Exodus 22:18
“Do Not Allow a Sorceress to Live”
Few verses confront modern readers as abruptly as Exodus 22:18.
The command feels stark, uncompromising, and deeply unsettling — a sentence that seems to collide head-on with everything we associate with justice, mercy, and the character of God. It sounds foreign to our ears, shaped as they are by centuries of moral reflection, religious freedom, and a world painfully aware of how Scripture has sometimes been misused. We read the words, and questions rise immediately:
How could this belong in the Bible? What kind of God would speak like this?
The temptation is either to defend the verse too quickly or to dismiss it outright. Scripture invites us to do neither. Instead, it calls us to slow down — to listen carefully, to step into a violent ancient world very different from our own, and to recognise that God often speaks into broken cultures not to affirm them, but to restrain their worst impulses and begin the slow work of transformation. This verse does not emerge from fear or superstition; it addresses practices that ancient societies understood as destructive, coercive, and deeply harmful to human flourishing.
Exodus 22:18 is not a celebration of violence, nor a blueprint for religious persecution. It is a severe text in a severe world — one that reveals how seriously God takes spiritual corruption, exploitation, and the forces that enslave rather than heal. When read within the wider story of Scripture, it becomes less about punishment and more about protection; less about cruelty and more about a God determined to guard His people from powers that promise control but deliver bondage. This is a difficult verse — but it is also a revealing one. And if we are willing to read it carefully, it opens a deeper conversation about holiness, freedom, and the God who confronts evil in order to preserve life.
1. Why is this verse controversial, misunderstood, or debated?
Because on the surface, it appears to authorize religious violence — even female-specific violence.
Modern readers carry images of witch trials, superstition, and fear. The command feels harsh, incompatible with the gentleness of Christ, and morally unsettling.
But this verse has almost nothing to do with European witch-hunts or modern ideas of “witchcraft.”
It speaks to a very different world, a very different danger, and a very different meaning of the word “sorcery.”
2. What does it really mean in the bigger picture?
In Scripture, “sorcery” is not the innocent practice of folklore or herbal remedies. It refers to rituals invoking demonic powers, practices that enslaved communities, exploited the vulnerable, and corrupted worship.
Sorcery in the ancient Near East was not entertainment — it was spiritual manipulation, coercion, and often tied to harmful rituals, including child sacrifice, curses, and the twisting of justice.
The command protects Israel from spiritual bondage.
3. How do we understand and apply it today?
Christians do not apply this verse by executing anyone.
We read it through the lens of Christ, who fulfilled the Law and redirected judgment away from human hands and onto Himself.
Today the principle behind the verse is this:
Do not allow destructive, manipulative, spiritually abusive systems to take root.
We confront spiritual deception with truth, not violence.
4. Why is this verse in the Bible?
Because Israel needed to see that spiritual corruption, like moral corruption, destroys communities.
This law is part of God’s effort to form His people as a holy nation in a context filled with rival deities, violent rituals, and spiritual practices that enslaved rather than healed.
5. What does it teach about God, Christianity, and life?
It teaches that:
God protects His people from spiritual harm.
God takes seriously the unseen forces that seek to destroy human flourishing.
God does not treat evil lightly or pretend it does not wound.
Underneath the severity is a God fiercely committed to human dignity.
6. How would it have been understood originally?
Ancient Israelites would not have imagined broomsticks or spellbooks.
They would have heard the Hebrew word mekashephah — a practitioner of occult rites intended to manipulate the spiritual realm for power, wealth, or harm.
To them, this law was as much about public safety as a modern law against biological warfare.
7. Is it as controversial as it looks?
Yes and no.
Yes, because modern readers recoil at the harshness.
No, because in its original setting, this command protected the community from what they understood as lethal spiritual practices with real-world consequences.
It is no more shocking than forbidding terrorism or poisoning a city’s water supply.
8. How does it fit a loving God and the rest of Scripture?
A God who loves also protects.
A God who redeems also confronts evil.
Even in the Old Testament, God repeatedly delays judgment, shows mercy, and pursues repentance. The severity of this law sits within a larger story where God ultimately sends His own Son to bear judgment rather than inflict it.
9. Cultural, historical, or linguistic factors
Three are key:
The term “sorceress” is gendered in Hebrew because women were the primary practitioners of certain occult rites in neighbouring cultures. This is descriptive, not prescriptive.
Sorcery often involved exploitation — harming infants, manipulating the weak, or calling on spirits for curses.
Ancient Near Eastern religions viewed sorcery as warfare, not entertainment.
This was not superstition but a battle for the spiritual identity of a nation.
10. Related passages
Deuteronomy 18:10–12 — condemns occult practices as detestable.
Leviticus 19:31 — forbids seeking mediums or necromancers.
Acts 8 & 19 — the New Testament treats sorcery as spiritually destructive but counters it with the gospel, not execution.
11. Literary context
This verse sits in a section of Exodus concerned with protecting the vulnerable and maintaining covenant purity:
Anti-abuse laws
Laws about justice
Laws safeguarding worship
The “sorceress” is not grouped with sinners, but with threats.
12. Underlying principle
Spiritual manipulation destroys human flourishing.
God opposes anything that enslaves hearts, deceives minds, and fractures communities.
13. Historical interpretation
Jewish and Christian interpreters have long rejected the idea that this law sanctions indiscriminate violence:
Rabbis constructed strict evidentiary rules that made executions nearly impossible.
Early Christians applied this spiritually, not judicially.
Church fathers warned against literal enforcement outside the theocratic nation of Israel.
Misuse came centuries later during witch trials — a tragic distortion, not a faithful application.
14. Practical guidance today
Do not trivialize spiritual realities.
Guard your heart from manipulative or deceptive spiritual influences.
Seek freedom in Christ rather than control through spiritual shortcuts.
Protect those vulnerable to exploitation or abuse.
15. Common misconceptions
Misconception: The Bible endorses witch hunts.
Correction: Scripture never sanctions mob violence or superstition; it speaks to specific ancient practices in a specific covenant context.
Misconception: This law targets women.
Correction: The gender reflects historical reality, not divine favouritism, or misogyny.
Misconception: This is about harmless magic.
Correction: It concerns destructive, coercive, occult power.
16. What does it reveal about human nature?
We hunger for control.
We reach for spiritual shortcuts.
We are vulnerable to deception that promises power but delivers bondage.
The verse confronts not merely an ancient practice but a human impulse:
the desire to wield spiritual authority apart from God.
And in its own severe way, it whispers the truth every generation must relearn:
Only God gives life.
Every other power takes it.
✅ Summary:
Exodus 22:18 emphasizes the seriousness of covenant loyalty and spiritual integrity. It does not justify modern witch hunts or violence, but in its context, it protected Israel from spiritual corruption and idolatry. Modern application focuses on spiritual discernment, ethical guidance, and protection of community faithfulness, reflecting God’s justice, holiness, and care.