Charles Ellicott Commentary Exodus 7:11

"Then Pharaoh also called for the wise men and the sorcerers: and they also, the magicians of Egypt, did in like manner with their enchantments." — Exodus 7:11 (ASV)

The magicians of Egypt. —These individuals are called indifferently khàkâmim, “wise men,” më-kashshëphim, “mutterers of charms,” and khartum-mim, “scribes,” perhaps “writers of charms.” Magic was very widely practiced in Egypt and consisted mainly in the composition and employment of charms, which were believed to exert a powerful effect, both over humans and over animals. A large part of the “Ritual of the Dead” consists of charms, which were to be uttered by the soul in Hades to enable it to pass the various monsters it would encounter there. Charms were also regarded as potent in this life to produce or remove disease and avert the attacks of noxious animals. Some Egyptian works are mere collections of magical recipes and supply strange prescriptions to be used and mystic words to be uttered.

A Jewish tradition, accepted by the Apostle Paul (2 Timothy 3:6), spoke of two magicians as the special opponents of Moses and called them “Jannes and Jambres.” (See the Targums of Jerusalem and of Jonathan, and compare Numenius, cited in Eusebius, Praeparatio Evangelica 9.8.) The former of these, Jannes, gained fame as a magician among classical writers and is mentioned by Pliny (Historia Naturalis 30.1) and Apuleius (Apologia, p. 108). Some have supposed that the magicians really possessed supernatural powers, obtained through a connection with evil spirits. However, on the whole, it is perhaps most probable that they were merely individuals acquainted with many secrets of nature not generally known and trained in tricks of sleight-of-hand and conjuring.

They also did in like manner. —The magicians had entered the royal presence with, apparently, rods in their hands, such as almost all Egyptians carried. These they cast down on the ground, when they were seen to be serpents. This was, perhaps, the mere exhibition of a trick, well known to Egyptian serpent-charmers in all ages (Description de l’Egypte, volume 1, p. 159), by which a charmed serpent is made to look like a stick for a time and then disenchanted. Or it may have been effected by sleight-of-hand, which seems to be the true meaning of the word lĕhâtim, translated “enchantments.” (Rosenmüller, Scholia in Exodum, p. 110.)