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.
Isaiah 28
28
Judgment against the Leaders of Ephraim
1Ah! The garland of the pride of the drunkards of Ephraim
and the withering flower of the glory of his beauty,
which is at the head of the rich valley,#Literally “a valley of fat” ones overcome#Literally “ones struck” with wine!
2Look! The Lord has a mighty and strong one,
like a rainstorm of hail, a wind storm of destruction,
like a rainstorm of mighty overflowing waters,
he will put them to the earth with his hand.
3The garland of the pride of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trampled#The Hebrew is plural by feet,
4and the withering flower of the glory of its beauty which is at the head of the rich valley#Literally “a valley of fat” will be like its early fig before summer,
which the one who sees it swallows#Literally “Which, when the one who sees it sees it, he swallows it” while it is still in his hand.
5In that day, Yahweh of hosts will become a garland of glory
and a diadem of beauty to the remnant of his people,
6and a spirit of justice to the one who sits over judgment,
and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
7And these also stagger because of wine
and stagger because of strong drink;
priest and prophet stagger because of strong drink;
they are confused#Or “swallowed” because of wine.
They stagger because of strong drink;
they err in vision.
They stagger in the rendering of a decision,
8for all the tables are full of disgusting vomit, with no place left.#Literally “without a place”
9To whom will he teach knowledge,
and to whom will he explain the message?
Those who are weaned from milk,
those taken from the breast?
10For it is blah-blah upon blah-blah,
blah-blah upon blah-blah,
gah-gah upon gah-gah,
gah-gah upon gah-gah,#In this context, the Hebrew expressions tsaw-tsaw and qaw-qaw are likely meant to sound like baby talk, but they could mean “command upon command” and “rule upon rule”
a little here, a little there.
11For he will speak with stammering#Literally “stammer of lip” and another tongue to this people, 12to whom he has said,
“This is rest; give rest to the weary;
and this is repose”; yet#Or “and” they were not willing to hear.
13And to them the word of Yahweh will be
blah-blah upon blah-blah
blah-blah upon blah-blah
gah-gah upon gah-gah
gah-gah upon gah-gah,#In this context, the Hebrew expressions tsaw-tsaw and qaw-qaw are likely meant to sound like baby talk, but they could mean “command upon command” and “rule upon rule”
a little here, a little there,
so that they may go and stumble backward
and be broken and ensnared and captured.
The Cornerstone of Zion
14Therefore hear the word of Yahweh, men of mockery,
rulers of these people in Jerusalem:
15Because you have said,
“We have made#Literally “cut” a covenant with death,
and we have made an agreement with Sheol.
The overwhelming flood, when it passes through, will not come to us,
for we have made lies#Hebrew “lie” our refuge,
and we have hidden ourselves in falsehood.”
16Therefore the Lord Yahweh says this:
“Look! I am laying a stone in Zion,
a tested#Literally “testing” stone,
a precious cornerstone,
a founded foundation:
‘The one who trusts will not panic.’#Literally “hurry”
17And I will make justice the measuring line,
and righteousness the plumb line;
and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,#Hebrew “lie”
and waters will flood over the hiding place.
18And your covenant with death will be annulled,
and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
you will become a trampling place for the overwhelming flood when it passes through.
19As often as it passes through,#Literally “From enough his passing through” it will take you,
for morning by morning#Literally “in the morning in the morning” it will pass through,
in the day and in the night,
and understanding the message will be only terror.”
20For the bed is too short to stretch out on,#Literally “from stretching oneself”
and the covering is too narrow when wrapping oneself.
21For Yahweh will rise up as at Mount Perazim;
he will rave as in the valley at Gibeon
to do his deed—his deed is strange—
and to work his work—his work is alien!
22And now you must not scoff,
or your bonds will be strong,
for I have heard from the Lord, Yahweh of hosts:
complete destruction
decreed upon all the land.
A Parable of Yahweh’s Work
23Listen, and hear my voice!
Listen attentively, and hear my word!
24Is it all day that the plowman plows,
opens to sow seed, harrows his ground?
25When he has leveled its surface,#Literally “face” does he not scatter dill,
and sow cumin seed,
and plant#Literally “place” wheat in planted rows,#Hebrew “row”
and barley in an appointed place,
and spelt grain as its border?
26And his God instructs him about the prescription;#That is, “the proper way”
he teaches him.
27For dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,
nor is a wheel of a utility cart rolled#Literally “turned” over cumin,
but dill is beaten out with a stick,
and cumin with a rod.
28Grain is crushed fine,
but certainly one does not thresh it forever;
and one drives the wheel of his cart,
but his horses do not crush it.
29This also comes forth from Yahweh of hosts.
He is wonderful in advice;
he makes great wisdom.
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