What Does Isaiah 8:20 Mean?

(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 *séances *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.