Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Isaiah 8:21

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Isaiah 8:21. Hardly bestead - "Distressed"] Instead of נקשה niksheh, distressed, the Vulgate, Chaldee, and Symmachus manifestly read נכשל nichshal, stumbling, tottering through weakness, ready to fall; a sense which suits very well with the place.

And look upward - "And he shall cast his eyes upward."] The learned professor Michaelis, treating of this place (Not. in de Sacr. Poes. Hebr. Prael. ix.) refers to a passage in the Koran which is similar to it. As it is a very celebrated passage, and on many accounts remarkable, I shall give it here at large, with the same author's farther remarks upon it in another place of his writings. It must be noted here that the learned professor renders נבט nibbat, הביט hibbit, in this and the parallel place, Isaiah 5:30, which I translate he looketh by it thundereth, from Schultens, Orig. Ling. Hebr. Lib. i. cap. 2, of the justness of which rendering I much doubt. This brings the image of Isaiah more near in one circumstance to that of Mohammed than it appears to be in my translation: -

"Labid, contemporary with Mohammed, the last of the seven Arabian poets who had the honour of having their poems, one of each, hung up in the entrance of the temple of Mecca, struck with the sublimity of a passage in the Koran, became a convert to Mohammedism; for he concluded that no man could write in such a manner unless he were Divinely inspired.

"One must have a curiosity to examine a passage which had so great an effect upon Labid. It is, I must own, the finest that I know in the whole Koran: but I do not think it will have a second time the like effect, so as to tempt any one of my readers to submit to circumcision. It is in the second chapter, where he is speaking of certain apostates from the faith. 'They are like,' saith he, 'to a man who kindles a light. As soon as it begins to shine, God takes from them the light, and leaves them in darkness that they see nothing. They are deaf, dumb, and blind; and return not into the right way. Or they fare as when a cloud, full of darkness, thunder, and lightning, covers the heaven. When it bursteth, they stop their ears with their fingers, with deadly fear; and God hath the unbelievers in his power. The lightning almost robbeth them of their eyes: as often as it flasheth they go on by its light; and when it vanisheth in darkness, they stand still. If God pleased, they would retain neither hearing nor sight.' That the thought is beautiful, no one will deny; and Labid, who had probably a mind to flatter Mohammed, was lucky in finding a passage in the Koran so little abounding in poetical beauties, to which his conversion might with any propriety be ascribed. It was well that he went no farther; otherwise his taste for poetry might have made him again an infidel." Michaelis, Erpenii Arabische Grammatik abgekurzt, Vorrede, s. 32.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Judah rejects Isaiah’s preaching (8:11-22)

Once again God reminds Isaiah to trust in him alone. Isaiah is not to follow Ahaz and the people, whether in fearing the Israelite-Syrian alliance or in trusting in Judah’s alliance with Assyria (11-12). God should be the means of Judah’s safety; but if the people do not trust in him they will find that he is the means of their destruction (13-15).
When neither the king nor the people heed the messages he brings them from God, Isaiah ceases his public preaching for a time. He concentrates instead on building up the faith of the few who believe God and who will be preserved through the coming judgment. They will guard and preserve the teaching that God has delivered to his people through Isaiah (16-17; cf. 6:13).
This reminds Isaiah of the truth of the signs that God gave to Judah through him and his sons. The elder son, Shearjashub (meaning ‘a remnant shall return’), speaks of judgment on Judah from which only the faithful few will be saved. The younger son, Maher-shalal-hash-baz (meaning ‘the spoil hastens, the plunder comes quickly’), suggests that Assyria will invade and plunder not only Israel and Syria, but also Judah (18; cf. 7:3; 8:1-4). Nothing but terrifying judgment awaits a people who have turned from God and his teaching to practise witchcraft and spiritism (19-22).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

"And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits and unto the wizards, that chirp and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? on behalf of the living should they seek unto the dead? To the law and to the testimony! if they speak not according to this word, surely there is no morning for them. And they shall pass through it, sore distressed and hungry; and it shall come to pass that, when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse by their king and by their God, and turn their faces upward; and they shall look unto the earth, and, behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and into thick darkness they shall be driven away."

