Isaiah 8:20
New International Version
Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.

New Living Translation
Look to God’s instructions and teachings! People who contradict his word are completely in the dark.

English Standard Version
To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.

Berean Standard Bible
To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.

King James Bible
To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

New King James Version
To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

New American Standard Bible
To the Law and to the testimony! If they do not speak in accordance with this word, it is because they have no dawn.

NASB 1995
To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.

NASB 1977
To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.

Legacy Standard Bible
To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn.

Amplified Bible
[Direct those people] to the law and to the testimony! If their teachings are not in accord with this word, it is because they have no dawn.

Christian Standard Bible
Go to God’s instruction and testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, there will be no dawn for them.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, there will be no dawn for them.

American Standard Version
To the law and to the testimony! if they speak not according to this word, surely there is no morning for them.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
To the Written Law and to the Testimony, for they will not speak according to this Word, because there is no one to give a bribe for it

Brenton Septuagint Translation
For he has given the law for a help, that they should not speak according to this word, concerning which there are no gifts to give for it.

Contemporary English Version
what it should do." None of those who talk like that will live to see the light of day!

Douay-Rheims Bible
To the law rather, and to the testimony. And if they speak not according to this word, they shall not have the morning light.

English Revised Version
To the law and to the testimony! if they speak not according to this word, surely there is no morning for them.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
They should go to the teachings and to the written instructions. If people don't speak these words, it is because it doesn't dawn on them.

Good News Translation
You are to answer them, "Listen to what the LORD is teaching you! Don't listen to mediums--what they tell you cannot keep trouble away."

International Standard Version
for instruction and for testimony? Surely they are speaking like this because the truth hasn't dawned on them.

JPS Tanakh 1917
for instruction and for testimony?'--Surely they will speak according to this word, wherein there is no light.--

Literal Standard Version
To the Law and to the testimony! If not, let them say after this manner, “That there is no dawn to it.”

Majority Standard Bible
To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.

New American Bible
for instruction and testimony?” Surely, those who speak like this are the ones for whom there is no dawn.

NET Bible
Then you must recall the LORD's instructions and the prophetic testimony of what would happen. Certainly they say such things because their minds are spiritually darkened.

New Revised Standard Version
for teaching and for instruction?” surely, those who speak like this will have no dawn!

New Heart English Bible
Turn to the law and to the testimony. If they do not speak according to this word, surely there is no morning for them.

Webster's Bible Translation
To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

World English Bible
Turn to the law and to the covenant! If they don’t speak according to this word, surely there is no morning for them.

Young's Literal Translation
To the law and to the testimony! If not, let them say after this manner, 'That there is no dawn to it.'

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Darkness and Light
19When men tell you to consult the spirits of the dead and the spiritists who whisper and mutter, shouldn’t a people consult their God instead? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? 20To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. 21They will roam the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged; and looking upward, they will curse their king and their God.…

Cross References
Luke 16:29
But Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the prophets; let your brothers listen to them.'

Psalm 78:5
For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach to their children,

Isaiah 1:10
Hear the word of the LORD, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the instruction of our God, you people of Gomorrah!

Isaiah 8:16
Bind up the testimony and seal the law among my disciples.

Isaiah 8:22
Then they will look to the earth and see only distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish. And they will be driven into utter darkness.

Jeremiah 6:16
This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths: 'Where is the good way?' Then walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it!'

Micah 3:6
Therefore night will come over you without visions, and darkness without divination. The sun will set on these prophets, and the daylight will turn black over them.


Treasury of Scripture

To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

the law

Isaiah 8:16
Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.

Luke 10:26
He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?

Luke 16:29-31
Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them…

it is

Isaiah 30:8-11
Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever: …

Psalm 19:7,8
The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple…

Psalm 119:130
The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.

light.

Proverbs 4:18
But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

Hosea 6:3
Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

Malachi 4:2
But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

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Dawn Daybreak Faith Instruction Law Manner Morning Speak Surely Teaching Testimony Turn Wherein Witness Word
Isaiah 8
1. In Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz, he prophesies Syria and Israel shall be subdued by Assyria
5. Judah likewise for their infidelity
9. God's judgments shall be irresistible
11. Comfort shall be to those who fear God
19. Great afflictions to idolaters














(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. . . .

Verse 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.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
To the law
לְתוֹרָ֖ה (lə·ṯō·w·rāh)
Preposition-l | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 8451: Direction, instruction, law

and to the testimony!
וְלִתְעוּדָ֑ה (wə·liṯ·‘ū·ḏāh)
Conjunctive waw, Preposition-l | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 8584: Attestation, a precept, usage

If
אִם־ (’im-)
Conjunction
Strong's 518: Lo!, whether?, if, although, Oh that!, when, not

they do not
לֹ֤א (lō)
Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

speak
יֹֽאמְרוּ֙ (yō·mə·rū)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 559: To utter, say

according to this
הַזֶּ֔ה (haz·zeh)
Article | Pronoun - masculine singular
Strong's 2088: This, that

word,
כַּדָּבָ֣ר (kad·dā·ḇār)
Preposition-k, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 1697: A word, a matter, thing, a cause

they have no
אֵֽין־ (’ên-)
Adverb
Strong's 369: A non-entity, a negative particle

light of dawn.
שָֽׁחַר׃ (šā·ḥar)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 7837: Dawn


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OT Prophets: Isaiah 8:20 Turn to the law and to (Isa Isi Is)
Isaiah 8:19
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