Isaiah 28
28
The Lord Will Judge the Leaders of Ephraim and Judah
1How terrible it will be for the city of Samaria!
It sits on a hill like a wreath of flowers.
The leaders of Ephraim are drunk.
They take pride in their city.
It sits above a valley that has rich soil.
How terrible it will be for the glorious beauty of that fading flower!
2The Lord will bring the strong and powerful king of Assyria against Samaria.
The Lord will throw that city down to the ground with great force.
It will be like a hailstorm.
It will be like a wind that destroys everything.
It will be like a driving rain and a flooding storm.
3That city is like a wreath.
The leaders of Ephraim are drunk.
They take pride in their city.
But its enemies will walk all over it.
4It sits on a hill above a rich valley.
The city is like a wreath of flowers whose glorious beauty is fading away.
But it will become like figs that are ripe before harvest.
As soon as people see them,
they pick them and swallow them.
5At that time the Lord who rules over all
will be like a glorious crown.
He will be like a beautiful wreath
for those of his people who will be left alive.
6He will help those
who are fair when they judge.
He will give strength to those
who turn back their enemies at the city gate.
7Israel’s leaders are drunk from wine.
They can’t walk straight.
They are drunk from beer.
They are unsteady on their feet.
Priests and prophets drink beer.
They can’t walk straight.
They are mixed up from drinking too much wine.
They drink too much beer.
They are unsteady on their feet.
The prophets see visions but don’t really understand them.
The priests aren’t able to make good decisions.
8They throw up. All the tables are covered
with the mess they’ve made.
There isn’t one spot on the tables
that isn’t smelly and dirty.
9The Lord’s people are making fun of him. They say,
“Who does he think he’s trying to teach?
Who does he think he’s explaining his message to?
Is it to children who do not need their mother’s milk anymore?
Is it to those who have just been taken from her breast?
10Here is how he teaches.
Do this and do that.
There is a rule for this and a rule for that.
Learn a little here and learn a little there.”
11All right then, these people won’t listen to me.
So God will speak to them.
He will speak by using people who speak unfamiliar languages.
He will speak by using the mouths of strangers.
12He said to his people,
“I am offering you a resting place.
Let those who are tired rest.”
He continued, “I am offering you a place of peace and quiet.”
But they wouldn’t listen.
13So then, here is what the Lord’s message will become to them.
Do this and do that.
There is a rule for this and a rule for that.
Learn a little here and learn a little there.
So when they try to go forward,
they’ll fall back and be wounded.
They’ll be trapped and captured.
14Listen to the Lord’s message,
you who make fun of the truth.
Listen, you who rule over these people in Jerusalem.
15You brag, “We have entered into a covenant with the place of the dead.
We have made an agreement with the grave.
When a terrible plague comes to punish us,
it can’t touch us.
That’s because we depend on lies to keep us safe.
We hide behind what isn’t true.”
16So the Lord and King speaks. He says,
“Look! I am laying a stone in Zion.
It is a stone that has been tested.
It is the most important stone for a firm foundation.
The one who depends on that stone will never be shaken.
17I will use a measuring line to prove that you have not been fair.
I will use a plumb line to prove that you have not done what is right.
Hail will sweep away the lies you depend on to keep you safe.
Water will flood your hiding place.
18Your covenant with death will be called off.
The agreement you made with the place of the dead will not stand.
When the terrible plague comes to punish you,
you will be struck down by it.
19As often as it comes, it will carry you away.
Morning after morning, day and night,
it will come to punish you.”
If you understand this message,
it will bring you absolute terror.
20You will be like someone whose bed is too short to lie down on.
You will be like those whose blankets are too small to wrap themselves in.
21The Lord will rise up to judge, just as he did at Mount Perazim.
He will get up to act, just as he did in the Valley of Gibeon.
He’ll do his work, but it will be strange work.
He’ll carry out his task, but it will be an unexpected one.
22Now stop making fun of me.
If you don’t, your chains will become heavier.
The Lord who rules over all has spoken to me.
The Lord has told me he has ordered that the whole land be destroyed.
23Listen and hear my voice.
Pay attention to what I’m saying.
24When a farmer plows in order to plant, does he plow without stopping?
Does he keep on breaking up the soil and making the field level?
25When he’s made the surface even, doesn’t he plant caraway seeds?
Doesn’t he scatter cumin seeds?
Doesn’t he plant wheat in its proper place?
Doesn’t he plant barley where it belongs?
Doesn’t he plant spelt along the edge of the field?
26His God directs him.
He teaches him the right way to do his work.
27Caraway seeds are beaten out with a rod.
