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Selected Verse: Isaiah 8:20 - Strong Concordance
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Isa 8:20 |
Strong Concordance |
To the law [08451] and to the testimony [08584]: if they speak [0559] not according to this word [01697], it is because there is no light [07837] in them. |
| |
King James |
To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
To the law, &c.--the revelation of God by His prophet (Isa 8:16), to which he directs them to refer those who would advise necromancy.
if they speak not . . . it is because--English Version understands "they" as the necromancers. But the Hebrew rendered "because" is not this but "who"; and "if not," ought rather to be "shall they not"; or, truly they shall speak according to this word, who have no morning light (so the Hebrew, that is, prosperity after the night of sorrows) dawning on them [MAURER and G. V. SMITH]. They who are in the dark night of trial, without a dawn of hope, shall surely say so, Do not seek, as we did, to necromancy, but to the law," &c. The law perhaps includes here the law of Moses, which was the "Magna Charta" on which prophetism commented [KITTO]. |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
To the law ... - To the revelation which God has given. This is a solemn call of the prophet to try everything by the revealed will of God; see Isa 8:16.
If they speak not - If the necromancers - those that pretended to have contact with the dead.
According to this word - According to what God has revealed. By this standard all their pretended revelations were to be tried. By this standard all doctrines are still to be tried.
It is because - There has been a great variety of criticism upon this verse, but our translation expresses, probably, the true idea. The word rendered here 'because,' אשׁר 'ăsher, commonly denotes 'which;' but it seems here to be used in the sense of the Syriac? "Dolath," or the Greek ὅτι hoti.
No light - Margin, 'Morning.' Hebrew שׁחר shāchar. The word usually means the morning light; the mingled light and darkness of the aurora; daybreak. It is an emblem of advancing knowledge, and perhaps, also, of prosperity or happiness after calamity, as the break of day succeeds the dark night. The meaning here may be, 'If their teachings do not accord with the law and the testimony, it is proof that they are totally ignorant, without even the twilight of true knowledge; that it is total darkness with them.' Or it may mean, 'If they do not speak according to this word, then no dawn will arise, that is, no prosperity will smile upon this people.' - Gesenius. Lowth understands it of obscurity, darkness:
'If they speak not according to this word,
In which there is no obscurity.'
But there is no evidence that the word is ever used in this sense. Others suppose that the Arabic sense of the word is to be retained here, deception, or magic. 'If they speak not according to this oracle, in which there is no deception.' But the word is not used in this sense in the Hebrew. The meaning is, probably, this: 'The law of God is the standard by which all professed communications from the invisible world are to be tested. If the necromancers deliver a doctrine which is not sustained by that, and not in accordance with the prophetic communications, it shows that they are in utter ignorance. There is not even the glimmering of the morning twilight; all is total night, and error, and obscurity with them, and they are not to be followed.' |
| Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
In opposition to such a falling away to wretched superstition, the watchword of the prophet and his supporters is this. "To the teaching of God (thorah, Gotteslehre), and to the testimony! If they do not accord with this word, they are a people for whom no morning dawns." The summons, "to the teaching and to the testimony" (namely, to those which Jehovah gave through His prophet, Isa 8:17), takes the form of a watchword in time of battle (Jdg 7:18). With this construction the following אם־לא (which Knobel understands interrogatively, "Should not they speak so, who, etc.?" and Luzzatto as an oath, as in Psa 131:2, "Surely they say such words as have no dawn in them") has, at any rate, all the presumption of a conditional signification. Whoever had not this watchword would be regarded as the enemy of Jehovah, and suffer the fate of such a man. This is, to all appearance, the meaning of the apodosis שׁהר אין־לו אשׁר. Luther has given the meaning correctly, "If they do not say this, they will not have the morning dawn;" or, according to his earlier and equally good rendering, "They shall never overtake the morning light," literally, "They are those to whom no dawn arises." The use of the plural in the hypothetical protasis, and the singular in the apodosis, is an intentional and significant change. All the several individuals who did not adhere to the revelation made by Jehovah through His prophet, formed one corrupt mass, which would remain in hopeless darkness. אשׁר is used in the same sense as in Isa 5:28 and Sa2 2:4, and possibly also as in Sa1 15:20, instead of the more usual כּי, when used in the affirmative sense which springs in both particles out of the confirmative (namque and quoniam): Truly they have no morning dawn to expect.
