Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 8:19
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?
19. And when they (the infatuated, God-forsaken people) shall say unto you (believers in divine revelation).
them that have familiar spirits ] Hebr. simply h’bhth. Strictly, the ’bh is the “familiar spirit” itself (Lev 20:27, &c.), i.e. the disembodied spirit after death; the necromancer or “medium” through whom it holds communication with the living is ba‘al ’bh or ba‘lath ’bh (1Sa 28:8) the possessor of an ’bh.
wizards that peep, and that mutter ] “Wizards,” lit. “knowing ones,” practitioners of an occult science. Peep (i.e. chirp) and mutter refer to the faint voice, like that of a little bird, which antiquity ascribed to the shades of the departed: “The sheeted dead did squeak and gibber in the streets of Rome.” See ch. Isa 29:4, where the word “peep” is again used, and comp. Aen. 6:492 f.; Il. 23:101. The LXX. ( and ) suggests that the voice of the ghost was imitated by ventriloquism, which is not unlikely.
should not a people dead? ] This seems to be the answer which the prophet’s disciples are to return to the people.
for the living to the dead? ] i.e. “should one enquire of the dead (ghost) on behalf of the living?”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
19, 20. Religion and superstition contrasted.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And when they shall say – When the people, instead of putting confidence in God, shall propose to apply to necromancers. In the time of Ahaz the people were, as they were often, much inclined to idolatry; 2Ki 16:10. In their troubles and embarrassments, instead of looking to Yahweh, they imitated the example of surrounding nations, and applied for relief to those who professed to be able to hold converse with spirits. That it was common for idolatrous people to seek direction from those who professed that they had the power of divining, is well known; see Isa 19:3; Isa 29:4. It was expressly forbidden to the Jews to have recourse to those who made such professions; Lev 20:6; Deu 18:10-11. Yet, notwithstanding this express command, it is evident that it was no uncommon thing for the Jews to make application for such instructions; see the case of Saul, who made application to the woman of Endor, who professed to have a familiar spirit, in 1 Sam. 28:7-25. Among pagan nations, nothing was more common than for persons to profess to have contact with spirits, and to be under the influence of their inspiration. The oracle at Delphi, of this nature, was celebrated throughout Greece, and throughout the world. Kings and princes, warriors and nations, sought of the priestess who presided there, responses in undertaking any important enterprise, and were guided by her instructions; see the Travels of Anacharsis, vol. ii. 376ff.
Seek unto – Apply to for direction.
That hath familiar spirits – Hebrew, ‘oboth. The word familiar, applied to spirit, is supposed to have been used by our translators to imply that they were attended by an invisible spirit that was subject to their call, or that would inspire them when they sought his direction. The Hebrew word is used to denote a necromancer, a conjuror; particularly one who was supposed to have power to call up the dead, to learn Of them respecting future events; see 1Sa 28:7-19; Deu 18:11. The word is most commonly applied to women; as it was almost entirely confined to women to profess this power; Lev 19:31; Lev 20:6; 1 Sam. 28. The idea was, that they could call up the spirits of the dead who were supposed to have seen objects invisible to the living, and who could, therefore, inform them in regard to things which mortals on earth could not see. The Vulgate renders this by Pythons and diviners. A Python, among the Greeks and Romans, denoted one that had the spirit of prophesying, and was particularly applied to the priestess of Apollo at Delphi. The Septuagint renders the place thus: And if they say to you, Seek the ventriloquists, engastrimuthous, and those speaking from the earth, and speaking vain things, who speak from the belly, hoi ek tes koilias phonousin. From this it is evident, that the art of the ventriloquist, so well known now, was known then; and it is highly probable that the secret of the art of soothsayers consisted very much in being able to throw the voice, with various modifications, into different places, so that it would seem to come from a grave, or from an image of a dead person, that was made to appear at the proper time.
And unto wizards – The word used here – yiddeonym – is derived from the verb yada to know; and means a wise man, a soothsayer, a magician, or one possessed with a spirit of divination. The arts of the magician, or soothsayer, were often the arts of one skilled in natural magic; acquainted somewhat with the laws of chemistry; and able, therefore, to produce appearances among an ignorant people that would surprise them; see Brewsters Natural Magic, where this art is fully explained.
That peep – This word is properly used of young birds, and means to chirp, to pip; and also to make a small noise by the gentle opening of the mouth. It is then applied to the gentle whispering which the ancients ascribed to departed spirits; the small, low, shrill voice which they were supposed to use, and which, probably, those attempted to imitate who claimed the power of raising them to the earth. It was believed among all the ancient nations, that departed spirits did not speak out openly and clearly, but with an indistinct, low, gentle, suppressed voice. Thus, in Virgil:
– Pars tollere vocem
Exiguam.
AEneid, vi. 492.
– gemitus lachrymabilis imo
Auditur tumulo, et vox reddita ferter ad aures.
AEneid, iii. 39.
Thus Horace:
Umbrae cum Sagana resonarint triste et acutum.
Sat. lib i. 8, 40.
Thus Homer, speaking of the shade or spirit of Patroclus, says that it went with a whizzing sound: Ocheto tetriguia. – Iliad, – 101.
He said, and with his longing arms essayd
In vain to grasp the visionary shade;
Like a thin smoke he sees the spirit fly
And hears a feeble, lamentable cry.
This night my friend, so late in battle lost,
Stood at my side a pensive, plaintive ghost.
Pope.
So, also, Lucian says of the infernal regions, The whizzing shades of the dead fly around us; see Gesenius in loc. and Rosenmuller; also Bocharts Hieroz., Part i. B. iii. ch. ii. p. 731.
And that mutter – The word used here – hagah – usually means to meditate, to consider; and then to speak, to utter. It also means to sigh, to mourn, Jer 48:31; Isa 16:7; to coo, as a dove, Isa 37:14; Isa 59:11; and then to roar like a lion; not the loud roar, but the grumbling, the suppressed roar (Bochart); Isa 31:4. The idea here is, probably, that of gently sighing, or mourning – uttering feeble, plaintive lamentations or sighs, as departed shades were supposed to do; and this was; probably, imitated by necromancers. By thus feigning that they conversed with the dead, they imposed on the ignorant populace, and led them to suppose that they had supernatural powers.
Should not a people seek … – Is it not proper that a people should inquire of the God that is worshipped, in order to be directed in perplexing and embarrassing events? Some have understood this to be a question of the idolaters, asking whether it was not right and proper for a people to seek counsel of those whom they worshipped as God. I understand it, however, as a question asked by the prophet, and as the language of strong and severe rebulge. You are seeking to idols, to the necromancers, and to the dead, But Yahweh is your God. And should not a people so signally favored, a people under his special care, apply to him, and seek his direction?
For the living – On account of the affairs of the living. To ascertain what will be their lot, what is their duty, or what will occur to them.
To the dead – The necromancers pretended to have contact with the spirits of the dead. The prophet strongly exposes the absurdity of this. What could the dead know of this? How could they declare the future events respecting the living? Where was this authorized? People should seek God – the living God – and not pretend to hold consultation with the dead.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Isa 8:19-20
And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits
Wizards
Wizards and they that have familiar spirits, are what we should now call mediums, through whom the dead speak.
(A. B. Davidson, D. D.)
