Charmer

A charmer in the Old Testament is one who practices the art of serpent-charming or the recitation of incantations for magical purposes. The Mosaic law explicitly prohibited consulting charmers as part of the forbidden occult practices of Canaan (Deut. 18:11). The image of the deaf adder that stops its ear and will not hearken to the voice of charmers appears in Psalm 58:5 as a description of the irreformably wicked, and Jeremiah uses the same image for an enemy that cannot be propitiated (Jer. 8:17). Ecclesiastes 10:11 observes with practical wisdom that a serpent may bite before it is charmed, while Isaiah 19:3 includes charmer-consulting among the doomed stratagems of Egypt.