A man also or woman that hath a familiar spirit, or that is a wizard, shall surely be put to death: they shall stone them with stones: their blood shall be upon them.

Their blood shall be upon them. This phrase, which is borrowed from Genesis 9:5, is introduced at the close in enumerating the heinous crimes which were to be punished with death. The criminals, having been forewarned, would be their own murderers; the ministers of justice who condemned them to death were free from the responsibility of their death. [The Septuagint, enochi eisi, they are guilty.] Michaelis places the legal right of extirpating this class of pestilent prophets and diviners on the same ground that many governments in modern Europe have expelled the Jesuits ('Comment.,' vol. 4:, p. 75).

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