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?
Continuation of Isaiah's address to the believing people.
And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto - Consult in your national difficulties. Them that have familiar spirits, х haa'obowt (H173), which in Job 32:19 is used for skin "bottles;" hence, the idea of inflation with the Spirit, as skin bottles full of wine, and speaking from the belly. The form is feminine, as women often exercised this craft] - necromancers, spirit-charmers, who evoked the dead by incantations. So Saul, when he had forsaken God (1 Samuel 28:7, etc.) consulted the witch of Endor in his difficulties. These follow in the wake of idolatry, which prevailed under Ahaz (2 Kings 16:3-4; 2 Kings 16:10). He copied the pagan soothsaying, as he did the idolatrous "altar" of Damascus (cf. Leviticus 20:6; Leviticus 20:27, which forbids it; also Isaiah 19:3).
Wizards - men claiming supernatural knowledge: from the old English, to wit, i:e., know.
That peep - chirp faintly (Isaiah 10:14), as young birds do. This sound was generally ascribed to departed spirits: by ventriloquism the soothsayers caused a low sound to proceed as from a grave, or dead person. Hence, the Septuagint render the Hebrew for "them that have familiar spirits," or necromancers here [engastrimuthous], 'ventriloquists' (cf. Isaiah 29:4 Isaiah 29:4).
And that mutter - moan. The Hebrew, haagah (H1897), is properly to meditate, to sigh: here the plaintive voice of the dead. The Septuagint, 'those who speak from their belly.'
Should not a people seek unto their God? - the answer which Isaiah recommends to be given to those advising to have recourse to necromancers.
For the living to the dead? 'Should one, for the safety (or, in behalf of) of the living, seek unto (consult) the dead?' (Gesensius.) Lowth renders it, 'In place of (consulting) the living, should one consult the dead?'