Wizards that peep and mutter
Peep (i.e., chirp) and mutter refer to the faint voice, like that of a little bird, which antiquity ascribed to the shades of the departed: The sheeted dead did squeak and gibber in the streets of Rome (see Isa 29:4). The LXX suggests that the voice of the ghost was imitated by ventriloquism, which is not unlikely. (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
Religion and superstition
Religion and superstition contrasted (Isa 8:19-20). (Prof. J. Skinner, D. D.)
Should not a people seek unto their God?–
Gripping old truths and seeing new visions
We must learn to recognise the friends and foes of our life even when they are presented to us in an Oriental and old-world dress.
I. WE HAVE HERE A PLEA FOR THE LIBERTY AND INDEPENDENCE OF THE LIVING PRESENT. On behalf of the living should they seek unto the dead? Such is the sarcastic question that the disciples of the great prophet are required to ask the people when the latter desire to resort to wizards and witches to help them out of their straits. The retort goes much further than merely striking a blow at the silly superstition of seeking by enchantment to bring back and question the shades of the dead. It contains a principle which lies at the very foundation of the worlds development,–a principle the reverent recognition of which will enable us to work out unfettered the full mission of our lives, and give us unbounded faith in the future of the race which Christ has come to redeem. Every new generation has its own special mission to fulfil; it is a new life charged with the duty of working out its own salvation. It is a new stage in the manifestation of the Divine through the human. The living present claims for itself a dignity and a mission, and, if we are lax in upholding the former, we are likely to fall short of fulfilling the latter. There is a way of worshipping the past, and of appealing to it which puts the present in chains, or, at least, compels it to be stationary. Has human life in very deed exhausted the thought of God? Surely the very history of the past itself ought to teach us the essential liberty and power of life. What epochs of the past are those that call forth our highest admiration and homage! Not such a period as that of the middle Ages when the living fortified and entrenched themselves in the sepulchres of the dead; but rather such times as those of the Lutheran reformation, when men felt the holy freedom of their own life, cast away the swathings of the past, and fearlessly took a new step in the name of God. I believe that God reigns through the rich movements of life, and not through traditional and external fetters. Given an earnest generation, awake to the responsibilities of its own life, and I can trust God to direct the flowing tide to a sacred shore. We cannot assert that an active and earnest generation will not make any mistakes. Every age has its own peculiar dangers, the vices which are the excess of its virtues. There are shallow lives that lose their gravity with the slightest movement, and dash themselves into thin vapour around the deeper movement of the time. And there are the men that pride themselves upon being fearless spirits in the realm of thought; which often means that they take advantage of a new movement to rush into one-sided and extreme conclusions upon the most precarious basis–conclusions which a truer judgment will anon reverse or correct. And even the most earnest and reliable spirits find it difficult to discover the golden mean between the bondage of the old and the violence of the new.
II. THAT THE TRUE LIFE OF THE PRESENT CAN BE ATTAINED ONLY BY LIVING CONTACT WITH THE LIVING GOD. The prophets message has not ended with the declaration that life is essentially movement and a force, having a Divine right to cast off the encrusting forms of the dead past. In order to prevent this awful liberty from being abused, and this vast movement from being misdirected, he must supply it with a guiding Spirit, and a directing force. It is a dangerous thing for men to become suddenly conscious of a vast and unused power unless they at the same time feel the grip of the eternal principles along which this power should move. Every movement of life presupposes an appointed orbit, without which it runs wild, and ends in a crash. The prophet, therefore, directs the people to root and ground their liberty in living contact with God–Should not a people seek unto their God? In examining, therefore, any particular case of movement in the moral and religious sphere it is all-important to inquire whether it exhibits the living energy of the Divine life in the human, whether it enriches men with a profounder apprehension of the beating, quickening life of God here in our very midst; in fine, whether the movement is marked with the sacred brand of living contact with the living God. Every true life movement brings God nearer–never drives Him further away. Let us apply this test in one particular and crucial case–the great question of the inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. Perhaps our formal deflations may undergo a slight change; but of this I feel sure–that it will never be necessary or rational for me to accept a theory of inspiration which will make the Bible less Divine than I hold it to be at present. There is no truly onward movement which is not also upward. Lifes true mission is fulfilled and lifes true path pursued, only in proportion as a people seek to their God.
III. So we are led to our last thought: THAT THE TRUTHS WHICH WERE THE ESSENTIAL BASIS OF THE BEST LIFE OF THE PAST MUST BE THE BASIS OF THE ENLARGING LIFE OF THE PRESENT. To the law and to the testimony. If they speak not according to this word, surely there is no morning for them. So the cycle of thought is completed. True progress and true conservatism are not opposed to one another, but are rather supplementary. The only true liberty is that which runs along the lines of eternal law. The world was not begun yesterday, and we have not been deputed to lay its foundations anew. So Isaiahs last position is not only consistent with his first; it is necessarily involved in it. The living, says the prophet, need not consult the shades of the dead, for they have a living God to guide them and to give them ever larger supplies of power. True; but God is one. He does not change with each new generation. The great principles by which He ennobles human life are well known, for they have been writ large in His self-manifestations in the past. God will not reveal Himself in the present to those that are too blind to recognise His glory as revealed in the past. God has revealed Himself to the world long ago. If we would have more light in the present, we must be true to the radiance that lights up the history of the past. (J. Thomas, M. A.)
God to be sought by nations
The history of our own coronary coincides with the record which the Holy Spirit has given of the history of Judah and of Israel, in illustrating the important fact that God in the dispensations of His providence, deals with nations in their collective capacity according to their faithfulness in His service. The condition of Judah in the time of Isaiah demanded this remonstrance. There prevailed much of avowed irreligion and immorality.
I. IN WHAT MANNER CAN WE PERSONALLY INFLUENCE THE CHARACTER AND CONDUCT OF THE NATION AT LARGE? The nation is made up of the aggregate of its individual members. Each person, therefore, may justly consider his own character and conduct in a two-fold view: as it affects himself, and as it affects the whole country. The influence of each distinct member on the whole community, as contributing to the formation of its character, whether for good or for evil, is a subject of deep importance. In this respect, indeed, the more prominent the station in which a man is placed, the greater is his responsibility. But the religious character of the nation does not rest with these alone: piety or impiety in all other men of influence, of wealth, of talent, are likewise the constituent parts of the nations excellence or the nations, guilt, while they are also productive of a corresponding character in the various subordinate ranks of life. Nor is there any single person, however subordinate his station, who does not in the same manner contribute towards the formation of the general character of the nation of which he constitutes a part.
II. IN WHAT DOES THIS SEEKING UNTO GOD CONSIST? Nations and individuals seek unto the Lord–
1. By applying to Him for true knowledge and instruction (verse 20; Joh 5:39).
2. By taking refuge in Him as their confidence and hope.
(1) Nationally, we have examples of this confidence in God, in the sacred records concerning Jehoshaphat and Hezekiah, in sevens of public alarm, and difficulty.
(2) Every man is called on to seek to the Lord for the foundation of his personal hope and comfort, not merely as to the concerns of this life, but in reference, also, to his eternal welfare. And, according as the hope of the people in general is well or ill grounded, will be the state and condition of the Church or of the nation professing the religion of Christ.