They aren’t separated out under a threshing sled.
Cumin seeds are beaten out with a stick.
The wheel of a cart isn’t rolled over them.
28Grain must be ground up to make bread.
A farmer separates it out.
But he doesn’t go on doing it forever.
He drives the wheels of a threshing cart over it.
But he doesn’t use horses to grind the grain.
29All these insights come from the Lord who rules over all.
His advice is wonderful. His wisdom is glorious.
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Isaiah 28: NIrV
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Holy Bible, New International Reader’s Version®, NIrV®
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Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Isaiah 28
28
A Warning to the Northern Kingdom
1The kingdom of Israel is doomed! Its glory is fading like the crowns of flowers on the heads of its drunken leaders. Their proud heads are well perfumed, but there they lie, dead drunk. 2The Lord has someone strong and powerful ready to attack them, someone who will come like a hailstorm, like a torrent of rain, like a rushing, overpowering flood, and will overwhelm the land. 3The pride of those drunken leaders will be trampled underfoot. 4The fading glory of those proud leaders will disappear like the first figs of the season, picked and eaten as soon as they are ripe.
5A day is coming when the LORD Almighty will be like a glorious crown of flowers for his people who survive. 6He will give a sense of justice to those who serve as judges, and courage to those who defend the city gates from attack.
Isaiah and the Drunken Prophets of Judah
7Even the prophets and the priests are so drunk that they stagger. They have drunk so much wine and liquor that they stumble in confusion. The prophets are too drunk to understand the visions that God sends, and the priests are too drunk to decide the cases that are brought to them. 8The tables where they sit are all covered with vomit, and not a clean spot is left.
9They complain about me. They say, “Who does that man think he's teaching? Who needs his message? It's only good for babies that have just been weaned! 10He is trying to teach us letter by letter, line by line, lesson by lesson.”
11 #
1 Cor 14.21
If you won't listen to me, then God will use foreigners speaking some strange-sounding language to teach you a lesson. 12He offered rest and comfort to all of you, but you refused to listen to him. 13That is why the LORD is going to teach you letter by letter, line by line, lesson by lesson. Then you will stumble with every step you take. You will be wounded, trapped, and taken prisoner.
A Cornerstone for Zion
14Now you arrogant ones who rule here in Jerusalem over this people, listen to what the LORD is saying. 15You boast that you have made a treaty with death and reached an agreement with the world of the dead. You are certain that disaster will spare you when it comes, because you depend on lies and deceit to keep you safe. 16#Ps 118.22–23; Rom 9.33; 10.11; 1 Pet 2.6This, now, is what the Sovereign LORD says: “I am placing in Zion a foundation that is firm and strong. In it I am putting a solid cornerstone on which are written the words, ‘Faith that is firm is also patient.’ 17Justice will be the measuring line for the foundation, and honesty will be its plumb line.”
Hailstorms will sweep away all the lies you depend on, and floods will destroy your security. 18The treaty you have made with death will be abolished, and your agreement with the world of the dead will be cancelled. When disaster sweeps down, you will be overcome. 19It will strike you again and again, morning after morning. You will have to bear it day and night. Each new message from God will bring new terror! 20You will be like the person in the proverb, who tries to sleep in a bed too short to stretch out on, with a blanket too narrow to wrap himself in. 21#Josh 10.10–12; 2 Sam 5.20; 1 Chr 14.11The LORD will fight as he did at Mount Perazim and in the valley of Gibeon, in order to do what he intends to do — strange as his actions may seem. He will complete his work, his mysterious work.
22Don't laugh at the warning I am giving you! If you do, it will be even harder for you to escape. I have heard the LORD Almighty's decision to destroy the whole country.
God's Wisdom
23Listen to what I am saying; pay attention to what I am telling you. 24No farmer goes on constantly ploughing his fields and getting them ready for sowing. 25Once he has prepared the soil, he sows the seeds of herbs such as dill and cumin. He sows rows of wheat and barley,#28.25 Hebrew has an additional word, the meaning of which is unclear. and at the edges of his fields he sows other grain. 26He knows how to do his work, because God has taught him. 27He never uses a heavy club to beat out dill seeds or cumin seeds; instead he uses light sticks of the proper size. 28He does not ruin the wheat by threshing it endlessly, and he knows how to thresh it by driving a cart over it without bruising the grains. 29All this wisdom comes from the LORD Almighty. The plans God makes are wise, and they always succeed!
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Good News Bible. Scripture taken from the Good News Bible (r) (Today's English Version Second Edition, UK/British Edition). Copyright © 1992 British & Foreign Bible Society. Used by permission.