Isaiah 28–30

28TH CHAPTER

Ephraim Will Fall

¹How horrible it will be for the arrogant drunks of Ephraim. 

Their glorious beauty is ⸤like⸥ a withered flower. 

They are at the entrance to a fertile valley 

where they lie drunk from wine. 

²The Lord has one who is strong and powerful. 

He is like a hailstorm, a destructive wind. 

He is like a thunderstorm, an overwhelming flood. 

He will throw them to the ground forcefully. 

³The arrogant drunks of Ephraim will be trampled underfoot. 

⁴Their glorious beauty is ⸤like⸥ a withered flower. 

They are at the entrance to a fertile valley. 

They will be like figs that ripened early. 

As soon as someone sees them, 

they will be taken and eaten. 

⁵When that day comes, the Lord of Armies will be 

like a glorious crown for his few remaining people. 

⁶He will give a spirit of justice to those who judge. 

He will give strength to those who defend the city gates in battle. 

⁷Priests and prophets stagger from wine and wobble from too much liquor. 

They stagger from too much liquor 

and become confused from too much wine. 

They wobble because of their liquor. 

They stagger when they see visions. 

They swerve as they judge. 

⁸All the tables are covered with vomit and excrement. 

There isn’t a clean place left. 

⁹To whom will they make the message understood? 

To whom will they explain this message? 

To children just weaned from milk? 

To those just taken from their ⸤mother’s⸥ breasts? 

¹⁰They speak utter nonsense.^a

¹¹The Lord will speak to these people. 

He will mock them by speaking in a foreign language. 

¹²He will say to them, 

“This is a place for comfort. 

This is a place of rest for those who are tired. 

This is a place for them to rest.” 

But they weren’t willing to listen. 

¹³The Lord speaks utter nonsense to them. 

That is why they will fall backwards. 

That is why they will be hurt, trapped, and captured. 

A Message to Jerusalem

¹⁴So hear the Lord’s word, you foolish talkers 

who rule the people in Jerusalem. 

¹⁵You say, “We made a treaty with death 

and an agreement with the grave. 

When the overwhelming disaster passes by, 

it won’t matter to us, 

because we have taken refuge in our lies, 

and falsehood is our hiding place.” 

¹⁶This is what the Almighty Lord says: 

I am going to lay a rock in Zion, 

a rock that has been tested, 

a precious cornerstone, 

a solid foundation. 

Whoever believes ⸤in him⸥ will not worry. 

¹⁷I will make justice a measuring line 

and righteousness a plumb line. 

Hail will sweep away your refuge of lies, 

and floodwaters will wash away your hiding place. 

¹⁸Your treaty with death will be wiped away. 

Your agreement with the grave will not stand. 

When the overwhelming disaster passes by, 

you will be trampled by it. 

¹⁹Each time it passes by it will take you. 

It will pass by morning after morning, 

during the day and during the night. 

Understanding this message brings only terror. 

²⁰The bed is too short to stretch out on. 

The blanket is too narrow to serve as a cover. 

²¹The Lord will rise as he did on Mount Perazim. 

He will wake up as he did in Gibeon Valley. 

He will do his work, his unexpected work, 

and perform his deeds, his mysterious deeds. 

²²Now stop laughing, or your chains will be tightened, 

because I have heard that the Almighty Lord of Armies 

has finally determined to destroy the whole land. 

²³Open your ears, and listen to me! 

Pay attention, and hear me! 

²⁴Does a farmer go on plowing every day so he can plant? 

Does he continue to break up the soil and make furrows in the ground? 

²⁵When he has smoothed its surface, 

doesn’t he scatter black cumin seed and plant cumin? 

Doesn’t he plant wild wheat in rows? 

Doesn’t he put barley in its own area 

and winter wheat at its borders? 

²⁶God will guide him in judgment, 

and his God will teach him. 

²⁷Black cumin isn’t threshed^bwith a sledge, 

and wagon wheels aren’t rolled over cumin. 

Black cumin is beaten with a rod 

and cumin with a stick. 

²⁸Grain is ground into flour, but the grinding eventually stops. 

It will be threshed. 

The wheels of his cart will roll over it, 

but his horses won’t crush it. 

²⁹All of this has come from the Lord of Armies. 

His counsel is wonderful, and his wisdom is great. 

29TH CHAPTER

The Lord’s Word Will Be Hidden from Some but Revealed to Others

¹How horrible it will be for you Ariel, Ariel,^a

the city where David camped. 

Let year after year go by. 

Let your annual festivals go on. 

²I will torment Ariel, 

and the city will be filled with people grieving and mourning. 

The city will become like Ariel. 

³I will set up war camps all around you. 

I will blockade you with towers. 

I will put up mounds of dirt around you. 

⁴When you have fallen, you will speak as you lie on the ground. 

Your words will be muffled by the dust. 

Your voice will come out of the ground like that of a ghost. 

Your words will be whispered from the dust. 

⁵Your many enemies will be like fine dust. 

Your many foes will be like husks blown by the wind. 