These verses are a gloomy prophecy indeed of the gathering darkness about to fall upon Immanuel's land because of the gross sins of the people as a whole. The specific warnings against witchcraft and other works of darkness indicate the depths to which many had fallen. Notice the power of the warning:

"To the law and to the testimony! If they speak not according to this word, surely there is no morning for them!"

In times of general wickedness and increasing immorality, there is always the revival of every old and discredited practice the devil ever invented. It is a mark of the sinfulness of our own generation that all kinds of witches, palm readers, star readers, etc., are back in business as they were a thousand years before Christ! "There is no morning" for those who thus seek supernatural help.

Look how ridiculous it is that people would go to the dead in order to procure valid knowledge to help the living. It would be just like going to a pauper to learn how to handle money, or going to a drunkard to learn how to handle liquor! The only absolute yardstick of spiritual truth is the Word of God; and absolutely no human opinions, religions, philosophies, or systems of morality can be valid unless they are in harmony with the Word of God.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

And they shall pass - The people who have been consulting necromancers. This represents the condition of these who have sought for counsel and direction, and who have not found it. They shall be conscious of disappointment, and shall wander perplexed and alarmed through the land.

Through it - Through the land. They shall wander in it from one place to another, seeking direction and relief.

Hardly bestead - Oppressed, borne down, agitated. The meaning is, that the people would wander about, oppressed by the calamities that were coming upon the nation, and unalleviated by all that soothsayers and necromancers could do.

And hungry - Famished; as one effect of the great calamities that would afflict the nation.

They shall fret themselves - They shall be irritated at their own folly and weakness, and shall aggravate their sufferings by self-reproaches for having trusted to false gods.

Their king and their God - The Hebrew interpreters understand this of the false gods which they bad consulted, and in which they had trusted. But their looking upward, and the connection, seem to imply that they would rather curse the true God - the ‘king and the God’ of the Jewish people. They would be subjected to the proofs of his displeasure, and would vent their malice by reproaches and curses.

And look upward - For relief. This denotes the condition of those in deep distress, instinctively casting their eyes to heaven for aid. Yet it is implied that they would do it with no right feeling, and that they would see there only the tokens of their Creator’s displeasure.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

21.Then they shall pass through that land. Not to permit believers to be ensnared by the common errors, he adds how dreadful is the punishment which awaits the ungodly when they have revolted from God, and have labored to induce others to join in the same revolt. The passage is somewhat obscure; but the obscurity arises from the want of proper attention in examining the words. The verb עבר (gnabar) is emphatic; for by passing through he means that uncertainty in which men wander up and down, and are not able to find a resting-place, or any permanent abode. To the indefinite verb we must supply a noun, The Jews shall pass. By the pronoun בה, (bahh,) in it, ⁽¹³⁶⁾ he means Judea, which the Lord had preferred to all other countries; and therefore it is easily understood, though the Prophet does not express it. As if he had said, “I promised indeed that that country would be the perpetual inheritance of my people, (Genesis 13:15;) but they shall lead a wandering and restless life, as is the case with those who, driven from their habitations, and afflicted with hunger and pestilence and every kind of calamities, seek, but nowhere find, a better condition and abode.” These words are therefore contrasted with the extraordinary kindness of God, which is so frequently mentioned by Moses, namely, that they will have a fixed residence in Judea; for here he threatens that they will be stragglers and wanderers, not in their own, but in a foreign country; so that, wherever they come, they will be attacked and hunted down by innumerable vexations.

