Isaiah 8:20
18 Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me as signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD of Hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.
19 When men tell you to consult the spirits of the dead and the spiritists who whisper and mutter, shouldn’t a people consult their God instead? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?
To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.
21 They will roam the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged; and looking upward, they will curse their king and their God.
22 Then they will look to the earth and see only distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish. And they will be driven into utter darkness.
Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.
- KJV
- To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
- WEB
- Turn to the law and to the covenant! If they don’t speak according to this word, surely there is no morning for them.
- ASV
- To the law and to the testimony! if they speak not according to this word, surely there is no morning for them.
- DARBY
- To the law and the testimony! If they speak not according to this word, for them there is no daybreak.
- BLB
- to the law and to the testimony?" If they do not speak this according to the word, [it is] because there is not in them dawn.
- ÅB
- Til ordet og til vitnesbyrdet! - Dersom de ikke sier så, det folk som ingen morgenrøde[^4] har,
- OTB
- Se til loven og vitnesbyrdet! Hvis de ikke taler i samsvar med dette ordet, er det fordi de mangler lys.
- B1930
- Til ordet og til vidnesbyrdet! - Dersom de ikke sier så, det folk som ingen morgenrøde har, / < JES 58, 8.>
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
2 Peter 1:19
We also have the word of the prophets as confirmed beyond doubt. And you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.
Read in context2 Timothy 3:15–17
From infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
Read in contextActs 17:11
Now the Bereans were more noble-minded than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if these teachings were true.
Read in contextPsalms 119:130
The unfolding of Your words gives light; it informs the simple.
Read in contextJohn 5:39
You pore over the Scriptures because you presume that by them you possess eternal life. These are the very words that testify about Me,
Read in contextIsaiah 30:8–11
Go now, write it on a tablet in their presence and inscribe it on a scroll; it will be for the days to come, a witness forever and ever.
Read in contextJohn 5:46–47
If you had believed Moses, you would believe Me, because he wrote about Me.
Read in contextHosea 6:3
So let us know— let us press on to know the LORD. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the rain, like the spring showers that water the earth.
Read in context