Éxodo 7:11

11 Pero el faraón llamó a los sabios y hechiceros y, mediante sus artes secretas, también los magos egipcios hicieron lo mismo:

Éxodo 7:11 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 7:11

Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers
The cunning men and wizards, a sort of jugglers and deceivers, who pretended to great knowledge of things, to discover secrets, tell fortunes, and predict things to come, and by legerdemain tricks, and casting a mist before people's eyes, pretended to do very wonderful and amazing things; and therefore Pharaoh sent for these, to exercise their art and cunning, and see if they could not vie with Moses and Aaron:

now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their
enchantments;
or by their secret wiles and juggles, making things seem to appear to the sight when they did not really, but by dazzling the eyes of men by their wicked and diabolical art, they fancied they saw things which they did not; for the word has the signification of flames of fire, or of a flaming sword, or lance, which being brandished to and fro dazzles the sight. The Targum of Jonathan gives the names of two of these magicians, whom he calls Jannes and Jambres, as does the apostle, (See Gill on 2 Timothy 3:8). Josephus ^F20 calls these magicians of Egypt priests, and Artapanus ^F21 says, they were priests that lived about Memphis. According to the Arabs ^F23, the name of the place where they lived was Ausana, a city very ancient and pleasant, called the city of the magicians, which lay to the east of the Nile: their name in the Hebrew language is either from a word which signifies a style, or greying tool, as Fuller ^F24 thinks, because in their enchantments they used superstitious characters and figures; or, as Saadiah Gaon ^F25, from two words, the one signifying a "hole", and the other "stopped"; because they bored a hole in a tree to put witchcrafts into it, and stopped it up, and then declared what should be, or they had to say.

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 Antiqu. l. 2. c. 13. sect. 3.
F21 Apud Euseb. ut supra. (Praepar. Evangel. l. 9. c. 27. p. 435.)
F23 Arab. Geograph. Climat. 2. par. 4. lin. 21.
F24 Miscell. Sacr. l. 5. c. 11.
F25 Comment. in Dan. i. 20.

Éxodo 7:11 In-Context

9 «Cuando el faraón les pida que hagan un milagro, le dirás a Aarón que tome la vara y la arroje al suelo ante el faraón. Así la vara se convertirá en serpiente».

10 Moisés y Aarón fueron a ver al faraón y cumplieron las órdenes del SEÑOR. Aarón arrojó su vara al suelo ante el faraón y sus funcionarios, y la vara se convirtió en serpiente.

11 Pero el faraón llamó a los sabios y hechiceros y, mediante sus artes secretas, también los magos egipcios hicieron lo mismo:

12 Cada uno de ellos arrojó su vara al suelo, y cada vara se convirtió en una serpiente. Sin embargo, la vara de Aarón se tragó las varas de todos ellos.

13 A pesar de esto, y tal como lo había advertido el SEÑOR, el faraón endureció su corazón y no les hizo caso.