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the occult

What does the Bible say about the occult? These are the passages readers found most helpful — tap any citation to read it in context.

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31Do not turn aside to astrologers, nor consult with soothsayers, so as to be polluted through them. I am the Lord your God.

6The soul who will have turned aside to astrologers and soothsayers, and who will have fornicated with them, I will set my face against him, and I will destroy him from the midst of his people.

19And though they say to you, “Seek from seers and diviners,” they who hiss in their incantations, should not the people seek from their God, for the sake of the living, and not from the dead?

8But the fearful, and the unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and drug users, and idolaters, and all liars, these shall be a part of the pool burning with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.”

6And he led his son through fire. And he used divinations, and observed omens, and appointed soothsayers, and multiplied diviners, so that he did evil before the Lord, and provoked him.

19Otherwise, perhaps lifting up your eyes to heaven, you might look upon the sun and the moon and all the stars of heaven, and being deceived by error, you might adore and worship these things, which the Lord your God created for the service of all the nations, which are under heaven.

9When you will have entered into the land which the Lord your God will give to you, be careful that you are not willing to imitate the abominations of those nations. 10Do not let there be found among you one who would purify his son or daughter by leading them through fire, nor one who consults seers, nor one who observes dreams or omens. Do not let there be found among you one who practices the occult, 11nor one who uses spells, nor one who consults demonic spirits, nor a diviner, nor one who seeks the truth from the dead. 12For the Lord abominates all these things. And, because of these wicked ways, he will destroy them at your arrival. 13You shall be perfect and without blemish with the Lord your God. 14These nations, whose land you shall possess, they listen to soothsayers and diviners. But you have been otherwise instructed by the Lord your God.

6And he caused his sons to pass through fire in the Valley of the son of Hinnom. He observed dreams, followed divinations, served the occult arts, had with him magicians and enchanters, and worked many evils before the Lord, so that he provoked him.

27A man or a woman, in whom there is an oracle-like or a divining spirit, shall be put to death. They shall stone them. So let their blood be upon them.

13Thus did Saul die for his iniquities, because he betrayed the commandment of the Lord which he had instructed, and did not keep it. And moreover, he even consulted a woman diviner; 14for he did not trust in the Lord. Because of this, he caused his death, and he transferred his kingdom to David, the son of Jesse.

12And I will cause your graven images to perish, and your statues, from your midst. And you will no longer adore the works of your hands.

23Therefore, it is like the sin of paganism to rebel. And it is like the crime of idolatry to refuse to obey. For this reason, therefore, because you have rejected the word of the Lord, the Lord has also rejected you from being king.”

24Then too, Josiah took away those who divined by spirits, and the soothsayers, and the images of the idols, and the defilements, and the abominations, which had been in the land of Judah and Jerusalem, so that he might establish the words of the law, which were written in the book, which Hilkiah, the priest, found in the temple of the Lord.