Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 58:5

"Which hearkeneth not to the voice of charmers, Charming never so wisely." — Psalms 58:5 (ASV)

Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers – The word translated “charmers” – לחשׁ lachash – properly means “whisperers, mutterers,” and it refers here to those who used spells or incantations: sorcerers or magicians. See the notes at Isaiah 8:19. These incantations were usually accompanied by a low, muttering sound, or by a gentle whisper, as if to calm and control the object of the incantation. Such charmers of serpents (or pretended charmers) abounded among the ancients and still abound in India. The art is carried to great perfection in India, and many people earn a livelihood by this pretended or real power over venomous serpents. Their living is obtained either by “exhibiting” their power over serpents they carry with them in their travels, or by “drawing” them by their incantations from the walls of gardens, houses, and hedges where they had made their homes.

Many facts, referred to by those who have lived in India, seem to confirm the opinion that this power is real.

Charming never so wisely – Margin, “Be the charmer never so cunning.” The word translated here “charming” – חובר chob^er – properly means to bind; to bind together. The “literal” meaning of the original Hebrew is, “binding spells that are wise,” or, that are “cunning;” in other words, using the most cunning or skillful of their incantations and charms. The meaning is that the utmost skill of enchantment will be unsuccessful. They are beyond the reach of any such arts. This was also true of the people to whom David referred.

They were malignant and venomous, and nothing would disarm them of their malignity and destroy their venom. What is stated here about these men is true in a certain sense of all people. The depravity of the human heart is such that nothing humans can employ will subdue it. No eloquence, no persuasion, no commands, no remonstrances, no influence that humans can exert, will subdue it.

It cannot be charmed down; it cannot be removed by any skill or power of humans, however great. The following remarks from Dr. Thomson, who spent twenty years in Palestine (The Land and the Book, vol. 1, pp. 221–223), will illustrate this passage: “I have seen many serpent-charmers who do really exercise some extraordinary power over these reptiles.

They carry enormous snakes, generally black, with them, allowing them to crawl all over their bodies and into their clothing; always, however, with certain precautions, either necessary or pretended to be so. They repeatedly breathe strongly into the face of the serpent and occasionally blow saliva or some medicated substance on them. It is unnecessary to describe the deceptive tricks they perform. What I am least able to explain is the power of detecting the presence of serpents in a house and of enticing or ‘charming’ them out of it. The thing is far too common to be doubted.

The following account, by Mr. Lane, is a fair statement of this matter: ‘The charmer professes to discover, without visual perception (but perhaps he does so by a unique smell), whether there are any serpents in the house, and if there are, to attract them to him, just as the bird-catcher, by the fascination of his voice, lures the bird into his net.

As the serpent seeks the darkest place in which to hide, the charmer has, in most cases, to exercise his skill in a dark room, where he might easily take a serpent from his clothing, bring it to the people outside the door, and claim that he had found it in the apartment, for no one would dare to enter with him after being told of the presence of one of these reptiles within. But he is often required to perform in the full light of day, surrounded by spectators; and skeptical people have searched him beforehand, and even stripped him naked, yet his success has been complete.

He assumes an air of mystery, strikes the walls with a short palm-stick, whistles, makes a clucking noise with his tongue, and spits on the ground, and generally says—‘I adjure you by God, if you are above or if you are below, to come out; I adjure you by the greatest name, if you are obedient, come out, and if you are disobedient, die! die! die!’ The serpent is generally dislodged by his stick from a crack in the wall or from the ceiling of the room.

I have heard it asserted that a serpent-charmer, before he enters a house in which he is to test his skill, always has a servant of that house introduce one or more serpents. However, I have known instances in which this could not be the case, and I am inclined to believe that the dervishes mentioned previously are generally familiar with some physical means of discovering the presence of serpents without seeing them, and of attracting them from their hiding places. What these ‘physical means’ may be is still a secret, as are the ‘means’ by which people can handle live scorpions and put them into their clothing without fear or injury. I have seen this done repeatedly, even by small boys. This has always excited my curiosity and astonishment, for scorpions are the most malignant and irritable of all insects.

The Hindus, and after them the Egyptians, are the most famous snake-charmers, scorpion-eaters, etc., although Gypsies, Arabs, and others are occasionally found who earn an itinerant livelihood by traveling around the country and bewildering the uninformed with these feats.”