Isaiah 28
28
Woe to the Leaders of Ephraim and Judah
1#Hos 7:5; Isa 28:3–4 Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim,
whose glorious beauty is a fading flower
which is at the head of the fertile valley
of those who are overcome with wine!
2#Isa 30:30; Eze 13:11 See, the Lord has a mighty and strong one,
as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm,
as a flood of mighty overflowing waters,
He has cast it down to the earth with His hand.
3#Isa 26:6 The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim
is trodden under foot;
4#Mic 7:1; Na 3:12 and the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
which is at the head of the fertile valley,
shall be like a first-ripe fig before the summer,
which when one sees, while it is yet in his hand,
he eats it up.
5#Isa 62:3; 41:16 In that day the Lord of Hosts
shall become a crown of glory
and a diadem of beauty
to the remnant of His people,
6#1Ki 3:28; Jn 5:30 a spirit of justice
for him who sits in judgment,
and strength
to those who turn away the battle at the gate.
7#Ps 107:27; Pr 20:1 But they also have erred through wine
and stagger from strong drink;
the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink,
they are confused by wine,
they stagger from strong drink;
they err while having visions,
they stumble when rendering judgment.
8#Jer 48:26 For all the tables are full of vomit
and filthiness so that there is no clean place.
9#Ps 131:2; Jer 6:10 “To whom shall He teach knowledge,
and to whom shall He interpret the message?
Those just weaned from the milk
and drawn from the breasts?
10For He says,
‘Precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little.’ ”
11#1Co 14:21 For with stammering lips and foreign tongue
He will speak to this people,
12#Mt 11:28–29; Isa 30:15 He who said to them,
“This is the rest. Give rest to the weary,”
and, “This is repose,”
yet they would not listen.
13#Mt 21:44 So 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,”
that they might go and fall backward,
be broken, snared, and taken captive.
14#Isa 1:10; 28:22 Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, Oscoffers,
who rule this people who are in Jerusalem,
15#Isa 8:7–8; Da 11:22 because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
and with hell we are in agreement.
The overflowing scourge shall not come to us
when it passes through,
for we have made lies our refuge
and under falsehood we have hid ourselves.”
A Cornerstone in Zion
16#Ps 118:22; Mt 21:42; Ro 9:33Therefore, thus says the Lord God:
See, I lay in Zion a stone,
a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, firmly placed;
he who believes shall not act hastily.
17#2Ki 21:13; Isa 28:2 I shall make justice the measuring line
and righteousness the plummet;
then the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies
and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18#Isa 7:7; 28:15 Your covenant with death shall be annulled,
and your agreement with hell shall not stand;
when the overflowing scourge passes through,
then you shall be trodden down by it.
19As often as it passes through, it shall seize you;
for morning by morning it shall pass through,
anytime by day or night.
It shall be terror only
to understand the report.
20The bed is too short to stretch out,
and the covering is too small to wrap oneself in it.
21#Jos 10:10; 10:12 For the Lord shall rise up as at Mount Perazim,
He shall be wrathful as in the Valley of Gibeon
to do His work, His unusual work,
and bring to pass His task, His exceptional task.
22#Isa 10:22–23 Now therefore, do not continue as mockers,
lest your bonds be made stronger;
for I have heard from the Lord God of Hosts
of determined destruction upon the whole earth.
23Give ear and hear my voice;
listen and hear my speech.
24Does the plowman plow all day to sow?
Does he continually turn and break the clods of his ground?
25Does he not level its surface
and sow dill and scatter the cumin
and plant wheat in rows,
barley in its place
and the rye within its area?
26For his God instructs
and teaches him appropriately.
27#Am 1:3 For the dill is not threshed with a threshing instrument,
nor is a cartwheel driven over the cumin;
but the dill is beaten out with a staff,
and the cumin with a rod.
28Grain for bread is crushed;
so he does not continue to thresh it forever,
nor break it with the wheel of his cart,
nor crush it with his horsemen.
29#Isa 9:6; Ro 11:33 This also comes from the Lord of Hosts,
who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom.
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Military Bible Association
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.