Isaiah 8:19-9:4
Evangelical Heritage Version
19 When they tell you, “Consult the mediums and the spiritists, who whisper and mutter,” shouldn’t a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? 20 To the law and to the testimony! If people do not speak according to this word, there will be no dawn for them. 21 They will pass through the land, distressed and starving, but when this takes place and they are starving, they will be frustrated, and they will curse their king and their God. They will turn their faces upward, 22 and then they will look down to the ground, but I tell you, they will see only distress, darkness, and the gloom that brings anguish. They will be banished into thick darkness.
A Second Description of Immanuel:
The Child Who Is Born to Us
9 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for the land that was in anguish.[a] In former times, he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time[b] he will cause it to be glorious, along the way of the sea, beyond the Jordan, in Galilee of the Gentiles.[c]
2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.
For those living in the land of the shadow of death, the light has dawned.
3 You have multiplied the nation. You have increased its joy.[d]
They rejoice before you like the joy at harvest time,
like the celebration when people divide the plunder.
4 For you have shattered the yoke that burdened them.
You have broken the bar on their shoulders and
the rod of their oppressor,
as you did in the day of Midian.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 9:1 Literally for her who was in anguish
- Isaiah 9:1 The term latter time usually refers to the distant future, often to the end times, the Messianic era.
- Isaiah 9:1 Verse 9:1 in English is verse 8:23 in Hebrew. Throughout the rest of chapter 9, the English verse numbers are one number higher than the Hebrew numbers.
- Isaiah 9:3 The translation follows a Hebrew reading in the margin. The main reading of the Hebrew text is you have not increased their joy.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.