When they shall be hungry. The Prophet appears to point out the conversion of the Jews, as if he had said, “When they have been weighed down by afflictions they will at length repent;” and undoubtedly this is the remedy by which the Lord generally cures the disease of obstinacy. Yet if any one suppose that the word hunger describes the indignation and roaring of the wicked without repentance, it may be stated that it includes not only hunger and thirst, but, by a figure of speech in which a part is taken for the whole, (συνεκδοχικῶς,) every other kind of calamity.

They shall fret themselves. ⁽¹³⁷⁾ They will begin to be displeased with themselves, and to loathe all the supports on which they had formerly relied; and this is the beginning of repentance; for in prosperity we flatter ourselves, but in sore adversity we loathe everything that is around us. But if it be thought preferable to refer it to the reprobate, this word denotes the bitterness, which is so far from leading them to humility that it rather aggravates their rage.

And curse their king and their God. By King some suppose that he means God. In this sense Zephaniah used the word מלכם (malcham), that is, their King. (Zephaniah 1:5.) But here I draw a distinction between King and God; for wicked men are first blinded by a false confidence in idols, and afterwards they place their defense in earthly things. When the Jews had a king, they were proud of his glory and power; and when Isaiah preached, wicked men enraged the king against him, and even aroused the whole of the nation to follow the king as their standard-bearer. Since, therefore, their false boasting had been partly in the idols and partly in the king, he threatens that they will be afflicted with so many calamities, that they will be constrained to abhor both their gods and the king. And this is the beginning of repentance, to loathe and drive far from us everything that kept us back or led us away from God.

And look upward. He describes the trembling and agitation of mind by which wretched men are tormented until they have learned steadfastly to look up. There is, indeed, some proficiency, as I lately hinted, when, in consequence of having been taught by afflictions and chastisements, we throw away our indifference and endeavor to find out remedies. But we must advance farther. Fixing our eye on God alone we must not gaze on all sides, or through fickleness be tossed to and fro. (Ephesians 4:14.) However that may be, Isaiah threatens the utter destruction of the Jews; for so thoroughly were they hardened, that their rebellion could not be subdued by a light and moderate chastisement from the hand of God. Yet it might be taken in a good sense, that the Jews will at length raise their eyes to heaven; but in that case we must read separately what follows: —

(136) Through it. — Eng. Ver.

(137) Not satisfied with the Latin word irritentur for conveying the import of the Hebrew התקצף, (hithkatzeph,) Calvin illustrates it by a phrase taken from his own vernacular, Ils se despiteront , which means, they will fume, or chafe, or burst into furious passion. — Ed

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 8

So in chapter 8 he continues in this prediction of the Assyrian invasion.

Moreover the LORD said unto me, Take thee a great roll, and write in it with a man's pen concerning Mahershalalhashbaz ( Isaiah 8:1 ).

And that is interpreted, it's a Hebrew name that means, or word that means, "Haste ye, haste ye to the spoil." Quite a name.

And I took me a faithful witness to record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah. And I went unto the prophetess [that is his wife]; and she conceived, and she bore a son. Then said the LORD unto me, Call his name Mahershalalhashbaz. For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria ( Isaiah 8:2-4 ).

So he went out unto his wife and she conceived, bore a son. God said, "Call him Mahershalalhashbaz because before this kid is three years old, can say Mama and Daddy, Syria is going to get wiped out by Assyria. Damascus will be overrun by the Assyrians."

The LORD spake also unto me again, saying, Forasmuch as this people refuseth the waters of Shiloah that go softly, and they rejoice in Rezin and in Remaliah's son [who is Pekah]: Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all of his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks ( Isaiah 8:5-8 ):

So it's speaking figuratively. It's going to be like a flood. Assyrians are going to come and they're going to take both Syria and the Northern Kingdom of Israel, which indeed did happen.

And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel. Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken to pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries: gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, it shall come to nothing; speak the word, and it shall not stand: for God is with us ( Isaiah 8:8-10 ).

So he is challenging now this confederacy. You think that you're going to join together and wipe out God's people? Not going to make it. God isn't going to let it stand, for God is with us.

