8:16 Tie up the scroll as legal evidence,

seal the official record of God’s instructions, and give it to my followers.

17 I will wait patiently for the Lord,

who has rejected the family of Jacob;

I will wait for him.

18 Look, I and the sons whom the Lord has given me are reminders and object lessons in Israel, sent from the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, who lives on Mount Zion.

19 They will say to you, “Seek oracles at the pits used to conjure up underworld spirits, from the magicians who chirp and mutter incantations. Should people not seek oracles from their gods, by asking the dead about the destiny of the living?” 20 Then you must recall the Lord’s instructions and the prophetic testimony of what would happen. Certainly they say such things because their minds are spiritually darkened. 21 They will pass through the land destitute and starving. Their hunger will make them angry, and they will curse their king and their God as they look upward. 22 When one looks out over the land, he sees distress and darkness, gloom and anxiety, darkness and people forced from the land.

The Scriptures quoted are from the NET Bible® copyright © 1996, 2019, used with permission from Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. All rights reserved.