Isaiah

28 ¹Woe crown of the pride of the drunkards of Ephraim,
and the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
which is at the head of a fertile valley,
to those who are overcome with wine.

²Behold, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong, like a hailstorm,
a destroying tempest, like a storm of mighty overflowing waters;
and with a hand, he casts down to the earth.

³The crown of the pride of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trampled underfoot.
⁴And the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is at the head of a fertile valley,

will be like the early ripe fig before the summer,
which one sees, and as soon as it is in his palm, he swallows it.

⁵In that day the LORD of Hosts will be a crown of beauty
and a beautiful diadem to the remnant of His people

⁶and a spirit of judgment to him who sits in judgment
and strength to those who fend off battle at the gate.

⁷And also these reel with wine
and stagger with strong drink;

priest and prophet reel with strong drink;
they are confused with wine;
they stagger with strong drink.

They reel in their visions;
they stumble in their decisions,

⁸for all the tables are full of vomit,
filth, with no space left.

Isaiah?

⁹To whom will He teach knowledge?
Whom will He cause to understand the message?

Those who are weaned from milk;
those who are taken from breasts.

¹⁰For it is precept[1] upon precept,
precept upon precept,

line upon line,
line upon line,

here a little,
there a little.

¹¹For with stammering lips
and with another tongue He will speak to this people,

¹²to those whom He has said,

The Lord

“This is the rest: give rest to the weary”
and “this is the resting place,”

Isaiah

but they are not willing to hear.

¹³And the word of the LORD will be to them precept upon precept,
precept upon precept,

line upon line,
line upon line,

here a little,
there a little,

so that they may go.
But they stumbled backward

and were broken
and snared and captured.

Isaiah

¹⁴Therefore, hear the word of the LORD, men of scorning,
who rule this people who are in Jerusalem.

¹⁵Because you have said,

Men of scorning

“We have made a covenant with death,
and with Sheol, we made an agreement.

When an overflowing scourge passes through,
it will not come to us,

for we have made a lie our place of refuge,
and we have taken shelter in falsehood.”

Isaiah

¹⁶Therefore, thus the Lord, the LORD says,

The Lord

“Behold I am laying a stone in Zion,
a tested stone,

a precious cornerstone,
a sure foundation. He who believes will not have to move.

¹⁷And I will make judgment the measuring line
and righteousness the plumb line.

And hail will sweep away a refuge of lies,
and waters will flood a shelter.

¹⁸Then your covenant with death will be annulled
and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;

when the overflowing scourge passes through,
then you will be beaten down.

¹⁹As often as it passes through it will take you, because morning after morning,
by day and by night, it will pass through, and it will be sheer terror to understand the report.”

Isaiah

²⁰For the bed is too short for one to stretch oneself on it,
and the blanket too narrow to wrap oneself in it.

²¹For like Mount Perazim the LORD will rise up;
like the valley of Gibeon, He will quake,

to do His work, His strange work,
and to perform His act, His strange act.

²²And now, do not scoff,
lest your bonds be made strong,

because I have heard from the Lord, the LORD of Hosts, a decree of destruction upon the whole earth.

Isaiah

²³Give ear, and hear my voice;
hearken, and hear my speech.

²⁴Does the plowman plow all day,
breaking up and harrowing his ground for sowing?

²⁵Once he has leveled its surface,
does he not scatter dill and cast cumin?

And he puts wheat in rows,
and barley in its proper place,
and spelt around the border?

²⁶For He {God} teaches him judgment;
his God instructs him.

²⁷For dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,
nor is a cartwheel rolled over cumin,

but dill is beaten out with a staff
and cumin with a rod.

²⁸Grain is crushed, but the thresher does not thresh it forever.
When he drives his cartwheel with his horses,
he does not crush it.

²⁹This also goes forth from the LORD of Hosts—

He provides wonderful counsel;
He magnifies wisdom.