For the LORD spake thus to me with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people, saying, Say ye not, A confederacy, to all of those to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye, nor be afraid ( Isaiah 8:11-12 ).

The idea of two nations getting together to fight against one was an awesome thing indeed. And so that word, "Oh, there's a confederacy," just really struck terror into the hearts of the people. Really was wiping them out. And so the Lord said, "Hey, just forget that stuff, because it's not going to stand."

Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; let him be your fear, let him be your dread ( Isaiah 8:13 ).

Don't be afraid of what man can do or what a confederacy might do. You better be afraid of what God is going to do. Jesus said, "Don't be fearful of those who can kill your body, and after that have no power. But rather fear Him who after the body is dead is able to cast both soul and spirit into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear ye Him" ( Luke 12:4-5 ). For God shall be for a sanctuary.

And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense to both the houses of Israel, a gin [or a trap] and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem ( Isaiah 8:14 ).

Now, here again is one of those prophecies that suddenly just flashes the flash of the Messiah again. Even as Jesus became a stumbling stone to the Jew, a rock of offense. And Paul the apostle refers how that Jesus, "We preach unto you Christ crucified. To the Jew a stumbling stone, to the Greek foolishness. But unto us who are saved, the power of God unto salvation" ( 1 Corinthians 1:23-24 ). So Christ became a stumbling stone to the Jew. And even as it is prophesied here.

And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken. Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples. And I will wait upon the LORD, that hides his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs ( Isaiah 8:15-18 )

Now this is Isaiah. He and his children, their names especially were to be for signs.

and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwells in mount Zion. And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto the wizards those that peep, and mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them ( Isaiah 8:18-20 ).

Now people were looking to the spiritists to guide them. They were looking to a communication with the dead for guidance, for instruction, for wisdom. And God speaks out against this. Should you not actually seek a living God rather than the spirit of a departed dead person? And yet, it's amazing how many people today are involved in spiritism, who are seeking to communicate with spirits, the spirits of the dead. And how many feel that they have actually come into contact with the spirits of dead people. So many people into this who are writers and all who have guides who direct them in their writings. Some famous author of the past, and they feel that they are guiding them and so forth, spirit guides. And people are looking to the dead for advice and for counsel. But should you not be seeking the living God for counsel? And to the law of God and to His testimony? "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The end of such occult advisers is difficulty, hunger, frustration, distress, darkness, gloom, and anguish. They will look up to their leaders and curse both their king and their God because things did not turn out as they foretold (cf. Isaiah 8:17; Revelation 16:11; Revelation 16:21). They will look down to their fellows and find no help. Frustration meets them wherever they turn.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

And they shall pass through it,.... The land, as the Targum and Kimchi supply it; that is, the land of Judea, as Aben Ezra interprets it. Here begins an account of the punishment that should be inflicted on the Jews, for their neglect of the prophecies of the Old Testament, and their rejection of the Messiah:

hardly bestead and hungry; put to the greatest difficulty to get food to eat, and famishing for want of it; which some understand of the time when Sennacherib's army was before Jerusalem, as Aben Ezra; but it seems better, with others, to refer it to the times of Zedekiah, when there was a sore famine, Jeremiah 52:6 though best of all to the besieging of Jerusalem, by the Romans, and the times preceding it,

Matthew 24:7 and it may also be applied to the famine of hearing the word before that, when the Gospel, the kingdom of heaven, was taken from them, for their contempt of it:

and it shall come to pass, when they shall be hungry: either in a temporal sense, having no food for their bodies; or in a mystical sense, being hungry often and earnestly desirous of the coming of their vainly expected Messiah, as a temporal Saviour of them:

they shall fret themselves; for want of food for their bodies, to satisfy their hunger; or because their Messiah does not come to help them:

and curse their King, and their God; the true Messiah, who is the King of Israel, and God manifest in the flesh; whom the unbelieving Jews called accursed, and blasphemed:

and look upwards; to heaven, for the coming of another Messiah, but in vain; or for food to eat.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      16 Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.   17 And I will wait upon the LORD, that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him.   18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.   19 And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?   20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.   21 And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry: and it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves, and curse their king and their God, and look upward.   22 And they shall look unto the earth; and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness.

