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. Pro 6:23 They have Moses and the prophets; Luk 16:29 these must be the men of our counsel, Psa 119:24 even these lively and life giving oracles, Act 7:38 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.