3. By following His guidance as to their character and conduct. (J. Hill, B. D.)
The duty of seeking unto God
I. THE REASONS WHY WE OUGHT TO SEEK UNTO OUR GOD.
1. We should seek to Him for light and guidance in perplexity and doubt. No state is more painfully trying to man than to have the mind tossed and agitated like a bark on the stormy waves, without chart and compass. There is an eager impatience in such a state, which lays men open to imposition. They become the easy dupes of crafty deceivers. Hence magicians and necromancers, in an age of ignorance and credulity, gamed such an ascendency over the vulgar. You have read what history records of the oracles of Greece, and the sibyls of Italy. But a superstition, very similar, prevailed over all Asia, and at times penetrated into Judea. Now all such practices were dishonouring and forsaking Jehovah. The mind of a sincere believer may, both on points of faith and practice, be in a state of doubt and suspense. And to whom should he look, but to the Father of lights who can scatter every cloud?
2. For support and consolation in sorrow and distress (Job 5:8; Psa 50:15).
3. For protection and defence amidst difficulties and dangers.
4. For strength to fit us for all the active duties of life and religion.
II. HOW WE ARE TO SEEK UNTO OUR GOD.
1. By diligently and impartially consulting His revealed will in the Holy Scriptures.
2. By constantly and seriously frequenting the public ordinances of His house.
3. By carefully marking and observing the openings and leadings of Providence. In particular cases, says Mr. Newton, the Lord opens and shuts for His people, breaks down walls of difficulty which obstruct their path, or hedges up their way with thorns, when they are in danger of going wrong, by the dispensations of His providence. They know that their concernments are in His hand; they are willing to follow whither and when He leads, but they are afraid of going before Him.
4. By offering up humble sad earnest petitions at the throne of His heavenly grace. (Essex Congregational Remembrancer.)
From light to darkness: from darkness to light
(Isa 8:18-22; Isa 9:2):–The experience of Israel is here described in three pictures, eachmarking a distinct stage in that experience–
I. ISRAEL REJECTING THE LIGHT. The prophet comes with a Divine message to his people. The people will not believe–
1. From inability, being unused to exercise simple trust in God.
2. From pride, for the mingling of judgment with mercy in Isaiahs message offends them.
3. Disbelieving Isaiah, and finding no help in human wisdom, they turn like Saul in his extremity, with the proverbial credulity of unbelief, to the oracles of necromancy. The old watchword, of religion, To the law and to the testimony! Should not a people, seek unto their God? are forgotten. For those who act thus, says Isaiah, there is no morning dawn, for they wilfully turn from the light.
II. A TIME COMES WHEN ISAIAHS WARNINGS ARE FULFILLED. Calamity, famine, distress drive the people to despair. Them is no voice of hope from their wizards and soothsayers. Haunted by the memory of the time when the watchword of faith might have saved them, they feel that they have grieved the Spirit and He is gone! Hardly bestead and hungry they pass through the land and curse their king and their God.
III. IN THE MIDST OF THEIR DESPAIR THEY LOOK UPWARDS, SCARCE KNOWING WHY. All other helpers failing, they direct towards heaven a despairing glance, as if hardly daring to think of Gods help, and then at last light shines through the gloom.
IV. SUCH ALSO MAY BE THE EXPERIENCE OF AN INDIVIDUAL SOUL. First, the Divine warning is despised, and the Word of God neglected, set aside as a worn-out superstition. The voice of religion seems to have lost its hold upon such a soul. Then all manner of refuges are tried, alliance with the world power–immersion in secular business; the superstition of unbelief, agnosticism, etc. All in their turn fail to alleviate the weary heartache which prompts the cry, Who will show us any good? The whole universe seems out of joint, and the soul hardly bestead and hungry curses its king and its God, the whole order of things in the world, and every form of religion the fake and the true. At length, in very despair, as if feeling it is no use, for me there is no morning dawn; the soul looks upwards. The darkness is past, the true light now shineth, the soul that walked in darkness and the shadow of death sees the salvation of the Lord. (Hugh H. Currie, B. D.)
Superstition
In the years which preceded the French Revolution, Cagliostro was the companion of princes–at the dissolution of paganism, the practisers of curious arts, the witches and the necromancers, were the sole objects of reverence in the known world; and so before the Reformation, archbishops and cardinals saw an inspired prophetess in a Kentish servant girl; Oxford heads of colleges sought out heretics with the help of astrology; Anne Boleyn blessed a bason of rings, her royal fingers pouring such virtue into the metal that no disorder could resist it; Wolsey had a magic crystal, and Thomas Cromwell, while in Wolseys household, did haunt to the company of a wizard. These things were the counterpart of a religion which taught that slips of paper, duly paid for, could secure indemnity for sin. (A. Freud)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 19. Should not a people seek – “Should they seek”] After yidrosh, the Septuagint, repeating the word, read hayidrosh: ; Should not a nation seek unto its God? Why should you seek unto the dead concerning the living? and this repetition of the verb seems necessary to the sense; and, as Procopius on the place observes, it strongly expresses the prophet’s indignation at their folly.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
When they, the Israelites, to whom I and my children are signs and wonders, who are fallen from God, and his true religion and worship, into superstition and idolatry, and will endeavour to seduce you into the same impiety, shall say unto you, my children, whom the prophet here arms against the common temptation.
Seek unto them for advice and help, and seek no more to the prophets, who have hitherto deluded you with vain words. This was the counsel of the ungodly and unbelieving Jews.
Wizards; of whom see Lev 19:31; 20:27; Deu 18:11.
That peep, and that mutter; that speak with a puling and low voice, as these two words signify; which they affected to do, speaking rather inwardly in their bellies, than outwardly and audibly with their mouths and voice, as the title of ventriloqui, commonly given to them, signifies.
Should not a people seek unto their God? this answer the prophet puts into their mouths, to the foregoing counsel. Doth not every nation, in cases of difficulty or distress, seek to their own gods for relief? Much more should we do so, that have the only true God for our God.
For the living to the dead; shall they seek (which words are easily understood out of the foregoing clause) for the living, &c? That living men should inquire of the living God is proper and reasonable; but it is highly absurd for them to forsake him, and to seek to dead idols, either to the images, or to the spirits of dead men, which are supposed to dwell and speak in them.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
19. Seek untoConsult in yournational difficulties.
them . . . familiarspiritsnecromancers, spirit charmers. So Saul, when he hadforsaken God (1Sa 28:7, c.),consulted the witch of En-dor in his difficulties. These follow inthe wake of idolatry, which prevailed under Ahaz (2Ki 16:32Ki 16:4; 2Ki 16:10).He copied the soothsaying as he did the idolatrous “altar”of Damascus (compare Le 20:6,which forbids it, Isa 19:3).
wizardsmen claimingsupernatural knowledge; from the old English, “towit,” that is, know.
peeprather “chirpfaintly,” as young birds do; this sound was generally ascribedto departed spirits; by ventriloquism the soothsayers caused a lowsound to proceed as from a grave, or dead person. Hence theSeptuagint renders the Hebrew for “necromancers”here “ventriloquists” (compare Isa29:4).
muttermoan.
should not, &c.Theanswer which Isaiah recommends to be given to those advising to haverecourse to necromancers.
