Isaiah Chapter 8 verse 20 Holy Bible
To the law and to the testimony! if they speak not according to this word, surely there is no morning for them.
read chapter 8 in ASV
Then say to them, Put your faith in the teaching and the witness. ... If they do not say such things. ... For him there is no dawn. ...
read chapter 8 in BBE
To the law and the testimony! If they speak not according to this word, for them there is no daybreak.
read chapter 8 in DARBY
To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.
read chapter 8 in KJV
read chapter 8 in WBT
To the law and to the testimony! if they don't speak according to this word, surely there is no morning for them.
read chapter 8 in WEB
To the law and to the testimony! If not, let them say after this manner, `That there is no dawn to it.'
read chapter 8 in YLT
Pulpit Commentary
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 20. - To the Law and to the testimony. A sort of watchword or battle-cry, to be used by the faithful when God's enemies assailed them. Compare Gideon's cry (Judges 7:18), "For the Lord and for Gideon." If they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them; rather, Surely they will speak according to this word, when there is no dawn for them; i.e. when they are plunged in darkness (ver. 22) and distress, and see no prospect of better days, surely they - the people generally - will rally to this cry, and repeat it, "For the Law and for the testimony." They will not always trust in necromancy.
Ellicott's Commentary
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(20) To the law and to the testimony.--The words are only remotely and by analogy an exhortation to the study of Scripture in general, or even to that of the Law of Moses in particular. "The law and the testimony" are obviously here, as in Isaiah 8:16, the "word of Jehovah," spoken to the prophet himself, the revelation which had come to him with such an intensity of power.If they speak not according to this word . . .--The personal pronoun refers to the people of Isaiah 8:19 who were hunting after soothsayers. The second clause should be rendered, for them there is no light of morning. The light here is that of hope rather than of knowledge. No morning dawn should shine on those who haunted the caves and darkened rooms of the diviners, the seances of the spiritualists of Jerusalem. The verse admits, however, of a different construction. As the Hebrew idiom, "If they shall . . ." stands, as in Psalm 95:11; Hebrews 4:3; Hebrews 4:5, for the strongest form of negative prediction, so "if they shall not . . ." may stand here for the strongest form of positive. So taken the verse would read, Surely they will speak according to this word. (i.e., will have recourse to the true Revelation) when there is no morning-dawn for them, when they look above and around, and see nothing but darkness. . . .