(Note: Strangely enough, Isa 8:19 and Isa 8:20 are described in Lev. Rabba, ch. xv, as words of the prophet Hosea incorporated in the book of Isaiah.) |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| To the law - Let this dispute between you and them be determined by God's word, which is here and in many other places called the law, to signify their obligation to believe and obey it; and the testimony, because it is a witness between God and man, of God's will, and of man's duty. They - Your antagonists. No light - This proceeds from the darkness of their minds, they are blind, and cannot see. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
To the law and to the testimony "Unto the command, and unto the testimony" - "Is not תעודה teudah here the attested prophecy, Isa 8:1-4? and perhaps תורה torah the command, Isa 8:11-15? for it means sometimes a particular, and even a human, command; see Pro 6:20, and Pro 7:1, Pro 7:2, where it is ordered to be hid, that is, secretly kept." - Abp. Secker. So Deschamps, in his translation, or rather paraphrase, understands it: "Tenons nous a l'instrument authentique mis en depot par ordre du Seigneur," "Let us stick to the authentic instrument, laid up by the command of the Lord." If this be right, the sixteenth verse must be understood in the same manner.
Because there is no light in them "In which there is no obscurity" - שחר shachor, as an adjective, frequently signifies dark, obscure; and the noun שחר shachar signifies darkness, gloominess, Joe 2:2, if we may judge by the context: -
"A day of darkness and obscurity;
Of cloud, and of thick vapor;
As the gloom spread upon the mountains:
A people mighty and numerous."
Where the gloom, שחר shachar, seems to be the same with the cloud and thick vapor mentioned in the line preceding. See Lam 4:8, and Job 30:30. See this meaning of the word שחר shachar well supported in Christ. Muller. Sat. Observat. Philippians p. 53, Lugd. Bat. 1752. The morning seems to have been an idea wholly incongruous in the passage of Joel; and in this of Isaiah the words in which there is no morning (for so it ought to be rendered if שחר shachar in this place signifies, according to its usual sense, morning) seem to give no meaning at all. "It is because there is no light in them," says our translation. If there be any sense in these words, it is not the sense of the original; which cannot justly be so translated. Qui n'a rien d'obscur, "which has no obscurity." - Deschamps. The reading of the Septuagint and Syriac, שחד shochad, gift, affords no assistance towards the clearing up of any of this difficult place. R. D. Kimchi says this was the form of an oath: "By the law and by the testimony such and such things are so." Now if they had sworn this falsely, it is because there is no light, no illumination, שחר shachar, no scruple of conscience, in them. |
16 Bind up [06887] the testimony [08584], seal [02856] the law [08451] among my disciples [03928].
16 Bind up [06887] the testimony [08584], seal [02856] the law [08451] among my disciples [03928].
20 To the law [08451] and to the testimony [08584]: if they speak [0559] not according to this word [01697], it is because there is no light [07837] in them.
19 And when they shall say [0559] unto you, Seek [01875] unto them that have familiar spirits [0178], and unto wizards [03049] that peep [06850], and that mutter [01897]: should not a people [05971] seek [01875] unto their God [0430]? for the living [02416] to the dead [04191]?
20 And Saul [07586] said [0559] unto Samuel [08050], Yea, I have obeyed [08085] the voice [06963] of the LORD [03068], and have gone [03212] the way [01870] which the LORD [03068] sent [07971] me, and have brought [0935] Agag [090] the king [04428] of Amalek [06002], and have utterly destroyed [02763] the Amalekites [06002].
