Isaiah 8:16-9:1

Common English Bible

¹⁶ Bind up the testimony; seal up the teaching among my disciples. ¹⁷ I will wait for the Lord, who has hidden his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in God. ¹⁸ Look! I and the children the Lord gave me are signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of heavenly forces, who lives on Mount Zion.

¹⁹ If they say to you: “Consult the ghosts and the spirits that chirp and mutter. (Shouldn’t a people consult its gods?) Consult the dead on behalf of the living ²⁰ for instruction and for testimony”—they will surely say such things, but they will never see the dawn.^[a]

²¹ They will pass through the land,^[b] dejected and hungry, and when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will curse their king and God. They will turn toward heaven ²² and look to the earth, but they will see only distress and darkness, random movement, and the anguish and doom of banishment.^[c]

A great light

9 ^[d] Nonetheless, those who were in distress won’t be exhausted. At an earlier time, God cursed the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but later he glorified the way of the sea, the far side of the Jordan, and the Galilee of the nations.^[e]