Hebrew word · H3786
כַּשָּׁף
kashafeikhem
sorcerer
A sorcerer: someone who uses incantations and ritual acts to affect events, for healing or protection, or to harm. Related words are kešep̄ 'sorceries' and the verb kiššēp̄ 'practise sorcery'.
Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
sorcerer
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 Jeremiah 27:9
- Range of meaning
A sorcerer: someone who uses incantations and ritual acts to affect events, for healing or protection, or to harm. Related words are kešep̄ 'sorceries' and the verb kiššēp̄ 'practise sorcery'.
- Against the English
'Sorcerer' now suggests fantasy wizards or something marginal and occult. The Hebrew names an established profession that kings employed (compare Pharaoh's sorcerers, Exod 7:11, and those at the Babylonian court, Dan 2:2).
- How it drifted
Fantasy fiction and the history of 'witchcraft' have made the English word sound exotic or sinister in a way that hides its ordinary, official use in the ancient world.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Akkadian has the same word: kaššāpu (male) and kaššaptu (female sorcerer), with kišpū 'witchcraft'. The Mesopotamian ritual series Maqlû ('Burning') was used against them. In Hebrew see Exod 22:18 (Heb 22:17), Deut 18:10, Mal 3:5 and Dan 2:2. This noun form is found only here.
Where it appears
Jeremiah · 1
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Jeremiah 27:9 כַּשָּׁפֵיכֶ֑ם sorcerers your
But as for you, do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your interpreters of dreams, your mediums, or your sorcerers who declare, ‘You will not serve the king of Babylon.’
Here: 'Your sorcerers': ritual specialists in incantations and spells. The word is related to Akkadian kaššāpu, so it names a recognised Mesopotamian-style profession. This exact noun form appears only here in the Bible.
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.