¹⁹Some will tell you to ask for advice from people who get messages from those who have died. Others will tell you to ask for advice from people who talk to the spirits of the dead. But those people only whisper. Their words are barely heard. So shouldn’t you ask for advice from your God? Why should you get advice from dead people to help those who are alive?

²⁰Follow what the Lord taught you and said to you through me. People who don’t speak in keeping with those words won’t have any hope in the morning. ²¹They will suffer and be hungry. They’ll wander through the land. When they are very hungry, they will become angry. They’ll look up toward heaven. They’ll call down curses on their king and their God. ²²Then they will look at the earth. They’ll see nothing but suffering and darkness. They’ll see terrible sadness. They’ll be driven into total darkness.

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In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

And when they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the necromancers who chirp and mutter,” should not a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? To the teaching and to the testimony! If they will not speak according to this word, it is because they have no dawn. They will pass through the land, greatly distressed and hungry. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged and will speak contemptuously against their king and their God, and turn their faces upward. And they will look to the earth, but behold, distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.

NIVNew International Version (2011)

When someone tells you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.

CSBChristian Standard Bible

When they say to you, “Inquire of the mediums and the spiritists who chirp and mutter,” shouldn’t a people inquire of their God? Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? Go to God’s instruction and testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, there will be no dawn for them.

They 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. They will look toward the earth and see only distress, darkness, and the gloom of affliction, and they will be driven into thick darkness.

NLTNew Living Translation

Someone may say to you, “Let’s ask the mediums and those who consult the spirits of the dead. With their whisperings and mutterings, they will tell us what to do.” But shouldn’t people ask God for guidance? Should the living seek guidance from the dead?

Look to God’s instructions and teachings! People who contradict his word are completely in the dark. They will go from one place to another, weary and hungry. And because they are hungry, they will rage and curse their king and their God. They will look up to heaven and down at the earth, but wherever they look, there will be trouble and anguish and dark despair. They will be thrown out into the darkness.

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

Now if they tell you, “Consult the ghosts and the spirits, those who chirp and those who mutter. Should not a people consult its gods, the dead on behalf of the living, for teaching and for testimony?” surely they who speak like this have no dawn.

And it will pass through it distressed and hungry, and this shall happen: when it is hungry, it will be enraged, and it will curse its king and its gods, and it will face upward or look to the earth. But look! Distress and darkness, the gloom of affliction! And it will be thrust into darkness!

KJV 1900King James Version

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?

To the law and to the testimony:

If they speak not according to this word,

It is because there is no light in them.

And they shall pass through it, hardly bestead and hungry:

And it shall come to pass, that when they shall be hungry, they shall fret themselves,

And curse their king and their God, and look upward.

And they shall look unto the earth;

And behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish;

And they shall be driven to darkness.

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