for the living,&c.”should one, for the safety of the living, seekunto (consult) the dead?” [GESENIUS].LOWTH renders it, “Inplace of (consulting) the living, should one consult the dead?”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And when they shall say unto you,…. These are the words of Christ continued, as making his appearance in Israel; and are an address to his people among them, even to his children, disciples, and followers, advising them what they should do, when those among whom they dwelt should press them to
seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards, that peep, and that mutter; meaning the Scribes and Pharisees, the doctors among the Jews, who sat in Moses’s chair, and who were very much given to sorcery, and the magic art, and used enchantments, which were performed by “muttering”; hence we read of muttering over a wound for the healing of it; and muttering over serpents and scorpions at the driving of them away y; and of such a Rabbi muttering in the name of such an one z; and of such and such a doctor skilled in wonders or miraculous operations: [See comments on Mt 24:24] yea, even such as were chosen into the sanhedrim, or great council, were to be skilled in the arts of soothsayers, diviners, and wizards, and the like, that they might know how to judge them a; now the Jews would have had the disciples of Christ to have applied to these men to direct their judgments in religious affairs, and be determined by them concerning the Messiah and other things:
should not a people seek unto their God? “to” Christ, who is the Lord God omniscient and omnipotent, who knows all things, and whose name is called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Angel of the great council; and who is able to give the best counsel and direction in matters of moment and consequence, and able to do everything for his people they stand in need of; and who being present with them, God manifest in the flesh, it would be egregious folly to apply to any other, and especially such as are here described; see Joh 6:68:
for the living to the dead? that is, should men seek to such who are no other than dead men, for the sake or on the account of such who are living? The disciples of Christ, the children that God had given him, were quickened and made alive by the grace of God, had principles of grace and spiritual life implanted in them, had passed from death to life, lived by faith on Christ, lived holy lives, and were heirs of eternal life; and therefore it does not become them, nor any of them, to consult persons dead in trespasses and sins, who knew no more, and were no more capable of judging of spiritual things, than dead men are. See 1Co 2:14.
y T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 101. 1. z T. Hieros. Avoda Zara, fol. 40. 4. a Maimon. Hilchot Sanhedrin, c. 2. sect. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
It is to this ecclesiola in ecclesia that the prophet’s admonition is addressed. “And when they shall say to you, Inquire of the necromancers, and of the soothsayers that chirp and whisper:-Should not a people inquire of its God? for the living to the dead?” The appeal is supposed to be made by Judaeans of the existing stamp; for we know from Isa 2:6; Isa 3:2-3, that all kinds of heathen superstitions had found their way into Jerusalem, and were practised there as a trade. The persons into whose mouths the answer is put by the prophet (we may supply before Isa 8:19, “Thus shall ye say to them;” cf., Jer 10:11), are his own children and disciples. The circumstances of the times were very critical; and the people were applying to wizards to throw light upon the dark future. ‘Ob signified primarily the spirit of witchcraft, then the possessor of such a spirit (equivalent to Baal ob ), more especially the necromancer. Yiddoni , on the other hand, signified primarily the possessor of a prophesying or soothsaying spirit ( or ), Syr. yodua (after the intensive from paul with immutable vowels), and then the soothsaying spirit itself (Lev 20:27), which was properly called yidda’on (the much knowing), like , which, according to Plato, is equivalent to . These people, who are designated by the lxx, both here and elsewhere, as , i.e., ventriloquists, imitated the chirping of bats, which was supposed to proceed from the shadows of Hades, and uttered their magical formulas in a whispering tone.
(Note: The Mishnah Sanhedrin 65 a gives this definition: “ Baal’ob is a python, i.e., a soothsayer (‘with a spirit of divination’), who speaks from his arm-pit; yiddoni , a man who speaks with his mouth.” The baal ob , so far as he had to do with the bones of the dead, is called in the Talmud oba temayya’ , e.g., the witch of Endor (b. Sabbath 152b). On the history of the etymological explanation of the word, see Bttcher, de inferis, 205-217. If ‘ob , a skin or leather bottle, is a word from the same root (rendered “bellows” by the lxx at Job 32:19), as it apparently is, it may be applied to a bottle as a thing which swells or can be blown out, and to a wizard of spirit of incantation on account of this puffing and gasping. The explanation “ le revenant ,” from = Arab. aba , to return, has only a very weak support in the proper name = avvab (the penitent, returning again and again to God: see again at Isa 29:4).)
What an unnatural thing, for the people of Jehovah to go and inquire, not of their won God, but of such heathenish and demoniacal deceivers and victims as these ( darash ‘el , to go and inquire of a person, Isa 11:10, synonymous with sha’ar b’ , 1Sa 28:6)! What blindness, to consult the dead in the interests of the living! By “ the dead ” ( hammethim ) we are not to understand “the idols” in this passage, as in Psa 106:28, but the departed, as Deu 18:11 (cf., 1 Sam 28) clearly proves; and is not to be taken, either here or elsewhere, as equivalent to tachath (“instead of”), as Knobel supposes, but, as in Jer 21:2 and other passages, as signifying “for the benefit of.” Necromancy, which makes the dead the instructors of the living, is a most gloomy deception.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Verse 19-22: ALL THINGS ACCORDING TO GOD’S WORD
1. A people whose God is the Lord should be ashamed to seek direction for their lives from familiar spirits, clairvoyants, fortune tellers, wizards, etc. (comp. Isa 19:3-4; Isa 29:4; Isa 47:12-14).
a. How much better to seek the Lord – that one may know His will! (Mat 7:7).
b. It is foolish for the living to seek advice from the dead! (1Sa 28:8-11; Psa 106:28; Psa 115:5-9).
2. It is high time to get BACK TO THE WORD OF GOD! (Verse 20; Isa 1:10; Luk 16:29-31).
a. There is no prospect of a “bright morning” for such as reject God’s word, (Verse 20b; Mic 3:5-7; contr. Isa 60:1-3; Mal 3:16; Mal 4:3).
b. Rather, they may anticipate: distress, hunger, disillusionment with their king (and the God whom they never really knew), darkness, gloom, anguish and utter banishment from their own land, (Verse 21-22; Isa 9:20-21; Isa 5:30; Isa 59:9; Jer 13:16; Amo 5:18-20; Zep 1:14-18).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
19. And when they shall say to you. Isaiah continues the former subject, which is, that all the godly should not only use the authority of God as a shield, but should fortify themselves with it as a brazen wall, to contend against all ungodliness. He therefore entreats them to resist courageously if any one shall tempt them to superstition and unlawful modes of worship. The plural number is employed by him in order to signify that it was a vice which pervaded all ranks, and which abounded everywhere; as if he had said, “I see what will happen; you will be placed in great danger; for your countrymen will endeavor to draw you away from the true God; for, being themselves ungodly, they will wish you to resemble them.” At the same time he shows how wickedly they had departed from God’s law and covenant, by shamelessly pushing forward diviners and soothsayers whose name ought to have been held by them in abhorrence.
Should not a people ask counsel of their God? Some read these words in connection with what goes before, applying them to the ungodly, as if this were a pretense which they abused in order to deceive the simple; because there is no nation that has not oracles and revelations, but every nation consults its gods, or, in place of them, magicians and soothsayers. But what I reckon to be the more correct view is, that Isaiah advises his disciples to give this answer if they shall happen to be tempted to wicked modes of worship. Still the meaning is not fully cleared up; for this passage is commonly expounded as if it were a comparison drawn from the less to the greater. “What! seeing that the Gentiles consult their gods, and yet these gods are false, shall we not more highly esteem him whom we know to be the true God, and who hath revealed himself to us by so many proofs? What a shame will it be if their idols are more highly valued by the Gentiles than God is by us!”
