Bible Strands
Isaiah 8:19
When 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?
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Isaiah addresses Judah during the Syro-Ephraimite crisis, having just declared himself and his children as God-given signs (v. 18), and turns to expose the temptation to seek answers elsewhere.
The words — דִּרְשׁוּ (dirshu), "consult," is a direct imperative that the verse redeploys as a rhetorical question, exposing the command to seek the dead as the very thing that should be rejected.
The thread — Consulting the dead recurs as a charge of abandonment: Saul's fatal turn to the witch of En-dor (1 Chronicles 10:13), the Levitical command to set one's face against such practice (Leviticus 20:6), and Manasseh's sorcery (2 Chronicles 33:6).
Why it lands — The verse forces a binary: either you trust the God who has already spoken (v. 20), or you have abandoned him. There is no middle ground of "just checking."
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King 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?
Cross-references
- 1 Chronicles 10:13 So Saul died for his unfaithfulness to the LORD, because he did not keep the word of the LORD and even consulted a medium for guidance,
- Leviticus 20:6 Whoever turns to mediums or spiritists to prostitute himself with them, I will also set My face against that person and cut him off from his people.
- 2 Chronicles 33:6 He sacrificed his sons in the fire in the Valley of Ben-hinnom. He practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did great evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger.
- Psalms 106:28 They yoked themselves to Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods.
- Leviticus 19:31 You must not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out, or you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God.
- Deuteronomy 18:11 casts spells, consults a medium or spiritist, or inquires of the dead.
- 1 Samuel 28:8 So Saul disguised himself by putting on different clothes, and he set out with two of his men. They came to the woman at night, and Saul said, “Consult a spirit for me. Bring up for me the one I name.”
- Isaiah 19:3 Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be emptied out from among them, and I will frustrate their plans, so that they will resort to idols and spirits of the dead, to mediums and spiritists.
- Isaiah 29:4 You will be brought low, you will speak from the ground, and out of the dust your words will be muffled. Your voice will be like a spirit from the ground; your speech will whisper out of the dust.
- Jeremiah 10:10 But the LORD is the true God; He is the living God and eternal King. The earth quakes at His wrath, and the nations cannot endure His indignation.