Micah 5:12 - Exposition

Witchcrafts . Magic and sorcery, which were much practised in Syria and Palestine, as in Chaldea, the literature of which country consists in great part of spells and charms. It is to the belief in the efficacy of such incantations that we owe the episode of Balak and Balaam (Numbers 22-24.), and the enactments in the Law; e.g. Deuteronomy 18:10 , etc. (comp. Isaiah 2:6 ; Isaiah 47:12 ). Septuagint, τὰ φάρμακά σου , "thy poisons;" Vulgate, maleficia . Soothsayers ; properly, cloud diviners, or storm makers; either persons who professed to divine by means of the shape and colour of clouds, or, as the old Scandinavian witches, charlatans who assumed the power of musing and directing storms. Cheyne compares the common name of sorcerers among savages, "rain makers."