But I interpret this as referring to the Jews themselves, who were called by way of eminence ( κατ ᾿ ἐξοχὴν) the people, because God had adopted them. Nor is it of any importance that the Prophet employs the plural form אלהיו, (135) ( elohaiv;) for אלהים ( elohim) is used as in the singular number. This is a shield by which all the superstitions which come imperceptibly upon us ought to be repelled. While some ponder and hesitate whether or not it be proper to consult diviners, let us have this answer in readiness, that God alone ought to be consulted. The Prophet alludes to that passage in Deuteronomy in which the Lord forbade them to go to magicians and soothsayers; and lest they should excuse themselves on the pretense that every nation had its interpreters or fortune-tellers, added, that they would not cease to have a Prophet, or be deprived of necessary instruction (Deu 18:10.) It was therefore the will of the Lord that they should depend entirely on his word, and should learn from it alone whatever was useful for them to know, and should render obedience to him.
From the living to the dead. The preposition בעד ( begnad) is variously rendered: frequently it is translated for; and in that case the meaning will be, “Shall the dead be consulted for the business of the living ?” But as that meaning is forced, it would perhaps be better to explain it thus: “The Lord desires to be our teacher, and for that purpose hath appointed prophets, that we may learn from them his will, for a prophet is the mouth of the Lord. It is therefore unlawful to go to the dead, who have not been appointed for that end; for God did not intend to make use of the dead for instructing us.”
But when I examine the whole matter more closely, I choose rather to consider בעד ( begnad) to mean from, that is, from the living to the dead; as if he had said, “One God is sufficient for us for the living and the dead. If you search through heaven, earth, and hell, you will find that one God is sufficient for us.” This is, I think, the best sense, and flows naturally. Accordingly, the Prophet arms the godly against the schemes and contrivances of wicked men by whom they might otherwise have been tempted to revolt, with the exhortation to be satisfied with God alone as their teacher, and not to offer him such an insult as to disregard his instruction and seek other teachers, but to cast away everything else, and depend on his truth alone, which immediately afterwards he again repeats and confirms.
(135) If אלהים ( elohim) were not only a plural form, as it actually is, but used in a plural signification, it would mean gods, and אלהיו ( elohaiv) would mean his gods; but since אלהים ( elohim) means God, אלהיו ( elohaiv) means his God. It may be proper to add that the pronominal affix, his agrees with עם, ( gnam,) people, which is masculine. — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
NECROMANCY
Isa. 8:19-22. Seek unto them, &c.
As bearing upon the doctrine of necromancy, an exhaustive discussion of these verses would involve the following points:
1. Under the instigation of a prurient curiosity, or under the pressure of affliction, godless men are wont to seek knowledge and help from the spirits of the dead.
2. Hence, in every age of the world and in every nation of universal history, there have been necromancers, wizards, &c., known by various names, practising various arts of divination and legerdemain; playing with the credulity of men and women, and claiming access to supernatural knowledge and power. The spirits of modern times are the latest species of this genus of necromancers.
3. This passage implies irresistibly that God frowns upon and condemns necromancy in whatever form.
4. The expostulations, rebukes, and threatenings of the Lord, through His prophet in this passage, assumes it to be impossible for man to get knowledge or help for the living from the dead. The power of God to send back to earth the spirits of the dead is quite another thing; yet as to this the practical question isDoes He see fit to use it?
5. Hence, to discard the light of Gods revealed Word and to seek light and help from the dead, is to hurl oneself against the impermeable and impassable wall with which God has shut in the living of our world, and involves both positive conflict against God and contemptuous rejection of His Divine Word.
6. As Satan has a natural sympathy with everything abhorrent to God and ruinous to man, we ought to look for his hand in these agencies of necromancy, to whatever extent God may give him scope and range for action. What these limits may be, who can tell? It is mans wisdom to keep himself utterly aloof from the sphere of Satans agencies and temptations.
7. Necromancers and spirits practically league themselves with Satan against God, and should be aware that his lot must be theirs, and their end be as their works, no dawn of day ever breaking forth on the midnight of their gloom.Henry Cowles, D.D. Commentary on Isaiah, pp. 68, 69.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(19) And when they shall say unto you . . .This then was the temptation to which the disciples of Isaiah were exposed, and to which they were all but yielding. Why should not they do as others did, and consult the soothsayers, who were in such great demand (Isa. 2:6), as to the anxious secrets of the coming years. The words point to some of the many forms of such soothsaying (Deu. 18:10). The familiar spirit (the English term being a happy paraphrase rather than a translation), is closely connected, as in the case of the witch of Endor (1Sa. 28:1-20), with the idea of necromancy, i.e., with the claim to have a demon or spirit of divination (Act. 16:16), on the part of the wizards (comp. Hom. Il. xxiii. 10; Virg. n., vi. 492) that peep (old English for pipe, chirp, whisper) and mutter. This peculiar intonation, thrilling each nerve with a sense of expectant awe, seems to have been characteristic of the soothsayers of Isaiahs time (Isa. 29:4).
Should not a people seek unto their God? . . .That, the prophet says, is the only true pathway to such knowledge as is good for man. The latter part of the question is abruptly elliptical: Are men to seek on behalf of the living to the dead? What ground, he seems to ask, have we for thinking that the spirits of the dead can be recalled to earth, or, if that were possible, that they know more than the living do? May it not even be that they know less? The prophet views the state of the departed as Hezekiah views it (Isa. 38:18), as one, not of annihilation, but of dormant or weakened powers.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
19. Distrusting Jehovah, and afraid of Assyria, some of the people were resorting to sorcerers for counsel. The blended folly and impiety of this our prophet now exposes.
Familiar spirits These were necromancers, conjurers, supposed to be able to call up the dead, who could give information of the future world or future events. Obhath is the plural of a word meaning hollow, and in its secondary or concrete tropical sense it means the conjurers themselves evoking, as with ventriloquising voice, spirits from the regions of the dead. Deu 18:11 ; 1Sa 28:8, etc.
Wizards Knowing ones, or sorcerers, magicians, adduced along with obhath, and spoken of lying prophets, Lev 19:31; Deu 18:11.
That peep mutter In the original, chirp, whisper, tricks of ventriloquism, no doubt.
Should not a people seek unto their God This is the reply which the believers in Jehovah. who “wait upon him” and “look for him” in times of peril, are instructed to give to the half-idolatrous ones tempting them to consult necromancers and the like. The prophet says to his adherents: “When they call you off to such responses by means of their miserable tricks of spiritism, [for this is not a modern invention,] should you not seek answers from your own living, almighty Jehovah?”
For the living to the dead A continued expression of the prophet’s astonishment. “Go to the dead to inquire in behalf of the living!” The meaning turns on the preposition , (bead,) instead of, or better, in behalf of. The best critics adopt the latter; so, literally, the phrase is, In behalf of the living to the dead!
The People Must Now Make Their Choice Between the Occult and the Word of Yahweh ( Isa 8:19-20 ).
It may be that like Saul before him (1 Samuel 28), Ahaz, recognising his rejection by Yahweh, had begun to seek to mediums and spirits. Or it may be that that was what some of his advisers were suggesting. When people do not like what God says to them they often turn to such alternatives, especially when they have no faith and do not know what to do. But whoever is in mind Isaiah’s instruction is clear. Let them rather look to God’s Law, and His testimony through the prophets, including his own.
Analysis.
a And when they shall say to you, “Seek to those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards, that chirp and mutter” (Isa 8:19 a).
b Should not a people seek to their God? Should we seek on behalf of the living to the dead? (Isa 8:19 b).
b To the Instruction (the Law) and to the testimony! (Isa 8:20 a).
a If they speak not according to this word, surely there is no morning (approach of light, dawning) for them (Isa 8:20 b).