4 And the men [0582] of Judah [03063] came [0935], and there they anointed [04886] David [01732] king [04428] over the house [01004] of Judah [03063]. And they told [05046] David [01732], saying [0559], That the men [0582] of Jabeshgilead [03003] [01568] were they that buried [06912] Saul [07586].
28 Whose arrows [02671] are sharp [08150], and all their bows [07198] bent [01869], their horses [05483]' hoofs [06541] shall be counted [02803] like flint [06862], and their wheels [01534] like a whirlwind [05492]:
2 Surely I have behaved [07737] and quieted [01826] myself [05315], as a child that is weaned [01580] of his mother [0517]: my soul [05315] is even as a weaned child [01580].
18 When I blow [08628] with a trumpet [07782], I and all that are with me, then blow [08628] ye the trumpets [07782] also on every side [05439] of all the camp [04264], and say [0559], The sword of the LORD [03068], and of Gideon [01439].
17 And I will wait [02442] upon the LORD [03068], that hideth [05641] his face [06440] from the house [01004] of Jacob [03290], and I will look [06960] for him.
30 My skin [05785] is black [07835] upon me, and my bones [06106] are burned [02787] with heat [02721].
8 Their visage [08389] is blacker [02821] than a coal [07815]; they are not known [05234] in the streets [02351]: their skin [05785] cleaveth [06821] to their bones [06106]; it is withered [03001], it is become like a stick [06086].
2 A day [03117] of darkness [02822] and of gloominess [0653], a day [03117] of clouds [06051] and of thick darkness [06205], as the morning [07837] spread [06566] upon the mountains [02022]: a great [07227] people [05971] and a strong [06099]; there hath not been [01961] ever [05769] the like, neither shall be any more [03254] after [0310] it, even to the years [08141] of many [01755] generations [01755].
2 Keep [08104] my commandments [04687], and live [02421]; and my law [08451] as the apple [0380] of thine eye [05869].
1 My son [01121], keep [08104] my words [0561], and lay up [06845] my commandments [04687] with thee.
20 My son [01121], keep [05341] thy father's [01] commandment [04687], and forsake [05203] not the law [08451] of thy mother [0517]:
11 For the LORD [03068] spake [0559] thus to me with a strong [02393] hand [03027], and instructed [03256] me that I should not walk [03212] in the way [01870] of this people [05971], saying [0559],
12 Say [0559] ye not, A confederacy [07195], to all them to whom this people [05971] shall say [0559], A confederacy [07195]; neither fear [03372] ye their fear [04172], nor be afraid [06206].
13 Sanctify [06942] the LORD [03068] of hosts [06635] himself; and let him be your fear [04172], and let him be your dread [06206].
14 And he shall be for a sanctuary [04720]; but for a stone [068] of stumbling [05063] and for a rock [06697] of offence [04383] to both [08147] the houses [01004] of Israel [03478], for a gin [06341] and for a snare [04170] to the inhabitants [03427] of Jerusalem [03389].
15 And many [07227] among them shall stumble [03782], and fall [05307], and be broken [07665], and be snared [03369], and be taken [03920].
1 Moreover the LORD [03068] said [0559] unto me, Take [03947] thee a great [01419] roll [01549], and write [03789] in it with a man's [0582] pen [02747] concerning Mahershalalhashbaz [04122].
2 And I took [05749] unto me faithful [0539] witnesses [05707] to record [05749], Uriah [0223] the priest [03548], and Zechariah [02148] the son [01121] of Jeberechiah [03000].
3 And I went [07126] unto the prophetess [05031]; and she conceived [02029], and bare [03205] a son [01121]. Then said [0559] the LORD [03068] to me, Call [07121] his name [08034] Mahershalalhashbaz [04122].
4 For before the child [05288] shall have knowledge [03045] to cry [07121], My father [01], and my mother [0517], the riches [02428] of Damascus [01834] and the spoil [07998] of Samaria [08111] shall be taken away [05375] before [06440] the king [04428] of Assyria [0804].