19 When they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the spiritists who chirp and mutter,”(A) shouldn’t a people inquire of their God?[a] Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living?(B) 20 Go to God’s instruction and testimony!(C) If they do not speak according to this word, there will be no dawn for them.

21 They will wander through the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged, and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. 22 They will look toward the earth(D) and see only distress, darkness, and the gloom of affliction, and they will be driven into thick darkness.

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Footnotes

  1. 8:19 Or gods

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]

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Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 8:20 Heb uncertain for 8:19-20
  2. Isaiah 8:21 Or it
  3. Isaiah 8:22 Heb uncertain for 8:21-22