Note that in ‘a’ they are warned against seeking the occult, and in the parallel are warned that to do so is to enter darkness, without the hope of light. In ‘b’ they should rather seek to their God, and in the parallel are to look to His Instruction and testimony.
Isa 8:19-20
‘And when they shall say to you, “Seek to those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards, that chirp and mutter”, should not a people seek to their God? Should we seek on behalf of the living to the dead? To the Instruction (the Law) and to the testimony! If they speak not according to this word, surely there is no morning (approach of light, dawning) for them.’
Isaiah now draws attention to where many of the leaders and the people are looking for guidance in their desperation, they are looking to mediums and to necromancers, to fortune-telling and spiritualism, and he urges his followers not to listen to those who encourage such things, but to turn to the only place where truth can be found, God’s Instruction (Law) and His testimony through Isaiah and the prophets. He expresses the folly of seeking to the dead about the living. They see not neither do they know anything. How then can they advise the living?
Those who seek to familiar spirits, mediums and spiritists, are like the medium of Endor (1Sa 28:7-25), who sought to call up her familiar spirit only to be thwarted by God. Such doings are strictly condemned in God’s Instruction (Law) for they are seen as defiling (Lev 19:31; Lev 20:6; Deu 18:11 compare 2Ki 21:6; 2Ki 23:24). Rather they are to look to God’s prophets (Deu 18:15). It was because Saul had sinned grievously and was rejected that he had no word from a prophet (1Sa 28:6) and had to look to such sources. Such familiar spirits are therefore looked on as evil.
The wizards (necromancers), those possessed by spirits, who seek to the dead, who ‘chirp and mutter (moan)’, are aptly described with their mutterings and strange sounds. But they seek to those who know nothing of the land of the living. They are condemned along with mediums in the above Biblical references.
All must be tested by God’s Instruction as given in His written word, and by Isaiah’s testimony which is in accordance with that word. If ‘they’, those who seek to mediums and necromancers, do not speak in accordance with that word then it is because they have no light, there is for them no dawning. They have exchanged light for darkness.
Alternatively ‘no morning’ might signify no future, no dawning of a new day. If they turn from God’s word they have no future.
Isa 8:19-20. And when they shall say Here follows the address of the prophet to the Jewish nation, drawn from the argument of the preceding prophesy,to the first verse of the 9th chapter; and then a remarkable illustration of the prophesy concerning Jehovah the teacher, who was hereafter to appear to the Jews,from Isa 8:2-7. The connection is this: the prophet having foretold the coming of the Messiah, and the disciples which he would have, takes this occasion of addressing the Jews, and reminding them of their duty, as he had done, ch. Isa 2:6 compared with Isa 8:1-2 where he first delivers that memorable prophesy concerning Jehovah, or Messiah, the teacher. He saw the nation in his time most propense to foreign superstitions, particularly to the divinations, soothsayings, and astrology of the Syrians, Egyptians, &c. ch. Isa 2:6 but not regarding the pure instructions of God as they ought: he therefore warns them against placing any dependance on such follies and absurdities, and exhorts them to disregard all merely human teaching and assistance, while they applied solely to the divine law and testimony. See Vitringa. Instead of it is because, &c. Isa 8:20 we may read, whoever it be, to him shall there be no morning: that is to say, “Upon them Christ, the light of the world, shall not arise.” See Hosea, ch. Isa 6:1.
DISCOURSE: 870 Isa 8:19. Should not a people seek unto their God? [Note: The extreme simplicity of this subject renders any further elucidation of it superfluous.] THE appeals which God makes to men in the inspired volume are exceeding forcible: they make men judges in their own cause; and cannot fail to carry conviction to every mind. Who could resist the appeal of Nehemiah to the usurious and oppressive Israelites: Ought ye not to walk in the fear of God [Note: Neh 5:9.]? So I doubt not but that all of you will readily acknowledge the obligation which lies upon you, whilst I,
I.
Make the appeal to you
Nothing can be conceived more just or simple than the question here proposed for your consideration. For,
1.
Who amongst us does not stand in need of help?
[Who has not many sins to be forgiven? and many wants, temporal as well as spiritual, to be supplied? ]
2.
Who but God can supply our wants?
[We have not in ourselves a sufficiency even for a good thought [Note: 2Co 3:5.] nor is there a creature in the universe able to render us any effectual assistance [Note: Psa 49:7.] ]
3.
Is not God both able and willing to do for you all that you can possibly desire?
[Suppose your sins to be as great as those of Manasseh, can he not pardon them [Note: 2Ch 33:12-13.]? or your necessities to be as great as those of Israel in the wilderness, can he not supply them [Note: Psa 78:12-16. Eph 3:20.]? Search the annals of the world, and find one, if you can, who ever sought his face in vain [Note: Isa 45:19.] ]
4.
Will it not, hereafter, be to you a ground of bitter self-reproach, if you neglect to seek him?
[Our Lord will surely say to you at the last day, How often would I have gathered you, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not [Note: Mat 23:37.]! The fault is all your own: ye would not come to me, that ye might have life [Note: Joh 5:40.]. And the conviction of this will be the bitterest ingredient of that cup which shall then be given you to drink to all eternity.]
Assured that you cannot but have felt the force of this appeal, I will,
II.
Found upon it some suitable advice
What shall I say? Seek the Lord:
1.
With understanding
[You must seek God as reconciled to you in Christ Jesus [Note: 2Co 5:19-21.]. In Himself he is a consuming fire [Note: Heb 12:29.]. It is in Christ alone that any sinner in the universe can gain access to him [Note: Joh 14:6. Heb 10:19-22.] ]
2.
With earnestness
[It is not by any formal services that you can hope to succeed. You must not only seek but strive [Note: Luk 13:24.]. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence; and the violent must take it by force [Note: Mat 11:12.] ]
3.
With speed
[There may come a time, even in this life, when God may give you over to a reprobate mind, and heaven may be shut against you for ever [Note: Psa 81:10-12. Rom 1:28. Isa 55:6.] At all events, death may quickly terminate all your hopes. In the eternal world, however loudly you may cry, you will not be able to obtain one drop of water to cool your tongue.]
4.
With constancy
[To the latest hour of your life must you continue to seek help from God, as much as at the present moment. If at any period you draw back from him, you will draw back unto perdition [Note: Heb 10:38-39.]. You must not be weary in well-doing; for he only who endures to the end shall be saved [Note: Mat 10:22.].]
I do not think it needful to detain the Reader with long observations on this part of the chapter. The advice here given is to the same amount as the former; the Lord utterly condemns all seeking, but to himself. In all ages men are prone to look to anything and everything, for help and counsel, in their distress, rather than to God. Hence the wickedness of fortune-tellers and necromancers, and the like. The Lord hath manifested his displeasure against all of this kind. And it is only to be lamented, in a land professing the gospel of Christ, that there should be found a single person daring enough to take up so infamous a business, or a single person weak enough to make use of it. The words of this passage are an unanswerable reply, and refutation to all: should not a people seek unto their God? To be sure they should: for who but the Lord can teach his people to profit? Who but God can be their help in time of need?
