Isaiah 8:14–22

¹⁴And He will be a sanctuary —

but to both houses of Israel

a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,ⁱ

to the dwellers of Jerusalem

a trap and a snare.

¹⁵Many will stumble over these;

they will fall and be broken;

they will be ensnared and captured.”

¹⁶Bind up the testimony

and seal the law among my disciples.

¹⁷I will wait for the LORD,

who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob.

I will put my trust in Him.^j

¹⁸Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me^k as signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD of Hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion.

¹⁹When men tell you to consult mediums and 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. ²²Then 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.