Isaiah 8:11-22

11This is what the LORD says to me with his strong hand upon me, warning me not to follow the way of this people:

12“Do not call conspiracy everything this people calls a conspiracy; do not fear what they fear, and do not dread it.

13The LORD Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread.

14He will be a holy place; for both Israel and Judah he will be a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap and a snare.

15Many of them will stumble; they will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured.”

16Bind up this testimony of warning and seal up God’s instruction among my disciples.

17I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding his face from the descendants of Jacob. I will put my trust in him.

18Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me. We are signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD Almighty, who dwells on Mount Zion.

The Darkness Turns to Light 19When 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? 20Consult God’s instruction and the testimony of warning. If anyone does not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. 21Distressed 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. 22Then they will look toward the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.