All of this will happen suddenly, unexpectedly. 

⁶The Lord of Armies will punish you 

with thunder, earthquakes, and loud noises, 

with windstorms, rainstorms, and fire storms. 

⁷The armies from all the nations will go to war against Ariel. 

They will go to war against it, blockade it, and torment it. 

All of this will be like a dream, like a vision in the night. 

⁸They will be like hungry people who dream that they’re eating 

and wake up to find they’re hungry. 

They will be like thirsty people who dream that they’re drinking 

and wake up to find they’re lightheaded and parched with thirst. 

This is what will happen to the armies from all the nations 

that fight against Mount Zion. 

⁹If you confuse yourselves, you will be confused. 

If you blind yourselves, you will be blinded. 

You are drunk, but not from wine. 

You stagger, but not from liquor. 

¹⁰The Lord has poured out on you a spirit of deep sleep. 

He will shut your eyes. (Your eyes are the prophets.) 

He will cover your heads. (Your heads are the seers.^b) 

¹¹To you all these visions will be like words in a book that is closed and sealed. You give this book to someone who can read, saying, “Please read this.” 

He answers, “I can’t read it. It’s sealed.” 

¹²Then you give the book to someone who can’t read, saying, “Please read this.” 

He answers, “I can’t read.” 

¹³The Lord says, 

“These people worship me with their mouths 

and honor me with their lips. 

But their hearts are far from me, 

and their worship of me is ⸤based on⸥ rules made by humans. 

¹⁴That is why I am going to do something completely amazing 

for these people once again. 

The wisdom of their wise people will disappear. 

The intelligence of their intelligent people will be hidden.” 

¹⁵How horrible it will be for those 

who try to hide their plans from the Lord. 

Their deeds are done in the dark, 

and they say, “No one can see us” 

and “No one can recognize us.” 

¹⁶You turn things upside down! 

Is the potter no better than his clay? 

Can something that has been made 

say about its maker, “He didn’t make me”? 

Can a piece of pottery 

say about the potter, “He doesn’t understand”? 

¹⁷In a very short time Lebanon will be turned into a fertile field 

and the fertile field will be considered a forest. 

¹⁸When that day comes, the deaf will hear the words written in the book. 

The blind will see out of their gloom and darkness. 

¹⁹Humble people again will find joy in the Lord. 

The poorest of people will find joy in the Holy One of Israel. 

²⁰Tyrants will be gone. 

Mockers will be finished. 

All who look for ways to do wrong will come to an end: 

²¹those who make people sin with words, 

those who lay traps for judges, 

those who, without any reason, deny justice 

to people who are in the right. 

²²This is what the Lord, who saved Abraham, says about the descendants of Jacob: 

Jacob will no longer be ashamed. 

Jacob’s face will no longer turn pale. 

²³When they see all their children, 

the children I made with my hands, 

they will acknowledge my name as holy. 

They will treat the Holy One of Jacob as holy. 

They will stand in terror of the God of Israel. 

²⁴Then those who are wayward in spirit will gain understanding, 

and those who complain will accept instruction. 

30TH CHAPTER

Judah Should Trust the Lord, Not Egypt

¹The Lord declares, 

“How horrible it will be for those rebellious children. 

They carry out plans, but not mine. 

They make alliances against my will. 

They pile sin on top of sin. 

²They go to Egypt without asking me. 

They look for shelter under Pharaoh’s protection 

and look for refuge in Egypt’s shadow. 

³But Pharaoh’s protection will be their shame, 

and the refuge in Egypt’s shadow will be their disgrace. 

⁴Although Pharaoh’s officials are in Zoan 

and his messengers have reached Hanes, 

⁵the people of Judah will be put to shame 

because that nation can’t help them. 

That nation can’t give aid or help to them. 

It can only offer shame and disgrace.” 

⁶This is the divine revelation about the animals in the Negev. 

“My people travel through lands 

where they experience distress and hardship. 

Lions and lionesses live there. 

Vipers and poisonous snakes live there. 

They carry their riches on the backs of young donkeys 

and their treasures on the humps of camels 

to a nation that can’t help them. 

⁷Egypt’s help is completely useless. 

That is why I call it, ‘Rahab^awho sits still.’ 

⁸Now, write this on a tablet for them, and inscribe it in a book 

so that it will be there in the future as a permanent witness. 

⁹These people are rebellious and deceitful children, 

children who refuse to listen to the Lord’s teachings. 

¹⁰They say to the seers,^b‘Don’t see ⸤the future⸥.’ 

They say to those who have visions, 

‘Don’t have visions that tell us what is right. 

Tell us what we want to hear. See illusions. 

¹¹Get out of our way! Stop blocking our path! 

Get the Holy One of Israel out of our sight.’ ” 

¹²This is what the Holy One of Israel says: 

You have rejected this warning, 

trusted oppression and deceit, 

and leaned on them. 

¹³That is why your sin will be 

like a high wall with a bulging crack, ready to fall. 

All of a sudden it will fall. 

¹⁴It will break like pottery. 

It…