“Handfuls of Purpose”
For All Gleaners
“Should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead?” Isa 8:19
Isaiah was surrounded by people who could not rid themselves of the delusion that they ought to consult the soothsayers. In Isaiah’s time soothsayers were numerous and popular. Why should they not be consulted as to the fortunes awaiting themselves and others? What were soothsayers for if they were not to be consulted? Thus the supply has a very definite bearing upon the demand. When we have opportunities why should we not avail ourselves of them? The soothsayer can do us no harm if he can do us no good, therefore why not consult him? This is the vicious reasoning of the vain heart. To all such reasoning Isaiah would oppose great doctrines that men should seek unto their God, and seek only for such knowledge is is good for them. It has been pointed out that the latter part of the question is abruptly elliptical; probably it ought to be read thus: ” Are men to seek on behalf of the living to the dead? ” Isaiah was no believer in spirit-rapping. He asks why the dead should be recalled. He seems to suggest that even if they were recalled they would know no more than the living. Possibly they might not know so much. Isaiah seems to regard the state of the departed not as one of annihilation, but of dormant powers or powers partially disabled, powers that might be revived so as to be made use of in the calculation of human fortune. Isaiah sets himself against all appeals to the dead on behalf of the living. Does the prophet leave the people without a court of appeal? He not only directs them to the living God, but he points “to the law and to the testimony.” By this; we are to understand the word of Jehovah which was actually spoken to the prophet himself. Isaiah was conscious of being in immediate and vital contact with the Source of life and power, and as he stood before the people he stood as an embodied revelation. Revelation brings with it conscious identification with God. When a man is speaking what may be called the greater truth, or the truth in its larger relations, he is perfectly aware that he is not speaking out of his own vanity but out of knowledge that has been spiritually communicated to him. Isaiah would have the people turn to this revelation, whether written or whether personified. He would have all soothsayers and. all their victims tested by the higher standard. If there is any light in them they will speak according to the word of God, and if they speak otherwise it is because they have mistaken darkness for light. Probably men will be driven from their soothsaying and other vanities to the true law. The prophet would seem to argue that men will come to the true revelation when all other sources of supposed information and inspiration are closed against them. When men look up into heaven and there is no light, and round them upon the earth and there is no dawn, when they wait for the coming of the sun in heaven, and when through all the darkness they can see no shining of the stars, then Isaiah would seem to say they will turn to the word and to the testimony, that is, to the true revelation of God. No man need be in any difficulty as to duty, as to the course of right, as to the discharge of all his highest responsibilities; the Bible, whatever else may be said about it or even in disparagement of it, utters no uncertain sound as to the culture of the soul and the obedience of the whole life to the divine sovereignty. If men say they are willing to receive light if they could only get it, they are deceiving themselves so long as the Bible lies unopened, unread, or unappreciated. Everything needful for the salvation of the soul, the culture of the spirit, and the most blessed destiny of the life, is revealed in the volume which we hold to be inspired. We are to test all prophets by this book. We are not to be deceived by the glamour of their poetry, or by the passion of their rhetoric; we are to test everything by the law and by the testimony. Thus the soul is pointed in the direction of sureness and is led into the sanctuary of rational as well as pious contentment. We are not to dwell upon isolated texts, or upon out-of-the-way words and phrases; we are to judge everything not by some partial text but by the entire spirit of the Bible. That spirit is symbolic of light, charity, all manner of spiritual greatness; nothing that is little, mean, contracted, or contemptible is endorsed or sanctioned by the word of the living God. The age needs to be continually cautioned against the quotation of texts or the citation of passages torn from their surroundings. Above all things, learn that there is a Biblical spirit as well as a Biblical letter.
Isa 8:19 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?
Ver. 19. And when they shall say unto you. ] The prophet’s wholesome advice to his disciples. God had hid his face and withdrawn his favour from this people; therefore they would help themselves as they could, by doing as Saul did when forsaken of God, by running to witches and wizards, resolving with her in the poet –
“ Flectere si nequo superos, Acheronta movebo. ”
That peep and that mutter.
Should not a people seek unto their God?
For the living to the dead, a Oecolamp.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 8:19-22
19When they say to you, Consult the mediums and the spiritists who whisper and mutter, should not a people consult their God? Should they consult the dead on behalf of the living? 20To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. 21They will pass through the land hard-pressed and famished, and it will turn out that when they are hungry, they will be enraged and curse their king and their God as they face upward. 22Then they will look to the earth, and behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish; and they will be driven away into darkness.
Isa 8:19-22 This prose paragraph contrasts the false faith involved in seeking mediums and wizards with the true faith of trusting in and seeking YHWH. The prohibitions against mediums and wizards are found in Deu 18:9-11 and Lev 20:26.
Isa 8:19 Consult This VERB (BDB 205, KB 233) is used twice in this verse.
1. seek, consult, inquire of false gods (occult), Qal IMPERATIVE
2. seek, consult, inquire of YHWH, Qal IMPERFECT
In Isa 11:10 this same VERB is used of the nations coming to the root of Jesse (i.e., the Davidic Messiah).
YHWH’s hand was on Isaiah in Isa 8:11, but these false prophets spoke from their own imagination or demonic influence. What a contrast between the true speaker and false speakers. Yet, fallen humans flock to false teachers!
Notice the lists of occultic practices that God’s people had assimilated from the surrounding nations.
1. mediums, The PARTICIPLE’s (BDB 981, KB 1371) basic meaning is to ask or inquire.
Here to inquire of the spirit realm (e.g., YHWH, Jos 9:14 or idols, Hos 4:12).
The first NOUN, medium (BDB 15) is a difficult term to define. Some see the term as it is used in Lev 19:31; Lev 20:6; Lev 20:27 as (1) a pit or grave where spirits are lured, (2) form of father which refers to ancestor worship. It is translated in the LXX in Isa 8:19 as ventriloquist. Because of this and Isa 29:4 some think it means to chirp or to mutter. This would imply to talk with a different voice. However, from 1Sa 28:7-9, it is related to the ability to call or talk to someone in the ground or to communicate with the dead or spirits of the underworld, i.e., necromancy.
The second NOUN, spiritists (BDB 396) was a form of the Hebrew word to know (BDB 395). It refers to one who has knowledge of the spiritual realm or has contact with those in the spiritual realm who have knowledge (cf. Isa 8:19; Isa 19:3).
2. spiritists, This (BDB 396) is the term describing males with familiar spirits who communicate with the dead (cf. Isa 19:3; Lev 19:31; Lev 20:6; Lev 20:27; Deu 18:11; 1Sa 28:3; 1Sa 28:9; 2Ki 21:6; 2Ki 23:24
a. they whisper, BDB 861, KB 1050, Pilpel PARTICIPLE, cf. Isa 29:4
b. they mutter, BDB 211, KB 237, Hiphil PARTICIPLE
Isa 8:20 To the law and to the testimony The NRSV and REB translations see this phrase as finishing the sentence begun in Isa 8:19. God’s people are to seek Him (i.e., Isa 19:3; Isa 31:1) and His word, not the dead, for truth and life!
But false speakers cannot know truth because they have no light (dawn, cf. Isa 47:12-13). God has provided His prophets, His message, His written record (cf. Isa 8:1-2; Isa 8:16).
Isa 8:21 they Literally all the VERBS in Isa 8:21-22 are SINGULAR, cf. NJB. This refers to the covenant people. They seek knowledge in false religions and wonder why their gods cannot produce prosperity. Prosperity is one of the covenant promises of Deuteronomy 27-28, but it is inseparably related to covenant fidelity!
