27On that day, Yahweh will punish with his cruel, great and strong sword Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and Leviathan, the twisting serpent, and he will kill the sea monster that is in the sea.

²On that day:

“A vineyard of beauty! Sing in praise of it!

³I, Yahweh, am her keeper;

I water it again and again.^a

Lest one afflict harm on it,

I guard it night and day;

⁴I have no wrath.^b

Whatever gives me thorns and briers,

I will step forth against in battle.

I will set it on fire altogether.

⁵Or let it grasp at my protection;

let it make peace with me;

peace let it make with me.”

⁶Days are coming,^c let Jacob take root;

Israel will blossom and send out shoots,

and they will fill the face of the world with fruit.

⁷Does he strike him as he struck down those who struck him?^d

Or is he killed as those who killed him were killed?^e

⁸By expelling^f her, by her sending away, you argue with her.

He removed them with his strong wind,

in the day of the east wind.

⁹Therefore by this he will make atonement for the guilt of Jacob,

and this will be all of the fruit of the removal of his sin:

when he makes^g all the stones of the altar like crushed stones of chalk,

no poles of Asherah worship or incense altars will stand.

¹⁰For the fortified city is solitary,

a settlement deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness;

the calf grazes there,

lies down there and destroys its branches.

¹¹When its branches are dry,^h they are broken;

women are coming and setting light to it.

For it is not a people of understanding;

therefore his maker will not have compassion on him,

and his creator will not show him favor.

¹²And this shall happen:

on that day, Yahweh will thresh from the floodwaters of the Euphrates to the wadiⁱ of Egypt, and as for you, you will be gathered one by one, sons of Israel.

¹³And this shall happen:

on that day, a great trumpet will be blown,

and those who were lost in the land of Assyria will come,

and those who were scattered in the land of Egypt,

and they will bow down to Yahweh on the holy mountain^j at Jerusalem.

Judgment against the Leaders of Ephraim

28Ah! 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,^a

ones overcome^b 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^c by feet,

⁴and the withering flower of the glory of its beauty

which is at the head of the rich valley^d

will be like its early fig before summer,

which the one who sees it swallows^e 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^f 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.^g

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,^h

a little here, a little there.

¹¹For he will speak with stammeringⁱ and another tongue to this people, ¹²to whom he has said,

“This is rest; give rest to the weary;

and this is repose”; yet^j they were not willing to hear.

¹³And to them the word of Yahweh will be

blah-blah upon blah-blah

gah-gah upon gah-gah

gah-gah upon gah-gah,^k

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^l 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^m our refuge,

and we have hidden ourselves in falsehood.”

¹⁶Therefore the Lord Yahweh says this:

“Look! I am laying a stone in Zion,

a testedⁿ stone,

a precious cornerstone,

a founded foundation:

‘The one who trusts will not panic.’^o

¹⁷And I will make justice the measuring line,

and righteousness the plumb line;

and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,^p

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,^q it will take you,

for morning by morning^r 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,^s

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,^t does he not scatter dill,

and sow cumin seed,

and plant^u wheat in planted rows,^v

and barley in an appointed place,

and spelt grain as its border?

²⁶And his God instructs him about the prescription;^w

he teaches him.

²⁷For dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,

nor is a wheel of a utility cart rolled^x 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.

Read in Logos

Footnotes

aLiterally “by moments”
bLiterally “There is no wrath for me”
cLiterally “The coming ones”
dLiterally “like the striking of one striking him”
eLiterally “like the killing of his killed ones”
fMeaning uncertain, derived from the following parallel expression
gLiterally “in his setting”
hLiterally “In her branch being dry”
iA seasonal stream that is often dry
jLiterally “mountain of holiness”
aLiterally “a valley of fat”
bLiterally “ones struck”
cThe Hebrew is plural
dLiterally “a valley of fat”
eLiterally “Which, when the one who sees it sees it, he swallows it”
fOr “swallowed”
gLiterally “without a place”
hIn 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”
iLiterally “stammer of lip”
jOr “and”
kIn 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”
lLiterally “cut”
mHebrew “lie”
nLiterally “testing”
oLiterally “hurry”
pHebrew “lie”
qLiterally “From enough his passing through”
rLiterally “in the morning in the morning”
sLiterally “from stretching oneself”
tLiterally “face”
uLiterally “place”
vHebrew “row”
wThat is, “the proper way”
xLiterally “turned”