      In these verses we have,

      I. The unspeakable privilege which the people of God enjoy in having the oracles of God consigned over to them, and being entrusted with the sacred writings. That they may sanctify the Lord of hosts, may make him their fear and find him their sanctuary, bind up the testimony,Isaiah 8:16; Isaiah 8:16. Note, It is a great instance of God's care of his church and love to it that he has lodged in it the invaluable treasure of divine revelation. 1. It is a testimony and a law; not only this prophecy is so, which must therefore be preserved safely for the comfort of God's people in the approaching times of trouble and distress, but the whole word of God is so; God has attested it, and he has enjoined it. As a testimony it directs our faith; as a law it directs our practice; and we ought both to subscribe to the truths of it and to submit to the precepts of it. 2. This testimony and this law are bound up and sealed, for we are not to add to them nor diminish from them; they are a letter from God to man, folded up and sealed, a proclamation under the broad seal. The binding up and sealing of the Old Testament signified that the full explication of many of the prophecies of it was reserved for the New-Testament times. Daniel 12:4, Seal the book till the time of the end; but what was then bound up and sealed is now open and unsealed, and revealed unto babes,Matthew 11:25. Yet with reference to the other world, and the future state, still the testimony is bound up and sealed, for we know but in part, and prophesy but in part. 3. They are lodged as a sacred deposit in the hands of the disciples of the children of the prophets and the covenant,Acts 3:25. This is the good thing which is committed to them, and which they are charged with the custody of, 2 Timothy 1:13; 2 Timothy 1:14. Those that had prophets for their tutors must still keep close to the written word.

      II. The good use which we ought to make of this privilege. This we are taught,

      1. By the prophet's own practice and resolutions, Isaiah 8:17; Isaiah 8:18. He embraced the law ad the testimony, and he had the comfort of them, in the midst of the many discouragements he met with. Note, Those ministers can best recommend the word of God to others that have themselves found the satisfaction of relying upon it. Observe,

      (1.) The discouragements which the prophet laboured under. He specifies two:-- [1.] The frowns of God, not so much upon himself, but upon his people, whose interests lay very near his heart: "He hides his face from the house of Jacob, and seems at present to neglect them, and lay them under the tokens of his displeasure." The prophet was himself employed in revealing God's wrath against them, and yet grieved thus for it, as one that did not desire the woeful day. If the house of Jacob forsake the God of Jacob, let it not be thought strange that he hides his face from them. [2.] The contempt and reproaches of men, not only upon himself, but upon his disciples, among whom the law and the testimony were sealed: I and the children whom the Lord has given me are for signs and wonders; we are gazed at as monsters or outlandish people, pointed at as we go along the streets. Probably the prophetical names that were given to his children were ridiculed and bantered by the profane scoffers of the town. I am as a wonder unto many,Psalms 71:7. God's people are the world's wonder (Zechariah 3:8) for their singularity, and because they run not with them to the same excess of riot, 1 Peter 4:4. The prophet was herein a type of Christ; for this is quoted (Hebrews 2:13) to prove that believers are Christ's children: Behold, I and the children whom God has given me. Parents must look upon their children as God's gifts, his gracious gifts; Jacob did so, Genesis 33:5. Ministers must look upon their converts as their children, and be tender of them accordingly (1 Thessalonians 2:7), and as the children whom God has given them; for, whatever good we are instrumental of to others, it is owing to the grace of God. Christ looks upon believers as his children, whom the Father gave him (John 17:6), and both he and they are for signs and wonders, spoken against (Luke 2:34), every where spoken against, Acts 28:22.