In the end (i.e., the results of agricultural judgment, cf. Isa 8:22; Isa 5:13-17) they will speak evil of the civic leaders and their false gods (cf. NRSV and REB, which follow LXX).
It is possible that speaking evil is an allusion to Exo 22:28 and Lev 24:15-16. If so, then it is another example of covenant violations. For me the context of Isa 8:19-20 links it to false gods.
Isa 8:22 This verses goes with Isaiah 9. The context is a play between gloom/darkness and light. Notice the parallel in Isa 5:30. This was the opposite of YHWH’s initial creative purposes (cf. Jer 4:23-28).
when = should.
familiar spirits. See note on Lev 19:31.
peep. Hebrew. zaphaph. Occurs only in Isaiah; and this form, only in Isa 10:14, elsewhere, in Isa 29:4 (whisper); Isa 38:14 (chatter). It is used of an unearthly sound.
mutter: i, e. with indistinct sounds. This refers to the low incantations which, in the Babylonian and Egyptian “mysteries”, had to be recited in a whisper (like certain parts of the Roman Missal). A whole series is called “the ritual of the whispered charm”.
God. Hebrew. Elohim. App-4.
for the living to the dead. Supply the Figure of speech Ellipsis from the preceding clause (App-6), and render: “Should not any People seek unto its God? for [should] the living [seek unto] the dead? “This is a solemn warning against all ancient and modern Spiritists.
the Prince of Peace
Isa 8:19-22; Isa 9:1-7
When men cease to trust in God and rely on the help of man, they often turn to necromancy and spirit-rapping. The medium takes the place of the Mediator. The sance is sought after instead of the Law and the Testimony. What have Gods children to do with back-stair gossip, when their Fathers presence-chamber is open to them? What He does not tell us is not worth our knowing.
The land of Galilee was destined to suffer sorely, but better days would dawn on its mountains and lakes. The joy that was in store is compared to the daybreak, Isa 8:2; to the joy of harvest, Isa 8:3; and to the gladness of the harried tribes when Gideon broke the power of Midian, Isa 8:4. The implements of battle would become fuel for the peasants cottage-fires. What titles are these for our Lord! They befit no human babe! Let us place the government of our lives on His shoulders; and as it extends so shall our peace. Ask Gods zeal to do this for thee! In the power of His grace, put the government of all on the wonderful Son of God.
Seek: Isa 19:3, Lev 20:6, Deu 18:11, 1Sa 28:8, 1Ch 10:13, 2Ch 33:6
that peep: Isa 29:4
should not: 1Sa 28:16, 2Ki 1:3, 2Pe 2:1
for the living: Psa 106:28, Jer 10:10, 1Th 1:9
Reciprocal: Gen 40:8 – Do not Gen 41:8 – the magicians of Egypt Lev 19:31 – General Deu 18:10 – that useth divination Jdg 18:14 – now therefore 1Sa 15:23 – witchcraft 1Sa 28:7 – Seek me 2Ki 17:17 – used 2Ki 21:6 – familiar 2Ki 23:24 – the workers Psa 14:2 – seek Isa 2:6 – and are Isa 16:7 – mourn Isa 26:14 – dead Isa 30:1 – that take Isa 45:19 – Seek Isa 47:12 – General Jer 27:9 – hearken Dan 2:2 – General Dan 4:6 – to bring Mic 5:12 – General Act 8:11 – he had Act 13:6 – certain Act 16:16 – possessed Act 19:19 – used
Isa 8:19. And when, &c. The prophet, having foretold the coming of the Messiah, and spoken of the disciples he should have, takes this occasion of addressing the Jews, and reminding them of their duty, as he had done, Isa 2:6, compared with Isa 8:1-2. He saw the nation much inclined to foreign superstitions, particularly to the divinations, soothsayings, and astrology of the Syrians, Egyptians, &c., but not regarding the pure doctrine of Gods word as they ought: he therefore warns them against placing any dependance on such follies, and exhorts them to disregard all merely human teaching and assistance, and to apply solely to the divine law and testimony. When they Those Israelites, to whom I and my children are for signs and wonders, and who are fallen from God into superstition and idolatry; shall say unto you Who are the true people of God; Seek unto them that have familiar spirits For advice and help; and unto wizards Of whom, and of familiar spirits, see on Lev 19:31; Lev 20:27; Deu 18:11; that peep and mutter That speak with a low voice, as the two words here used signify, which they affected to do, speaking rather inwardly in their bellies, than audibly with their mouths. Should not a people seek unto their God? This answer the prophet puts into their mouths; doth not every nation, in cases of difficulty, seek to their gods? Much more should we do so, that have the only true God for our God. For the living to the dead That is, for living men to inquire of the living God, is proper and reasonable; but it is highly absurd for them to forsake him, and to seek dead idols, either to the images, or to the spirits of dead men, which are supposed to speak in them.
Isa 8:19 to Isa 9:1. Some Fragmentary Utterances.These fragments are of uncertain date and authorship, corrupt in text and obscure in sense. The first, Isa 8:19 f., is a warning against necromancers. Probably the words of those who advocate consulting them continue to the end of Isa 8:19. We should render Isa 8:19 b, should not a people seek unto their elohim? on behalf of the living should they not seek unto the dead? The elohim are the spirits of the dead, so described in 1Sa 28:13. Possibly Isa 8:20 gives the reply which is to be made. They must bring the sorcerers to the test of the teaching and testimony (Isa 8:16); if they do not conform to this, no morning will dawn after their night of distress. But the translation and sense are quite uncertain. The revival of necromancy was due to the circumstances of the time. When the small states were falling before the irresistible power of a great empire, the national deities seemed powerless in face of the new foe. In such a collapse of faith some would resort for help to other powers, especially occult powers such as the spirits of the dead. In a well-ordered State of antiquity such practices were sternly repressed as inimical to the welfare of the State which had a religion of its own. But when this religion received these severe blows, old superstitions which had maintained an underground life came once more to the surface.
In Isa 8:21 f. we have the picture of a man (the pronouns are singular) driven by distress and famine to desperate straits. He goes through it, i.e. the land, which was no doubt mentioned in the context from which this was taken, vainly seeking relief. In his agony he curses God (mg.) because He will not, and the king because he cannot, help (Rev 16:9; Rev 16:11; Rev 16:21)a blasphemy punishable with death (1Ki 21:9-13). He looks up to heaven, then down to earth, but wherever he looks there is nought but trouble. Isa 9:1 is a connecting link with what follows. The first sentence is obscure. The next affirms that the parts which bore the brunt of invasion will in the latter time be made glorious. For the way of the sea cf. p. 29.
8:19 And when they shall say to you, Seek to them that are mediums, and to wizards that peep, and that mutter: {u} should not a people seek to their God? for the {x} living to the dead?
(u) Answer the wicked thus, should not God’s people seek comfort only from him?
(x) That is, will they refuse to be taught by the prophet, who is the mouth of God, and seek help from the dead, which is the illusion of Satan?
Loss of faith in God results in an increase in superstition. The unfaithful in Judah were encouraging their brethren to seek advice about the future from mediums, wizards, and spiritists-instead of from their God (cf. Lev 19:31; Lev 20:6; Deu 18:11). Their unusual speech, used to call up spirits, portends unreliable revelations. How ironic it is to consult the dead for information about the living (cf. 1Sa 28:6-8)!
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
SEEKING AFTER GOD
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)