Isaiah 8:19–9:1

¹⁹When they say to you, “Consult the spirits of the dead and the spiritists who chirp and mutter,” ^vshouldn’t a people consult their God? ^wShould they consult the dead on behalf of the living? ^x20To the law and to the testimony! ^yIf they do not speak according to this word, there will be no dawn for them.

²¹They will wander through the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged, and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. ²²They will look toward the earth ^zand see only distress, darkness, and the gloom of affliction, and they will be driven into thick darkness.

Birth of the Prince of Peace

9^aNevertheless, the gloom of the distressed land will not be like that of the former times when He humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. ^bBut in the future He will bring honor to the Way of the Sea, to the land east of the Jordan, and to Galilee of the nations.