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Isaias 8:19

And when they shall say to you: Seek of pythons, and of diviners, who mutter in their enchantments: should not the people seek of their God, for the living of the dead?

Challoner: Seek of pythonsThat is, people pretending to tell future things by a prophesying spirit.-- Ibid.

Challoner: Should not the people seek of their God, for the living of the dead?Here is signified, that it is to God we should pray to be directed, and not to seek of the dead, (that is, of fortune-tellers dead in sin,) for the health of the living.

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The verse in its languages

Vulgate (Clementine): et cum dixerint ad vos : Quærite a pythonibus et a divinis qui strident in incantationibus suis : numquid non populus a Deo suo requiret, pro vivis a mortuis ?
Septuagint (Swete): καὶ ἐὰν εἴπωσιν πρὸς ὑμᾶς Ζητήσατε τοὺς ἐνγαστριμύθους καὶ τοὺς ἀπὸ τῆς γῆς φωνοῦντας, τοὺς κενολογοῦντας οἳ ἐκ τῆς κοιλίας φωνοῦσιν, οὐκ ἔθνος πρὸς θεὸν αὐτοῦ ἐκζητήσουσιν; τί ἐκζητοῦσιν περὶ τῶν ζώντων τοὺς νεκρούς;
Hebrew (WLC): וְכִֽי יֹאמְר֣וּ אֲלֵיכֶ֗ם דִּרְשׁ֤וּ אֶל הָאֹבוֹת֙ וְאֶל הַיִּדְּעֹנִ֔ים הַֽמְצַפְצְפִ֖ים וְהַמַּהְגִּ֑ים הֲלוֹא עַם֙ אֶל אֱלֹהָ֣יו יִדְרֹ֔שׁ בְּעַ֥ד הַחַיִּ֖ים אֶל הַמֵּתִֽים

Haydock's commentary

Seek of pythons. That is, people pretending to tell future things by a prophesying spirit.

Should not the people seek of their God, for the living of the dead? Here is signified, that it is to God we should pray to be directed, and not to seek of the dead, (that is, of fortune-tellers dead in sin) for the health of the living. (Challoner)

Mutter. Literally, "use a shrill note," strident. (Haydock)

So Horace, (1 Sat. viii.) says: Umbræ cum sagana resonarent triste et acutum.

Should. Make this reply: Should, &c.

From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.

The Fathers on this verse

St Gregory Nazianzen The Fifth Theological Oration. On the Holy Spirit

X. What then? Is the Spirit God? Most certainly. Well then, is He Consubstantial? Yes, if He is God. Grant me, says my opponent, that there spring from the same Source One who is a Son, and One who is not a Son, and these of One Substance with the Source, and I admit a God and a God. Nay, if you will grant me that there is another God and another nature of God I will give you the same Trinity with the same name and facts. But since God is One and the Supreme Nature is One, how can I present to you the Likeness? Or will you seek it again in lower regions and in your own surroundings? It is very shameful, and not only shameful, but very foolish, to take from things below a guess at things above, and from a fluctuating nature at the things that are unchanging, and as Isaiah says, to seek the Living among the dead. …