      (2.) The encouragement he took in reference to these discouragements. [1.] He saw the hand of God in all that which was discouraging to him, and kept his eye upon that. Whatever trouble the house of Jacob is in, it comes from God's hiding his face; nay, whatever contempt was put upon him or his friends, it is from the Lord of hosts; he has bidden Shimei curse David, Job 19:13; Job 30:11. [2.] He saw God dwelling in Mount Zion, manifesting himself to his people, and ready to hear their prayers and receive their homage. Though, for the present, he hide his face from the house of Jacob, yet they know where to find him and recover the sight of him; he dwells in Mount Zion. [3.] He therefore resolved to wait upon the Lord and to look for him; to attend his motions even while he hid his face, and to expect with a humble assurance his returns in a way of mercy. Those that wait upon God by faith and prayer may look for him with hope and joy. When we have not sensible comforts we must still keep up our observance of God and obedience to him, and then wait awhile; at evening time it shall be light.

      2. By the counsel and advice which he gives to his disciples, among whom the law and the testimony were sealed, to whom were committed the lively oracles.

      (1.) He supposes they would be tempted, in the day of their distress, to consult those that had familiar spirits, that dealt with the devil, asked his advice, and desired to be informed by him concerning things to come, that they might take their measures accordingly. Thus Saul, when he was in straits, made his application to the witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28:7; 1 Samuel 28:15), and Ahaziah to the god of Ekron, 2 Kings 1:2. These conjurors had strange fantastic gestures and tones: They peeped and muttered; they muffled their heads, that they could neither see nor be seen plainly, but peeped and were peeped at. Or both the words here used may refer to their voice and manner of speaking; they delivered what they had to say with a low, hollow, broken sound, scarcely articulate, and sometimes in a puling or mournful tone, like a crane, or a swallow, or a dove, Isaiah 38:14; Isaiah 38:14. They spoke not with that boldness and plainness which the prophets of the Lord spoke with, but as those who desire to amuse people rather than to instruct them; yet there were those who were so wretchedly sottish as to seek to them and to court others to do so, even the prophet's hearers, who knew better things, whom therefore the prophet warns not to say, A confederacy with such. There were express laws against this wickedness (Leviticus 19:31; Leviticus 20:27), and yet it was found in Israel, is found even in Christian nations; but let all that have any sense of religion show it, by startling at the thought of it. Get thee behind me, Satan. Dread the use of spells and charms, and consulting those that by hidden arts pretend to tell fortunes, cure diseases, or discover things lost; for this is a heinous crime, and, in effect, denies the God that is above.

      (2.) He furnishes them with an answer to this temptation, puts words into their mouths. "If any go about thus to ensnare you, give them this reply: Should not a people seek to their God? What! for the living to the dead!" [1.] "Tell them it is a principle of religion that a people ought to seek unto their God; now Jehovah is our God, and therefore to him we ought to seek, and to consult with him, and not with those that have familiar spirits. All people will thus walk in the name of their God,Micah 4:5. Those that made the hosts of heaven their gods sought unto them,Jeremiah 8:2. Should not a people under guilt, and in trouble, seek to their God for pardon and peace? Should not a people in doubt, in want, and in danger, seek to their God for direction, supply, and protection? Since the Lord is our God, and we are his people, it is certainly our duty to seek him." [2.] "Tell them it is an instance of the greatest folly in the world to seek for living men to dead idols." What can be more absurd than to seek to lifeless images for life and living comforts, or to expect that our friends that are dead should do that for us, when we deify them and pray to them, which our living friends cannot do? The dead know not any thing, nor is there with them any device or working,Ecclesiastes 9:5; Ecclesiastes 9:10. It is folly therefore for the living to make their court to them, with any expectation of relief from them. Necromancers consulted the dead, as the witch of Endor, and so proclaimed their own folly. We must live by the living, and not by the dead. What life or light can we look for from those that have no light or life themselves?

