Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
Seek unto—Consult in your national difficulties.
them . . . familiar spirits—necromancers, spirit charmers. So Saul, when he had forsaken God (I Samuel 28:7, etc.), consulted the witch of En-dor in his difficulties. These follow in the wake of idolatry, which prevailed under Ahaz (II Kings 16:3-4, II Kings 16:10). He copied the soothsaying as he did the idolatrous "altar" of Damascus (compare Leviticus 20:6, which forbids it, Isaiah 19:3).
wizards—men claiming supernatural knowledge; from the old English, "to wit," that is, know.
peep—rather "chirp faintly," 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 renders the Hebrew for "necromancers" here "ventriloquists" (compare Isaiah 29:4).
mutter—moan.
should not, etc.—The answer which Isaiah recommends to be given to those advising to have recourse to necromancers.
for the living, etc.—"should one, for the safety of the living, seek unto (consult) the dead?" [GESENIUS]. LOWTH renders it, "In place of (consulting) the living, should one consult the dead?"
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Isaiah 8:19:
Job 5:8
Isaiah 3:3
Isaiah 10:14
Isaiah 19:3
Isaiah 29:4
Isaiah 65:4
John 11:43-44
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