels of condemnation for those who fall into this category).

I meant to write about the above and then go on to something else, but that took longer to flesh out than I expected.