      (3.) He directs them to consult the oracles of God. If the prophets that were among them did not speak directly to every case, yet they had the written word, and to that they must have recourse. Note, Those will never be drawn to consult wizards that know how to make a good use of their Bibles. Would we know how we may seek to our God, and come to the knowledge of his mind? To the law and to the testimony. There you will see what is good, and what the Lord requires of you. Make God's statutes your counsellors, and you will be counselled aright. Observe, [1.] What use we must make of the law and the testimony: we must speak according to that word, that is, we must make this our standard, conform to it, take advice from it, make our appeals to it, and in every thing be overruled and determined by it, consent to those wholesome healing words (1 Timothy 6:3), and speak of the things of God in the words which the Holy Ghost teaches. It is not enough to say nothing against it, but we must speak according to it. [2.] Why we must make this use of the law and the testimony: because we shall be convicted of the greatest folly imaginable if we do not. Those that concur not with the word of God do thereby evince that there is no light, no morning light (so the word is) in them; they have no right sense of things; they do not understand themselves, nor the difference between good and evil, truth and falsehood. Note, Those that reject divine revelation have not so much as human understanding; nor do those rightly admit the oracles of reason who will not admit the oracles of God. Some read it as a threatening: "If they speak not according to this word, there shall be no light to them, no good, no comfort or relief; but they shall be driven to darkness and despair;" as it follows here, Isaiah 8:21; Isaiah 8:22. What light had Saul when he consulted the witch? 1 Samuel 28:18; 1 Samuel 28:20. Or what light can those expect that turn away from the Father of lights?

      (4.) He reads the doom of those that seek to familiar spirits and regard not God's law and testimony; there shall not only be no light to them, no comfort or prosperity, but they may expect all horror and misery, Isaiah 8:21; Isaiah 8:22. [1.] The trouble they feared shall come upon them: They shall pass through the land, or pass to and fro in the land, unfixed, unsettled, and driven from place to place by the threatening power of an invading enemy; they shall be hardly bestead whither to go for the necessary supports of life, either because the country would be so impoverished that there would be nothing to be had, or at least themselves and their friends so impoverished that there would be nothing to be had for them; so that those who used to be fed to the full shall be hungry. Note, Those that go away from God go out of the way of all good. [2.] They shall be very uneasy to themselves, by their discontent and impatience under their trouble. A good man may be in want, but then he quiets himself, and strives to make himself easy; but these people when they shall be hungry shall fret themselves, and when they have nothing to feed on their vexation shall prey upon their own spirits; for fretfulness is a sin that is its own punishment. [3.] They shall be very provoking to all about them, nay, to all above them; when they find all their measures broken, and themselves at their wits' end, they will forget all the rules of duty and decency, and will treasonably curse their king and blasphemously curse their God, and this more than in their thought and in their bedchamber,Ecclesiastes 10:20. They begin with cursing their king for managing the public affairs no better, as if the fault were his, when the best and wisest kings cannot secure success; but, when they have broken the bonds of their allegiance, no marvel if those of their religion do not hold them long: they next curse their God, curse him, and die; they quarrel with his providence, and reproach that, as if he had done them wrong. The foolishness of man perverts his way, and then his heart frets against the Lord,Proverbs 19:3. See what need we have to keep our mouth as with a bridle when our heart is hot within us; for the language of fretfulness is commonly very offensive. [4.] They shall abandon themselves to despair, and, which way soever they look, shall see no probability of relief. They shall look upward, but heaven shall frown upon them and look gloomy; and how can it be otherwise when they curse their God? They shall look to the earth, but what comfort can that yield to those with whom God is at war? There is nothing there but trouble, and darkness, and dimness of anguish, every thing threatening, and not one pleasant gleam, not one hopeful prospect; but they shall be driven to darkness by the violence of their own fears, which represent every thing about them black and frightful. This explains what he had said Isaiah 8:20; Isaiah 8:20, that there shall be no light to them. Those that shut their eyes against the light of God's word will justly be abandoned to darkness, and left to wander endlessly, and the sparks of their own kindling will do them no kindness.