The Darkness Turns to Light

19 When someone tells you to consult(A) mediums and spiritists,(B) who whisper and mutter,(C) should not a people inquire(D) of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? 20 Consult God’s instruction(E) and the testimony of warning.(F) If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light(G) of dawn. 21 Distressed and hungry,(H) they will roam through the land;(I) when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse(J) their king and their God. 22 Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom,(K) and they will be thrust into utter darkness.(L)

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19 Now if they tell you, “Consult the ghosts and the spirits, those who chirp and those who mutter. Should not a people consult its gods, the dead on behalf of the living, 20 for teaching and for testimony?” surely they who speak like this have no dawn.[a]

21 And it[b] will pass through it[c] distressed and hungry, and this shall happen: when it is hungry, it will be enraged, and it will curse its king and its gods,[d] and it will face upwar 22 or look to the earth. But look! Distress and darkness, the gloom of affliction! And it will be thrust into darkness!

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 8:20 Literally “if not, they say like this word that there is no dawn for him,” which could also mean “if not, let them say a word like this: that there is no dawn for him”
  2. Isaiah 8:21 That is, the nation
  3. Isaiah 8:21 That is, the land
  4. Isaiah 8:21 Or “God”