Isaiah 8:20

To the law, and to the testimony,.... Kimchi takes this to be an oath, "by the law, and by the testimony", it is so and so; but Aben Ezra observes there is no instance of this kind in Scripture; it

To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.

To the law and to the testimony; let this dispute between you and them be determined by God’ s word, which is here and in many other places called the law, to signify their obligation to believe and obey it; and the testimony, because it is a witness between God and man of God’ s mind and will, and of man’ s duty; and so these two titles contain two arguments against these idolatrous practices. If they; your antagonists, that seek to pervert you, . It is because there is no light in them; this proceeds from the darkness of their minds, because they are blind, and will not see, and God hath shut their eyes that they cannot see. But these words are by divers learned interpreters understood not as a declaration of their ignorance, but a commination and prediction of their misery, light being most commonly used in Scripture for comfort and happiness, and darkness for sorrows and calamities. And this sense seems to be much favoured by the following passages. And then the words may be thus rendered, assuredly (for the Hebrew particle asher is frequently used as a note of asseveration, as 95:11, &c., as hath been more than once observed before) no light or morning light shall be (for that may as well be understood as is) to them; a night of misery shall come upon them, and they shall never have a morning of deliverance from it; they shall be swallowed up in endless calamities.

Isaiah 8:20 To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, [it is] because [there is] no light in them.Ver. 20. To the law and to the testimonies.] Lo, this is the way, walk in it, for the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light. They have Moses and the prophets; these must be the men of our counsel, even these lively and life giving oracles, not dead idols or damned necromancers. There is no light in them.] Either of truth or of comfort. Good expressions such kind of creatures may use, it may be; but si magicae, Deus non vult tales; si piae non per tales: their false lights serve but to light them into utter darkness. Happy was Oecolampadius, an excellent commentator upon this prophet, who made good the splendour of his own name, when (beside the light he lent to "the law and testimonies") he could lay his hand on his breast when he lay dying of the plague, and say, Here’ s plenty of light got from the Scripture.

(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 Isa 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 Psalms 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.

Verse 20. To the law and to the testimony - "Unto the command, and unto the testimony."] "Is not תעודה teudah here the attested prophecy, Isaiah 8:1-4? and perhaps תורה torah the command, Isaiah 8:11-15? for it means sometimes a particular, and even a human, command; see Proverbs 6:20, and Proverbs 7:1-2, where it is ordered to be hid, that is, secretly kept." - Abp. Secker. So Deschamps, in his translation, or rather paraphrase, understands it: "Tenons nous a l'instrument authentique mis en depot par ordre du Seigneur," "Let us stick to the authentic instrument, laid up by the command of the Lord." If this be right, the sixteenth verse must be understood in the same manner. Because there is no light in them - "In which there is no obscurity."] שחר shachor, as an adjective, frequently signifies dark, obscure; and the noun שחר shachar signifies darkness, gloominess, Joe 2:2, if we may judge by the context: - "A day of darkness and obscurity; Of cloud, and of thick vapour; As the gloom spread upon the mountains: A people mighty and numerous." Where the gloom, שחר shachar, seems to be the same with the cloud and thick vapour mentioned in the line preceding. See Lamentations 4:8, and Job 30:30. See this meaning of the word שחר shachar well supported in Christ. Muller. Sat. Observat. Phil. p. 53, Lugd. Bat. 1752. The morning seems to have been an idea wholly incongruous in the passage of Joel; and in this of Isaiah the words in which there is no morning (for so it ought to be rendered if שחר shachar in this place signifies, according to its usual sense, morning) seem to give no meaning at all. "It is because there is no light in them," says our translation. If there be any sense in these words, it is not the sense of the original; which cannot justly be so translated. Qui n'a rien d'obscur, "which has no obscurity." - Deschamps. The reading of the Septuagint and Syriac, שחד shochad, gift, affords no assistance towards the clearing up of any of this difficult place. R. D. Kimchi says this was the form of an oath: "By the law and by the testimony such and such things are so." Now if they had sworn this falsely, it is because there is no light, no illumination, שחר shachar, no scruple of conscience, in them.

20. To the law and to the testimony] See on Isaiah 8:16. Apparently an exclamation of the distracted people (see on next clause). The remainder of the verse, where the construction is very difficult, ought probably to be rendered: surely they shall speak according to this word when there is no dawn (i.e. no hope) for them (lit. him). The meaning is that the people will seek direction from the “sure word of prophecy,” but only when it is too late. But the original is so obscure that no great confidence can be placed in any translation.

To the law ... - To the revelation which God has given. This is a solemn call of the prophet to try everything by the revealed will of God; see Isaiah 8:16.

20. Instead of resorting to such forbidden and abominable sources, to the law and to the testimony resort ye, continues the prophet. If they speak not according to this word — If they, if any one.