Hebrew word · H3785

כֶּ֫שֶׁף

keshafayikh

sorcery

Sorcery, magical practice: ritual techniques (spoken spells, rites, objects) meant to work on or change events. The noun appears only six times, always in the plural (2 Kgs 9:22; Isa 47:9, 12; Mic 5:12; Nah 3:4 twice).

Appears 6 times in 5 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. · Updated October 31, 2026

What it means

sorcery, witchcraft

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Isaiah 47:9

Range of meaning: Sorcery, magical practice: ritual techniques (spoken spells, rites, objects) meant to work on or change events. The noun appears only six times, always in the plural (2 Kgs 9:22; Isa 47:9, 12; Mic 5:12; Nah 3:4 twice). The related verb and participle (məḵaššēp̄, 'sorcerer') are banned in Exod 22:18 and Deut 18:10.
Against the English: BSB, KJV and WEB say 'sorceries'; YLT has 'sorceries'; some modern versions say 'witchcraft'.
How it drifted: 'Sorcery' and 'witchcraft' now bring to mind fairy-tale witches, horror films or modern occult hobbies on the edge of society. In Babylon these practices were mainstream and official: trained, state-backed experts using a huge written tradition to protect the king and the city.
Used elsewhere in the period: Akkadian has the cognate kišpū ('witchcraft') and kaššāpu/kaššaptu ('sorcerer/sorceress'). In Babylonian usage these words mostly meant harmful, illegitimate witchcraft, and the official exorcist (āšipu) fought them with rituals such as Maqlû ('Burning'). Hebrew kešep̄ lumps all such techniques together. Nahum 3:4 calls Nineveh 'mistress of sorceries', and 2 Kgs 9:22 pairs Jezebel's 'sorceries' with her 'harlotries'. The Septuagint uses pharmakeia here, the word Rev 18:23 uses of 'Babylon'.

From the study of 2 Kings 9:22

Range of meaning: "Sorceries, magical practices": ritual techniques for gaining hidden power or harming others, such as incantations, binding spells, and perhaps potions. The related verb kishshef and the noun mekhashefah ("sorceress") appear in the laws banning such practices (Exod 22:18 [Hebrew 22:17]; Deut 18:10). Akkadian kašāpu "to bewitch" and kišpū "witchcraft" match it closely. In Mesopotamia this was the harmful magic that counter-rituals such as the Maqlû ("Burning") series were designed to undo.
Against the English: KJV "witchcrafts", WEB/BSB/NIV "witchcraft", ESV "sorceries". "Sorcery" is closer to the ancient category. "Witchcraft" can call up much later pictures: European witch trials, broomsticks, modern Wicca.
How it drifted: The English word "witchcraft" picked up its meanings from medieval and early-modern European demonology and from modern neo-paganism, neither of which existed in Iron Age Israel.
Used elsewhere in the period: Isa 47:9, 12 (Babylon's "many sorceries", the same "many" wording), Mic 5:12 (Hebrew 5:11), Nah 3:4 (Nineveh as "mistress of sorceries"). The LXX renders it φάρμακα (pharmaka, "drugs, potions, spells"), and the Vulgate veneficia ("poisonings, sorceries").

From the study of Isaiah 47:12

Range of meaning: Sorcery, magical practices. Always plural in the Hebrew Bible (2 Kgs 9:22, Jezebel's 'sorceries'; Mic 5:11; Nah 3:4, Nineveh's; Isa 47:9, 12). Related to the verb kiššēp, 'practise sorcery' (Deut 18:10; Exod 22:17), and the noun məkaššēp, 'sorcerer', which is used of Pharaoh's experts (Exod 7:11) and Babylon's court experts (Dan 2:2).
Against the English: 'Sorceries' is broadly accurate. To a modern reader it may suggest fantasy wizards or fringe occultism, when the target here is the official ritual expertise of an imperial court.
How it drifted: Modern 'sorcery' belongs to fiction and the fringe. In Babylon these were learned, state-sponsored professions.
Used elsewhere in the period: Cognate with Akkadian kišpū, 'witchcraft'. In Babylonian usage kišpū usually meant hostile, illegitimate magic, which the licensed exorcist (āšipu) fought with his own incantations. Isaiah puts both kinds, along with the astrologers of v. 13, under one Hebrew word that Israel's law already condemned.

Where it appears

2 Kings · 1

2 Kings 9:22 וּכְשָׁפֶ֖יהָ and sorceries her

When Joram saw Jehu, he asked, “Have you come in peace, Jehu?” “How can there be peace,” he replied, “as long as the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?”

Here: "And her sorceries" (plural): forbidden ritual techniques for getting power, such as spells and potions. Israelite law banned them (Exod 22:18; Deut 18:10). Paired with "whorings", the word paints Jezebel as the seductive foreign enchantress who leads the nation away.

Isaiah · 2

Isaiah 47:9 כְּשָׁפַ֔יִךְ sorceries your

These two things will overtake you in a moment, in a single day: loss of children, and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and the potency of your spells.

Here: Plural, 'your sorceries': the many ritual techniques Babylon used to control events and turn away bad omens. Her famous expertise is mocked as useless.
Isaiah 47:12 כְּשָׁפַ֔יִךְ sorceries your

So take your stand with your spells and with your many sorceries, with which you have wearied yourself from your youth. Perhaps you will succeed; perhaps you will inspire terror!

Here: 'Your sorceries': ritual acts of magic. The Hebrew word is related to Babylon's own word for witchcraft (kišpū), so the prophet describes Babylon's practices in a word that echoed its own language.

Micah · 1

Micah 5:12 כְשָׁפִ֖ים sorceries

I will cut the sorceries from your hand, and you will have no fortune-tellers.

Nahum · 2

Nahum 3:4 כְּשָׁפִ֑ים בִּכְשָׁפֶֽיהָ׃ sorceries, by sorceries her

because of the many harlotries of the harlot, the seductive mistress of sorcery, who betrays nations by her prostitution and clans by her witchcraft.

Here: Spells and magical arts (incantations, binding charms) used to gain power over others. It is always plural in the Bible. It pairs with 'harlotries' exactly as it does for Jezebel in 2 Kings 9:22.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.